Brand Architecture may be the most misunderstood concept in branding.
As a business professional, you’re probably familiar with the term “Brand”. You may also be conversant with the expression of a brand through your “Brand Identity.” But we find that many professional services leaders are far less familiar with “brand architecture” and all that it implies.
If brand architecture is a blind spot in your firm, it can cost you big time. In this post, I cover the basics so you can be prepared to navigate these tricky waters and make better decisions for your firm.
Brand Architecture Defined
Brand architecture is essentially a blueprint. It refers to the structure of brands within an organization. Think of it as a hierarchy, a way of considering the relationship among brands and sub-brands. The brand architecture provides structural clarity and helps both employees and clients better understand the most important components of your brand and how they interrelate.
Companies typically have a main brand for the overall organization. They may also have related sub-brands or one or more independent brands. How these various entities fit together and are positioned in the marketplace is the essence of brand architecture.
Brand architecture is about managing change. It has both internal and external implications. From the outside, it can help people make sense of a multidimensional organization and differentiate a firm’s key services. Internally, brand architecture has value as a business strategy tool. For example, brand architecture usually comes up in the context of a transition, such as:
- The launch of a new product or service line
- A merger or acquisition
- Firm rebranding or repositioning
- Preparation for a liquidity event
Brand architecture is an important value driver in these kinds of common situations, so it deserves strategic attention. In this post, I’ll examine the basic approaches to brand architecture and the advantages of each as well as key considerations in choosing a Brand Architecture Strategy that’s right for your professional services firm.
Brand Architecture and Your Growth Strategy
The true role of brand architecture may not be obvious at first to many professional services management teams. That’s because it affects so many areas of your growth strategy.
For example, brand architecture impacts a firm’s organic growth strategy and firm profitability. Of course, your firm’s ability to grow and its profitability impact the value of your firm.
There are other strategic considerations as well. For example, your decisions can affect your ability to leverage a new acquisition or sell a subsidiary. These have a profound effect on the success of your merger and acquisition strategy.
Before we get into the three basic brand architecture options, let’s take a closer look at some key brand architecture terms and concepts:
· Firm Brand
· Sub-Brand
· Product Brand
Developing Your Brand Architecture
· Business Strategy
· Audience Overlap
· Brand Positioning
· Brand Permission
· Brand Building
How Brand Research Drives Brand Architecture — and More
The answer is brand research. Studies show that firms that conduct brand research grow faster and are more profitable, on average, than firms that do not. Brand research can give you solid answers to questions you were guessing at before — the differentiators that matter most to your clients, say, or the services they would most like to see you offer. In short, brand research can inform what services to offer and how to offer them. Better understanding your brand positioning goes a long way toward helping you develop the right brand architecture.
But wait, there’s more. Brand research can improve the go-to-market strategy for all your brands. A thoughtful, well researched go-to-market strategy will help you better connect with potential clients, offer a compelling value proposition, clearly distinguish your firm from the competition, and deliver on everything you promise.
By now you should have a pretty good idea why effective brand architecture is important. The benefits it can provide contribute directly to the bottom line. And it can even be the difference between success and failure.
No Brand Strategy is complete without understanding and optimizing the hierarchy, linkages, and roles of brands within a company’s portfolio.Brand architecture is client facing, so it doesn’t have to line up neatly with internal organizational structures.Crafting the right brand architecture for your organization is a strategic process.
When designed correctly:it improves the cost-effectiveness of your Branding And Marketing effortsit improves clarity, equity and consistency across the organizationit provides a more straightforward framework for marketers, a more definite story for sales teams, and greater relevance for customersit creates a clear decision-making framework for launching new products or incorporating new companiesWhile there are many different models of Designing brand architecture, this post will look at the three main approaches.Three Main Brand Architecture ModelsThere are many different models of designing brand architecture, though most of them have their roots in the seminal brand work of Dr David Aaker, who coined the terms House of Brands, Branded House and hybrid models.The right model is dependent on the company’s unique situation—most companies use a mixed approach to build and protect their businesses.Branded House is a monolithic structure where, from a branding standpoint, all business units, subsidiaries and divisions share the same brand.
This model emphasises a single master brand—sometimes referred to as the umbrella or parent brand—that sits over the other brands within an organization.This structure is a particularly good option when the products are in the same category or offer a similar set of benefits.
Branded houses can consolidate investment behind one master brand.The basic concept is to gain economic leverage by investing at the master brand level and then using product names or descriptors to call out product-level attributes.Examples of companies using this framework include FedEx, GE, and Virgin.
There is one trademark followed by descriptive names for each product/service, one system (promise, personality, visual and verbal identity) used for all the products/services that the organisation develops.House of Brands—also called freestanding or portfolio brand—emphasise a single strong ‘master brand’ that sits over a portfolio of brands, each with a unique brand positioning tailored to a particular market segment.With this model, individual products or companies have their names, personalities, audiences—they can focus on what they each do best and operate as individual companies in their specialist areas.
This model makes the main corporate brand much less vulnerable to major scandal or negative brand associations that might affect one subsidiary brand.Building Multiple Brands is very resource intensive.
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The Global Polyvinyl Alcohol Fibers Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 gives an evaluation of the market developments based on historical studies and comprehensive research respectively.
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According to a research report "Cognitive Assessment and Training Market by Assessment Type (Pen- and Paper-Based, Hosted, Biometrics), Component, Application (Clinical Trial, Screening & Diagnostics, Brain Training, Academic Research), Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the cognitive assessment and training market size is expected to grow from USD 1.98 Billion in 2016 to USD 8.06 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 32.3%.Browse 63 market data tables and 47 figures spread through 150 pages and in-depth TOC on "Cognitive Assessment and Training Market - Global Forecast to 2021"The major forces driving this market are aging global population, increasing awareness about brain fitness, and advancements in technology.
The growing market for cognitive solutions and increasing demand for brain training by next-generation tech-savvy population are contributing to the growth of the cognitive assessment and training market.Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=1039Clinical trials in terms of application is expected to hold the largest market share in the cognitive assessment and training market during the forecast periodClinical trials are mainly used to identify, measure, or monitor cognitive impairments and cognitive changes.
The assessment of cognitive functions is an integral part of decision-making during clinical drug development, as certain drugs can have an impact on the cognitive capabilities of the brain.
The market is expected to contribute the highest revenue for vendors offering clinical trials.Education vertical is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the marketCognitive assessment solutions and services are used in the education vertical for screening prospective candidates for schools or colleges.
The leading cognitive assessment and training vendors for this vertical are Pearson Assessment and CogniFit.North America is expected to contribute to the largest market share and Asia-Pacific to grow at the highest CAGRNorth America is expected to hold the largest market share and to dominate the cognitive assessment and training market from 2016 to 2021, due to the increasing awareness among population about adopting medication for cognitive diseases.
The new generation in this region is more concerned toward the benefits of cognitive training, which is not just limited to patients with cognitive dysfunctions.
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Taking the analysis further, the study helps readers get a better understanding of the trends characteristics of the emerging markets, including government regulations crucial to growth of such markets.
