Hierarchy
Paws d. for Thought
The ADAMS Blog
August 5th, 2009
The importance of brand hierarchy
Complicated brands often need to be architected to be understood. If an
organization has more than one brand or one brand with several subbrands, they must be organized in a way that each portion of the brand
maintains scalability, yet remain associated with the parent brand. There
are three prevalent ways to structure a brands hierarchy and depending on
the product or service involved usually one of these solutions provides the
appropriate structure. (From: http:// blog.adamsstrategy.com/2009/08/theimportance-of-brand-hierarchy/)
e. Family
f. Monolith
(See Monolithic branding :
http://www.brandchannel.com/education_glossary.asp)
g. Sub-brand The Scarcliff Dictionary of Branding
http://www.scarcliffdictionary.com/
h. Co-brand The Scarcliff Dictionary of Branding
http://www.scarcliffdictionary.com/
i. Extensions
Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm
marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand
name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off.
Organizations use this strategy to increase and leverage brand equity
(definition: the net worth and long-term sustainability just from the
renowned name). An example of a brand extension is Jello-gelatin creating
Jello pudding pops. It increases awareness of the brand name and increases
profitability from offerings in more than one product category. A brand's
"extendibility" depends on how strong consumer's associations are to the
brand's values and goals. Ralph Lauren's Polo brand successfully extended
from clothing to home furnishings such as bedding and towels. Both
clothing and bedding are made of linen fulfill and a similar consumer
function of comfort and hominess. Arm & Hammer leveraged its brand
equity from basic baking soda into the oral care and laundry care
categories. By emphasizing its key attributes, the cleaning and deodorizing
properties of its core product, Arm & Hammer was able to leverage those
attributes into new categories with success. Another example is Virgin
Group, which was initially a record label that has extended its brand
successfully many times; from transportation (aeroplanes, trains) to games
stores and video stores such a Virgin Megastores. (From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Brand_extension)
j. Portfolio
One of the most intriguing questions in strategic brand marketing is the
'positioning path' over time that a new brand should proceed along to reach
its long-term desired position. For example, Coca-Cola was invented as a
'brain tonic' by Dr. John S. Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta in May
1886. The original concoction contained, according to the first-ever ad for
Coca-Cola in the Atlanta Journal of 29 May 1886 - among other
ingredients - 'the properties of the wonderful Coca plant and the famous
Cola nuts' (!!). It was mixed in the backyard of Dr. Pemberton's shop and
sold for five cents per glass. Today Coca-Cola is one of the biggest
softdrink power brands worldwide (and the magic syrup for it certainly
does not contain all the original ingredients!). The 'positioning path' from
Dr. Pemberton's backyard novelty product to a world-class brand most
certainly went through various and diverse stages. Can 'positioning paths'
be plotted or planned when most research-based positioning models only
provide static pictures? (See matrix:
http://www.allaboutbranding.com/index.lasso?article=296)