In our work with clients, it is rare to encounter a brand strategy issue that doesn't somehow involve an architecture issue. Architecture designates the relationship between different brands in the portfolio. A well-designed architecture has many benefits, the most important of which is including making your brand offerings clear to customers. From a marketing perspective, architecture helps optimize marketing by allowing some brands to build equity (driver brands) while others draw equity, riding in the slipstream of the driver (subbrands). Architecture also permits the development of 'brand distinguishers' that work across portfolio brands. These are sometimes called 'ingredient' brands or 'energizers'.
Developing a brand architecture that supports the business strategy and makes sense to consumers can be complicated. There are no easy research shortcuts. Exhaustive searching also shows that, like most issues in brand strategy, there isn't even a common language or terminology to facilitate the discussion.
We developed a set of tools and organized them into this presentation to help our clients understand the importance of brand architecture and how it can help their business. It also describes the process of optimizing the portfolio and naming brands. The key? Specifying the relationship of every TM'ed item to every other one and to the overall busines strategy. It's not easy, but well worth the effort.
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