What Is Brand Architecture?
As your business grows, you’ll need to make strategic, high-level decisions that influence the underlying structure (or brand architecture) of your company. But what is brand architecture, and what role does your strategy play in your company’s long-term success? Join us for a guide to this critical framework!
What, exactly, is brand architecture?
Brand architecture defines the corporate hierarchy of a company, establishing guidelines for how each brand contributes to overall growth and how customers understand the relationships between subsidiaries and their parent company. A business can build its brand architecture framework on one of three primary models:
Type 1: The branded house
When all products, services, and divisions remain in-house, each facet bears the parent company's name, creating a direct link to the primary brand. These types of corporate hierarchies are great for enhanced brand recognition and customer trust, especially when the parent company has a positive reputation.
However, this structure can make it hard to target different audiences, and a branding problem in one part of the business can have company-wide effects. Examples include:
Virgin Group Limited: Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Media, Virgin Galactic
National Geographic Global Networks: National Geographic, Nat Geo People, Nag Geo Wild
FedEx Corporation: FedEx Express, FedEx Freight, FedEx Ground, FedEx Logistics, FedEx Office
Type 2: House of brands
In a house of brands, one parent company owns different businesses with distinct identities. This strategy paves the way for more precise targeting for different audiences and makes it easier for a large corporation to compete in multiple price tiers. Additionally, it insulates each business from the effects of large-scale issues in another division.
That said, it’s more expensive to develop, launch, and maintain different brands and branding strategies, and the lack of big-name recognition may inhibit performance in the early stages. Examples include:
Procter & Gamble (P&G): Always, Bounty, Crest, Tide, Oral-B, Swiffer
GM: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet
Mars, Inc.: Snickers, Milky Way, Iams, Pedigree
Type 3: Hybrid brand architecture
Some companies don’t fall into a clear-cut category but instead blend the best of both brand architecture types. A strategic hybrid approach may include a mix of independent, branded, and endorsed brands, like Kellogg’s Corn Flakes or Intuit TurboTax.
These systems allow companies to cherry-pick strategic techniques to craft a brand lineup that plays on the strengths of each asset. Examples include:
Google: Google Maps, Google Ads, Google Play, YouTube, Android
Marriott: Courtyard by Marriott, W Hotels, St. Regis
Amazon: Amazon Prime, Kindle, Audible, Whole Foods
Importance of brand architecture
A great brand architecture determines much more than colors, logos, and other aspects of branded design. It creates a template that guides established leadership roles, marketing techniques, and communications. Here’s how your brand architecture can impact your business:
Better clarity on products and services
When a company’s brand architecture is well-defined, customers better understand how different products and services connect and what to expect from the user experience. For instance, the relationship between Google Calendar, Google Meet, and Google Photos is very straightforward. Users instantly recognize that these programs are part of the same ecosystem and work seamlessly with one another.
Opportunities to boost revenue
A robust brand architecture simplifies cross-selling and up-selling by directly influencing purchasing behavior. The Apple ecosystem is a prime example of this phenomenon. The brand has perfected the art of making one product feel like an extension of the others, so AirPods feel like a natural next step after purchasing an iPhone. They do this by reinforcing each product under one recognizable structure, creating bundled deals, and offering premium upgrades.
More brand equity
Established brands with great reputations and public perception can bolster trust, recognition, and positive associations for new brands and products in the same corporate family. So, when a parent company like Nike launches a new line of sneakers, those cutting-edge kicks enjoy immediate recognition and credibility.
More efficient operations
Without a strong framework, new brands must be built from the ground up. From a new, eye-catching website to a unique brand identity and a successful marketing strategy, much of the work you’ve already completed must be duplicated. However, a solid brand architecture strategy sets clear parameters for naming, design, messaging, and expansion to ensure efficiency and consistency.
Better brand image and reputation
No matter how strong the product, a confusing portfolio can make your brand family and product lineup feel disjointed and unreliable. By establishing and maintaining a well-defined framework, you reinforce your company’s public perception and reinforce your positive image in the eyes of customers, partners, and investors.
How to form your brand architecture
Ready to define how every aspect of your company fits together? Remember that an experienced corporate branding agency can be your greatest asset as you map out the foundation of your business. Here are the tasks your branding specialist will prioritize to develop a robust, effective brand architecture:
Perform a brand audit
The first step is to identify and analyze every active brand asset under the corporate umbrella, including parent brands, sub-brands, product lines, services, and acquisitions. This process may examine the following for each asset:
Product and service names
Customer perception
Overlapping or redundant brands
Inconsistent messaging
Differences in visual identity
Market performance
Define hierarchy and strategy
Once you have a comprehensive portfolio, it’s time to define structure and organization. Decide which type of brand architecture best fits your company, which brand should serve as the primary focal point, and which brands should borrow credibility from the parent brand.
Build brand relationships
With a clearly defined hierarchy in place, you’ll need to cement the relationships among brands. Entities may have a direct link to the parent brand, be endorsed by it, or be completely separate. These relationships directly influence storytelling and personalized branding, helping customers make meaningful connections to each brand.
Create systems for visual identity and naming
So, how will your customers identify connected brands in your corporate ecosystem? It all starts with visual cues and verbiage. To boost this recognition, you’ll establish:
Naming conventions
Logo systems
Typography rules
Color hierarchy
Packaging or interface consistency
Endorsement language
Establish guidelines and plan for growth
Your brand architecture is a key component of growth planning that takes the guesswork out of future expansions. You’ll use this template to determine when to create sub-brands or extend an existing brand, how to integrate acquisitions, and how to govern visual identity.
Branching out with your brand? Grow with Grove!
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