What are the benefits of strong brand architecture in marketing?

1 Define your brand vision

Before you design your brand architecture, you need to have a clear vision of what your brand stands for, what it offers, and who it serves. Your brand vision should align with your business goals, mission, and values. It should also reflect your target audience's needs, preferences, and expectations. Your brand vision will guide your decisions on how to structure, name, and position your products or services in the market.

2 Choose your brand architecture type

Organizing your products or services using brand architecture can take many different forms. Monolithic is suitable for businesses with a strong reputation, consistent quality, and focused strategy; Google is an example of this, using its name for all its products. Endorsed is beneficial for businesses with a diverse portfolio, high level of trust, and need to leverage brand equity; Marriott is an example of this, using its name to endorse its sub-brands. Pluralistic is appropriate for businesses with low level of synergy, high level of competition, and need to target different segments; Unilever is an example of this, owning many brands that operate separately.

3 Create your brand hierarchy

Once you choose your brand architecture type, you need to create your brand hierarchy, which is the way you rank and relate your brands, sub-brands, and extensions. Your brand hierarchy should be clear, logical, and consistent. It should also be flexible enough to accommodate changes in the market, such as new product launches, acquisitions, or mergers. This will help you manage your brand portfolio by allocating resources and optimizing growth opportunities across your brands. Additionally, a well-defined brand hierarchy can enhance brand awareness by increasing visibility and recognition among your target audience. Furthermore, it can strengthen brand associations by creating positive, meaningful, and distinctive associations for your brands through consistent brand elements like colors, fonts, and images.

4 Align your brand strategy

Your brand architecture is not only a visual representation of your products or services, but also a strategic tool that helps you align your brand strategy with your business strategy. To do this, you should define how you want your brands, sub-brands, and extensions to be perceived and differentiated from competitors in the market. Additionally, you should craft compelling and consistent messages that convey your brand value proposition, personality, and promise to your target audience. Lastly, you should deliver satisfying and memorable interactions that meet or exceed customer expectations across all touchpoints. By ensuring that your brand strategy is aligned with your brand architecture, you can effectively plan, execute, and measure your marketing activities to achieve your brand vision.

5 Evaluate your brand architecture

Your brand architecture is not a static concept, but a dynamic one that evolves over time. Therefore, you should regularly evaluate your brand architecture to ensure that it is still relevant, effective, and efficient. To do this, you should take customer feedback into account to understand how they perceive and respond to your brands, sub-brands, and extensions. Additionally, you should monitor market trends to identify new opportunities and threats for your brands, sub-brands, and extensions. Lastly, you should review your business goals, mission, and values to assess whether your brands, sub-brands, and extensions are still aligned and supportive of them.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?