Brand Architecture A firm’s branding strategy often called the brand architecture reflects the number and nature of both common and d...
Brand Architecture
A firm’s branding strategy often called the brand architecture reflects the number and nature of both common and distinctive brand elements. Deciding how to brand new products is especially critical. A firm has three main choices:
1. It can develop new brand elements for the new product.
2. It can apply some of its existing brand elements.
3. It can use a combination of new and existing brand elements.
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When a firm uses an established brand to introduce a new product, the product is called a brand extension.When marketers combine a new brand with an existing brand, the brand extension can also be called a sub-brand, such as Hershey Kisses candy, Adobe Acrobat software, Toyota Camry automobiles, and American Express Blue cards. The existing brand that gives birth to a brand extension or sub-brand is the parent brand. If the parent brand is already associated with multiple products through brand extensions, it can also be called a master brand or family brand.
Brand extensions fall into two general categories: In a line extension, the parent brand covers a new product within a product category it currently serves, such as with new flavors, forms, colors, ingredients, and package sizes. Dannon has introduced several types of Dannon yogurt line extensions through the years Fruit on the Bottom, All Natural Flavors, Dan-o-nino, and Fruit Blends.
In a category extension, marketers use the parent brand to enter a different product category, such as Swiss Army watches.Honda has used its company name to cover such different products as automobiles, motorcycles, snowblowers, lawn mowers, marine engines, and snowmobiles. This allows the firm to advertise that it can fit “six Hondas in a two-car garage.”
A brand line consists of all products original as well as line and category extensions sold under a particular brand. A brand mix (or brand assortment) is the set of all brand lines that a particular seller makes.
Many companies are introducing branded variants, which are specific brand lines supplied to specific retailers or distribution channels. They result from the pressure retailers put on manufacturers to provide distinctive offerings. A camera company may supply its lowend cameras to mass merchandisers while limiting its higher-priced items to specialty camera shops.
A licensed product is one whose brand name has been licensed to other manufacturers that actually make the product. Corporations have seized on licensing to push their company names and images across a wide range of products from bedding to shoes making licensing a multi billion dollar business. Jeep’s licensing program, which now has 600 products and 150 licensees, includes everything from strollers to apparel as
long they fit the brand’s positioning of “Life without Limits.” Through 400-plus dedicated Jeep shop-in-shops and 80 Jeep freestanding stores around the world, licensing revenue now exceeds $550 million in retail sales. New areas of emphasis include outdoor and travel gear, juvenile products, and sporting goods.
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