Brand architecture enables you to manage what people perceive about all components of your brand. That extends beyond just your brand name or logo – it incorporates all subcomponents of your brand as well. Products, services, sub-brands? All must fall under some overarching strategy.
When you use brand architecture services and master this process, you control what consumers and stakeholders know of your company. This directly influences your business’s ability to expand. The challenge lies in achieving this type of cohesive architecture even as your company grows. Here’s what you need to know about brand architecture strategy.
You know the value of your brand. An estimated 46% of consumers will pay more for products and services from brands they know and trust. That applies to your over-arching brand and each individual brand within. The world’s top 40 strongest brands yield twice the total return to shareholders.
Understanding Brand Architecture
Brand architecture can be defined as the hierarchy of your company’s brands, sub-brands, services, and products. It’s a framework, often depicted in a simple diagram, that shows how each of your business's components works together. Once in place, customers understand your entire company and link one component to the next. Having a defined brand architecture strategy enables companies to develop extensions of their brand, including new products.
The Role of Brand Architecture in Brand Equity
Why does brand architecture matter?
The importance of creating a clear strategy simply cannot be overstated. It’s a critical tool. Developing and growing without this creates opportunities for financial loss. However, brand architecture can build brand equity:
- Consumer Clarity: Consumers better understand the relationships between every component of your business. They know how to navigate working with you.
- Better Marketing ROI: A cohesive architecture enhances the effectiveness of marketing efforts, creating a more streamlined and effective strategy. The strength of the master brand can be leveraged to create synergies between each.
- Enhanced Brand Value: Build value in your brand by creating clearly defined roles and relationships within each brand. Done well, this consistently builds brand loyalty and higher value.
- Better Manage Risk: Brand architecture also reduces risk. It establishes clear boundaries between brands. That means brands can contain any brand image damage and prevent it from spilling into other areas.
- Consistent Growth: Brand architecture aids in merger and acquisition planning and enables better integration as you expand your business into new regions of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) or beyond.
The Impact of Brand Architecture on Market Positioning
Developing a brand architecture strategy is a key driver of success. That includes expanding and capitalizing on the market position. The brands that build a cohesive and effective strategy are global brands known around the world.
Within the UAE, that includes brands such as The Emirates Group, DP World, e&, and TAQA Group. On a global scale, some of the largest brands with structured architecture include Nestle, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble. Others include Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon – all names you know. None of these companies has a single product but numerous components that make up a much larger and diverse brand, all falling under the same “brand house.”
Why? Benefits of Strong Brand Architecture
Having a comprehensive and defined brand architecture reinforces the business’s strategic direction. More so, it creates a consistent and differentiating position for your business. It ensures consistency across all consumer touchpoints. That leads to:
- Increased firm impact
- Enhances business growth potential
- Integrates mission statements and objectives
- Maximizes profit growth
- Builds a better company culture
A brand with a clear brand architecture achieves 3.5 times more visibility when compared to a brand lacking it. This makes brand architecture a competitive advantage.
Challenges in Managing Brand Architecture
Brand architecture is essential but not simple. It takes a lot of focused effort and decision-making to become a reality. Creating a plan and strategy and sticking to it is challenging. Moreover, numerous brand architecture framework options are utilized today. Choosing the right fit can also be confusing. This is where brand architecture services become a critical component of your operations.
- Stakeholder buy-in: Establishing a guiding brand architecture strategy requires decision-making that extends across all stakeholders. It can be challenging to reach the same agreement and alignment.
- Maintaining consistency: It is critical to maintain a cohesive strategy that does not depart from the boundaries of the brand architecture created.
- Adjusting to change: It can be challenging for brands to implement changes across the company's larger components.
Choosing the appropriate brand architecture is often the first challenge to overcome. Several types of frameworks exist, including:
- Branded house methodology: All brands operate under one umbrella parent company. They are indistinct from each other.
- House of brands methodology: Several brands operate under one umbrella of a larger corporate entity. Each brand in the house has a strong individual identity.
- Endorsed branding methodology: The overarching corporate brand is associated with subsidiaries, providing a seal of approval that strengthens the credibility of the individual brands.
- Hybrid branding methodologies: A variety of combinations of the above can be selected.
Another core challenge for establishing a brand architecture strategy is establishing a framework. This process typically begins by auditing existing brands and then defining the business goals and objectives. Developing core target audiences and mapping out current brand relationships requires a specific level of directional decision-making.
A brand migration strategy is another layer of complexity. This process requires skilled management, verbal messaging, the voice and tone of the brand, styles, and colors. Brand governance must also be put into place.
The Future of Brand Architecture
Brands are global, and brands that want to compete must aim to be global. More so than ever, brand architecture strategy defines the future of companies. More so, some of the most impressive themes will include better communication and improved touchpoints across all brand components. A growth towards hyper-personalization will put the weight of new technology on the shoulders of companies. Cultural integration, a digital-first marketing design, and flexibility in structure are all areas of potential opportunity.
At Ollen Group, our Consultancy services enable companies to create a cohesive architecture strategy. Once in place, the growth opportunities and the widening opportunities of building brand recognition are endless. Explore the potential with a brand architecture strategy that defines the successes of your company.
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