Designing the Brand Architecture

Once you have decided upon the relationship that you want to convey between your master and subbrands, say Aaker and Joachimsthaler, you are then ready to design your brand architecture. You do so by completing five steps:
Step #1: Identify the Brands in Your Portfolio
Your brand portfolio, say our gurus, is all of the brands and subbrands you have in your product/service offerings, including those that you have cobranded with other firms. While the process of identifying your brands may seem simple, Aaker and Joachimsthaler caution that this may be a daunting task since you may have brands that are obscure or dormant. Nevertheless,
your task here is to compile a complete list and to decide if you need to add some new brands to strengthen your portfolio.
Step #2: Specify the Role of Each of Your Brands
Aaker and Joachimsthaler tell us that each brand in a portfolio should be assigned one or more of the following roles:
Strategic Role—the brand is an important source of future profits. Linchpin Role—the brand provides a key basis for customer loyalty. For example, Hilton Rewards is a linchpin brand for Hilton Hotels. Silver Bullet—the brand positively influences the image of another brand. For example, IBM’s Thinkpad brand boosted public perceptions of IBM. Cash Cow—the brand has a significant customer base and does not require the level of investment of other brands, therefore it can be used to generate funds that can be invested in strategic, linchpin, and silver-bullet brands.
Step #3: Specify the Product-Market Context of Each of Your Brands
Aaker and Joachimsthaler note that a set of brands taken together comprise a product/service offering in a particular product-market context. For example, the Cadillac Seville and Northstar system brands work together in the following way:
The Cadillac Seville with the Northstar system . . . is a particular offering for which Cadillac is the master brand with the primary driver role; Seville plays a subbrand role, and Northstar a branded component role.1 In this step, you identify endorser and subbrands (see our previous discussion), benefit brands (branded features, components, or services that augment the brand offering such as Ziploc’s ColorLoc Zipper), and any cobrands in your offering. (Cobrands are arrangement you have to combine your brand with one or more brands from a different organization to create a unique offering. For example, Pillsbury cobranded with Nestlé to create
Pillsbury’s Brownies with Nestlé’s chocolate.) Aaker and Joachimsthaler note that cobranding can be particularly powerful. For example, they cite a research study in which 20 percent of prospects said they would buy a fictional entertainment device if it carried the Kodak name, and 20 percent said they would buy it if it carried the Sony name. In contrast, fully 80 percent said they would buy the device if it carried both the Kodak and Sony name, that is, was a cobrand.
Step #4: Develop Your Brand Portfolio Structure
The brand portfolio structure provides a way of grouping brands to clarify their logical relationships. For example, if you are a hotel chain, such as Marriott, you might group your various brands by segment (business vs. leisure travelers), product (overnight vs. extended stay), quality (luxury vs. economy), and so on. Alternatively, say Aaker and Joachimsthaler, you
might find it helpful to clarify the relationships among your brands by drawing a “brand family tree” or hierarchical chart.
Step #5: Design Your Portfolio Graphics
Finally, say Aaker and Joachimsthaler, you need to take a look at the visual representations that you use across your portfolio of brands, the logos, packaging, symbols, product design, layout of print advertisements, taglines—everything that has to do with the look and feel of the presentation of each of your brands. The key question here is, What kinds of signals are these visual representations sending about the relationships between the brands in your brand portfolio and are they the right signals? An illuminating exercise, say our gurus, is to take all of the graphic representations of your brands (logos and such) and put them on a large wall. Look at them together and ask yourself if they convey a consistent message and support your brand portfolio’s structure.