Brand Architecture: Meaning of Brand Architecture, The Brand-Product Matrix

Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity. It is the way brands within a company’s portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, one another. According to J.N. Kapferer, the brand architecture should define the different leagues of branding within the organization; how the corporate brand and sub-brands relate to and support each other; and how the sub-brands reflect or reinforce the core purpose of the corporate brand they belong to. Often, decisions about brand architecture are concerned with how to manage a parent brand and a family of sub-brands managing brand architecture to maximize shareholder value can include using brand-valuation model techniques.

One may regard the designing of a brand architecture as an integrated process of brand building through establishing brand relationships among branding options in the competitive environment. The brand architecture of an organization at any time is, in large measure, a legacy of past management decisions as well as of the competitive reality’s brands face in the marketplace.

Types

Corporate brand, umbrella brand, and family brand: Examples include Heinz and Virgin Group. These are consumer-facing brands used across all the firm’s activities, and this name is how they are known to all their stakeholders; consumers, employees, shareholders, partners, suppliers and other parties. These brands may also be used in conjunction with product descriptions or sub-brands: for example Heinz Tomato Ketchup or Virgin Atlantic.

Endorsed brands, and sub-brands: For example, Nestle KitKat, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Sony PlayStation or Polo by Ralph Lauren. These brands include a parent brand which may be a corporate brand, an umbrella brand, or a family brand as an endorsement to a sub-brand or an individual, product brand. The endorsement should add credibility to the endorsed sub-brand in the eyes of consumers.

Individual product brand: For example, Procter & Gamble’s Pampers or Unilever’s Dove. The individual brands are presented to consumers, and the parent company name is given little or no prominence. Other stakeholders, like shareholders or partners, know the producer by its company name.

The Brand-Product Matrix

the product and branding strategy of a firm, one useful tool is the brand-product matrix, a graphical representation of all the brands and products sold by the firm.  In the brand-product matrix all products offered under different brands are represented by columns. This helps marketers understand the current brand line and explore further opportunity in expanding the product line. In the brand-product matrix all current existing brand are represented in form of rows referred to as brand portfolio. The brand portfolio analysis is essential to design and develop new marketing strategies to target a given product category.

Brand-product matrix helps in showcasing different brands in any given product category. In that respect brand hierarchy is graphical representation of company’s products and its brands. Hierarchical structure starts with corporate brand and then showcases different product category and below brands. This sort of presentation helps devise marketing strategy at many levels and forms.

The columns of the brand-product matrix, on the other hand, represent product-brand relationships and capture the brand portfolio strategy in terms of the number and nature of brands to be marketed in each category. The brand portfolio is the set of all brands and brand lines that a particular firm offers for sale to buyers in a particular category. Thus, a brand portfolio would be one particular column of the matrix. Different brands may be designed and marketed to appeal to different market segments. A brand portfolio must be judged on its ability to collectively maximize brand equity.  Any one brand in the portfolio should not harm or decrease the equity of other brands in the portfolio. In other words, the optimal brand portfolio is one in which each brand maximizes equity in combination with all other brands in the portfolio.

One final set of definitions is useful. A product line is a group of products within a product category that are closely related because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same type of outlets, or fall within given price ranges. A product line may be composed of different brands or a sin ­gle family brand or individual brand that has been line extended. A product mix (or product assortment) is the set of all product lines and items that a particular seller makes available to buyers. Thus, product lines represent different sets of columns in the brand-product matrix that, in total, make up the product mix. A brand mix (or brand assortment) is the set of all brand lines that a particular seller makes available to buyers

The branding strategy for a firm reflects the number and nature of common and distinctive brand elements applied to the different products sold by the firm. In other words, branding strategy involves deciding which brand names, logos, symbols, and so forth should be applied to which products and the nature of new and existing brand elements to be applied to new products. A branding strategy for a firm can be characterized according to its breadth (i.e., in terms of brand-product relationships and brand extension strategy) and its depth (i.e., in terms of product-brand relationships and the brand portfolio or mix). For example, a branding strategy can be seen as both deep and broad if the firm has a large number of brands, many of which have been extended into various product categories.