Branding Strategy

A branding strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a successful brand in order to achieve specific goals. A well-defined and executed brand strategy affects all aspects of a business and is directly connected to consumer needs, emotions, and competitive environments. One important element of a comprehensive branding strategy targeted to consumers is television advertising. Although it may not be right for every business, TV is the most powerful media available to advertisers and it has the potential to dramatically impact a communications campaign’s success.

Types of Branding Strategy

Now, let’s have a look at some of the types of branding strategy. A number of brands utilize these strategies, so they can be known as some of the proven strategies. You can use them for your business as well. However, you must be careful about the size of your business, your overall aims, and objectives from the brand and even the competition in the industry. This is because each strategy might be applicable in a different situation. Without realizing the contextual scenario of the brand, you cannot expect to get the best out of these strategies.

1. House of Brands

In this type of branding, you must have a number of products or services to offer to your customers. This strategy has to be used at the initial stages of the brands, but the real impact is often seen when your business becomes large cooperation. The reason for such a statement is that when you are working on a small scale, you’ll want to cross-sell the product and will tell your existing customers about the launch of new products. When you’ll promote the upcoming product with this motive in mind, you won’t be able to use the house of brands strategy to its fullest. Or you won’t be able to name it as “house of brands” initially.

House of brands is a strategy where your parent brand is different from the sub-brands produced by the company. The intention behind this strategy is that the legacy of the parent brand is not transferred to the sub-brands. Each of the products produced by the company would have a different name and a different identity. You might divert from the original idea of starting up the company. Even, the name of the strategy itself implies the standing of the brands. House of brands shows the presence of a number of brands under one main head or house. So, the advantages and disadvantages of House of brands include:

Advantage of House of Brands

• You don’t have to keep on the legacy of the parent brand or the other brands in the company
• You can easily deviate from the original idea and go for diversification
• Brand positioning is independent

Disadvantage of House of Brands

It might take extra time to establish the presence of the brand in the market

Example of House of Brands

The example of this brand strategy includes Proctor & Gamble. Proctor & Gamble produces a number of different products, but it does not use its name with any of those products. Some of the most prominent brands of Proctor & Gamble include Tide, Pampers, Ariel, Gillette, Pantene, etc. Each of these brands has its own existence in the market. Proctor & Gamble does not extend them the support to survive in the market.

A number of successful brands are following this strategy. So, you can adapt it as well, if your aim is to create individual brands.

2. Branded House

In this branding strategy in marketing, the new products and brands are seen as the branches of the main company. The individual existence of the brand is there. But it is usually taken as the name of the product, not the brand itself.

The number of products and services have to be large in number for this strategy too. However, you’ll have to make the decision about adopting this strategy when launching your second product or service in the market.

One thing that you must note here is that you’ll have to specify a separate name for each of the product that you offer, but you’ll definitely have to use the name of the original product. So, the advantages and disadvantages are the part of this branding strategy too. These include:

Advantage of Branded House

You can establish a relatively quick reputation in the market

Disadvantage of Branded House

In case the reputation of the parent brand is negative, the new brand will have to face it as well.

Example of Branded House

For this strategy, the example includes Google. We know various products of Google for different functions. But we recognize most of them as Google Products rather than the maintenance of a separate identity. The search engine “Google” email services in the form of Google Mail, Google Hangouts, Google Calendar are some of the sub-brands or categories of the main brand.

3. Product Line Extension

This type of branding strategy in marketing actually refers to the inclusion of new products in the existing portfolio of your business. If you are using the same brand name that you have already used and enter the same product category, then this strategy is product line extension.

Advantage of Product Line Extension

• You can cater more customers through the introduction of such products
• Feeling of customization can be inculcated in your audience with the introduction of specific versions

Disadvantage of Product Line Extension

Cannibalization is the problem when it comes to the product line strategy, so it can be a problem

Example of Product Line Extension

The prominent example of this strategy is the Dove Shampoo. The presence of different variants in the form of total repair, damaged hair, etc. are the extensions in the product line. Similarly, the other shampoos providing different variants for different hair types exhibit this strategy. So, you can use this strategy quite easily if it seems for your business type.

4. Brand Extension

This strategy also fits when you need to add in more products to the portfolio. Moreover, the basic difference between product line extension and brand extension is in the category of product. If you are introducing a new category with the same old brand name, then you are actually using the brand extension.

Advantage of Brand Extension

• You can capture the brand value associated with the existing brand
• You can increase the revenue stream because targeting more customers will result in more sales and thus more revenue.
• Cross-selling is often a possibility

Disadvantage of Brand Extension

You don’t get recognized exclusively for a particular product niche

Example of Brand Extension

This example below will help you in understanding this concept as well as differentiating between the two. I’ll take the example of Dove brand again. Let’s assume that Dove created shampoos before than the soap. The introduction of new variants of shampoo was the product line extension (discussed above). But the introduction of Dove Soap when Dove shampoos were already in the market is a brand extension.

5. Multi Brand Strategy

In this strategy, you need to enter the existing product category with a different brand name. This strategy actually has its role when you are analyzing conglomerates. But for simple companies, this strategy is not much practical or at least it has not been used widely yet.

Advantage of Multi Brand Strategy

You can get more sales and revenues by targeting a different segment

Disadvantage of Multi Brand Strategy

• Chances of spoiling the reputation of parent brand exist, so you’ll have to be careful about it
• Cannibalization can be a problem

Example of Multi Brand Strategy

If you have ever wondered why a large conglomerate does introduce two similar nature products, then you’ll find an answer here, in this strategy. Let’s take Lipton and Supreme as examples. Both are the products from Unilever. Any idea, why are they both introduced? No? Let me explain. Both of these brands target a different market. You can consider the market of each of these brands as their specific niches to which they are catering. At the time of introduction of both these brands, the market would have been researched by Unilever and a market gap indicating the two different niches would have been found.

In normal cases when you have just started the business or even when it is at the medium scale, you try to include more products for the same market, or you might go for targeting different market by introducing new product category. This multi-brand strategy is usually used when all the other options of expansion are exhausted.