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Submitted to: Maam Bushra Baig
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Submittted by: Muzammil Arslan

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Humaira Aslam
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Abdul Basit
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Shinza Khakwani
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Attique Ahmad
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MBA-1(Evening, 6 Semester)

DEVELOPING A BRAND ARCHITECTURE STRATEGY

The firms brand architecture strategy helps marketers determine which products and services
to introduce, and which brand names, logos, symbols, and so forth to apply to new and Existing
products. The role of brand architecture is twofold:
To clarify brand awareness: Improve consumer understanding and communicate similarity
and differences between individual products and services.
To improve brand image: Maximize transfer of equity between the brand and individual
products and services to improve trial and repeat purchase.
Developing a brand architecture strategy requires three key steps:
(1) defining the potential of a brand in terms of its market footprint,.
(2) identifying the product and service extensions that will allow the brand to achieve that
potential.
(3) specifying the brand elements and positioning associated with the specific products and
services for the brand.

BRAND PORTFOLIOS
A brand portfolio includes all brands sold by a company in a product category. We judge a
brand portfolio by its ability to maximize brand equity: Any one brand in the portfolio should
not harm or decrease the equity of the others. Ideally, each brand maximizes equity in
combination with all other brands in the portfolio. Why might a firm have multiple brands in the
same product category? The primary reason is market coverage. Although multiple branding was
originally pioneered by General Motors, Procter & Gamble is widely recognized as popularizing
the practice. P&G became a proponent of multiple brands after introducing its Cheer detergent

brand as an alternative to its already successful Tide detergent, resulting in higher combined
product category sales.

Roles of brand portfolios

1. Flankers: Certain brands act as protective flanker or fighter brands.12 The purpose of
flanker brands typically is to create stronger points-of-parity with competitors brands so
that more important (and more profitable) flagship brands can retain their desired
positioning.
2. Cash Cows: Some brands may be kept around despite dwindling sales because they still
manage to hold on to a sufficient number of customers and maintain their profitability
with virtually no marketing support.
3. Low-End, Entry-Level or High-End, Prestige Brands: The role of a relatively lowpriced brand in the brand portfolio often may be to attract customers to the brand
franchise. On the other hand, the role of a relatively high-priced brand in the brand family
is often to add prestige and credibility to the entire portfolio.

BRAND HIERARCHIES
A brand hierarchy is a useful means of graphically portraying a firms branding strategy by
displaying the number and nature of common and distinctive brand elements across the firms
products, revealing their explicit ordering. Its based on the realization that we can brand a
product in different ways depending on how many new and existing brand elements we use and
how we combine them for any one product. There are different ways to define brand elements
and levels of the hierarchy. Perhaps the simplest representation from top to bottom might be:
1. Corporate or company brand (General Motors)
2. Family brand (Buick)
3. Individual brand (Regal)

4. Modifier (designating item or model) (GS)

5. Product description (midsize luxury sport sedan automobile)
Designing a Brand Hierarchy
The challenge in setting up a brand hierarchy is to decide:
1. The specific products to be introduced for any one brand.
2. The number of levels of the hierarchy to use.
3. The desired brand awareness and image at each level.
4. The combinations of brand elements from different levels of the hierarchy, if any, to use for
any one particular product.
5. The best way to link any one brand element, if at all, to multiple products.

CORPORATE BRANDING
A corporate brand is distinct from a product brand in that it can encompass a much wider range
of associations. A corporate brand name may be more likely to evoke associations of common
products and their shared attributes or benefits, people and relationships, programs and values,
and corporate credibility.
Corporate brand equity is the differential response by consumers, customers, employees, other
firms, or any relevant constituency to the words, actions, communications, products, or services
provided by an identified corporate brand entity. In other words, positive corporate brand equity
occurs when a relevant constituency responds more favorably to a corporate ad campaign, a
corporate-branded product or service, a corporate-issued PR release, and so on than if the same
offering were attributed to an unknown or fictitious company.
Corporate Image Dimensions
A corporate image will depend on a number of factors, such as the products a company makes,

the actions it takes, and the manner in which it communicates to consumers. These factors are:
Common Product Attributes, Benefits, or Attitudes

Quality
Innovativeness

People and Relationships

Customer orientation

Values and Programs

Concern with environment

Social responsibility

Corporate Credibility

Expertise
Trustworthiness
Likability

Managing the Corporate Brand

A number of specific issues arise in managing a corporate brand. Here are the three issues:
corporate social responsibility, corporate image campaigns, and corporate name changes.
Corporate Social Responsibility: Some marketing experts believe consumers are increasingly
using their perceptions of a firms role in society in their purchase decisions.
Corporate Image Campaigns: Corporate image campaigns are designed to create associations
to the corporate brand as a whole; consequently, they tend to ignore or downplay individual
products or sub-brands.
Corporate Name Changes: Corporate names may have to change for many reasons, but they
should be the right reasons pursued in the right way.

BRAND ARCHITECTURE GUIDELINES

In devising and implementing the optimal brand architecture strategy, marketers should keep the
following five guidelines in mind.
1. Adopt a strong customer focus: Recognize what customers know and want, and how they
will behave.
2. Create broad, robust brand platforms: Strong umbrella brands are highly desirable.
Maximize synergies and flow.
3. Avoid over branding and having too many brands: High-tech products, for example, are
often criticized for branding every ingredient so the overall effect is like a NASCAR race
car with logos and decals everywhere.
4. Selectively employ sub-brands: Sub-brands can communicate relatedness and distinctiveness
and are a means of complementing and strengthening brands.
4. Selectively extend brands: Brand extensions should establish new brand equity and
enhance existing brand equity.

Article: Conceptual analysis of brand architecture and relationships within

product categories
Brands play a significant role in developing marketing strategies for specific product
categories in a firm. A coherent international brand architecture is a key component of a
firms overall marketing strategy as it provides a structure to leverage strong brands into
other markets, assimilate acquired brands, and rationalize the firms branding strategy. Brand
architecture may be defined as an integrated process of brand building through establishing
brand relationships among branding options in the competitive environment. The brand
architecture of an organisation at any time is, in large measure, a legacy of past management
decisions as well as the competitive realities it faces in the marketplace. The brand

architecture helps in the revival, rentention or merger of brands that have low market impact
and tend to cause organisational conflicts with the strong brands of the company. A study
conducted by Laforet and Saundess revealed three major patterns of brand architecture:
corporate-dominant, product dominant and hybrid or mixed structures. Within corporatedominant brand architectures, brands have been largely built on the basis of organizational
standing in the market, irrespective of the product-mix strategies and related variables that
have significant impact on the brand performance in the competitive environment. Within a
product-dominant architecture, branding is done according to the AATAR model C attributes,
awareness, trial, availability and repeat model, and technology. The hybrid pattern of brand
architecture considers the organizational image as well as the product pattern factors to
determine the brand-building strategy. Corporate dominant architectures tend to be the most
common among firms with a relatively limited range of products or product divisions, or
with a clearly defined target market, such as Shell, Kelloggs, Nike, Benetton, and so on.
Another factor impacting the firms brand architecture is the degree of product market
integration. This can be viewed not only in terms of whether the same customers are present
in the markets of different countries or regions and have similar purchasing needs and
interests worldwide, but also whether the same competitors are present in these markets. The
branding strategy is also developed in accordance with the life cycle of the products and
services. Many large companies consider different branding strategies at different levels of
the product life cycle introduction, growth, maturity and decline. The product markets
continue to change rapidly. As markets evolve, firms need to consider how to modify their
brand architecture and look for opportunities to reduce the number of brands and improve
efficiency, as well as to harmonize brand strategy across product lines and country markets.

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE: McDonalds CASE STUDY

Using the arches, color palette and Mc to identify and link most of its offerings to the
master brand , it is a prime example of a Branded House architecture. Tightly Associated
with burgers, fries and soft drinks, the brand thrived in the 80s and early 90s. Through
Consistency and careful brand-building, McDonalds became an American icon. There were
signs of trouble starting in late 1990s , as business lagged and new products failed. After
this they developed their brand architecture process:
Step 1: Focused On health--centric global initiatives, putting food quality first. Marketing
Now organized by consumer groups such as millennials, families and adults rather than by
product. Stepping Up digital, including e-commerce, fast-tracking testing of mobile
payments and ordering. In June It set up a "learning lab" at a restaurant in Laguna Niguel,
Calif., To better understand what people want and to experiment with customizable burgers.
Step 2: Executives worry the master brand has lost relevance. Consumers reports more than
32000 subscribers rated McDonalds burgers the worst tasting of 20 rival burger chains.
Step 3: Branded house approach makes it difficult to change perceptions. Consider reserving
McDonalds as corporate brand and build equity in new stand-alone brands and sub-brands.
New digital initiatives provide a platform for new and relevant brand.
Step 4: key evaluation criteria relates to ability to support the business , build new sources
of equity and better address the needs of millennials and kids/moms.

Recommendations
1. Audit your brand to identify brands and opportunities.
2. Generate ideas for closing the gaps.

3. Evaluate your brand architecture and recommend ways to increase clarity , efficiency and
equity.
4. Develop a compelling, energizing brand identity and audience specific positioning that
align with the identity.
5. Measure and track your brands health over time.

Learning from the project

1. Architecture aligns business and brand goals by defining clear roles, relationships and
investment priorities among portfolio brands.
2. A coherent brand architecture makes marketing more efficient and effective by
ensuring customers and other stakeholders understand what the business can do for
them.
3. House of brands and branded house are just two of many possible architecture
solutions. Most companies used a hybrid approach.