The importance of brand architecture.

Whether you’re launching a new product or expanding into new markets, a clear branding strategy is fundamental to any growing business. By establishing a clear brand architecture from the start, you can keep the different arms of your business organised and avoid any confusion, creating an effective strategy that maximises your opportunity for growth. 

Read on to find out what brand architecture is and why it’s important for your expanding business.

 

What is brand architecture?

 

Brand architecture is the structure of your company’s brand portfolio. It defines how your products, services, and sub-brands relate to each other and your parent brand, creating a whole brand ecosystem. It’s essentially your brand’s family tree and can take all sorts of shapes and sizes depending on your business’ size, industry and goals.

 

The importance of brand architecture

 

Regardless of how big or small your business might be, brand architecture can have a huge impact on how successfully you reach your audience. By creating an effective brand architecture strategy, you can strategically organise your brands so that they work together to reap the following 5 benefits, giving your business the foundations it needs to thrive.

 

1. Establishes trust

 

A well-defined brand architecture helps to establish a hierarchy within your business, clarifying the relationship between all the different brands within your portfolio. This lets both your customers and employees differentiate between your parent brand and sub-brands, enhancing their understanding of your products or services and their position within the market.

This structure keeps each brand’s messaging and designs consistent, offering reassurance that your sub-brand aligns with the values and standards associated with your parent brand. It also keeps your business professional and creates a sense of reliability. This all translates into trust, which is the very essence of consumer confidence, loyalty, and long-term relationships.

 

2. Tells an engaging brand story

 

Part of building trust all comes down to your brand story. This is the narrative behind your entire business, conveying your values and purpose to potential customers. Every area of your brand will tell this story, and if you try to put all those stories into one brand portfolio without planning, the narrative can quickly get confusing to follow. 

Instead, a clear architecture will help you define the narrative of each brand and establish exactly how they all work together to tell the overarching story of your parent brand. This will be the thread that ties everything together, connecting with your audience on a deeper level and avoiding any competition between the sub-brands and your parent brand.

 

3. Leads to effective marketing strategies

 

An organised brand structure makes it clear what role each individual brand plays in your overarching business goal, helping your marketing team understand how sub-brands fit into the bigger picture. Drawing on these insights, they can then allocate your financial resources effectively for maximum ROI on your marketing strategies. 

They’ll also use your brand architecture to keep the branding consistent across all marketing materials, allowing them to tailor your messaging so that it resonates with specific audiences. This clarity and consistency will ultimately result in more focused and impactful marketing campaigns that make the most of your budget.

 

4. Builds brand equity

 

When customers have a great experience with one of your brands or products, this also allows you to build the brand equity of your parent brand. Brand equity is the perceived value of your brand in the minds of consumers, and if it’s high, they’ll be more likely to choose you over your competitors. 

When a sub-brand or individual product or service is associated with a trustworthy parent brand, it increases your overall customer loyalty, creates an image of higher quality, and improves your market presence. This means that brand architecture plays an essential role in ensuring that each brand in your portfolio contributes to the strength of your overarching brand equity, solidifying your position in the market.

 

5. Drives loyalty & cross-selling

 

Having a clear brand architecture that establishes the relationship between each brand also makes it easier to cross-sell different products and services. That’s because the parent brand’s reputation and values are transferred across all the different sub-brands.

Every time a customer has a positive encounter with one of your brands, this will spark confidence in your other sub-brands and encourage them to explore more of the products and services you offer. This simplifies the cross-selling process and facilitates new product launches, driving loyalty and increasing sales across all areas of the business. 

 

Types of brand architecture

 

Now we understand the importance of brand architecture, here are the different types you can choose depending on your goals. 

 

• Branded house (aka. monolithic brand architecture)

If you take a branded house approach, then all your brands are clearly related to your parent brand. A great example of this is Apple, where iPhones, iPads and Macs are all marketed under the Apple brand. Each sub-brand will typically target a more specific segment of your general audience.

 

• House of brands (aka. Pluralistic brand architecture)

On the other hand, the house of brands strategy lets your sub-brands take the spotlight, catering to different audiences and products while the parent brand takes a back seat. Procter & Gamble are an example of this, with Gilette, Braun and Pringles all falling under the P&G group. This lets them cater different products to different markets more effectively, each with its own unique brand strategy. 

 

• Endorsed brand strategy

Then you can go for a mix between the two, creating a strong sub-brand that’s endorsed by the parent brand. Take inigma™ as an example, which uses the Squire name for support but otherwise remains independent.

 

So, why is brand architecture important?

 

Brand architecture is important because it’s the very cornerstone of your entire company, shaping a cohesive and well-structured brand ecosystem. This in turn fosters clarity, trust and loyalty among customers, driving sales and establishing a brand that’s designed for long-term success.

 

Tap into the benefits of brand architecture

 

Now you know the importance of brand architecture, you might be wondering how to go about developing a brand strategy and which type of brand architecture you should choose.

 

If so, The Curious is a Shrewsbury branding agency that will help you put together a brand architecture strategy that supports your business goals. Whether you’re preparing to launch a new product or need to restructure, let’s talk about your brand strategy.