PRODUCT AND

BRANDING MANAGEMENT
Editor’s name : Kevin Lane Keller
 PRODUCT AND BRANDING MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER 9: DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING

BRAND ARCHITECTURE STRATEGIES
 Contents

• 9.1. Developing a Brand Architecture

Strategy
• 9.2. Brand Portfolios
• 9.3. Brand Hierarchies
• 9.4. Corporate Branding
• 9.5. Brand Architecture Guidelines

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 Learning Objectives

• Define the key components of brand

architecture.
• Outline the guidelines for developing a
good brand portfolio.
• Assemble a basic brand hierarchy
• Describe how a corporate brand is different
from a product brand.
• Explain the rationale behind cause
marketing and green marketing.
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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• Branding strategy is critical because it is

the means by which the firm can help
– consumers understand its products and
services and organize them in their minds.
• Two important strategic tools:
– The brand-product matrix and the brand
hierarchy
– help to characterize and formulate branding
strategies by defining various relationships
among brands and products.
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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• The branding strategy for a firm reflects the

number and nature of common
• or distinctive brand elements applied to the
different products sold by the firm.
– Which brand elements can be applied to which
products and the nature of new and existing
brand elements to be applied to new products

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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• The role of Brand Architecture

– Clarify: brand awareness
• Improve consumer understanding and
communicate similarity and differences between
individual products
– Motivate: brand image
• Maximize transfer of equity to/from the brand to
individual products to improve trial and repeat
purchase

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 Brand-Product Matrix

Products
1 2 3 4
A
Brands B
C
• Must define:
– Brand-Product relationships (rows)
• Line and category extensions
– Product-Brand relationships (columns)
• Brand portfolio
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 Important Definitions

• Product line
– A group pf products within a product category
that are closely related
• Product mix (product assortment)
– The set of all product lines and items that a
particular seller makes available to buyers
• Brand mix (brand assortment)
– The set of all brand lines that a particular
seller makes available to buyers

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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• Breadth of a Branding Strategy

– Breadth of product mix
• Aggregate market factors
• Category factors
• Environmental factors

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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• Breadth of a Branding Strategy

– Depth of product mix
• Examining the percentage of sales and profits
contributed by each item in the product line
• Deciding to increase the length of the product line
by adding new variants
• or items typically expands market coverage and
therefore market share but also increases costs

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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• Depth of a Branding Strategy

– The number and nature of different brands
marketed in the product class sold by a firm
– Referred to as brand portfolio
– The reason is to pursue different market
segments, different channels of distribution, or
different geographic boundaries
– Maximize market coverage and minimize
brand overlap

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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• Step 1: Defining brand potential

• Step 2: identifying brand extension
opportunities
• Step 3: Branding new products and
services

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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• Step 1: Defining brand potential

– Articulating the Brand Vision
– Defining the Brand Boundaries
– Crafting the Brand Positioning

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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• Step 2: identifying brand extension

opportunities
– identify new products and services to achieve
that potential through a well-designed and
implemented brand extension strategy.
– A brand extension is a new product introduced
under an existing brand name.
– We differentiate between line extensions and
category extensions

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 9.1. Developing a Brand
Architecture Strategy

• Step 3: Branding new products and

services
– to decide on the specific brand elements
to use for any particular new product or
service associated with the brand
– Sub-brands are an extremely popular form of
brand extension in which the new product
carries both the parent brand name
• and a new name (Apple iPad, Ford Fusion, and
American Express Blue card).

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 9.2. Brand Portfolios

• A brand portfolio includes all brands sold

by a company in a product category
• Any one brand in the portfolio should
not harm or decrease the equity of the
others

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 9.2. Brand Portfolios

• Other reasons for introducing multiple

brands in a category include the following:
– To increase shelf presence and retailer
dependence in the store
– To attract consumers seeking variety who may
otherwise switch to another brand
– To increase internal competition within the firm
– To yield economies of scale in advertising,
sales, merchandising, and physical distribution

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 Ford Brand Portfolio

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 9.2. Brand Portfolios

• Designing a Brand Portfolio

– Basic principles:
• Maximize market coverage so that no potential
customers are being ignored
• Minimize brand overlap so that brands aren’t
competing among themselves to gain the same
customer’s approval

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 9.2. Brand Portfolios

• Brand Roles in the Portfolio

– Flankers
– Cash cows
– Low-end entry-level
– High-end prestige brands

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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

• A brand hierarchy
– A means of summarizing the branding strategy
by displaying the number
– and nature of common and distinctive brand
elements across the firm’s products, revealing
the explicit ordering of brand elements
– A useful means of graphically portraying a
firm’s branding strategy

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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

• Levels of a Brand Hierarchy

• Designing a Brand Hierarchy

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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

• Levels of a Brand Hierarchy

– 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)

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 Brand Hierarchy Levels

Corporate Brand (General Motors)

Family Brand (Buick)

Individual Brand (Park Avenue)

Modifier: Item or Model (Ultra)

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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

Source: Kevin Lane Keller, [2013], Strategic Brand Mangement: Building, Measuring and Managing
Brand Equity, 4th edition, Pearson, USA, page 399
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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

• Family brand
– Brands applied across a range of product
categories
– An efficient means to link common
associations to multiple but distinct products

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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

• Individual Brands
– Restricted to essentially one product category
– There may be multiple product types offered
on the basis of different models, package
sizes, flavors, etc.

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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

• Modifiers
– Signals refinements or differences in the brand
related to factors such as quality levels,
attributes, functions, etc.
– Plays an important organizing role in
communicating how different products within a
category that share the same brand name are

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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

• Designing a Brand Hierarchy

– Brand Hierarchy Decisions
– Number of Hierarchy Levels

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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

• Brand Hierarchy Decisions

– The number of levels of the hierarchy to use
in general
– How brand elements from different levels of
the hierarchy are combined, if at all, for any
one particular product
– How any one brand element is linked, if at all,
to multiple products
– Desired brand awareness and image at each
level
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 9.3. Brand Hierarchies

• Number of Hierarchy Levels

– Principle of simplicity
• Employ as few levels as possible
– Principle of clarity
• Logic and relationship of all brand elements
employed must be obvious and transparent

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 9.4. Corporate Branding

• Corporate Brand Equity

– Occurs when relevant constituents hold
strong, favorable, and unique associations
about the corporate brand in memory
– Encompasses a much wider range of
associations than a product brand
• Corporate Image Dimensions
• Managing the Corporate Brand

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 9.4. Corporate Branding

• Corporate Image Dimensions

– Corporate product attributes, benefits or
attitudes
• Quality
• Innovativeness
– People and relationships
• Customer orientation

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 9.4. Corporate Branding

• Corporate Image Dimensions

– Values and programs
• Concern with the environment /Social responsibility
– Corporate credibility
• Expertise / Trustworthiness / Likability

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 9.4. Corporate Branding

• Managing the Corporate Brand

– Corporate social responsibility
– Corporate image campaigns
– Corporate name changes

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 9.5. Brand Architecture
Guidelines

• 1. Adopt a strong customer focus

• 2. Create broad, robust brand platforms
• 3. Avoid overbranding and having too
many brands
• 4. Selectively employ sub-brands
• 5. Selectively extend brands

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 Next lecture

• Chapter 10 : Managing brands over time

and geographic boundaries
• Case study:
– BRAND FOCUS 14.0: China Global Brand
Ambitions, [1] page 541

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