What is Brand Architecture?

Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organisation, that specifies the type, number, purpose, and relationship of the brands within an organisation's portfolio. It is vital for every organisation to have a strong brand architecture, as brand strategy depends a lot on the architecture of brands. Brand architecture answers many of a businesses questions like -

• What is the role of a Corporate Brand?
• How many brands does the business need?
• What are the options? New Products? sub brands? extenstion?

Brand architecture should define the leagues of brands within an organisation and the relationship between these brands among themselves, and also with the corporate brand, under which they exist. There are three main types of architectures -

Corporate Brand, Umbrella Brand, and Family Brand: These are consumer-facing brands, which are used by the organisation across all functions. This is the brand by which the organisation, and the brands, are known to all stakeholders. Eg. BMW, Mecedes-Benz, and most automobile brands.

Endorsed Brands, and Sub- Brands: These brands have a parent brand, which may be a corporate brand, umbrella brand, or a family brand. Eg. Fastrack by Titan, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Amul.

Individual Product Brand: These brands are presented to the customers, while the parent company's brand is  given little to no importance. Stakeholders of the company will know it by a different name. Eg: Unilever's Dove, Pepsodent, Lifebuoy.

Each architecture brings with it its own pains and gains. But the architecture has a direct bearing on corporate strategy, and decision making.