It’s common for businesses that have been in the show for years, especially those that have maintained steady growth, to confuse their customers about the range of products and services they offer. Most of them aren’t even aware they are doing that because they have grown accustomed to how things are, and aren’t aware of how consumers perceive their brand.
A branding and marketing agency is best placed to help with brand architecture, which can bring clarity to everything you do. It is the best way to get your company’s range of products and services into focus and keep your customers interested in what you do. In this article, we’ll unpack what brand architecture is, why it’s important, and what you can do to implement it the right way.
What Is Brand Architecture?
In layman’s language, brand architecture is simply a business’s structure of its brands, products, and services and how consumers understand them. It’s how you organise your business’s portfolio of brands, sub-brands, products, and services and how they relate to each other. A brand’s organisation makes it easier for you to allow different parts of your brand to work together when needed, and keep parts of the brand separate as well. But the benefits don’t stop there.
Why Is It Important?
Internally, brand architecture helps you structure your offerings in a way your consumers will recognise them. This is possible because you’re able to look at your offerings through the eyes of your consumers and define the relationship that exists between your products and services, making it possible to reach your target market. Externally, a brand architecture makes it easier for your audience to recognise your products and services and clearly navigate from one to the other.
A brand architecture further helps create a synergy between the parent brand and the child brand. This makes sure your business stays consistent in branding. Brand marketing companies know that consistent branding can increase sales by 33%.
What Makes up a Good Brand Architecture?
There are essentially two components that make up a good brand architecture: simplicity and comprehensiveness. Strive to keep your brand architecture as simple as possible. A simple brand architecture makes it easier for you to see the relationship that exists between your offerings, from the eyes of your customers. That further helps eliminate any confusion about your products and services in the marketplace.
Comprehensiveness is all about how thoroughly your brand architecture shows how the master brand, sub-brands, and your offerings are related to one another. Each time you look at your brand architecture, you should clearly see that relationship. Think of it like a family tree you learnt in first grade. It starts at the top with great, great-grandparents and works down to you at the bottom. The same way that tree exhaustively showed you how you are related, so should your brand architecture show how your brands, products, and services are.
How You Can Implement It
The first step to implementing a brand architecture starts by identifying the type that suits you the most. Basically, there are four categories of brand architecture:
- House of brands
- Branded house
- Endorsed
- Hybrid
Each is unique, and understanding each is critical to using the right one for your business. Once you grasp the requirements of each, it will be easier for you to choose something that will work well for you. Consulting a branding expert during implementation is highly recommended if you need help to decide which is the most appropriate option for your business. Thankfully, today, there are many branding professionals you can count on to attain the best results.
At Oracle Tree, we’re brand marketing strategy experts and ready to guide you step by step until you get the desired outcome. Get in touch with us today to book in for your free strategy session!
