Did you know that the same company that makes Clorox (the bleach) also makes Hidden Valley Ranch (yes, the salad dressing)? Boy what a marketing nightmare that would be more people knew that. Bleach flavored salad dressing? Yummy!
I’m learning more about branding every day. At the moment, I’m studying a paper written by David A. Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler titled “The Brand Relationship Spectrum: The Key To The Brand Architecture Challenge“, California Management Review Vol 42, No. 4 Summer 2000. Awesome paper, definitely a recommended read.
What can I say, the only architecture I am familliar with is software architecture. The other architecture that I have heard of, is the kind of architecture where you need an architect to design your house, figure out the dimensions, where to place the doors, windows, etc. But brand architecture? There’s a first time for everything.
Essentially, you have to figure out how brands interact with each other. Among other neat stuff, one brand can break, make, cannibalize, or have no effect on another brand. According to the Aacker and Joachimsthaler, the Brand Relationship Spectrum consists of 4 basic strategies which in turn branches into 9 substrategies.
Strategy #1: House of Brands
- Not Connected – RCA (GE), Saturn (GM)
- Shadow Endorser – Tide (Procter & Gamble), Lexus (Toyota)
Strategy #2: Endorsed Brands
- Token Endorsement – Universal Pictures, a Sony Company
- Linked Name – McMuffin (implies it is a McDonald’s product), Nestea (implies its a Nestle product)
- Strong Endorsement – Courtyard by Marriott (Courtyard’s value proposition is credible)
Strategy #3: Subbrands
- Co-Drivers – Gillette Mach 3 (Both Gillette and Mach 3 are strong brands in their own respect)
- Master Brand as Driver – Dell Dimension (Dell is the brand, not Dimension)
Strategy #4: Branded House
- Different Identity – GE Capital, GE Appliance (same brand, different context)
- Same Identity – Virgin (umbrella corporation with many products)
These is only a high level overview, too much to summarize in one post so I’ll break this up into a few posts (also partly because I don’t have the time to write everything up front now). Stay tuned!
