NUMBER OF LEVELS IN THE BRAND HIERARCHY PDF

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Awareness and desired image at each level of the hierarchy, combining the brand elements of different levels, linking the brand elements to multiple products, developing the brand architecture, adjustments to the marketing program, corporate image campaigns....

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NUMBER OF LEVELS IN THE BRAND HIERARCHY

The first decision to make to define a branding strategy is, broadly speaking, which levels of the branding hierarchy will be used. Most companies choose to use more than one tier for two main reasons. Each successive level of branding allows the company to communicate additional and specific information about its products. Thus, developing brands at the lowest levels of the hierarchy gives the company the flexibility to communicate the unique aspects of its products. Also, developing brands at higher levels of the hierarchy is obviously an economical means to communicate common or shared information and create synergy in the company's operations, both internally and externally. The practice of combining an existing mark with a new mark is called sub-brand development because the subordinate mark is a means of modifying the higher mark. ThinkPad was an IBM sub-brand, and T42 was a second-level sub-brand that further modified the meaning of the product. A sub-brand or hybrid branding strategy also allows for the creation of specific beliefs around the brand. This benefit allowed The Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo, when it bought IBM's PC division and began selling Lenovobranded laptops, to retain the brand strength that had been built at the thinkpad sub-brand level. KISSES FROM HERSHEY'S Hershey's chocolate has a traditionalist and homely image, as reflected in its more than 20-year-old advertising slogan, "Hershey's. The Great American Candy Bar". However, as a result of a brilliant advertising campaign that transforms Hershey's Kisses, which are drop-shaped and wrapped in aluminum foil, into animated objects and places them in fun and product-relevant situations, the Kisses subbrand has a much more playful and funny image than the company's brand. Hershey's successful Kisses sub-brand has spawned an additional extension, Hershey's Hugs (a Hershey's Kiss topped with a layer of white chocolate). Other flavor extensions include caramel fillings, peanut butter and dark chocolate. Therefore, the development of sub-brands creates a stronger connection with the company brand or family brand and with all the associations involved. Consider the cereal category in which Kellogg has adopted a sub-brand development strategy, while other manufacturers such as Post have adopted a backup strategy. These different strategies must have profound implications for consumer identification and associations with certain brands of cereal. By virtue of its sub-brand development strategy and marketing activities, Kellogg is likely to more effectively connect post its corporate name to its products and, as a result, create favorable partnerships with its corporate name. Also, the development of sub-brands allows the creation of beliefs that relate specifically to the brand. This more detailed information can help customers better understand how products vary and which particular product is best suited for them. Sub-branding also helps organize sales efforts so that sellers

and retailers have a clear idea of how a product line is organized and how best to sell it. For example, one of the main advantages for Nike of continually creating sub-branding in its basketball line with Air Jordan, Air Flight, Air Force and others has been the interest and enthusiasm generated in retailers. The principle of simplicity is based on the need to provide consumers with the exact amount of information about the brand, no more and no less. The desired number of levels of the brand hierarchy will depend on the complexity of the product line or product mix and, therefore, on the combination of the shared and separate brand associations that the company wants to link to any product in its product line or mix. With relatively simple, low-relevance products such as spotlights, batteries, and chewing gum, the branding strategy typically consists of a family brand or perhaps an individual brand combined with modifiers that describe differences in product characteristics. For example, GE has two main brands of bulbs (Soft White and Enrich) combined with designations of functionality (3-way, Super and Miser) and performance (40, 65 and 100 watt). A company with a strong corporate brand, such as Sony or Philips, can more easily use a non-descriptive, alphanumeric product name, because consumers are more identified with the parent brand. Thus, Sony has family brand names such as CyberShot for its cameras, Wega for its TVs and Handycam for its video cameras. A complex set of products, such as cars, computers, and other durable goods, requires more levels of hierarchy. It is difficult to develop the brand of a product with more than three levels of brand names without overwhelming or confusing consumers. A better method might be to introduce multiple brands at the same level (multiple family brands) and increase the depth of the brand development strategy. Desired awareness and image at every level of the hierarchy How much awareness and what types of partnerships should marketers create for brand elements at each level? Achieving the desired levels of awareness and strong, favorable and unique brand partnerships takes time and may require a considerable change in consumer perceptions. Assuming that marketers use some kind of sub-brand development strategy for two or more brand levels, there are two general principles, relevance and differentiation, that should guide the process of creating brand awareness at each level. The principle of relevance is based on the advantages of efficiency and economy. Marketers should create partnerships that are relevant to as many brands located at the lower level as possible, especially at the family brand or corporate brand level. The more value an association has in the marketing of the products that the company sells, the more efficient and economical it will be to consolidate this meaning in a brand linked to all these products. For example, Nike's slogan ("Just Do It") reinforces a key brand point of difference, performance, which is relevant to almost every product it sells. The more abstract the association, generally speaking, the more likely it is to be relevant in the different scenarios in which the product finds itself. Therefore, profit

associations are likely to be extremely advantageous because they can be applicable to many product categories. However, for brands that have strong associations with category and product attributes it can be difficult to create a brand image robust enough to allow for successful extensions into new categories. For example, Blockbuster tried to expand its meaning from being "a place to rent videos" to "its neighborhood entertainment center" to create a broader umbrella brand with greater relevance to more products. The principle of differentiation is based on the disadvantages of redundancy. Marketers should distinguish as far as possible the marks that are at the same level. If marketers cannot easily draw distinctions between two brands, it may be difficult for retailers or other channel members to justify their support for both, and for consumers to choose between them. Consider the following three Microsoft products: Media Extender, Media Connect, and Windows Connect Now. Taking into consideration only the names, it would seem that there is potential to create confusion among consumers about what each of these products means. Even though the names are similar, the products are actually completely different and are, respectively, a device to make Xbox work as a media hub, a device for bringing content stored on a PC to a stereo or TV, and an architecture to simplify wireless networking at home. Although new products and brand extensions are crucial to maintaining brand innovation and relevance, marketers must introduce them very carefully. Without restrictions, brand variations can easily get out of control. A typical supermarket now offers 40000 items, double the number of a few years ago, which begs this question: do consumers really need nine types of Kleenex facial scarves, Eggo waffles in 16 flavors and 72 varieties of Pantene shampoo, all of which may be available at any given time? To have better control of its inventories and prevent the proliferation of brands, Colgate-Palmolive has begun to discontinue one item for each product it launches. Although the principle of differentiation is especially important at the individual and modifier mark levels, it is also valid at the family mark level. For example, one of the marketing criticisms that have been made of General Motors is that the company has not been able to adequately distinguish family brands from its cars. The principle of differentiation also implies that not all products should receive the same emphasis at any level of the hierarchy. Therefore, a key issue in designing a brand hierarchy is to choose the relative emphasis to be placed on each of the products that make up the brand hierarchy. If a corporate or family brand is associated with multiple products, which product should be the main product or flagship product? What should "the brand" mean to consumers? What product do consumers think best represents or embodies the brand? It is important to understand these brand motivators to identify the sources of the brand's capital value and determine how to better strengthen and leverage the brand. Combining brand elements from different levels

If we combine multiple brand elements from different levels of the brand hierarchy to develop the brand of a new product, we must decide how much emphasis to put on each one. For example, if we adopt a sub-brand strategy, how much importance should be given to individual brands to the detriment of the corporate or family brand? The prominence of a brand element is its relative visibility compared to other elements of the brand. For example, the prominence of an element in the brand name depends on several factors, such as its order, size, and appearance, as well as its semantic associations. Usually, a name is more prominent when it appears at the beginning, is larger, and has a more distinctive appearance. Suppose PepsiCo adopts a sub-brand development strategy to introduce a vitamin-fortified cola, and combines your family brand name with a new individual brand name (e.g., "Vitacola"). We can make Pepsi's name more prominent if we put it at the beginning and enlarge it: PEPSI Vitacola. Or we could make the individual brand name more prominent, placing it at first in larger letters: Vitacola by PEPSI. Around this topic, Gray and Smeltzer define corporation/product relationships as the method that a company follows to communicate the relationship of its products with each other and with the corporate entity. They identify five possible categories (with illustrative examples): 1. Single entity: The company offers a single product line or set of services so that the company's image and product tend to be one and the same thing (Federal Express). 2. Brand dominance: The company makes the strategic decision not to relate the brand to corporate names (Philip Morris has minimal connection to Marlboro, Merit and its other cigarettes). 3. Equivalent predominance: the company maintains separate images of the products, but also associates each with the corporation. Neither the corporate brand name nor the individual brand name predominates (at the company level, General Motors with its different car divisions and individual brands: Buick LeSabre, Buick Electra, Buick Rivera, etc.). 4. Mixed predominance: sometimes the individual brands of the products predominate and others, the corporate name is the one that predominates; in other cases, they appear together with equal emphasis (the German company Bosch uses its corporate name on some of the products it manufactures, but not on others, such as Blaupunkt radios). 5. Corporate dominance: the corporate name is supreme and applies to the entire range of product lines, and communications tend to reinforce the corporate image (Xerox). The principle of prominence states that the relative prominence of the brand elements determines which element or elements will be the parent and which will become the children. The primary elements of the brand must convey the main positioning of the product and its points of difference. The child elements of the mark convey a narrower set of support associations, such as parity points or

perhaps an additional point of difference. A secondary brand element can also facilitate awareness. Therefore, on the Motorola Razr cell phone, the primary element of the brand, reinforced by the slender and hinged design, is the name Razr, which connotes the avant-garde and elegant style that makes up the imagery of user and use that is desired for the phone. The Motorola name, on the other hand, is a secondary element that ideally conveys credibility, quality and professionalism. The relative prominence of the individual brand and the corporate brand affects perceptions of product distance and the type of image created for the new product. If the corporate or family brand is more prominent, your partnerships will be more likely to dominate. On the other hand, if the individual mark is more prominent, it will be easier to create a distinctive image for the mark. In this case, the corporate or family brand indicates to consumers that the new product is not too closely related to the other products that share that name. As a result, consumers are less likely to transfer corporate or family brand partnerships. Also, due to the greater perceived distance, the success or failure of a new product will be less likely to affect the image of the corporate or family brand. However, with a more prominent corporate or family brand, the effects of feedback are more likely to become apparent. To illustrate how relative prominence can affect the resulting image of a product, suppose that in the Pepsi Vitacola example, Pepsi is the most prominent brand element. If the corporate or family brand is given more prominence, the new product will assume many of the associations common to other products with the Pepsi brand as a tail. However, if the Vitacola brand were more prominent, the new product would be more likely to achieve a more distinctive position. In this case, the Pepsi name would work more to raise awareness and perhaps only transfer broader and more abstract associations, such as perceived quality or brand personality. Finally, in some cases, brand elements may not be explicitly linked. A brand endorsement strategy is followed when a brand element appears in some form on the packaging, advertising, or appearance of the product, but is not included directly as part of the brand name. This different element is usually the corporate brand or the company logo. For example, General Mills places the "capital G" logo on all packaging of its cereals, but retains different brand names, such as Cheerios, Wheaties, and so on. On the other hand, and as noted above, Kellogg has adopted a sub-brand strategy with its cereals, which combines the corporate brand name with individual brands; for example, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Kellogg's Special K, etc. The brand endorsement strategy is supposed to establish the maximum distance between the corporate or family brand and individual brands, indicating that it is the strategy that would produce the least transfer of brand associations to the new product but, at the same time, minimize the likelihood of any negative feedback effects. Linking brand elements to multiple products

So far we have highlighted how to apply different brand elements to a particular product, i.e. the "vertical" aspects of the brand hierarchy. Next, we'll consider how to link a brand element to multiple products, that is, the "horizontal" aspects of the brand hierarchy. The principle of concordance states that the more brand elements the products share, the stronger the links between the products. The easiest way to link products is to use the "as is" brand element with all related products. Adapting the brand, or a part of it, to make connections offers additional possibilities. For example, Hewlett-Packard leveraged its successful LaserJet printers to introduce several new products with the suffix "Jet," such as DeskJet, PaintJet, ThinkJet, and OfficeJet printers. Sony has added the suffix "man" to the names of its portable audio devices: walkman personal stereos and portable CD players, Discman. McDonald's has used the prefix "Mc" to introduce various products, such as chicken McNuggets, egg McMuffin and mcrib sandwich. Donna Karan's DKNY brand, Calvin Klein's CK brand and Ralph Lauren's Double RL brand use their initials. We can also create a relationship between one brand and multiple products with common symbols. For example, corporate brands like Nabisco often place their corporate logo with greater prominence on products than their name, which creates a strong brand endorsement strategy. NESTLÉ On one occasion, Nestlé launched an advertising campaign that sought to create greater awareness and understanding of its corporate brand. The ads contained the slogan "we do the best," a subtle variation of its well-known "Nestlé makes the best chocolate," and prominently featured the logo of a nest with a mother's paler and her two chicks. Despite being the name of the founder, Nestlé actually means "small nest," so the company used this symbol to communicate abstract associations of warmth, family and refuge. This symbol continues to be used on Nestlé packaging as a means of unifying a diversified set of products that have very different names. Finally, it is often advisable to order brands logically in a product line, to communicate how they relate and simplify consumer decision-making. We can communicate the order by means of colors (American Express offers red, blue, green, gold, platinum, "black" or Centurion cards), numbers (BMW offers cars of the 3, 5 and 7 series), or any other means. This strategy is very important to develop brand migration routes for customers who change brands between those offered by the same company. Brand architecture development To develop optimal branding strategies, marketers must first define the relevant customer segments. What parts do the segments have in common, and how can product cross-sell? Second, marketers must have a well-defined positioning and

brand capital value in terms of parity points and points of difference. The brand mantra can be crucial in setting limits for the product or brand "railings." A good brand mantra must offer rational and emotional sustenance and be robust enough to enable growth, relevant enough to drive consumer and retailer interest, and differentiated enough to sustain longevity. Finally, marketers must assess the impact of brand architecture on capital value, in terms of the transfer (positive and negative) from parent brands to individual products and, in return, feedback from individual products to parent brands. Consider the following guidelines for brand architecture: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Take a strong focus on the customer. Avoid excessive branding. Establish rules and conventions and be disciplined. Create broad and robust branded platforms. Selectively use sub-brands as a means to complement and strengthen brands. 6. Selectively extend brands to create new capital value for the brand and enhance what it already has.

To evaluate an existing brand architecture, carefully evaluate the brand portfolio and hierarchy. In the brand portfolio, do all brands have defined functions? Do brands collectively maximize coverage and minimize overlaps? In terms of the brand hierarchy, does the brand have the potential to expand? Within the category? Out of category? Is the brand overly widespread? Adjustments to the marketing program When a company moves away from a simple "single brand and single product" strategy to adopt more complex branding strategies, which may require multiple brand extensions, multiple brands, or multiple levels of the hierarchy used to market any product under one brand, some adjustments may need to be made to the support marketing program. For example, different brands perform different functions and therefore require very different marketing mixes. Conse...