How we create an efficient brand architecture for your brand

Many companies today have come to see long-term concepts for brand architectures and portfolios as essential to their business. Why is this? The brand portfolios of established companies have often grown organically over the course of decades – through the expansion of business models or addition of new business divisions – giving rise to complex brand structures that are correspondingly expensive to manage. Challenges also arise when it comes time to integrate new digital products and services into the portfolio. Other companies come into the possession of market or technical expertise through mergers and acquisitions – without any idea of what role these new individual brands should play in their existing portfolio, or what consequences this might have for the overall brand architecture with the corporate/parent brand and Group or family brand. And as brand experience chains become increasingly complex, it is no longer possible to maintain large brand portfolios because they cannot be managed efficiently.

Textbook approaches are simply insufficient for brand architectures, because they are unable to capture the complexity involved. That is why this is an area in which experience is everything. When it comes to brand portfolios, there is only one method that works: custom solutions must be sought for the specific challenges and problems facing the company. With more than 50 international projects under our belt, brand architecture and brand portfolios are a clear emphasis of our consulting services. Both Deutsche Vermögensberatung and the Bosch Home Comfort Group (Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH) have utilised our services for the redesign of their brand architectures and portfolios. Documented success.

We have identified four advantages of effective brand architectures:

• They make brand management significantly more cost efficient.
• They can be scaled more quickly, and offer guidance for various business activities and for dealing with brands in future: from acquisitions and joint ventures to internal ventures.
• They can increase the appeal of the umbrella brand, something that offers numerous benefits – including making a decisive contribution to employer branding.
• They offer better ways in which to integrate new digital products and services into the portfolio.

Are you faced with the concrete challenge of revamping your entire brand architecture? Are you faced with deciding whether to pursue an individual brand strategy or an umbrella strategy? We help you set your course – by identifying solutions that build on your corporate and brand strategy, and which are compatible with your current positioning. This has implications for the long-term orientation of individual brands and holistic transformation processes. Our experience has demonstrated that by addressing brand architecture and brand portfolios, we are often creating the launching pad for your brand-driven transformation. We know how you can make your brand portfolio efficient over the long term. Just ask us.