Businesses often begin with one parent brand and then develop a family or umbrella of companies, or sub-brands, which inevitably creates a challenge to choose the best name, logo and website design that will clearly communicate their unique organizational structures.
A uniform system is necessary to help people distinguish between your brands and various products and service offerings, and to help them make informed decisions.
Right from the drawing board, an architect analyzes all aspects of a design against project objectives and benchmarks, including the viewpoints of customers and other stakeholders.
Apple is really good example of corporate brand architecture. There are the Apple iPod, the Apple Watch, the Apple operating system, the Apple iMac, and others under this umbrella. If you single out a marketing campaign for the Apple iPod, it’s going to be different than a campaign for the iMac, but all of the brands and products — no matter how diverse they may be — roll up under a single brand.
As a best practice, a holistic vision for your brand architecture will define and order the relationship of your sub-brands. This applies to any size business. As you build sub-brands, a portfolio of products or services, this type of strategy helps prepare for growth, innovation and changes with your business and in your marketplace.
Consider your ideal brand portfolio at the start from an integrated, holistic perspective — under the umbrella of names to logos, and from print and packaging to website design, and more.