Umbrella Brands Vs House of Brands
Brand Architecture
In our daily life, we come across varied products in superstores, mobile stores, and so on. We tend to buy the products whose brand name is recognizable & well-known.
All brands have their own products but many times those different brands belong to the same parent company. Here the concept of Brand Architecture comes in, which consists of -
- Umbrella Brands / Branded House
- House of Brands
amongst others like sub-brands and endorsed brands & hybrid brands.
While both the former terms appear similar, they are built on very different foundations.
Umbrella Brands
These are the brands that consist of various products/brands but marketed & operated under the umbrella of the parent brand & it is the most common form of brand architecture.
House of Brands
This is the opposite of Umbrella brands, here the sub-brands have their own identity, each independent of one another and marketed & operated separately.
Hybrid Brands
This is simply a combination of House of Brands & Umbrella Brands.
Here, some sub-brands are marketed & operated under the parent brand and others have their own separate structure.
The below image provides a visual distinction between the above 3 types of brands -
Other Brand Architecture includes —
Sub-brands
They use the parent brand as the primary for reference but makes the individual brands more distinct by adding new associations. Examples of this are the Lego and Coca Cola examples, but also Microsoft and Microsoft Office, Nivea and Nivea Q10 or Sony and Sony PlayStation.
Endorsed Brands
Endorsed Brands are less connected to the parent brand compared to sub-brands as they have unique names but uses elements from the parent to show genuine quality. Examples of this are Nestle — Nescafe, Nestea, Nespresso
A brand’s architecture appeals to different audiences in different ways and knowing how a brand interacts with its consumers is the key to determining the right brand architecture for the company.
“ Branding is the process of connecting good strategy with good creativity. “ —MARTY NEUMEIER, AUTHOR OF “THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY”
