Creating a Smart and Strategic Brand Architecture

A critical dimension of brand strategy is brand architecture. This is the framework that organizes a company’s portfolio of brands, products, and services to maximize clarity and impact.

Federal Express, for example, employs a “Branded House” architecture with “FedEx” as the master brand and “FedEx Ground,” “FedEx Express,” and “FedEx Office” as their sub-brands. I’ve also led initiatives where restructuring brand architecture resulted in significant revenue gains and clearer market positioning.

Whether you utilize a “Branded House,” a “House of Brands,” or a hybrid, here’s how to approach brand architecture strategically:

1. Audit your current brand portfolio: Identify overlaps, gaps, and inconsistencies.

2. Define brand roles: Clearly state the purpose of and value proposition for each brand or sub-brand within the portfolio.

3. Create a hierarchy: Establish relationships between master brands, sub-brands, and endorsed brands.

4. Clarify messaging: Ensure each brand has a distinct voice.

5. Align with business goals: Make sure the architecture supports growth, innovation, and market expansion.

For example, as Senior Brand Specialist for ConocoPhillips’ Retail Marketing Division, I structured its car wash brand portfolio to best serve two very different segments of the market.

Audit your current brand portfolio

At the time, the car wash market was valued at over $20 billion in revenue and ConocoPhillips was one of the largest owners and operators of attended car washes in the United States. When ConocoPhillips acquired the assets from BP/Amoco, it inherited over 100 unattended car washes, making it the predominant car wash format in its portfolio and a focus category for the company. These car washes were unbranded, in poor condition, and struggling financially.

We recognized an innovation opportunity to upgrade the unattended car wash units with state-of-the-art touch-free systems, making them much safer for consumers’ cars.  Touch-free car washes gained popularity in the industry due to major advancements in the detergents used.  This resulted in a much better-quality wash than in previous years. 

Define brand roles, create a hierarchy and clarify messaging

Our extensive segmentation research revealed several distinct audience segments in the car wash market, including “Yuppie Xers” and “On the Go” consumers.

We were already targeting Yuppie Xers with our master ProWash brand. Yuppie Xers were younger Gen X consumers with higher disposable income and babied their cars. They appreciated and were willing to pay more for services like a soft cloth wash, hand dry, premier polishes, and lasting protectants. Messaging therefore centered around the quality of service inherent to the ProWash brand

Our research also identified the “On the Go” segment. These consumers had lower disposable income and highly valued the convenience of being able to get their car wash, gasoline and convenience store merchandise all in one stop.  We subsequently positioned the unattended touch-free car washes based on convenience and value, the two most compelling benefits that these types of car washes offer.

Grounded on consumer testing, we used a brand extension strategy by naming the unattended car wash brand “ProWash Clean&Go.” While leveraging the equity of the parent ProWash brand, we were able to distinguish it from the attended car wash offering to prevent consumer confusion between the two different offerings.

Align with business goals

Following the launch of ProWash Clean&Go, we achieved our goals of approximately $10K per site or $1 million per month in revenue within six months. Our margins were between 70% and 80% because there was no labor involved, making this a very profitable business for ConocoPhillips.

Join the conversation

Have you been considering or had experience with restructuring your brand architecture? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section. (Scroll down to the very bottom of this blog post passed the "Recent Posts".)