When a company considers brand strategy, there are often two options - the Branded House approach, or the House of Brands approach.
With the Branded House approach, the company is the brand and any sub-brands do not detract from the main brand. By following this approach, a very strong brand can be built which is both easily recognisable and memorable.
Some notable examples are:
FedEx - FedEx Corporation is the corporate brand, and there are numerous extensions - Express, Ground, Freight, Custom Critical, and Trade Networks.
Each extension is clearly a FedEx brand by the design of each logo - FedEx is always the large font, and the name of the smaller sub-brand is in smaller text underneath.
Google - each extension, such as Calendar, Photos, Drive, Play and Gmail, are perfectly functional stand-alone apps, but the primary brand is always Google first.
Apple - products such as the iPad, iPhone, and MacBook never differentiate from their main brand. Another way to tell is to notice the Apple logo on the back of all of its products.
Virgin - each business, including Atlantic, Galactic, Active, Money and Holidays, draw their energy from the single brand identity: Virgin. This energy pervades and strengthens each individual extension of the brand.
On the other hand, the House of Brands approach features and promotes the individual sub-brands instead of the main corporate brand. This tends to work well for consumer brands where those names are much more recognisable than the corporate brand.
Notable examples include:
Proctor & Gamble (P&G) - notable brands here include:
Beauty care - Head & Shoulders, Pantene, Herbal Essences
Baby care - Pampers
Feminine care - Always, Tampax
Fabric care - Ariel, Bold, Lenor
Home care - Fairy, Febreze, Ambi Pur
Personal health care - Oral-B, Fixodent, Clearblue
Grooming - Gillette, Braun, Venus
General Motors - notable brands and products here include:
Chevrolet - known for the Corvette, Camaro, Bolt, Impala and Silverado.
Buick - known for the LaCrosse, Encore, Verano, Excelle and Regal.
GMC - known for the Sierra, Canyon, Yukon, Acadia, and the upcoming Hummer EV.
Cadillac - known for the Escalade, CT5, CT6 and XT6.
Unilever - notable brands here include
Food and Drink - Hellman's, Wall's, Knorr, Ben & Jerry's, Marmite, PG Tips
Home care - Comfort, Domestos, Persil, Surf, Cif
Personal care - Dove, Lynx, Sure, Radox, Vaseline
You'll notice in all these Houses that the sub-brands are all major brands in their own categories, but all are connected and traceable back to the corporate brand. Each of them distinct and with a reputation and consumer trust built over the years, and all owned by essentially a holding company.
There are some Hybrid approaches that combine the two. This is where the name of the company matches the name of one of the products, and that that same business has expanded its portfolio to include other known branded products. These tend to happen organically where the brand has an initial product and then the company expands its offerings into either the same sector or a different sub-sector.
Coca-Cola - there is the synonymous drink and its variants (Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, and the different flavoured variants such as vanilla, lime and cherry), but the brand also includes sub-brands such as:
Fanta
Sprite
Oasis
Powerade
Schweppes
Glaceau (known for Smartwater and Vitaminwater)
Pepsi-Co - there is the synonymous drink and its variants (Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max), but unlike Coca-Cola who only owns brands of beverages, Pepsi-Co also owns snacks sub-brands as well as beverages sub-brands. These sub-brands include:
Beverages - Tropicana, 7Up, Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Lipton
Walkers crisps - including Wotsits, Doritos, Sensations
Quaker - including Oat so Simple, Snack a Jacks
Mars - there is the synonymous Mars bar, but the brand also includes sub-brands such as:
Mars Wrigley snacks and treats - Bounty, Twix, Galaxy, Wrigleys, M&Ms, Maltesers
Mars Petcare - Pedigree, Whiskers, IAMS, Sheba, Cesar
Mars Foods - Ben's Original, Dolmio, Seeds of Change, Tasty Bite
Distinct sub-brands that are easily traceable back to the corporate brand, but are perhaps better known by their sub-brand name. Further, these sub-brands' individual identities are not diluted by this approach either.
Further reading:
Credit: Cover image photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash