Brand arquitecture

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The Brand Relationship Spectrum:
THE KEY TO THE BRAND ARCHITECTURE CHALLENGE

David A. Aaker Erich Joachimsthaler

The classic brand manager dealt with simple brand structures with few extensions, subbrands, and endorsed brands in part because he or she was faced with a relatively simple environment and simple business strategies. Today the situation is far different. The brand managersnow face market fragmentation, channel dynamics, global realities, and business environments that have drastically changed their task. In addition, there is pressure to leverage brand assets in part because of the prohibitive cost of creating new brands.

To cope with these pressures and complexities, brand managers have had to create and manage brand teams that are often intricate and complex,involving multiple brands, aggressive brand extensions, and complex structures involving subbrands and endorsed brands. This set of challenges has created a new discipline that can be labeled "brand architecture" because it deals with relationships and structures not unlike those facing an architect who must design the structure and layout of rooms, buildings, and cities. A coherent brandarchitecture can lead to impact, clarity, synergy, and leverage rather than market weakness, confusion, waste, and missed opportunities. Brand architecture is an organizing structure of the brand portfolio that specifies brand roles and the nature of relationships between brands. This article introduces a powerful brand architecture tool, the hrand relationship spectrum (portrayed in Figure 1). It isintended to help brand architecture strategists to employ, with insight and subtlety, subbrands and endorsed brands. Subbrands
Adapted from Brand Leadership by David A. Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler Copyright © 2000 by David A. Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler Reprinted by permission ofThe Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW

VOL 42, NO. 4

SUMMER 2000The Brand Relationship Spectrum: The Key to the Brand Architecture Challenge

F I G U R E I . Brand Relationship Spectrum

RCA (GE) Not Connected House of Brands Shadow Endorser — \ Saturn (GM) NLrtrasweet (G,D, Searle) Tide (P&G) Lexus (Toyota) Touchstone (Disney) i Token Endorsement Grape Nuts from Post Universal Pictures, A Sony Company Docker's, LS & Co,

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Endorsed Brands LinkedName

DKNY
McMuffin Nestea

-\ Brand Relationship Spectrum Strong Endorsement

Courtyard by Marriott Obsession by Calvin Klein Friends & Family by MCI

.-I Co-Drivers

Gillette Mach3 Sony Trinitron DuPont Stainmaster

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Subbrands Master Brand as Driver

Buick LeSabre HP DeskJet Dell Dimension -i Different Identity GE Capital, GE Appliance Club Med Singles v. Couples -| SameIdentity Levi-Europe, Levi US BMW Healthy Choice Virgin

Branded House

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL 42, NO, 4 SUMMER 2000

The Brand Relationship Spectrum: The Key t o the Brand Architecture Challenge

and endorsed brands can play a key role in creating a coherent and effective brand architeaure. In particular, they provide tools to: • allow brands to stretch across products and markets, •address conflicting brand strategy needs, • conserve brand-building resources in part by leveraging existing brand equity, • protect brands from being diluted by over-stretching, and • signal that an offering is new and different. Without subbrands and endorsed brands the choice of a new offering would be limited largely to either building a new brand (an expensive and difficult proposition) orextending an existing brand (and thereby risking image dilution). Their application can make a brand architecture work in a complex environment. The brand relationship spectrum, as suggested by the figure, is related to the driver role that brands play. The driver role reflects the degree to which a brand drives the purchase decision and use experience. When a person is asked, "What brand did you...