Brand Name Strategy

The operational structure an organisation develops is not the only area of strategic decision making associated with brand management. An organisation also must decide its policy for naming brands across all its products and services. Branding decisions for any new products can then be taken within this framework. The focal point of decisions on branding strategy is about the emphasis the organisation wishes to place on creating a distinctive offering in the market against the weight it wishes to place on the origin of the product or service. Between the extremes offered by these two approaches lie several options available to an organisation when considering an overall brand strategy:

Corporate Brand

Organisations following this approach use one corporate name across all its products. Heinz would be a classic example of this unified approach.

Multi-Brand

Multi-branding, or discreet branding, is the opposite of the corporate branding approach. With multi-branding, each product is given its own unique brand name. The aim is to build completely-separate brand identities. This is proper if the organisation is competing in a number of different segments and the consumers’ perceptions of a product’s position in one segment may adversely affect the consumers’ perceptions of another product. A classic example of this approach would be Proctor & Gamble who produce a range of washing powders.

Company and Individual Brand (Endorsed Approach)

Unilever practised a multi-brand approach with its washing powders but recently moved closer to the strategy of linking a company name to an individual brand name.

Range Branding

Some organisations use different brand names for different ranges of products, in effect creating a family of products. Ford has done this for its mass-market car range and Jaguar for the up-market executive car range. Volvo, another Ford acquisition, has its own distinct brand values that appeal to a particular market segment and therefore has become another brand family for the Ford group.

Private Branding (Distributors Own Brand)

An organisation may decide to supply private brands, in particular retail brands. In this case the private brand is owned and controlled by the distributor who will make decisions regarding the product’s position in the market. The distributor is likely to use either a strategy of corporate or a company and individual brand for its products.

Generic Branding

This strategy involves the product having no brand name. The product is packaging merely says the contents of the package, for instance flour or washing up liquid.