Untangling brand spaghetti

Editor's note: Mark Towery is managing director at Atlanta research firm Geo Strategy Partners.

What do you do with all those brands? The marketing gurus say it’s now all about demand; not brand. The disruption disciples say brands are obsolete; innovation will rule the future. The AI guys say artificial intelligence will make us all obsolete and machines will rule the future. Meanwhile, you’ve still got all those brands.

How did you get all these brands? Well, many companies find themselves with a tangle of brands that originate from multiple sources. You’ve got a company brand that bears the name of the founder … who died in 1967. His name may also be on a line of products, alongside product lines with different brand names. The company also owns other companies and each has its own company brand and multiple product brands. They are also a subsidiary of the original company brand (and that name goes on the invoices). And by the way, under the company branded with the founder’s name, you have four other product lines with different brand names.

But like the late-night TV hawker says, “Wait, there’s more.” You just made a small local acquisition and two very large global ones. They came with new products and new market access; but guess what else? More brands. 

How do you untangle this brand spaghetti and develop a coherent brand strategy? Let’s start with defining a brand. My favorite definition is that, at its most elemental level, a brand is a promise: Your brand tells your customers what they can expect from you – consistently, always, anywhere, anytime. A strong and consistent brand takes the risk out of their decision-making. When they want an adventure or a change, they may take a risk on an unknown brand but a brand that has consistent positioning is like a dependable friend.

At another level, brand is momentum that carries your company forward even when your marketing falters. That momentum may be organic, derived from past growth; or artificial, from the stimulus of advertising and promotion. This momentum is a forward-leaning version of the halo effect that a strong brand can achieve. But a brand is complex and can mean many other things: the flag you wave to get attention and create awareness; your reputation; your positioning; your corporate personality; and more. 

However, there is one complicating factor: You may have noticed the world is changing – fast; and this change is accelerating. One of the drivers of this change is the increased transparency of the Internet and e-commerce. How important is a brand if you can compare products and features side by side in seconds with the touch of your fingers? How important is a brand when customer reviews are used to determine reputation, reliability, quality, etc. A strong brand may break a tie or simplify decision-making when too many choices are presented but it becomes harder for a customer to justify paying a premium for a brand when comparative features and reviews are instantly available. Marketing and strategy are simple concepts but can get complicated quickly in execution. The subcategory of branding is becoming more complicated as well due to four other “tions” – digitalization, globalization, consolidation and innovation.

Digitalization – implies data scientists working with the latest software tools to precisely target customers and generate demand. If part of the job of brand is to generate demand, big data can now shoulder part of the burden.

Globalization – is often achieved through acquisition, which leaves legacy brands in many markets confused and sometimes competing with the parent company’s brands. A strong global brand can be a powerful accelerant to growth but what do you do when globalization leaves you with too many overlapping and conflicting brands?

Consolidation – see globalization.

Innovation – now here is the kicker. Tesla is now worth more than Ford. Blockbuster was worth $6 billion when it turned down a chance to buy Netflix for $50 million. Yahoo was the place to go for information and now Google is building cars. Change and disruption are upon us and not going anywhere anytime soon. Innovation is the new dimension of brand that will separate the winners from the losers. Disruption does not necessarily diminish the importance of brand but it can certainly create or destroy brand equity in a Madison Avenue minute.

Stop thinking about brands

So, the world is changing in exciting ways but meanwhile, what do you do with all those brands? Research them of course. But to do this correctly, stop thinking about brands and start thinking about strategy.

It is important to test brand awareness and perception but it is equally important not to let awareness and perception completely drive the strategy. If customers or distributors in Japan or Brazil tell you the legacy brand really must be maintained for many valid reasons, perhaps you should retain it as part of the overall brand architecture. But do not do this lightly, because collapsing brands allows you to concentrate your marketing resources and potentially develop a global corporate reputation and positioning that reinforces itself. But that is only true if your strategy is based on a very clear core positioning – GE as a digital-savvy powerhouse of engineering, IBM as a leader in advanced computing intelligence, etc.

However, a fundamental axiom of branding is that the power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope. Even goliath brands like Amazon have at their core a singular positioning – e.g. “ an innovative leader in e-commerce.” So, if your products or services are very different and/or very different in different markets, individual product brands and even subsidiary brands may be in order, unless there is a core value proposition that ties them together at the level of the customer experience. A single brand for a single value proposition is generally more potent; however, this strategy must be evaluated with respect to the cost of maintaining those brands. And if you truly have divergent value propositions within your product mix, you may have a strategic positioning problem, not a branding issue.

Intelligent architecture

In order to achieve the best of both worlds, an intelligent global brand architecture is required. You may have a global corporate brand and individual product brands (a master brand architecture) or, if your main corporate brand has a lot of equity but does not communicate precisely enough the value proposition of individual subsidiaries or products, a validating brand architecture may be the best approach where the local or product brand is out front and the validating brand is there for credibility: ABC, an ACME company. We could talk about brand architecture for a while but let’s get back to research and what you need to know to untangle that brand spaghetti.

As the Bushido philosophy says, it is the mind that confuses the mind; do not get fixated on the tool or the tactic but rather the underlying purpose. In other words, focus on the cut, not the sword. So, when it comes to the Zen of branding research, focus not on the brand names but on the strategic positioning. What is the positioning you want to achieve with each product or entity in each market? What is the value proposition you want to communicate? When they are aligned and reinforce each other, collapse the brand; when they are distinct and diverse, keep them separate. But be aware: If your strategy is fuzzy, your brand architecture will be weak. The more focused and differentiated the better.

So, what do we research? Brand awareness? Of course. Brand perception? Got to have it. But remember, as Young and Rubicam have so clearly stated, “Brand purpose drives brand value.” Your purpose is your value proposition, your core reason for existing, the singular thing which you do better than anyone else to satisfy and delight your customers. With that in mind, research the same things you would to develop a go-to-market strategy: decision makers; decision drivers; unmet needs; information sources; competitive landscape; market forces.

Then consider the company’s purpose along with the value propositions of your individual products and service offerings. Apply the principles of branding but know that you can be disrupted at any minute. In that regard, do not be afraid to disrupt yourself; creative destruction can sometimes be the best strategy when trying to simplify a complex and possibly dysfunctional brand architecture.

In a hypercompetitive global world, companies have to be more encompassing and holistic in their brand approach, which means more creative and customer-centric. Growth is supported by a clear strategy and exceptional customer experiences. Positive brand equity results from clear strategy and is an outcome of an exceptional customer experience. Everything else is just noise and you want your brand to cut through the noise, not create more. 

Get to know your customer

So, what do you do with all those brands? Stop thinking about them for a moment and take the time to get to know your customer – and your company. Use voice of the customer insights, competitive intelligence and situational analysis the same way you do to develop strategy and drive growth. 

The spaghetti will start to untangle itself when you focus on the purpose not the brand. Then you can make ruthless decisions about names and architecture. When it comes to naming or collapsing names, avoid tying brand to products (valves, oil, software) or geography (British, American, Caribbean) and focus on universal constructs that reflect your purpose and positioning. Think in 100-year increments and set up a brand identity, positioning and architecture that can be relevant in a future world we cannot currently recognize. In other words, to pick on an easy target, you do not want to be the Association of National Advertisers, when the association model is under siege, the world is global and digital marketing now means so much more than advertising. You want to transcend products and markets and build into your brand and brand architecture a dynamism that can not only deal with disruption but may intentionally cause it. Because if your brand hasn’t yet been disrupted, you are probably next in line.