Managing Brand Hierarchy

Brand Hierarchy
ahmed mahmoud ahmed abdo, ex-lecturer at the faculty of commerce Banha University, Egypt, Member
The word 'hierarchy' reminds me with the organizational chart of a company. This chart can be a tall or flat chart, it depends on the various levels and number of the managers needed, and the type of control and supervision required.

Brand Hierarchy
RUSLAN, Manager, Kazakhstan, Member
The concept of hierarchy of brands used to refer to relationships within the family of brands. More commercially successful brand must be higher, and less successful - below.
Good examples: Gilette Venus Andes. Or Toyota and Lexus.
It is important to maintain the balance of power between brands to avoid loss of value of the brand portfolio.

Brand Hierarchy Matrix Model
Michael Bondarenko, Project Manager, Ukraine, Member
I use a matrix model. It's like brands' resource needing with brands' ROI ratings matrix
Dynamic values show priority to provide instrumental actions.

Overall Brand Manager
Catherine Oreilly, Member
Brand hierarchy is about understanding the key steps in the framework of managing a brand... So it's context specific... Product or service or FMCG... In terms of leading/managing there has to be one overall brand manager... Who leads on all fronts with a respective team in the various areas... Hope this helps.

Managing Brand Hierarchy
Professor ALABDALLAOUI, Management Consultant, Morocco, Member
When we know the goal or purpose, such as producing a competitive brand, responding to the needs of the consumers in terms of total quality and price, then we can manage a business plan. Based on values, vision, mission and strategy. Let me remind you the example of Procter & Gamble.

Brand Hierarchy -> Brand Architecture
Andrew Harnden
My suggestion would be to use the term 'brand architecture'. It offers more freedom than specific matrices or hierarchies.
Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity. It is the way in which the brands within a company’s portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, one another. The architecture should define the different leagues of branding within the organization; how the corporate brand and sub-brands relate to and support each other; and how the sub-brands reflect or reinforce the core purpose of the corporate brand to which they belong. 3 levels of branding:
- Corporate (also: umbrella, family) Brands - For example: Virgin Group and Heinz.
- Endorsed (also sub-) Brands - For example: Nestle KitKat, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Sony PlayStation or Polo by Ralph Lauren.
- Product (Service) Brands - For example: Procter & Gamble’s Pampers or Unilever's Dove (Source: Wikipedia).

Brand Hierarchy Depends on Organization Type
Anna Kolia, United Arab Emirates, Member
It is depending to where we refer.
- If it is a group of companies and we are talking about the hierarchy of the brands then we will find a chart with the head the mother as the first established company following by all brands and sister companies regarding to their values and missions in the group.
- If we are talking about one company then brand hierarchy will be a chart of the managers starting with the president of the company CEO, CFO, VPs, moving down to the lower levels of Directors, GRs and Managers... The collaboration of this hierarchy will be the good production of the company.
Of course in a group of companies we will refer to both charts of hierarchies. Brand hierarchy we can find in the employees positions. Each hierarchy will give its meaning of values for the smooth operation and understanding of the needs of the company between the branches, the top management and the employees and of course will assist to build up the strategy of the operation of the company.

Position in Brand Hierarchy
Jorge Rodriguez Fonseca
I think is the order of importance of the brands of your company or corporation and how you administrate it.
For example: the brand A of the company gives 60% of the profits for the company and brands B (10%), C (20%), D (10%). In this case probably the efforts of the company are concentrated on brand A ("the queen"). The others brands are important but if you have problems in one of them the effects will have less impact in the profits.
It could be that for example brand B shows great future potential and in this case the company should assign enough resources for growing these opportunities (could be called "the princess").

Position in Brand Hierarchy
Maryam Bidmeshgipour, Student (Other), Malaysia, Member
One other point is that we look at the market that the brands are competing in. Markets with high competitions need more attention in the hierarchy of brands in contrast to markets with low competion.
Such as is the case when comparing European markets versus Middle Eastern ones.

Brand Hierarchy / Architecture
Frank Daniels, Manager, United States, Member
A brand hierarchy should consider the flow of brand equity. In a branded house the master brand, often times the corporate brand, can serve as an endorser for a company product brand. E.g. - Shell P-Power, Dunkin' Coolatas, Lindt Lindor truffles etc.
The reputation of the corporate brand influences the brand equity of a company's product or sub-brand. This is a potentially good brand strategy if the corporate brand's reputation is solid, giving positive equity flow. However, if the corporate brand is damaged then all sub-brands share the pain (Toyota, BP).
Sometimes the corporate brand can be used as part of a "bridging brand strategy", e.g. - the mp3 player Apple created was the Apple iPod when it launched is now simply called the iPod , the brand's recognition, reputation and equity can stand on it's own without the master brand Apple and in fact iPod is its own master brand with sub-brands like iTunes.

Brand Hierarchy by Demand and by Price
Perlito Fajardo, Manager, Philippines, Member
A brand hierarchy can also be categorized who is the most in demand on the market, and what is the cheapest and most expensive brand in the market.

Definition of Brand Hierarchy
Kartik Raina, Business Consultant, India, Member
Dear Bindu,
Brand hierarchy, to me, is an expression of how the various elements that constitute the overall brand value proposition cascade into the final offering the consumer buys. If we take the example of Dabur's Real, then the hierarchy looks like this
1. The company: Dabur - overtones of "natural"
2. The (umbrella) brand: Real - like the real stuff
3. The lines: juices, nectars & drinks
4. The skus: 1 litre, 500ml, 250 ml
5. The variants: flavours/tastes i.e. mango, orange, mixed fruit, guava etc.
I endorse what Catherine says - there must be finally one brand steward - and his/her deliverables have to be the brand equity value, market share and robust brand bottom lines.

Brand Hierarchy Valued by Consumers
MA Rahman, Business Consultant, United Kingdom, Member
A brand hierarchy is some thing that lies within the brand existence in the market. It is determined by brand managers and valued by the consumers.

Brand Hierarchy in Terms of Market Position
isaiah, Accountant, Kenya, Member
Brand hierarchy to me implies the market position occupied by the brand in terms of:
- product life cycle
- availability in the market (quantity), and
- value contribution to overall company turnover relative to other comparable substitutes in the market.

Typical Brand Hierarchy
M.B. Mphahlele, Consultant, South Africa, Member
The hierarchy is normally as follows:
Corporate > Family/Parent > Child/Individual - Model
E.g.: Daimler Chrysler > Mercedes > SUV > ML500

Brand Hierarchy from a Customer Perspective
Raghuanth, Member
Hi, from a customer point of view a brand hierarchy is that the brand not only satisfies customer needs in terms of the explicit needs, but also satisfies his esteem and provides a relative positioning in the market for having possessed the product depending on the brand hierarchy of the product. It provides some sort of personality / profile attached to the brand extending to the customer.
E.g. if one buys a BMW car, the band offers him apart from satisfying customers needs, it also extends and defines the personality of the customer.

Brand Hierarchy Declares Importance of brands
Jose Luis Ruiz, Project Manager, Mexico, Member
It is common sense in an uncommon way. A "brand hierarchy" is just a way to declare the importance of your brands. And this importance depends basically on:
a) Sales (%)
b) Mission (pertinent for your business)
c) Social Responsibility (health, safety, environment, security... Depending on your industry and your market)

Brand Hierarchy Offers Structure
Lucia Mlombe, Malawi, Member
An effective brand hierarchy provides a structure to the brand family, allowing consumers to fill in the gaps and establish expectations and perceptions and through these perceptions you are able to know which brand is more valued than the other. For example Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Brand Hierarchy in Terms of Market Position / Product Life Cycle
isaiah, Accountant, Kenya, Member
The Product Life Cycle may enable you to view your brand/family of brands relative to the market in terms of maturity phase.
In BCG Model terms, whether your brand is in the star, question mark, cash cow, dog quadrant.
You can use these tools to setup a brand hierarchy and as a basis for strategic decisions like harvest / divest / create a brand.

Brand Advertising Versus Positioning
isaiah, Accountant, Kenya, Member
Whereas both advertising and positioning aim at influencing the thought and actions of individuals in order to buy/sell a product or promote good will, advertising is more short term and may need to be done repetitively compared to positioning whose impact is aimed to last the entire product /brand lifetime.
It is usually associated with brand image building; a process that creates permanent positive impressions on the target minds and it is based on tangible experience with the brand. Positioning determines the relative market share. On the other hand advertising can create temporary fluctuations in sales figures when a product/brand is offered at discount for a limited period sales may go up significantly before dropping to its usual level.

Branding Strategy
Iraklis Goniadis
It's hard to build a brand, but it's even harder to establish a company. A strategy to deal with this fact is to put more than one similar products to assess the potential of each one (altenative: have a strategic brand and put soldiers (products) around that to fight the competents collecting munitions/money).
Then choose the best brand and focus only on that. Don't stop the other products but make these to serve the chosen one until all production will move to the branded product.