1. Fuqua School of Business
Branding Strategies
Professor Carl Mela
BA 460 Product Management
Fuqua School of Business
Brand Management System
On Building A Brand
Managing Across Brands

2. Agenda
Depth of Branding Strategy
Brand Hierarchies
Sub-branding

3. Depth of Branding Strategy
How many brands (DeWalt, B&D) in a category (tools)?
Depends on number of segments and differences between them (e.g., Ford and Jaguar)
And cross effects; Corvette helps Chevy

4. Brand Hierarchies Pirahna by Black & Decker
Creates a tree structure of brands in consumers mind
Duke
Fuqua
Law
MBA
PhD
Weekend
Daytime

5. Brand Hierarchies
There are positive and negative associations at each level (avoid or fix the negative levels)
Corporate (Duke)
Family (Fuqua)
Individual (MBA)
Modifier (Daytime)
J&J is corporate, P&G is not. Thus, benefits tend to be abstract (safety) and transfer across individual brands.

6. Brand Hierarchies
Family brands (Disney’s ABC) are useful when corporate brand is highly diversified or there are multiple segments
Individual brands are in single category (Dawn, Ivory)
Highly targeted, customizable, dissociated from corporate or family.
Inefficient and harder to extend
Modifiers
Helps to differentiate varieties

7. Sub-branding Combining levels is sub branding
Creates associations with family brand
The emphasized brand should be the one that communicates the key points of difference
Ralph Lauren Purple Label line
Acura Legend or Acura 3.2TL
Note, DeWalt would not be a good sub-brand, as B&D carries strong unfavorable brand associations

8. Branding Strategies
Define the levels of brands to create a logical structure across products
Emphasize the levels that lead to associations most pertinent to the brand