experiment multi brand strategy

Managing Multiple Brands & Marketing Strategy to Help You Succeed

Businesses constantly aim to capture the largest possible share of their target market. So it’s not unusual for companies to introduce new products or services under different brand names. This approach is known as multi-branding marketing. In this article, we’ll explore the fundamentals of multi-brand strategy and provide some practical tips for its successful implementation in your business.

What Is a Multi-Branding Strategy?

A multi-branding strategy occurs when a single company develops and promotes several brands within the same market sector. This approach helps companies target all customer segments as different services with different marketing styles cater to every individual in their own way. One famous example of a multiple brand strategy is Meta (Facebook) – it owns Instagram and WhatsApp which are both mobile applications but don’t have the name mentioned in the brand’s title. Another example is FedEx which uses its brand in the title of each separate service such as FedEx Cargo, FedEx Office, etc.

Whether you use the same parent company name for your product or don’t want to mention the parent company in the title, all of these brands should be managed properly and, moreover, separately. A multi-brand marketing strategy allows businesses to ensure their brands are positioned and promoted within the same market addressing separate target audiences without creating internal competition.

Benefits of a Multi-Brand Strategy

Like any other strategy, multi-branding has its own advantages and downsides. Let’s start with the pros:

Better Brand Visibility

When your company is introduced in several market segments and targets different audiences, people are likely to see your name more often. And on top of more frequent public appearances, you’ll get a wider reach in general – more people will be able to explore your brands. As a result, you increase your brand awareness and sales.

Benefit From Previous Success

If your previous product is in demand and gains some traction within your target audience, your new brands and products can feed the success you’ve already achieved in the same or related market segment. Newly launched products from an already existing company are likely to be more visible to customers rather than a product introduced under an unknown name.

Risk Diversification

One of the main benefits of a multi-brand strategy, having various brands might help you diversify your business and reduce your risk. Your other brands can continue to generate money and maintain overall business stability even if one brand is having problems or seeing a fall in sales. By diversifying your business, you can prevent your company from relying too much on the success of a single brand.

More Options For Customers

Modern clients want to have more options and choices within a single market. When introducing new brands you give your customers an opportunity to switch between your products rather than leaving you for a different company. A good practice is also to smartly integrate your brands with each other so that when one product is bought, another one of your products can be bought as well as a supplement.

More Space For Experiments

More brands usually means more flexibility to create and experiment with your product/service line. You’ll have more freedom to take measured risks and investigate new options since if one brand’s innovation doesn’t provide the expected results, it won’t have a catastrophic effect on the entire organization.

Brand Diversification

Brand diversification mitigates certain risks by making sure that fluctuations in one segment don’t massively affect the overall stability of the business. It also allows you to cater to different consumer preferences, as you offer a range of products that meet varying tastes.

Customer Loyalty

When customers have positive experiences with one brand, they are more likely to trust and try other brands from the same company. You can use that by implementing loyalty programs that reward customers for purchasing across different brands, further encouraging them to stay within the brand ecosystem.

Price Differentiation

By offering distinct brands at different price points, you can attract a wider range of customers, from those seeking premium products to those looking for budget-friendly options. This helps with market penetration and allows for flexible pricing models that can respond to changing market conditions and consumer spending behaviors.

Resilience to Market Changes

Multi-branding almost guarantees that your company can maintain profitability and market presence in virtually any condition. For instance, during an economic downturn, you can shift its focus to brands that offer more affordable products, catering to budget-conscious consumers. Conversely, in times of prosperity, the focus can shift back to premium brands that attract higher spending.

Resource Optimization

Managing multiple brands also comes with shared efforts in marketing, research and development, and manufacturing. With this, you can achieve substantial cost savings and operational efficiencies. For instance, a single R&D team can work on innovations that benefit multiple brands, or a marketing team can create cohesive strategies that serve various customer segments.

Multi-Brand Strategy Disadvantages

Here are some struggles you may experience in your multi-brand marketing efforts:

Lack Of Focus

Having multiple brands inevitably comes with the need to divide resources and attention between them. If done right, it will never be a problem, however, many businesses have struggled to stay focused enough on the objectives of their individual brands. It can be difficult to devote enough money, effort, and knowledge to each brand, which could result in missed opportunities or less-than-ideal performance.

Increased Marketing Costs

Operating numerous brands also comes with an increased cost with regard to marketing and administration. Each brand needs its own marketing initiatives, brand building, distribution networks, and infrastructure for customer service. These expenses may mount, particularly in the absence of adequate economies of scale or resource sharing among the brands.

Cannibalization

When many brands within the same portfolio target comparable customer segments or provide comparable goods or services, there is a danger of cannibalization. Loss of market share and decreased profitability may result if the brands compete with one another rather than enhancing one another’s proposals. Additionally, managing too many brands can confuse consumers and diminish brand equity, making it more difficult to establish distinctive brand identities.

Loss Of Customer Trust

Sometimes businesses that implement multi-branding become more focused on profits rather than clients, resulting in potential reputational risks. If one brand in the portfolio suffers from a reputational problem or receives unfavorable press, it may have an effect on the parent company’s reputation and the trust of other related brands. Thus, reputation risk management and proactive monitoring are some of the most essential parts of multi-brand marketing.

How to Manage Multiple Brands to Succeed?

The advice here is clear and straightforward – marketing strategies for different brands should be created and implemented separately. When you introduce a new product to the market, it doesn’t mean that the marketing approach for your previous release will work. Here are some steps to follow with your multibranding marketing.

Define Brand Strategy

This is your step one – and it involves articulating clear objectives, defining target markets, and outlining key messaging for each brand within the portfolio. Only with a cohesive multiple branding strategy can you maintain brand consistency, which is crucial for maximizing the impact of marketing efforts across the portfolio.

Clear Brand Differentiation

Maintaining distinct and clearly differentiated brands is essential to avoid cannibalization and foster consumer preference within a multi-brand portfolio. Each brand should have a unique value proposition, target audience, and brand identity that sets it apart from other brands in the portfolio. This differentiation could be based on factors such as product attributes, price positioning, distribution channels, or brand personality. 

Set Clear Objectives and KPIs

Your objectives should be specific, achievable, and aligned with the overall business goals, while KPIs should be quantifiable and relevant to each brand’s objectives. Common examples include metrics such as market share, brand awareness, customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and financial performance.

Conduct Market Research

Your market research should encompass both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including surveys, focus groups, competitor analysis, and trend forecasting. Good research is an absolute must if you want to keep up with market trends and consumer behavior. On top of that, you can identify untapped market segments and get valuable input for product development, pricing strategies, and marketing campaigns.

Create Landing Pages, Sites, and Domains

New brands require a proper presentation. If you want to launch a product using the same parent brand name, a separate landing page on the official site will be enough. However, if you are planning to introduce a product within an adjacent market, a new website is a must. It will allow you to attract as much attention from customers as possible, specifically to the new product. Along with the new site, your product will need a separate email domain to reach out to your clients and partners.

Connect Your Brands

Connecting existing and new brands into a multi-brand strategy allows you to leverage your current business capabilities and apply them to the new market segments. For instance, Instagram provides a possibility to connect your account with your Facebook profile, thus allowing your friends to find you in the new app. The same strategy can be applied to other types of products.

Cross-Promote Your Brands

Once you’ve connected your brands, figure out what they have in common and what makes them different from each other. Then use that knowledge to selectively cross-promote your brands, integrating them with each other not just in terms of functionality, but also marketing. Cross-promotion is great at utilizing existing brand loyalty and increasing interaction with other brands in your portfolio.

Create A Unique Message For Each Brand

Each of your brands needs to possess a distinguishable identity to stand out from the rest in its own way. Make sure that your messaging and communication style are tailored to that distinct identity. Create enticing multibranding narratives and value propositions that appeal to each brand’s target market by directly addressing customers’ problems and providing solutions.

Enable Marketing Automation

Marketing automation makes managing multiple brands look effortless. Such powerful solutions as Salesforce and HubSpot save a tremendous amount of time by automating routine tasks and providing full visibility of all the marketing processes. They also offer great analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing you to make informed decisions.

Some businesses may be put off by many difficulties that come with the integration of the software; however, marketing automation experts like OMI will make this process as smooth as possible and will be there with you every step of the way.

Create Impactful Ad Campaigns

New products should be powered by strong multi-brand marketing campaigns that address different market segments and audiences. Try not to rethink previously launched campaigns but rather create new ones aligned with your new business goals.

Incorporate Customer Feedback

Incorporating customer feedback into your brand management through surveys, social media monitoring, customer reviews, and customer service interactions. This feedback should be systematically analyzed and used for product innovation, service enhancements, and process improvements across each brand within the portfolio.

Implement Risk Management

Always work to identify potential threats associated with each brand, including market risks, operational risks, regulatory risks, and reputational risks. Based on your findings, you should then develop various risk mitigation strategies – those could be diversifying product portfolios, strengthening supply chain resilience, enhancing cybersecurity measures, or investing in brand reputation.

Make Use Of Analytics

Utilize data and analytics technologies to measure and assess the effectiveness of your multi-brand marketing initiatives. Keep an eye on KPIs like brand awareness, customer growth, engagement, and conversion rates. Make data-driven decisions and optimize your tactics with these insights.

Final Thoughts

So what is a multi-brand strategy? It is a crucial component of your business plan when launching various products into the same market. Multi-branding will help to improve your company’s overall marketing strategy as long as you are clear about what your new brand stands for and the demographic it is intended for.

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Digital Enablement

Multi-brand strategy: Top trends and benefits in 2024

While companies like Meta, Coca-Cola, and P&G operate in different business categories, they have one characteristic in common—they are all large multi-brand companies. As the agility and accessibility to manufacturing keep increasing and go-to-market times continue decreasing thanks to new distribution models, a multi-brand strategy can be an attractive option to explore for all companies.

In this article, we’ll look at some benefits of implementing a multi-brand strategy, as well as current trends and how to get started. But first, let’s define what we mean by a multi-brand strategy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is a multi-brand strategy?

A growing customer base, become a market leader, internal competition stimulates growth, increase brand awareness and reputability, diversification, d2c (direct-to-consumer), instant or on-demand production, advanced logistics & distribution models, immersive omnichannel shopping experiences, embrace innovation, implementing a solid multi-brand strategy.

A multi-brand strategy means having a portfolio of products with different brands or names, all owned and managed by the same company. Here are some examples:

• Nestlé has a multi-brand portfolio of over 2000 brands, including Nespresso and KitKat.
• L’Oreal includes brands like Garnier, Maybelline, NYX, and La Roche-Posay in their portfolio.
• Inditex owns Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Oysho, and many more.

Benefits of a multi-brand strategy

The strategy of diversifying your brand portfolio holds many benefits. Today, several ecommerce trends are simultaneously making this approach increasingly appealing and easier to implement.

Some of the main advantages of the multi-brand business model include:

Having multiple brands can help serve different customer needs and gain new customers. Cross-sell and up-sell opportunities are available across different audiences, such as incomes, ages, tastes, and values. Multi-brand strategies also allow businesses to cater to “brand switchers” who switch between brands but remain customers.

Synergy effects and startup costs result in cost savings for new brands within a multi-brand strategy. But more importantly, less shelf space for your competitors makes it easier to dominate a market. The more brands you have, the more likely customers will choose yours. And the more products you have, your company can learn about new and improved production methods.

Data and insights from one brand can be used to create new brands. A multi-brand strategy can build healthy internal competition between the different brands in your portfolio and can help spur performance and improvement. Building new brands within your portfolio may mean hiring new employees. But, a growing team cultivates creativity and helps build your business.

Having multiple brands increases brand visibility. The more visibility you have, the more trust customers tend to have for it. This is why it is essential to have consistent brand messaging and quality products that foster a loyal following.

Building several brands diversifies risk, as all of your eggs are not in one basket—for example, if one brand’s reputation is marred, it doesn’t impact total sales.

Multi-brand strategy trends

The everchanging digital commerce landscape makes a multi-brand strategy interesting for a more significant number of players. Let’s look at some of the most prominent ones and their implications for your business.

The rise of D2C (direct-to-consumer) has reduced the complexity of launching and maintaining more than one brand. Removing the middleman (i.e., retailer or reseller) means companies can experiment with branding and go to market much quicker. The number of businesses independently manufacturing, promoting, selling, and shipping their goods is rapidly rising, which is changing the digital commerce landscape.

The D2C business model allows suppliers to provide a superior end-to-end brand experience as they retain control over the whole process. The company manages everything—creating a winning product, attracting an audience, marketing the product, delivering the product, and owning customer communication and experience. The direct interaction with consumers enables D2C suppliers to collect customer data and address issues without intermediaries slowing things down.

China’s rise as a manufacturing power has spurred ecommerce growth. Today it’s easier to find a manufacturer than ever before. This means it takes less time to start a brand from scratch, react to trends and tendencies, and turn them into physical products.

If we take fashion as an example, the days when the fashion year consisted of spring, summer, winter, and fall collections are long gone. Instead, the winning brands are not only launching new products in response to new trends and demands, but they’re also launching whole new brands to meet them.

Small “point solutions” for well-defined niche audiences can be developed and scaled quickly. An example is Amazon, which will create products when a category is doing well, as they sit in the middle of all of the data and manage their multi-brand commerce strategy.

Distribution will continue to be one of the most critical aspects of digital commerce. The need for brick-and-mortar retail space will continue to decrease as brands increasingly rely on advanced logistics and distribution systems that save money and provide a better customer experience.

As efficiency increases, the need to hold large quantities in stock also decreases, further diminishing the need for a physical footprint. Options like drop shipping and AI-based fulfillment make launching, testing, and tweaking new brands even easier.

Brand success is based on three primary factors:

• A clear purpose
• A solid understanding of key customer targets
• An exceptional brand experience

This last component is critical in digital commerce, where customers interact with the brand via multiple touchpoints. Strong brands ensure consistent messaging by optimizing the customer buying journey to reinforce brand values, perceptions, and performance. However, consistency must be maintained throughout the entire digital customer experience.

Brands affect every point in the conversion funnel for potential customers and shouldn’t measure just clicks as a KPI . Brands must measure the top and the middle of the funnel, paying attention to consumer engagement, sentiment, and interaction with shopping ads and content. In fact, with rising inflation, brands must look for new capabilities to enhance customer experience while also reducing contact quantity.

These multi-brand / multi-touchpoint strategies are highly effective, as strong brands have been shown to outperform the market consistently. Yet, strong brands cannot get too comfortable as choices and channels increase. They must embrace new methods and approaches to beat their competition. And being cutting edge pays off.

Linear commerce , social commerce , livestream commerce, and mobile commerce are just some innovative solutions for companies to evaluate in their digital strategy. Couple these innovations with technology to manage all of your brands in one place; like with Adobe Experience Cloud , forward-thinking brands have much at their disposal to meet the increasing demand for engaging online experiences.

Today’s consumer expects a smooth, seamless, and personalized experience regardless of what country they’re in, what channel they’re using, or which brand in your portfolio they’re buying. This requires companies to manage the customers’ whole lifecycle and choose tech that gathers all touchpoints and data in the same system.

Opting for a unified ecommerce experience rather than a single, best-of-breed point solution for each brand is a better and more sustainable path to success and ROI for multi-brand businesses. Whether your customer stops by a physical store to return an item or browses your website at midnight, you need to foster that relationship built on trust and minimized risk—interact with them and track, manage, and close the sale.

At Vaimo, we’re helping multi-brand, multi-currency, multi-language clients, like Pronovias , a leading bridal wear company based in Barcelona. We helped them overhaul a complex and outdated B2B system to implement Adobe Commerce (Magento 2) , enhancing user experience and integrating a vast product catalog with the M3 ERP system for improved efficiency and customer interaction.

Would you like to implement a multi-brand strategy? Get in touch with our team of experts to learn how we can help you take your ecommerce business to the next level!

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What is an Example of a Multi-Brand Strategy? Benefits, Examples, and Implementation Tips

Uncover the seamless integration of multi-channel marketing to boost engagement, using social ads, emails, and SEO tailored to diverse customer needs.

Jul 12, 2024

See how some companies manage to dominate multiple market segments without losing their unique identity? That’s the magic of a multi-brand strategy. Imagine walking into a store and seeing a variety of products, all from the same parent company but each with its own distinct brand. Intriguing, right?

A multi-brand strategy isn’t just about slapping different labels on products; it’s a clever way to cater to diverse customer preferences and maximize market share. Think about it—how often have you chosen one brand over another because it seemed to fit your style or needs better? This strategy allows companies to innovate and experiment without putting all their eggs in one basket.

Understanding Multi-Brand Strategy

Definition and basics.

A multi-brand strategy involves a company managing multiple brands within the same category. Imagine a scenario where instead of just one type of cereal on your breakfast table, you have several options from the same parent company. That's a prime example. This strategy helps cater to different customer preferences without confusing the brand image.

In simple terms, if you think of a tech company that sells both budget and premium smartphones, it's likely employing a multi-brand strategy. Each brand operates under the company umbrella, but they appeal to distinct market segments. This diversification reduces risk and maximizes reach.

Key Benefits of Multi-Brand Strategy

Market Coverage : Companies like Procter & Gamble or Unilever use multiple brands to cover various market segments. For instance, consider how Unilever owns both Dove and Axe, each attracting different demographics.

Risk Mitigation : By spreading their bets across various brands, companies can hedge against market volatility. If one brand underperforms, others may still thrive, keeping the overall business stable.

Brand Loyalty : Some customers become loyal to one of a company's brands. Someone might prefer a budget product, while another might go for a premium one, both from the same parent company.

Innovation Opportunities : A multi-brand strategy encourages innovation since companies can experiment with different approaches within various brands. Think of how PepsiCo can innovate with its health-focused brand Quaker while also keeping its fun beverage brands unique.

Increased Shelf Presence : More brands mean more space on store shelves. This visibility can boost overall sales. For instance, if you walk down the shampoo aisle and see multiple products from the same parent company, they collectively dominate that space.

Common Mistakes and Misconceptions

Overextension : One mistake often made involves creating too many brands. When energy and resources get spread too thin, it can hurt the quality and performance of each brand. Focus on a manageable number ensures each brand gets adequate attention.

Dilution of Brand Equity : Introducing too many similar brands can dilute the overall brand equity. For example, if every smartphone from the tech company looks alike but at varied prices, it might confuse customers about the value proposition.

Neglecting Core Brand : Companies sometimes forget their core brand while focusing on new ones. This can lead to the dilution of the core brand’s equity and market position. Maintaining a balance is crucial.

Practical Tips to Implement Multi-Brand Strategy

Market Research : Conduct thorough market research to understand customer preferences. Profiling target demographics helps craft distinct brand identities that cater to specific needs.

Clear Differentiation : Ensure that each brand under your umbrella has a clear and distinct value proposition. Take Coca-Cola and Sprite—both are from the same parent company but offer completely different experiences.

Resource Allocation : Allocate resources wisely. Assign dedicated teams to manage each brand to ensure focus and accountability. Companies like Nestlé have separate teams for KitKat and Nescafé, keeping their identities intact.

Techniques and Methods

Brand Segmentation : Segment your market into smaller, more manageable groups. This makes it easier to tailor each brand to specific needs, boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Brand Cannibalization : Be mindful of brand cannibalization—where one brand eats into the sales of another. Careful product positioning and pricing strategies can mitigate this. A budget option should not undercut a premium offering.

Best Practices

Consistent Monitoring : Regularly monitor the performance of each brand. Use tools like customer feedback and sales analysis to gauge which brand is resonating well and which requires a revamp.

Agile Approach : Stay flexible. Market trends evolve, and an agile approach allows quick adaptation, ensuring each brand remains relevant and appealing.

Cross-Promotion : Leverage cross-promotion opportunities between your brands without blurring their distinct identities. This can create a win-win situation, driving sales across the board.

Implementing a multi-brand strategy effectively can seem overwhelming initially, but by breaking it down into manageable steps and focusing on critical areas, you can set your businesses up for sustainable, diversified growth.

Examples of Successful Multi-Brand Strategies

In the world of business, having multiple brands under one umbrella can be a game-changer. It allows companies to cater to varied customer needs and expand their market share. Let's look at some shining examples.

The Procter & Gamble Model

Procter & Gamble (P&G) excels in managing a diverse range of brands. This model shows the power of depth and breadth. P&G runs well-known brands like Tide, Pampers, and Gillette. Each brand focuses on different consumer needs. Tide targets laundry care, Pampers focuses on baby care, and Gillette dominates the shaving market. By doing this, P&G reduces risk—if one brand underperforms, others can pick up the slack.

Key Strategies

Brand Differentiation : Each brand has a unique identity and caters to a particular market segment.

Market Research : P&G conducts extensive market research to identify consumer needs and gaps in the market.

Constant Innovation : P&G invests in R&D to keep its products ahead of the competition.

Unilever’s Brand Portfolio

Unilever's multi-brand strategy is another stellar example. With brands like Dove, Lipton, and Axe, Unilever covers personal care, beverages, and male grooming products. This portfolio approach ensures the company remains relevant and offers variety to consumers.

Clear Positioning : Unilever positions each brand clearly, ensuring no overlap in brand messaging.

Sustainability Efforts : Unilever prioritizes sustainability, appealing to environmentally-conscious consumers.

Global Reach : Unilever leverages its global presence to optimize brand performance across different markets.

Common Mistakes and Practical Tips

Even seasoned companies sometimes stumble with multi-brand strategies. Here are some common pitfalls:

Overextension : Launching too many brands can weaken your overall market presence. Focus on a few strong brands.

Neglecting Core Brands : Don't divert too many resources from your core brands. Balance is key.

Dilution of Brand Equity : Ensure each brand maintains strong identity and equity. Avoid spreading your identity too thin.

Tips to Avoid Mistakes

Regular Performance Monitoring : Keep an eye on each brand's performance and make adjustments as necessary.

Clear Brand Differentiation : Avoid cannibalizing your own market. Make sure each brand serves a distinct audience.

Agile Strategy : Be prepared to pivot and tweak your strategy based on market feedback and performance.

Techniques and Variations

Different companies use varied multi-brand strategies:

House of Brands : Companies like P&G and Unilever use this approach where each brand operates independently.

Branded House : Companies like Google use sub-brands (Google Maps, Google Drive) under a strong parent brand.

When to Apply Each

House of Brands : Ideal when catering to vastly different markets and consumer bases. Reduces risk by not putting all eggs in one basket.

Branded House : Great for leveraging a strong parent brand’s equity. Useful for related products or services.

Best Practices and Recommendations

To successfully implement a multi-brand strategy, consider the following:

Invest in Market Research : Understand your consumers deeply to identify needs and gaps.

Allocate Resources Wisely : Ensure each brand has the necessary resources for growth.

Encourage Innovation : Continuously innovate to keep your brands relevant.

Use Cross-Promotion : Leverage the strengths of one brand to support another.

By following these examples and tips, you can master the art of managing multiple brands and drive your business to new heights.

Analyzing Multi-Brand Strategy in Different Industries

Multi-brand strategies enable companies to appeal to different market segments, adapting to varied consumer needs. Here is a closer look at how different industries deploy these strategies.

Automotive Industry

In the automotive industry, companies often use multi-brand strategies to target various customer demographics and preferences. For instance, Volkswagen Group owns several brands including Audi, Porsche, and Skoda. Each brand caters to distinct market segments: Audi targets premium consumers, Porsche is positioned as a luxury sports car brand, and Skoda appeals to the budget-conscious market.

Misconceptions and Mistakes: Many assume that having multiple brands simply means more market coverage, but it requires careful management. Without proper differentiation, brands may cannibalize each other’s sales. This often occurs when the distinctions between brands are not clear, causing customer confusion and overlapping market segments.

Practical Tips:

Clear Brand Positioning: Make sure each brand has a distinct identity and target market. For example, Toyota manages both Lexus and Toyota brands, positioning Lexus as a luxury option while Toyota remains accessible and reliable.

Consistent Quality Across Brands: Ensure that the quality and core values of each brand align with consumer expectations.

Regular Market Research: Continuously gather data and feedback to understand how each brand is perceived and where there is room for improvement.

Consumer Electronics

In the consumer electronics sector, companies like Samsung and Sony adopt multi-brand strategies to offer varied product lines for different segments. Samsung, for example, markets its high-end Galaxy devices alongside more budget-friendly models like the Galaxy A series.

Misconceptions and Mistakes: One common mistake is overextending the product line without adequate support, which can dilute brand value and confuse consumers. Another issue is neglecting core products in favor of launching new brands, leading to diminished brand loyalty.

Innovation Across Brands: Foster innovation within each brand, ensuring products meet current market trends and technological advancements.

Cross-Promotion: Use cross-promotion tactics to highlight different brands. For instance, promote a budget-friendly tablet to customers purchasing high-end smartphones, encouraging cross-brand sales.

Avoiding Overextension: Maintain a balanced portfolio by concentrating on a few strong brands rather than spreading resources too thinly.

By understanding the nuances of multi-brand strategies in different industries, businesses can effectively manage multiple brands, appealing to diverse customer bases and maximizing market reach.

Challenges in Implementing a Multi-Brand Strategy

Brand Differentiation

Brand differentiation, ensuring each brand stands out, presents a significant challenge. When managing multiple brands, it's critical for each brand to have a unique identity. If consumers confuse one of your brands for another, your strategy loses effectiveness. Avoid this by creating distinct logos, color schemes, and brand voices.

For instance, Procter & Gamble differentiates Tide and Ariel. Tide focuses on tough stain removal, while Ariel positions itself as a gentler option for colors and delicate fabrics. This clear differentiation helps each brand appeal to its target market.

A common mistake here is trying to make every brand appeal to everyone, diluting their individual strengths. Instead, identify the core attributes of each brand and emphasize those in your marketing efforts.

Resource Allocation

Resource allocation can stretch a company's capabilities thin. Each brand requires dedicated resources, including marketing budgets, product development teams, and salesforce. Allocating these resources without compromising any brand's effectiveness is a balancing act.

For example, when Unilever manages its brands like Dove and Axe, it ensures each has a dedicated team and budget to create targeted campaigns. This approach helps maintain brand integrity and customer loyalty.

One misconception is that you can simply duplicate resources across brands. However, each brand has its own needs and market dynamics. Conduct regular reviews to identify which brands need more investment and which can maintain with less.

Ensure you have a clear strategy for reallocating resources based on market performance. Tools like performance dashboards can help monitor and optimize spending, ensuring each brand gets the attention it needs without excess waste.

Effective multi-brand strategies require a meticulous approach to differentiation and resource management, gradually refining tactics to sustain competitive advantage without sacrificing brand value.

A multi-brand strategy can be a powerful tool for expanding market coverage and driving innovation. However, it requires careful planning and execution. Ensuring each brand has a unique identity and allocating resources effectively are crucial for avoiding pitfalls like brand cannibalization and resource duplication. By focusing on differentiation and strategic resource management, you can sustain competitive advantage and enhance brand value. Implementing these practices will help you navigate the complexities of a multi-brand strategy, ultimately leading to long-term success in the marketplace.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a multi-brand strategy.

A multi-brand strategy is when a company markets two or more brands in the same product category. This approach allows companies to reach different customer segments, mitigate risks, and foster innovation.

What are the advantages of a multi-brand strategy?

The major advantages include improved market coverage, risk reduction, and increased opportunities for innovation. Companies like Procter & Gamble and Unilever successfully use this strategy to dominate various market segments.

How does multi-brand strategy help in market coverage?

By having multiple brands, a company can cater to diverse customer needs and preferences, effectively covering a larger portion of the market and reducing the chances of being outflanked by competitors.

What is brand cannibalization, and how can it be managed?

Brand cannibalization occurs when new brands take sales away from a company's existing brands. It can be managed by ensuring clear brand differentiation and targeting different customer segments for each brand.

Why is brand differentiation important in a multi-brand strategy?

Brand differentiation is crucial to avoid customer confusion and to clearly define each brand's unique value proposition. It ensures that each brand appeals to a specific market segment.

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• What Is Multi-Brand Strategy and How Do Companies Evolve Such Strategies

• November 30, 2021

Indira Srinivasan

Brands experience a lifecycle since their inception through launching and promotion. Companies strategize meticulously by picking the right content, visuals, images, and narration to create a unique brand identity. Companies equally follow a media strategy to reach the intended audience group. What if a company has multiple brands and how does it project the identities of several brands in one go and convince its audience?

What is a Multi-Brand strategy

Multinational conglomerates that have several brands generally try to follow a strategy to promote them all at a time, using a single campaign. This process is called a multi-brand promotional strategy. Multinational conglomerates spend huge ad and media budgets to build a powerful brand image for their parental company to make it a household name.

The audience can identify and relate to such brands or companies with ease. Companies with a strong brand image may launch a new brand or introduce a brand as an extension of the existing brand to extend their portfolio. Companies that try to adopt multi-brand strategies save considerable money and effort. They bank on the parent company’s brand image to promote the new brand. 

Is multi-branding confined to large corporate houses

Amazon, for example, is an e-Commerce behemoth that needs no introduction. It has expanded its reach from retail e-Commerce to Twitch, a video live streaming service. Of late it acquired MGM studio. Amazon owns brands, including Amazon.com, AmazonFresh, Prime Pantry, Prime Now, Amazon Go, and Whole Foods Market and it promotes innumerable privately labeled products through them. Multi-brand strategies are useful for such conglomerates. Even startups that hold several brands in their portfolio can try this but startups generally focus on building individual brand identities.

Types of Multi-branding

The marketers are keen on following two prominent forms of multi-brand strategies; the Brand House and the House of Brand.

The Brand House

It is one of the common brand architecture models used by companies that have multiple brands. Alphabet is the parent company of Google and Google offers multiple sub-brands like Chrome, Gmail, Meet, and Workspace. Google also offers various sub-products to facilitate our functions such as Google-Drive for data saving, Google Docs, and Sheets that allow file sharing and data sharing virtually with ease. Google need not publicize each one of its sub-brand, as they co-exist with the principal brand and there is no wonder if Google adopts a multi-brand strategy. 

House of Brands

If a company possesses multiple brands, and each of these brands maintains an individual identity, and competes for a marketplace among them and outside, it is called a House of Brands. 

Unilever is a multinational company that produces a lengthy product lineup, including Baby Care, Fabric Care, Feminine Care, Grooming, Hair Care, Home Care, Oral Care, Personal Health care, Skin, and Personal Care products. There are several brands under each category, and they compete with market forces with their brand power and personality. Unsilver projects multi-ethnic, and culturally diversified images of consumers for its skincare products and promote brand names like Dove, Rexona, Axe, and Lifebuoy. Each one of these brands does not resemble the other and do not rely too much on its parental company for their existence in the market. 

How do companies orchestrate such strategies

Each brand narrates a story that appeals to audiences it is intended to reach. Brands generally select a representative influential leader that is capable of connecting them with that community to narrate this story, using visuals, language, content, and a context to get emotionally connected with the intended group in a way that it is their go-to brand for that occasion. 

PepsiCo, in recent times, tried to sell four brands at one go. 

PepsiCo promotes branded carbonated drinks Pepsi, Ruffles chips, Tostitos dip, and Kacang nuts. The company released a campaign that features recently retired New York Giants Quarterback, Eli Manning, who is hosting an NFL watch party with his friends. The campaign narrates a story that such parties must keep boring and routine snacks away to enjoy watching the game. When Manning offered unconventional snacks as treats, the campaign refers PepsiCo brands instead. 

PepsiCo’s strategy

PepsiCo signed an agreement with NFL to the extent that PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay snacks and Gatorade energy drink, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this season act as the official sports snacks and drink of the NFL. The campaign projects the snacks and the drink as official partners to celebrate such parties amidst fun, featuring legendary Mexican broadcaster, Toño De Valdés in the backdrop as a commentator.

The essence of the Strategy

PepsiCo tied with the NFL as an official beverage partner and promoted its entire product lineup along with its snacks as the most eligible ones for watching football matches with friends. It roped in a popular football player as a host and football commentator to narrate the story to the audience. It has strategically used the NFL matches as the occasion to consume its products. Such emotions, for sure, are expected to stir the emotions of football fans for this purpose. Factors Encouraging Major Multi-brand strategy 

The below-mentioned factors are responsible for a widespread multi-brand strategy.

• The decline of brick and mortar companies and the emergence of digital platforms. 
• The current eCommerce landscape is promoting multi-brand strategies, as several brands co-exist on a single platform, fighting for their own identities. 
• Emerging social media trends like user-generated content and influencer marketing have promoted D2C marketing trends. Companies can now produce several brands and target customers directly, by eliminating several traditional intermediary channels. 
• As the company has a direct association with customers without mediators, they are collecting customers’ data and meeting their personalized needs with multiple brands, promoting them directly to the customers. 
• D2C promotions have also promoted trends like pick and delivery, complete online shopping, seamless user experience, checkout, and delivery, and reaching the last delivery point.
• Companies have shifted from static website promotion to omnichannel promotions and they are engaging customers at every point with multiple touchpoints. 
• According to a BrandTotal survey, 79% of respondents had new brands through companys’ sponsored content, leading to purchase.
• Practices like social commerce, mobile commerce, video streaming have opened avenues for multi-brand promotions.
• Companies are offering customers innovations including AI-based visual search, AR/VR enabled 3D models, interactive tools like chatbots to increase traffic and return on investment. 

Advantages of Multi-Brand Strategies

Strengthens market position as market leader.

Multi-brand strategies are suitable for companies with multiple brands in their portfolio. When such companies set into extensive omnichannel promotions, they emerge as market leaders, because customers recognize the parental companies like Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon that have multiple brands and they are market leaders.

Beating Competition 

A company like Johnson & Johnson has multiple baby care products ranging from baby soaps, shampoos, earbuds, body oil, and towels, it occupies more shelf place. Unilever owns several body-ash brands that target a diversified audience, leaving little or no scope for others.

Limitations

• Difficult to maintain a distinct brand identity for each one of them, when they are promoted at once.
• Brands of the same company may compete with each other.
• Any damage to the parental company’s image will affect the entire portfolio.
• Customers’ expectations would be high for the entire line of products. Companies with multiple brands are expected to travel the extra mile to satisfy customers.
• It is difficult to build strong brand identities for each brand. Companies have shell huge money and resources to maintain the reputation of each brand in its portfolio.
• Brands may overlap each other 

Final Thoughts

The multi-brand strategy offers a unified customer experience, placing multiple brands at their disposal to select from a reputed parental company. They also offer a seamless customer experience by employing Omni-channel strategies. For more on multi-brand strategy, give a try to read our blog on Brand Anatomy.

I started my career as a program producer for women and children in AIR FM Radio as a freelancer and progressed for the past 27 years serving academia, industry, and research as faculty, communicator, author, and writer for digital media platforms. I have spent my past 8 years as Science Communicator, writing articles and blogs on social media platforms. I am an ardent book and music lover and fond of singing Indian classical music. My research interests are on ethnography and I love to write on topics including but not limited to climate change, environment, culture, and at present digital monetization.

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Multi-Brand Strategy: Definition, Examples, Advantages and Disadvantages

February 15, 2022 Share this article

What do L’Oreal, P&G (Procter & Gamble), Unilever, and Facebook have in common? They are multi-brand companies that have several brands in their portfolio. The distinct brands in each group may compete, but the large corporations still get a large piece of the pie. By taking on a multi-brand strategy, companies can fill multiple market positions to reach consumers’ needs.

What You’ll Learn:

What is a multi-brand strategy, how do i know which brand strategy to choose, examples of multi-brand companies, multi-brand strategy advantages, multi-brand strategy disadvantages, the growth-share matrix (bcg matrix), does a multi-brand strategy make sense for you.

A company has a multi-brand strategy when its portfolio of products has distinct brands or names. For example, Nestle has a multi-brand strategy with over 2000 brands including KitKat and Nespresso.

A company may want to take on a multi-brand strategy to reach a different audience or create a luxury line to appeal to a consumer willing to pay more for a product.

Imagine you are starting a face cream brand and have two products in development. One is made of the most exclusive and expensive ingredients, and one is affordable. These two face creams would have quite different audiences, right? It is not likely that the same target customer will be interested in both products.

Now you may be thinking ‘okay, but why would I want to have these two creams under different names and brand identities? Isn’t it double the work to run two brands?’. You can keep the two products under one brand and call the fancier product a premium version, or you can separate the two so the customer does not make comparisons between the two products.

The downfall of having two distinct products under one umbrella brand is the resulting difficulty in brand management and appeal to the customer. Luxury, eco-friendly, vegan, and all-natural products are marketed differently. If you have products with different benefits and audiences bunched together, you might be evoking cognitive dissonance .

Let us take the Volkswagen Group as an example. They own the Volkswagen brand and the Porsche brand. If they rebranded Porsche as a posh Volkswagen, sales would most likely plummet. The Porsche customers do not see themselves as Volkswagen drivers.

Let us have a look at some brands that have opted for a multi-brand strategy, and why they chose to do it.

L’Oreal

“Because we understand that beauty expectations and needs vary, we have built the richest portfolio of diverse and complementary brands. We want to be able to offer all around the world a perfect choice of brands for all types of consumer needs and desires and for all beauty dreams.”

Brands include: Garnier, Maybelline New York, NYX Professional Makeup, 3CE Stylenanda, Essie, Dark and Lovely, Mixa, MG, Niely, Kiehl’s Since 1851, La Roche-Posay, and more. Read the full list here .

Procter & Gamble (P&G)

“P&G products have made a name for themselves by combining “what is needed” with “what is possible” – making laundry rooms, living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, nurseries, and bathrooms a little more enjoyable for over 181 years.”

Brands include: Pampers, Gain, Tide, Pantene, Always, Crest, Braun, and more.

“We make some of the best-known brands in the world, and those brands are used by 2.5 billion people every day”.

Brands include : Breyers, Dove, Lipton, Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, and more.

“We’re building new ways to help you explore your interests and connect with the people you care about.”

Brands include : The Metaverse, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Meta Quest, Workspace, and the Meta Portal.

Let us talk about some of the benefits and downsides of having a multi-brand strategy.

Potential to Position Your Brand as a Market Leader

When you build brand awareness , you are more likely to create a loyal following for your brand. A customer may recognize the parent company and trust that they are making a smart decision even though they have never tried a product before. They associate the brand with value and become more inclined to buy other products the company makes.

More Shelf Space

Even though the branding for each product may be completely different and appeal to different consumers, you can create a leg-up on the competition. For example, if you have eight types of shampoo on the shelf, there is less room for competing products. Consumers may not even realize that your company makes all the products because the marketing is unique for each one.

Cater to Customers Who Like to Switch Brands

Even though a customer is happy with a product, it is common for some people to brand hop to see if they like something else better. Companies with a multi-brand strategy can appeal to these types of consumers without leaving the brand.

Brand Reputation

If you are not tracking your brand’s reputation and a crisis occurs, the other brands in your portfolio may not be affected. With a multi-brand strategy, each brand has its own identity and personality and typically appeals to a different audience. In some cases, consumers may not know which brands are part of the same family.

Keeping Brands Distinctly Separate

It can be difficult to keep all brands separate and have a strong identity for each one. If consumers view your brands as interchangeable, you are competing with yourself instead of attracting different consumer groups. Brands need to put more effort into creating and advocating for brand guidelines internally, since a weak brand identity can cause friction within the company.

Loss of Credibility

If consumers see a brand and decide they do not want to purchase products from them anymore, this will negatively impact sales.

Substandard Products

Another disadvantage of a multi-brand strategy is that people may be tougher on newer products because they expect a certain level of quality when they are making a purchase. If a new product does not live up to those same standards, people may be quick to dismiss the product and leave negative reviews.

Spreading Resources Thin

Companies that sell various products should focus on building a strong brand personality for each brand. If the people are not connected with the brands, they will be less likely to purchase them. If this is the case, a company should go back to the drawing board and focus on what is working and what is not instead of trying to release more new products.

One Product Significantly Outperforming the Rest

One of the disadvantages of having multiple brands is that one product may be more profitable than the others. Companies should evaluate if it is worth investing more time and marketing efforts in the lower performing products.

Brand Overlap

If customers decide they are confused about a brand and want to try various products, they could leave the brand umbrella. Too many options may not necessarily be the best thing for some consumers.

The purpose of a multi-brand strategy is to restrict competition, diversify revenue streams, and increase market share. One way to assess if this strategy would benefit your company is to plot various products or brands on a Growth-Share, or BCG, matrix. The Y axis is market growth rate, X represents relative market share. These two axes divide the field into four boxes.

Here Are Brief Introductions to Each of the Four Categories:

• Cash cows are brands with high market share in a slow-growing industry . These brands typically generate cash more than the amount of cash needed to maintain the business. They are regarded as staid and boring, in a “mature” market, yet corporations value owning them due to their cash-generating qualities. They are to be “milked” continuously with as little investment as possible since such investment would be wasted in an industry with low growth. An example of such a company would be a top brand in a stable industry such as banking or oil.
• Dogs are brands with low market share in a mature, slow-growing industry . These brands or products typically “break even”, generating barely enough revenue to maintain the business’s market share. Owning a break-even unit provides the social benefit of providing jobs and synergies that assist other business units. They also provide stability.
• Question marks are brands operating with a low market share in a high-growth market . They are a starting point for most businesses. Question marks have the potential to gain market share and become stars, and eventually cash cows when market growth slows. This could be any new company in tech/AI/IoT for example.
• Stars are units with a high market share in a fast-growing industry . They are usually question marks all grown up with a market- or niche-leading trajectory. An example of such a brand is Amazon.

Bringing It All Together

Now, how does a plot like this translate to a multi-brand company? It has to do with long-term business success and diversification. As BCG stated in 1970:

Only a diversified company with a balanced portfolio can use its strengths to truly capitalize on its growth opportunities. The balanced portfolio has:

• Stars whose high share and high growth assure the future.
• Cash cows that supply funds for that future growth.
• Question marks to be converted into stars with the added funds.

As your company plans, it is vital to think about new business opportunities, mergers, and setting up several new brands, if you are looking to thrive and grow. If you currently have an established product under one brand name, that is great. But keep in mind that times change, and markets come and go. To stay in the race, the multi-brand approach might be worth investing in.

The examples we mentioned are all massive corporations with resources to develop new brands. If you are launching your business, focus on developing a strong brand identity first. Your next step should be to build trust with your audience, and then create more brands. If you fail to develop strong brand awareness, all your products could fail. To achieve long-term success for your business, it is essential to focus on your why.

Every Strong Brand Needs to Know:

• Why are you in business?
• Who is your target audience?
• How are you going to solve your customers’ problems?
• What makes your brand stand out from the competition?

Weigh your options before you decide to take on a multi-brand strategy.

If you already have a brand that people know and trust, there is excellent potential to expand with new products that will appeal to your customers. Focus on creating a strong brand , and you will know when it is time to move forward.

Recommended readings:

Luxury Brand Strategy: How to Create Exclusivity for High-End Products

Brand Strategy: 4 Steps to Start Developing a Successful One

Brand Strategy: Why You Should Aim for a Purpose-Driven One

How to Build Brand Trust Through Social Media

Employer Branding: What Do Great Brands Do Differently?

Is Brand Consistency Important?

Are you interested in tools that will help you address current multi-brand strategy challenges and provide you with the support needed for future ones? Lytho helps you streamline your entire workflow and harmonize all brand collateral under a single, uniform platform . Feel free to reach out to us by scheduling a demo and learning how our creative solutions can boost the effectiveness of your creative projects. We look forward to speaking with you!

Do you want to give yourself and your creative team more room for creative stimulation by automating the boring stuff? Lytho helps you streamline your entire workflow and harmonize all brand collateral under a single, uniform platform . Feel free to reach out to us by scheduling a demo and learning how our creative solutions can boost the effectiveness of your creative projects. We look forward to speaking with you!

Ready to simplify your creative operations and start having a little fun at work again? Schedule time to talk with us.

Let us show you how Lytho’s Creative Operations Platform helps in-house creative and marketing teams do better work, ease the stakeholder experience, and stay on brand.

Table of Contents

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Advanced Playbook for Digital Marketers

How to Create a Winning Multi-Brand Marketing Strategy

With more than one brand, what do you do.

Mergers and acquisitions happen constantly, and there is plenty of talk about how businesses should manage the process. But there is very little information available on how to manage the messaging and marketing strategy that goes along with it.

IMPACT Principal Strategist Stacy Willis aims to change that with this guide.

Questions This Guide Will Answer:

• Should you combine your brands into a single website presence?
• What questions should you be asking yourself before you make moves to blend brands?
• What SEO implications do you need to consider?
• Should you maintain a parent brand with sub-brands? Or merge everything together?
• And more... 

👇 Keep Scrolling to Start Reading Now! 👇

About the author, stacy willis, principal strategist, impact.

Stacy received her undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Engineering from UCLA and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing from San Diego State University. As a strategist at IMPACT, Stacy loves solving problems for clients and has significant experience working and interacting with customers. She is dedicated to providing a positive customer experience and building strong client relationships.

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Fill out the form for a downloadable PDF version of the guide you can reference later.

Click on any chapter to jump directly to it.

Introduction

I'm Asked About Multi-Brand Strategies a Lot

I often get asked by clients or prospects on how to manage a strategy that includes multiple brands. I’ve found that this is a much more common problem than might be expected. In some form or another, many companies are having to manage the marketing strategy for multiple brands, figure out how to combine multiple brands into a single strategy, or manage brand transitions.

Mergers and acquisitions are not uncommon. Sadly, marketers don't do a great job of educating others or sharing how to manage the blending of online presences for previously unrelated brands. Well, I'm here to break this cycle of silence, people.

I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of the strategy behind multi-brand management for many different clients in many different situations.

Read the full success story from LION , and how our brand messaging workshop helped them unify three brands with new messaging and a new website .

I’ll start this guide by saying that, while this is meant to help guide organizations who are struggling with similar questions, no two situations are exactly alike .

Every strategy I’ve worked with clients to create and execute has its own flavor. Each situation is unique, with unique audiences and challenges, so there is no single "cookie cutter" approach that will work for everyone.

What I can do is provide you with the most important questions you should ask yourself during the process, considerations you should not overlook , and guidance on the two overarching strategic options you have when faced with this situation.

Get Inspired:

5 Examples of Companies with Great Multi-Brand Websites

Check 'em out », should you combine your brands into one website.

The first question that usually comes up in this situation is: "Should I combine my brands in a single business website ?" The answer is never black and white, and is rarely obvious.

Often, this question is asked far too early in the process. The answer to this question is actually incredibly easy once you answer the real important question:

What is the company’s overall business strategy with each brand?

I start every conversation with a client about this particular subject by asking first, “What is your business strategy?”

Marketing may be a key consideration in determining what the business strategy behind the management of the multiple brands, but it is far from the only one.

6 Questions to Ask Yourself First

• Will teams working on the brands be brought together and integrated or kept separate?   Internally, do you plan on keeping the teams who manage the brands separate or combine them into a single team? It is important to understand how the team will be structured to make an informed decision as to how easy (or hard) it will be to make decisions or changes.
• Will product names be changed or moved under a single brand?   What is the business plan for the product or service names that live under each brand? Will they stay the same or change? Knowing what you want to do with each of the individual products under each of the brands will help in making decisions about if the brands should be combined or kept separate.
• Where do you see the brand and the business in five years? Ten years?   As you look into the future, what does the landscape look like? If you imagine the brands being combined as you look into the future, it makes sense to either lay the groundwork now or start the process and get there ahead of schedule.
• Are the different brands unique or do they share strong similarities?   If your brands are completely unrelated, it likely doesn't make a lot of sense to combine them. If there are strong similarities between the products or individuals served by each of the brands, combining them into a single masthead might make a lot of sense. It will improve your ability to offer more products or services to the same customer and foster up and cross-sell opportunities.
• Do you see the business phasing out specific products or brands as time moves forward?   What is the product roadmap for the business? Do you see releasing new versions of the products under each brand name? Do you see yourself combining features of products currently existing within separate brands? These questions are important for understanding how to manage your top-level brand strategy.
• How much effort is the business willing to put toward managing multiple brands?   Hint, hint! More brands mean more effort. Take a good, hard look at how you want to structure your business going forward. If you can't afford to put the extra effort into marketing, sales and customer services that maintaining separate brands requires, make that choice now. Be realistic about what your team can handle.

Once the business decisions behind the strategy come to the surface, it becomes easier to see the whole picture. Knowing what the ultimate business goal or goals behind the different brands are is the single most important part of this process. It will define the ultimate strategy and will dictate much of the timelines around how it is executed.

Case Study:

The SEO Implications of Changing Domains During a Website Redesign, feat. David Meerman Scott

Learn more », multi-brand strategy factors, your audience.

Now, marketing can help make some of the decisions as well. There are a few questions that are important to consider if the business strategy is not yet clear or leaves room for options.

5 Questions to Consider About Your Audience

• Are your different brand audiences similar?   If the audiences for your two brands are wildly different, it will make no sense to combine them into a single website. If your audiences are the same or overlap significantly, it will be much easier to combine them into a single website with a single brand   messaging strategy .
• Do the products or services offered by the different brands solve similar pain points?   If the answer is yes, this is a big signal that the brands should be combined into a single website. There will be much more opportunity for cross-over between the products or services offered by either brand. Combining them on a single website will allow you to offer a more holistic solution for users and make it easier for them to peruse all of your offerings.
• Are the buyer personas across brands similar or the same?   If your two brands have the same set of buyer personas, or the two brands combined only speak to about four personas, you should be relatively safe moving them into a single website. What you want to avoid is having eight personas served by a single website. It becomes very difficult to manage the different message across all of these audiences and create an experience that works for all of them.
• Is there strong brand loyalty or recognition among the different brand audiences?   Do your brands have a strong following or clear brand recognition. Would you lose something by essentially losing one of your brands? These are important considerations as you are deciding what your strategy looks like.
• Is there a single brand that stands out as the largest or most prominent?   This is an important question when deciding to consolidate brands. Is there a stand-out brand that would make sense to be the brand that you keep and pull smaller brands underneath?

Once you’ve answered all of these various questions, it will start to paint a much more clear picture of where you need to go. Making sure you understand the foundation of the effort will make it much simpler to select the right strategy for your organization.

SEO Considerations

After tackling some of the hard-to-answer strategic questions, there are some very tactical items we can look at to help determine if we should look at combining brands onto a single website. That's right, it's time to put on our SEO hats.

Overall Website Traffic

Take a dive into the analytics for each of the websites you are considering combining. If one stands out as a clear leader and the others are significantly lower, then it might make sense to roll those smaller sites up into the larger site. If all of the sites have high traffic, it might be a bit more of an undertaking to try and combine them.

Take a look at the keywords that are driving traffic to each of your websites. Are they very highly brand-related? Or are there lots of non-branded keywords helping to generate traffic?

If your websites are doing a good job of targeting pain points (and using a more inbound methodology), they will be relying much less heavily on brand-specific keywords. These websites will be much easier to combine into a single website.

This item should obviously be taken with a grain of salt, and weighted against your overall website traffic. If a website is relying very heavily on brand-specific keywords to drive traffic, but it isn’t driving very much traffic overall, then it doesn’t matter very much.

Cannibalization

One of the biggest issues you’ll run into when managing or merging multiple websites is SEO cannibalization. This is essentially the act of one of your brand websites eating away at traffic from the other. If you have two websites competing for the same keywords, they will naturally end up competing against each other. This can range from something as innocent as a simple sibling rivalry to an all-out war.

The first thing to do is look at keyword overlap for the multiple different websites you are considering merging. If you find that the overlap is high, and if, in the previous section, you have determined that your audiences are very similar, you have a strong argument for combining the two sites.

Ew. No one wants that. 

Geographic Location

Take a look at where your visitors are coming from. This won’t necessarily be a “decider” either way, but it is very important to know going into the setting of a strategy.

If the audiences for each website are coming from very different locations, you may have to consider if geography makes a big difference in brand recognition. You’ll want to be very careful to manage that recognition if you choose to combine the sites.

Answering the $1 Million Question

So, I know what you’re waiting for here: an answer to the question that started it all.

“Should I combine my websites?”

And I can’t give you an answer here. I can’t assume the answer to any of the questions I’ve posed above and, without context, I can’t tell you what is right for your situation. Only a strategic discussion with your team and dive into your analytics can provide you with that answer.

What I will do is detail the two most common strategies, in my experience, and the organizations that they often work for.

Yes, It Can Be Done:

"How to Combine 2 Successful Websites While Improving Traffic & Rankings" (Inbound Success Podcast, Ep. 74)

Listen to the episode », how to create a blended multi-brand strategy.

Now that you’ve gone through the exercise from the previous chapter, you should likely have an idea of which way your organization should be leaning. From here, we'll break down your two options, starting with blending your brands.

Again, I cannot stress this enough, you need to implement  your own version of it of this strategy .

Like I said before, there is no cookie cutter approach for this, and every brand will need to choose a variation of one of these strategies that works for them.

Blended Multi-Brand Strategy Basics

This strategy has an end goal of combining everything under a single brand and phasing out the smaller brand(s). The timeline of this approach will be highly specific to each individual organization and should be dictated by the timelines in the business strategy, in conjunction with the habits and activities of the target audience.

Who Should Use This Strategy?

This strategy is most commonly used in the following situations:

• Brand acquisitions , when a larger brand acquires a smaller brand.
• Brand mergers , where there is a clear leader or there is no strong brand loyalty.
• Strong audience overlap , when the separate brands have a very similar audience and close to the same buyer personas.
• Business goal , when the business strategy is to ultimately live under a single brand name.
• Organizational investment , when an organization does not deem it a business priority to put the significant investment of time and money required into managing multiple brands as separate and unique brands.

What You Need to Do

#1: create a co-branding strategy.

The first step in this strategy is to create a natural progression for your audience from one brand to another. Think of it like quitting smoking -- you can’t expect your audience to simply go cold turkey.  You'll confuse them, and you'll likely see a dip in revenue, if they just show up to your website one day and it's gone one or showcases a completely different name.

You need to give your audience the marketing equivalent of a patch or some nicotine gum to help ease the transition. This takes the form of a co-branding strategy. It is most typically executed by creating a logo that merges the old with new.

Let's say the old brand name that is getting phased out is “Le Tigre” and the brand name that everything will move under is called “Blue Steel.”

You might create a logo that still uses the name “Le Tigre” but has a tagline below it that says “a Blue Steel Company” or “by Blue Steel” to start helping your audience recognize the new name. Often this is done using the branded colors of the Blue Steel brand to start transitioning the style as well.

You’ll also want to create a very specific message around the brand merge or move. It should cover all of the following bases:

• Introduce the new brand.
• Explain the reason behind the merge.
• Assure the audience that nothing has changed -- and that things will improve!

It may look something like:

"Le Tigre is now a part of the Blue Steel family! We are so excited to announce that we are joining forces with Blue Steel to help deliver you the same great products you are used to faster, and with better customer service."

Behind the scenes, the business strategy should be to start moving products and services under the new names. Product-based companies should be preparing to change logos on products and internal conventions should be beginning to shift.

#2: Build a New Website

Along the path to merging brands, at some point, you will have to undergo either a complete website redesign or a website update that brings all of the information from the old brand onto the website of the new brand.

When combining websites, make sure you do your homework first. I always make sure I understand what pages are ranking well for valued keywords from an SEO perspective. Additionally, it is very important to understand what is working well from the old websites.

Answering these questions will tell you what to take with you to the new site:

• Are there pages where conversion rates are especially high?
• What does user behavior look like?
• Where are users spending the most time on the site?

During this process, you’ll be creating entirely new pages on your single combined site to house the information from the old brand’s website. As you go through this process, make a detailed URL mapping plan of what 301 redirects need to be in place from the old site to the new.

You need to create this plan before proceeding to the next step. 

#3: Your Interim Website Strategy

When it is time to officially start the shift with your website, you’ll want to keep in mind what I said before. It should be gradual and you should be creating a bridge from the old to the new for your audience.

You want to find a balance between being too abrupt with your audience while still starting to shift their mindset to the new brand. In order to do this with your website, the best strategy is to have an interim phase before the old brand is completely removed from the picture.

As you are phasing out the old website from the older brand, you’ll likely still want to have at least a splash page at the URL of the old brand’s website. Let’s use the example above to walk through what this looks like.

Le Tigre’s old website -- let’s use   www.letigrebrand.com   for argument’s sake -- will eventually need to direct users to Blue Steel’s website --  www.bluesteelbrand.com . The interim strategy should help provide that audience bridge and may look like the following:

On the Le Tigre Website:

• Le Tigre’s website will just have a splash page that has the co-branding message created previously along with a button that directs people to the Blue Steel website.
• All pages on Le Tigre’s site will show this message. After the user is on the page for a certain amount of time, you can potentially decide to auto-redirect them to the Blue Steel page.
• Users should be redirected to the appropriate corresponding page on the Blue Steel website (e.g. if I’m trying to view a product page on the Le Tigre site, I should be redirected to that same product page on the Blue Steel site).

On the Blue Steel Website:

• When a user arrives on the Blue Steel website at a product page that used to be a part of the Le Tigre product catalog, they should be met with similar messaging about the brand merge so they understand the product is the same and start familiarizing themselves with the Blue Steel brand.
• This page should use the co-branding strategy, in terms of logo and color scheme that you created in the previous step.

Let's take a look at an example of this in practice!

The LION brand recently combined existing brands BullEx and Haagen under its masthead . To get ahead of messaging around the new brand names, the LION team created some content around the brand merge, as shown above.

#4: Finally, Merge Your Brands Fully

Now, you’ll phase out the splash page on the Le Tigre website and just auto-redirect anyone landing on a Le Tigre URL to the correct Blue Steel URL instead. This page will still hold the messaging about the brand merge as described above. This part of the strategy is essentially where you are beginning to phase the Le Tigre name out little by little.

After your audience has gotten used to the Blue Steel name, you can completely phase out Le Tigre and get rid of any messaging or co-branding that uses Le Tigre. At this point, all products should now be completely and holistically Blue Steel.

A Note About Your Timeline

The timelines for each of these phases will vary. They will depend upon your audience, how strong brand recognition is for the brand that will be going away, your industry, and much more. Like I said before, this strategy is just a framework; the details will fit your situation.

Let's go back to our example to see how website pages look after the new website has been launched. To make their strategy work, the LION team used smart content and conditional messaging based upon a user's location.

Depending on where someone was accessing their website around the world, they would see a banner at the top of any product page that previously existed under either the BullEx or Haagen brand name to let any visitor know they were still in the right place:

Redirects from the old product pages to the new versions landed users directly on this page if they were trying to visit the product page on the old website.

How to Use Smart Content on Your Website to Vary Brand Messaging , feat. FourV Systems

Here's the scoop », how to create a multi-brand strategy with a parent brand.

The goal of this strategy is to continue to maintain separate websites and brands that have been pulled together under an umbrella or parent brand. It is significantly more effort than the previous strategy, but may make sense especially if each of the sub-brands has its own marketing department or messaging.

Who Should Use this Strategy?

• Very high brand loyalty , when each of the individual brands have such high brand loyalty that getting rid of a brand would mean a significant loss of revenue.
• Lack of audience overlap , when the separate brands serve very different audiences.
• Highly-specific keyword searches , when the individual brands are heavily found using very specific keywords. For example, property management or corporate real estate firms will often maintain individual property websites in addition to the main brand website because people very often search for property addresses when researching and buying.

Parent Brand Strategy in Action

In this strategy, your parent website will be the website for the umbrella brand. This website will likely   not   be a huge lead or sales generator. Each of your individual brand microsites will be used for that.

Typically, in this strategy, the parent brand is more of a masthead or name recognition engine. Rarely do brands using this structure want to try and sell products or services from the parent brand. They typically want to try and sell specific products or services to specific audiences from the correct associated sub-brand.

The parent site should really be more informational and tell the story that ties all of your sub-brands together. It should remain very simple and allow users to quickly and easily move away from the parent site and down to the sub-brand microsites that have what they really want. The sooner you can get leads off to the correct microsite, the more likely you will be to turn them into a conversion.

A great example of this strategy is Procter & Gamble :

They have their parent brand site which gives information about the Procter & Gamble as a whole and has a page with all of their sub-brands listed . The website itself is very simple and maintains the goal of working to siphon traffic off to the correct sub-brand as quickly as possible.

NBCUniversal is another great example:

In this case, NBCUniversal has opted to showcase their portfolio of brands at the bottom of their homepage . 

Sub-Brand Microsites

The goal behind the individual microsites is all about keyword search. The main reason to maintain separate microsites is to take advantage of the fact that users often search for the name (or address, in the case of real estate) of the individual brand. So, start by making sure your microsite is an SEO machine.

From a messaging perspective, the individual microsites should be highly specific and targeted toward the individual audience that would be interested in that sub-brand, and not messaged to the larger audience of the parent brand. Be highly specific and really speak to your target audience here.

If your parent brand is highly recognized and will lend additional credibility to your sub-brand, make sure the relationship is highly public on the microsite.

You could go so far as to use a similar co-branding approach to that described in the “Combining all Brands Into a Single Brand” section. It may simply be enough to include a tagline or sentence somewhere on the home page that says “A [Parent Brand] Company” and leave it at that. It will depend heavily on your specific situation.

Take advantage of backlinks whenever possible. The great part of this strategy is that you can help build your own backlinks between sites. So, make sure your parent site and microsites link back to each other (where appropriate).

Returning to our Procter & Gamble example, one of their sub-brands is Bounty :

The sub-brand website is specifically just about Bounty as a brand. There is just a small banner at the top of the website that mentions Bounty as part of the "P&G Family" with little fanfare. The goal here is to get the user to identify with the sub-brand rather than the parent brand.

Final Thought & Additional Resources

I know I'm repeating myself when I say this, but please keep in mind that this is a simple framework and set of guiding principles that are designed to be adapted by you to your unique situation. As much as I wish this could have been an expansive, 12,00o-word guide that holds your hand through every single step, that's simply not possible.

And if you read another guide that promises their one-size-fits-all approach will work for you, run away . No one is that good -- even me. 

However, once you decide which path you wish to take, below are three additional guides that can help you along your journey of developing and executing your multi-brand strategy. Good luck! 

❌⭕️❌⭕️,   Stacy

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What is a multi-brand strategy?

By Peri Lyon , 27 October 2022 | 8 mins read

When a company sells products or services via several brands, it has a multi-brand strategy. Take Pendragon, for instance. You may not know the name, but you may well know CarStore, Evans Halshaw and Stratstone, its motor retail brands. Multiple brands enable a company to target different audiences, secure greater shelf space and grab more market share. Is multi-brand a smart approach? It can be, but it’s not for everyone.

We’re going to take a closer look at multi-brand strategy including some good (and not so good) examples. Get ready to discover the pros, the cons, the whos, the hows, the whys and the why nots.

Chances are, you’ve already used a product from a multi-brand purveyor today, although you may not know it. For example, there’s Kellogg’s – whose cereal sub-brands include Rice Krispies, Coco Pops, Cornflakes, Special K and many more. Then, there’s Reckitt Benckiser who own Calgon, Clearasil, Cillit Bang, Vanish, Veet, Harpic, Strepsils, Nurofen, Durex and Dettol. Grabbed a bar of chocolate today or fed your dog some Pedigree? You’ve touched base with Mars, another multi-brand monster.

From the examples we’ve given so far, you’ll see that there are two kinds of multi-brand companies: the ‘house of brands’ and the ‘branded house’. Pendragon, Reckitt and Mars fall into the first category, with a one parent company and a portfolio of independent brands that are unconnected. Kellogg’s falls into the latter, alongside companies such as easyJet, Virgin and DHL. These businesses leverage their name to sell a plethora of different products or services under one umbrella brand.

The benefits of a multi-brand strategy

So, why have all these companies chosen the multi-brand route? There are some very compelling reasons. Let’s check out some of the benefits.

Outflank the competition

Create seven types of shower gel, each with a different brand. Give them each a distinct identity to appeal to different customer segments. Whichever one a customer chooses, the same parent company benefits, although the customer isn’t aware of it. Even if the customer likes to brand hop, there’s a good chance they’ll be buying from the same parent company. Meanwhile, competitors are squeezed off the shelves and out of the market. Goodbye competition. Hello market domination.

Attract different customer segments

As the example above shows, selling multiple brands means an opportunity to attract multiple customer segments, from high-end, luxury lovers to thrifty, budget buyers. It’s more customers overall and more revenue – just ask the big airlines. Almost all of them now have a low cost carrier in addition to their existing mid-market brand: think Lufthansa and Eurowings; KLM and Transavia.

Diversification

With multiple brands, the level of risk is reduced. If one brand has a crisis, the others aren’t affected and they can pull you through. With your eggs in several baskets, you can minimise the financial hit and maintain a positive reputation. For instance, when Covid hit, the airline industry tanked, but easyJet survived thanks to a big clutch of non-travel ‘easy’ businesses. easyJet’s expansion into everything from property to coffee machines to storage certainly paid off. (Yep, that’s why Sir Haji-Ioannou is an extremely rich modern business icon.)

Enter new markets and develop new income streams

Got a strong brand name? It can be your passport to profitable new markets and other income streams. Think Virgin. Although the company started in travel, it now has businesses spanning a dizzying range of products, sectors and services: wine, mobile, media – even space! Moral of the story? As Mr Branson might tell you (although perhaps not in these words), it pays to have your fingers in multiple pies.

Brand awareness and credibility

When your brands are everywhere, people know and trust them. Multi-brand strategies can raise visibility and help you build brand loyalty.

Reduced costs and economies of scale

Let’s get back to our seven brands of shower gel. Because you’re ordering raw ingredients in greater volumes, you can achieve economy of scale. Your production costs are lower and you can also optimise your workforce: seven different brands, but one centralised team. You can also use data and insights from your suite of brands and make them work for you. Cross-selling, up-selling and new product creation are all more likely to succeed when you’ve got the information to support your business ventures.

Maximise revenue

At the most fundamental level, multiple brands means more customers, more sales and therefore greater revenue. Sounds good, right? But before you start drawing up your new multi-brand marketing plan, there’s a few things to consider.

The disadvantages of a multi-brand strategy

Difficulty in keeping brands distinct.

Multi-brand strategy only works when you carve out a distinct brand identity for each brand you own. If customers start to see them as interchangeable, you lose your advantage – you’re competing against yourself. To appeal to different consumer segments, all your brands must be distinct from one another. That can require a lot of time and effort from a marketing perspective… multiple brands mean multiple brand guidelines and branding, multiple marketing strategies and multiple campaigns. Which leads to another problem…

Let’s go back to our seven different brands of shower gel. How much will it cost to market each individual brand? How much will you need to spend on building distinct identities and breaking through the noise of competing campaigns? If you spread your marketing budget too thinly and spend less than competitors, customers will choose other, more prominent brands. Do the maths and make sure you’ve got the money before you take the decision to go full multi-brand.

Weak brand identities

If you don’t have the time, money or expertise to develop distinct brands, you’ll have internal problems on your hands. Your brands will start going head to head instead of targeting different customer segments. This kind of rivalry isn’t good for your organisation, or for sales. One solution is to use a cloud-based brand centre to help you establish clear brand identities and keep them separate.

The ‘top performer’ dilemma

In any stable of brands, there’s likely to be one that outperforms the rest. If it’s significantly more profitable, that raises some major financial questions. Is it really worthwhile pumping time and money into lower-performing products? Again, it’s time to pull out the calculator and make some tough decisions.

Contagious consumer rejection

This one is more a problem for the ‘branded house’ model. If consumers decide they don’t like one of your products or services, they may reject your brand completely. If the customer experience is not up to scratch, they may decide not to buy anything with your name on it and there will be a negative impact on sales and overall reputation. An umbrella brand can work for you – but it can also work against you.

High standards for new brands and products

Even if consumers like a branded house’s products or services, there can still be issues. New products may well be welcomed – but they will be held up to the benchmark the brand has set. If customers judge a new product to have fallen short of the brand’s usual quality standards, they may reject it and leave negative reviews. If you’re adding a new brand to your stable, make sure it lives up to expectations.

A company that’s got multi-brand right

Case study: meta/facebook.

One company that appears to have multi-brand strategy down is Facebook, now known as Meta. In just under 20 years, it has become a multi-brand behemoth, rivalling other digital titans such as Google. Here’s its success story in a nutshell.

Back in 2004, there was just Facebook. A single, revolutionary app developed by Mark Zuckerberg. Fast forward to 2022 and Facebook is now Meta, with a whole stable of brands including Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace, Portal, Calibra and the original Facebook. The benefits of buying and deploying multiple brands exist on several levels, but among the most important is expanding Meta’s market share and acquiring even more users. For example, by buying Instagram, Facebook “ bought itself 30 million hipsters and all their wonderful hipster cool ,” says Kashmir Hill, of Forbes magazine. Today, Meta reaches some 3.6 billion users – and that’s just via its social media and messaging apps. Not bad for an app that had a measly (in social media platform terms) million users, less than 20 years ago.

And one that got it wrong…

Case study: centrica.

Between 1998 and 2003, Centrica, the multinational energy company, attempted to diversify. It developed the Goldfish credit card and bought the AA and telecoms business, One.Tel. Centrica’s plan was to be ‘a brand that would take care of life’s dull necessities’, providing energy through Centrica and British Gas; finance through Goldfish; and telecoms through One.Tel. It envisaged big opportunities to cross-sell and to cut costs by combining facilities for the different brands, such as call centres. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out like that – because the British public just didn’t get it. Cross-selling didn’t work because customers preferred to shop around when it came to choosing providers for other services. By 2005, Centrica had off-loaded all of its acquisitions. It was multi-brand experiment that went badly wrong. A cautionary tale for companies whose ambition blinds them to the immutable facts of customer behaviour.

As you can see from the examples above, multi-brand strategies can be seriously big and complex. Get them right and there’s big wins to be had. Get them wrong and… *shudders* . One thing to remember is that each one is different and will depend on the family of brands involved. So, when it comes to advice, off the shelf is off the table. What you need is an expert who will understand your particular situation and offer guidance to suit. If you’d like some assistance from the people who’ve helped DHL and Pendragon to master their multi-brand strategies, give us a call . We’re always happy to help with any multi-brand issues.

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Multi-Product Branding Tactics to Drive More Revenue.

Jason Vaught is the director of content and marketing for SmashBrand. He has two decades of experience in the CPG industry as an omnichannel retailer and brand owner.

Ever wondered how big brands like Unilever, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble dominate the market with diverse products under one cohesive umbrella? The secret behind their success lies in their strategic use of multi product branding .

An effective multi-product branding strategy starts with clearly defining the parent brand. Then you must market research and determine the brand hierarchy. Finally, it’s time to develop solid identities for each sub-brand and create consistent brand guidelines. 

In this detailed guide, you will discover the secrets of creating a successful multi-product branding strategy that distinguishes your brand from competitors. You will find various tactics that will give you an unfair advantage over your competitors in the market. So, let’s begin!

What Exactly is a Multi-Brand Strategy?

A multi-brand strategy is a popular approach to offering a portfolio of products under separate brand names. The plan involves a company selling various product lines or versions under individual brand names. Major CPG brands like Procter & Gamble (P&G), Unilever, and PepsiCo have effectively utilized this strategy to meet consumer preferences and gain a larger market share. 

For example, P&G sells various household and personal care products under brands like Tide, Pampers, Gillette, Pantene, and Oral-B. Brands leverage a multi-brand strategy to reap several benefits, such as:

• They can increase market share by offering multiple brands and targeting various consumer segments.
• Companies can build substantial brand equity for each brand, amplifying consumer loyalty and brand recognition. 
• Brands can reduce the risk of failure or decline sales for any single brand simply by depending on the performance of other brands in their portfolio. 
• With a diverse portfolio, companies can maintain a strong presence across various product categories, boosting overall brand awareness and visibility. 

How to Plan the Multi-Brand Architecture?

It is essential to plan thoroughly before starting a multi-product branding journey. Planning reduces risks and increases the likelihood of success. If a company fails to prepare before implementing its strategy, it may jeopardize its brand equity . Unplanned strategies can weaken the company’s brand positioning and identity and lead to confusion. 

For example, when Colgate introduced its line of frozen dinners, it failed because the new product was not in line with the brand and couldn’t survive in the market. Therefore, companies should follow the steps below to plan for multi-brand architecture before launching their strategy:

Define the Parent Brand

A strong and well-defined parent brand is the foundation upon which all sub-brands or product brands are built, ensuring consistency and leveraging the existing brand equity. Start by conducting a comprehensive brand audit to assess the parent brand’s state. Evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, brand positioning, brand values, and associations in the consumers’ minds. 

Articulate the parent brand’s purpose, core values, and the unique value proposition it offers customers. These values must be aligned with the company’s overall mission and vision. Determine its desired personality traits that will shape the brand’s tone, communication style, and overall experience. These personality traits must strictly resonate with the interests of the target audience. 

Build a solid and consistent visual identity for the parent brand. It will serve as a strong foundation for all children’s brands. Visual identity includes logos, color schemes, typography, and other components. This visual identity must be flexible enough to accommodate sub-brands while maintaining a cohesive brand look and feel. 

Conduct Thorough Market Research

Never base your strategy on guesswork. Always make decisions using insights and data from the real-world market. Conduct thorough market research and gain a multi-faceted understanding of the target market. Immerse yourself in the world of the target audience for each product line. Understand their challenges, goals, and what motivates them. This in-depth approach will uncover valuable insights for creating engaging brand stories.

Study your competitors’ branding moves, from clever naming conventions to iconic logos . Dissect what works and what doesn’t and identify opportunities to outshine them. Act like a brand archeologist and find the untapped market niches. These hidden gems could be the fertile ground for your next big product launch and brand extension. 

Don’t just assume; test your branding concepts. Engage with real customers and gather their feedback on everything from the SaaS branding approach to the visual identity. Their reactions will help optimize your strategy. In-depth market research is the difference between taking a shot in the dark and having a clear path to success. 

By understanding the target market deeply, you can avoid expensive brand cannibalization mistakes and ensure each product line has a unique and well-defined identity connecting with its target audience.

Determine the Brand Hierarchy

Companies use market research insights to create a brand hierarchy that harmonizes their multiple product lines. The key here is establishing clear-cut relationships between the parent brand and sub-brands. This hierarchy could step from product categories, target markets, or pricing tiers – a strategic blueprint tailored to their unique needs. 

For example, a CPG branding powerhouse might group sub-brands under specific product families, while an e-commerce branding expert could categorize by pricing or target demographics. Regardless of the approach, a well-defined hierarchy crystallizes naming and branding conventions, streamlining brand management and fortifying customer clarity.

Develop Sub Brand Identities

Businesses must create unique, memorable, and influential names for each product brand. They should also make an eye-catching logo and develop a strategy that resonates with their target audience. These sub-brands should always reflect the core values and promises of the parent brand, creating a consistent experience. 

Essential steps include thorough marketing and branding research, creating distinct visual identities, and tailoring messages to match each sub-brand’s personality. In the case of B2B branding , sub-brands can emphasize specific product features or solutions for particular industries. 

Regardless of the approach, finding the right balance between standing out and staying true to the brand’s history helps clarify the brand and maximize the parent brand’s reputation.

Implement Consistent Branding Efforts

Mastering the basics of branding is essential when implementing a multi-product strategy. Maintaining consistency across all touchpoints ensures strong brand recognition and customer loyalty. Avoid common branding mistakes , such as using overly broad colors. While each product should have its own identity, all sub-brands must follow the main branding guidelines . 

This includes visual elements like logos, color palettes, tone of voice, and messaging. This holistic approach strengthens the leading brand while allowing for strategic differences. For FMCG branding or small businesses managing multiple offerings, this consistent approach prevents brand dilution and creates a cohesive brand experience that resonates with the target customer.

Implementing the Mixed Branding Strategy

A mixed branding strategy leverages the power of multiple products and different bands under one umbrella. This approach is efficient when launching a new product or product line. It allows for dedicated branding tailored to specific consumer segments. For example, Frito-lay employs a multi-branding strategy with distinct brands like Doritos, Cheetos, and Lay’s, each catering to different snacking preferences. This approach prevents brand extension fatigue and maintains brand clarity. 

Co-branding partnerships can be a powerful mixed branding strategy, combining the strengths of two brands to create unique products. Nestlé’s partnership with Starbucks on co-branded coffee products is an example of this. A well-executed mixed branding strategy allows companies to optimize their brand portfolio, leveraging synergies while maintaining distinct brand equities tailored to diverse consumer needs.

Managing Multiple Brands Effectively

Managing multiple brands is not easy. It requires a systematic brand strategy. Companies must maintain consistency across all touchpoints to solidify brand recognition and foster customer loyalty. They must establish clear identity guidelines encompassing all essential branding elements to safeguard brand integrity and prevent dilution. 

Efficient brand management also requires strategic resource allocation. Therefore, companies must carefully distribute their finite resources, whether financial, human, or technological, across their brand portfolio. This could entail prioritizing high-growth or high-margin brands while maintaining essential support for others. 

This strategic prioritization is critical for small businesses with limited resources to maximize brand equity and market share. Companies must continuously monitor their brand performance metrics, such as consumer preference, awareness, and sentiment. This data-driven approach enables agile decision-making, allowing brands to course-correct their marketing strategies and optimize their brand portfolios. 

By balancing brand consistency, resource optimization, and performance monitoring, organizations can effectively manage the complexities of managing multiple brands, cultivate enduring brand reputations, and drive long-term growth.

Using Multiple Brands for Growth

A multi-product strategy can be a powerful catalyst for growth. It enables companies to unlock new revenue streams and strengthen their market presence. By deploying a carefully crafted branding strategy, organizations can effectively target different market segments with tailored offerings that cater to diverse consumer preferences and needs.

For example, Procter & Gamble has many well-known brands, such as Tide, Pampers, and Gillette. This allows the company to serve different types of customers across various product categories. This strategic diversification helps reduce risk and create opportunities for growth by meeting changing customer needs with multiple products.

It is important to note that a well-implemented multi-brand strategy can enhance the overall brand value of a company’s entire portfolio. By ensuring consistency across all brands and providing excellent customer service through various channels, such as retail stores and digital platforms, companies can encourage brand loyalty and support, leading to continuous growth and profitability.

Best Practices for Multi-Branding Success  

Achieving success with multiple brands depends on mastering essential best practices. These best practices will help your company in many ways, such as differentiating your brand in the market, increasing market growth, and enhancing brand recognition. Here are some of the best practices that you need to follow when managing multiple brands at the same time:

Differentiating Brand Positioning: Each brand should have a distinct space in consumers’ minds, with a clear value proposition that sets it apart from competitors and other brands within the same portfolio. Avoiding overlap and cannibalization is essential to prevent consumer confusion and ensure each brand can thrive independently.

Integrating Marketing Efforts: Leverage shared resources, platforms, and digital marketing strategies to optimize costs and amplify reach. Tailor messaging and tactics to each brand’s unique positioning and target audience for maximum impact.

Measuring and Optimizing Performance: Data analysis provides valuable insights into consumer behavior, brand equity, and marketing ROI, enabling informed decision-making and strategic optimization. Regularly evaluating product marketing performance is crucial for identifying areas for improvement and guiding resource allocation across the brand portfolio.

Companies must adhere to these best practices confidently to effectively navigate multi-branding complexities. They should leverage the strengths of each brand while minimizing potential conflicts or dilution. Continuous monitoring, adaptation, and optimization are crucial for ensuring long-term success and maintaining a competitive edge in an ever-evolving marketplace.

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Multi-Brand Strategy in the Modern Market

We all know that our lifestyle is filled with a large number of branded products, but you may not realize that many of the most commonly used product brands—Crest toothpaste, Pantene shampoo, Gillette shaving cream, Pringles potato chips and Duracell batteries—in fact belong to one company, in this case Proctor & Gamble (P&G). It has become very common for a company to have a portfolio of multiple brands, but what is the advantage of adopting a multi-brand strategy in today’s market? 

Looking at several multi-brand companies, we can see that most exist in the B2C industries. For instance, this phenomenon can be observed in FMCG, cosmetics, automobile, as well as pharmaceutical fields. The following graph shows examples of companies in these industries, as well as their brands: 

Unlocking consumer relevance and market influence, B2C industries strategically embrace multi-brand strategies to navigate the intricate landscape of diverse consumer preferences. In contrast to B2B sectors, where market segmentation is less pronounced, B2C companies recognize the need to tailor their approach to consumers with varied purchasing factors. Attempting to address this complexity with a single brand can challenge maintaining a strong brand identity. P&G’s multi-brand strategy exemplifies this approach, with distinct shampoo brands such as Head & Shoulders for dandruff control, Pantene for healthy hair, and Sassoon for a professional salon experience. This strategic diversification enables companies to occupy multiple market positions, maximizing relevance and resonance with consumers in an ever-evolving market.

From the brand management perspective, having multiple brands is a portfolio strategy which can maintain the continuity of profit-generating activities. The BCG Matrix model (pictured below) is based on the two indexes “current market share” and “market growth potential”. The brand portfolio of a company can be divided into four quadrants with each part representing a function. Using the example of L’Oreal, we will use this structure to illustrate the multi-brands practices. 

• Cash cow : a “cash cow” brand possesses a large market share, but its market growth potential is limited. In this case, the reputation of the brand has been established and the brand is profitable. The optimized choice is to maximize the current revenue from the brand. 
• Star : a “star” brand possesses a large market share, and at the same time, its market growth potential is promising. Like the name, this kind of brand is the star of a company because it has high positioning and generates high revenue. A “star” brand is a good indicator of a company’s activities and profile. For L’Oreal, Lancôme is the star because it occupies a leading position in the premium cosmetics market. 
• Dogs : “dogs” are brands lacking both market share and growth potential. This kind of brand is usually in the later stages of its brand-life, and should be removed from the market as soon as possible. 
• Wildcats : a “wildcat” brand has a small market share but good growth potential; it has the potential to become a “star” or a “dog”. To help the brand become a star, the company should increase advertising and promotional activities. For L’Oreal, Shu Uemura can be viewed as a “wildcat” in the China market. 
• The BCG Matrix model expresses the dynamic process of a brand’s life . Every brand has it own life: growth, maturity, aging and death. By having multiple brands, the company can offset the negative effects of its unprofitable brands. 

Strategic Insights into Multi-Brand Strategy: Balancing Risks and Rewards

Delving into the realm of brand portfolio management reveals that opting for a vast brand portfolio is a strategic move best suited for larger corporations, steering clear of higher risks that may overwhelm smaller counterparts. This nuanced strategy demands careful consideration, especially when it comes to positioning the company’s brands within the same market. The absence of clear brand positioning can inadvertently spark unhealthy competition among the brand siblings, potentially harming the overall corporate entity. An additional challenge surfaces in the form of cost control, where the management of an expansive brand portfolio inevitably translates to higher operational costs. To navigate these intricacies, savvy companies often lean towards the strategy of brand extension, seamlessly extending a brand from one market to another. This prudent choice ensures strategic growth while mitigating the risks and cost implications associated with the management of a diverse multi-brand portfolio. Explore the strategic landscape of brand management as we delve into the considerations influencing the choice between multi-brand portfolios and brand extension.

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• August 8, 2023

Imagine possessing the power to control an empire of 50 provinces? That’s a lot of power right. That is exactly what it feels like to operate on a multi-brand strategy.

Nestlé is a good example of a multi brand company, with close to 2000 brands, including KitKat, Nespresso and Gerber. This allows Nestlé to appeal to a wide range of customers, from children to adults.

Multi-brand strategies is an effective strategy for businesses that want to grow their market share and reach new customers. However, it is important to manage the different brands carefully to avoid confusion and cannibalization. 

In this article, we will take a deep look at multi-brand strategy and explore the benefits of running multiple brands.

Also, this article will explore some multi brand strategy examples and companies with multiple product lines. Of course, we will discuss the disadvantages of multi branding strategy, because no strategy exists without its cons. Let’s get right into it.

Table of Contents

What is Multi-Brand strategy?

A Multi-brand strategy refers to the practice in which a single company manages a portfolio of products or services with different brand names. 

With this approach, such a business aims to target multiple customer segments, as its services or products meet the needs of a diversifying market.

One good example of a company that leverages multi-branding is Nestlé. Nestlé owns over 2,000 brands, including the famous Nespresso, Nescafé, and Kit Kat. This allows Nestlé to reach a wide range of consumers with different products and services.

Another example of a company with a multi-product branding strategy is Meta (formerly Facebook). Meta owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, all of which operate as separate brands. This allows Meta to target different audiences with each brand.

Finally, FedEx is another company that uses multi-product branding. FedEx offers a variety of shipping services, each with its own brand name. This allows FedEx to compete in different markets and appeal to different customers.

Most companies with multiple product lines may choose to include the parent name into the other brands like FedEx, with sub brands such as FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Services, FedEx Logistics.

Also,  there is another option of not including the parent name of the brand into the sub brands, as with Nestle – Poland Spring, Maggi, Milo and Kit Kat.

Benefits of Multi-Brand Strategy 

Like every other strategy, multi branding also comes with some cons and disadvantages. So, before you say yes to any system or strategy, ensure you way the benefits against the challenges. If you are comfortable with the risks involved, you can venture into it. Let’s discuss the advantages of the multi-brand strategy system.

1. Build Brand visibility

When you create and market multiple brands, your products take up more shelf space and are seen more often by customers. This increased visibility makes your brand more trustworthy and recognizable  which can lead to customer loyalty. 

2. Position yourself as a leader of though

By owning and marketing multiple products, you can occupy more shelf space than your competitors. This makes your products less competitive and positions your brand as a thought leader in your niche.

The level of visibility that you gain from operating on a multi-branding strategy gives you more market power and makes you a more credible source of information.

3. Increase Customer Base

Another important advantage of running a multi-brand strategy is  the opportunity it creates in reaching diverse customers. Creating multiple products give you  wider reach which if properly managed can increase the overalloverall awareness of your company.

4. Risk Diversification

Diversifying your business by having multiple brands can help to reduce risk. If one brand experiences problems, your other brands can continue to generate revenue and maintain overall business stability. This can help to prevent your company from becoming too reliant on the success of a single brand.

Disadvantages of Multi-Brand Strategy  

1. lack of focus.

One of the challenges faced by having multiple brands is the problem of lack of focus. Because you are faced with different tasks to perform at the same time, it may become overwhelming to concentrate on a particular brand. This can greatly affect the performance of the neglected brand. If not properly managed, it could affect the entire brand.

2. Difficult to Manage

It’s difficult to manage multiple brands effectively, as you need to ensure that they are all aligned with your overall brand strategy. This is one of the major challenges of multiple branding. 

3. Tendency of Substandard Products

When a company launches a new product under a multi-brand strategy, consumers may be more critical of its quality because they have come to expect a certain level of excellence from the company. If the new product does not meet these expectations, it may be quickly dismissed and receive negative reviews. This could damage the company’s reputation and lead to decreased sales.

4. Brand Confusion

A disadvantage of a multi-brand strategy is that it can lead to brand confusion. This occurs when consumers are unsure of which brand to choose from a company’s lineup of similar products. Too many options can lead to consumers becoming overwhelmed and frustrated, and they may eventually choose to leave the company’s umbrella altogether in search of a more straightforward choice.

Tips to Manage Multi-Brand Strategy 

A multi branding strategy, if well managed, can lead to the rapid increase of the overall success and growth of the brand involved. However, if not popularly managed, even research the smallest mistake and rub on the reputation of the other brands.  

Here are 5 tips to help you manage your multiple branding projects.

• Know your limitations 
• Research the audience for each brand and draw a customer avatar 
• Set realistic and smart goals for your marketing journey
• Draw a distinct and clear brand value for each of your operation
• Always research the market to stay ahead of your competitor

Multi-Brand Examples: Companies with Multiple Product Lines

1. microsoft.

Microsoft is a great example of a multi brand company with diverse organizations linked together offering several services. Currently, Microsoft operates in five business units: Online Services Division, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft Business Solutions, Microsoft Office.

According to Investopedia, the 7 brands owned by Microsoft are:

• LinkedIn 
• Skype Technologies S.A.R.L 
• GitHub 
• Mojang 
• Muantive 
• ZeniMax Media 
• Nuance Communications

2. L’Oréal’s 

L’Oreal is a well-known beauty brand, built on the multi brand strategy system. Its major divisions include consumer products, luxury items, professional options and active cosmetics, 

Some of L’Oréal’s Brand Portfolio, according to Wikipedia, include :

Brand portfolio

• Carol’s Daughter.
• Créateurs de Beauté
• L’Oréal Paris.

Kraft is another great example of as a company operating within the multi brand strategy. It is a reputable company providing quality food-based products like coca-cola does. Although, Kraft is specialized in a particular niche. 

Some brands owned byKraft are: 

• Double Fruit
• Maxwell House

4. Procter & Gamble (P&G)

P&G is another company that has made noble name using the multi brand strategy. They produce multiple  products ranging from Dishwashing to Beauty care, Healthcare Products to Household, etc

Some Brands owned by P&G according to Wikipedia are;

• Fresco bar soap
• Cheer laundry detergent
• Daz detergent
• Align probiotics
• Crest toothpaste
• Always pads and menstrual hygiene products
• Tampax tampons

Other  Companies with Multiple product lines

• The J.M. Smucker Company

These are just a few examples compared to several others in existence.

1. What are the four 4 types of branding strategies?

The four types of branding strategies are: 

• Corporate branding: where the company name is used as the brand name (e.g. Coca-Cola) 
• Product branding: where each individual product has its own separate brand name (e.g. Nike’s different product lines like Air Max, Flyknit, etc.) 
• Generic branding: where products are sold under a generic or common name (e.g. supermarket own-brand products) 
• Personal branding: where an individual (e.g. a celebrity) is used to promote and market a product or service under their own name.

2. Why use multi-brand strategy?

A multi-brand strategy may be used to target different market segments or appeal to different customer preferences. It also helps to spread the risk of any product failures or negative publicity across different brands, rather than being solely associated with one brand.

3. What is the difference between single brand and multi-brand strategy?

The main difference between single brand and multi-brand strategy is that with a single brand strategy, all products are marketed under the same brand name, whereas with a multi-brand strategy, a company may have different brands for different products or product lines. 

4. What is a disadvantage of multi product branding strategy?

A disadvantage of a multiproduct branding strategy is that if one product is unsuccessful or suffers negative publicity, it can negatively impact the reputation of the entire brand, including other successful products under that brand. 

Also, managing multiple brands can require more resources and may lead to cannibalization of sales between products under different brands.

Conclusion on What is Multi-Brand Strategy?

Multi brand strategy is a marketing approach that involves a company offering a range of different brands under its umbrella, each targeting different customers with unique identities and positioning. 

As discussed in this article, this strategy allows companies to cater to diverse consumer needs, build brand equity, and increase market share. 

It also enables efficient resource allocation, economies of scale, and risk diversification. 

However, if you must adapt this strategy, you must carefully manage your  multi-brand portfolio to ensure brand differentiation, avoid cannibalization, and maintain consistent quality standards.

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• 7 August 2023

6 Examples of Great Brand Strategy Case Studies

What is Brand Strategy?

The term brand strategy relates to the methods a brand will use to market its products or services to consumers. It focuses on how they present and position themselves in the market. There are several strategies a brand can use and here are some of the biggest.

Company Name

This is where a brand will focus on marketing their company/brand name as a whole. They don’t focus on any specific element of their brand, services or products. Their goal is to improve brand awareness through marketing their name alone.

Individual Branding

This is where a brand will focus on a specific element of their brand. This could range from an individual product to a service, or even a person. This form of branding moves away from overall brand marketing and narrows its focus towards a specific element.

Attitude Branding

This is where the brand markets the idea or emotion behind their brand rather than the name or product. A brand will align itself with this idea, emotion or feeling and market their association with this factor.

Brand Extension

Brand extension is when a brand markets a sub-brand rather than the overall parent brand. Many big brands are owned by even bigger brands, but they don’t market the larger parent brand.

Private Label

Not all brands or companies create their own products. The term private label refers to products that are produced for multiple brands from one creator. Private labels offer an in-house version of commonly produced products, and a brand can market this as a lower price alternative, for example.

Brand Strategy Case Studies

There are many successful branding case studies we could use to explain each element of a brand strategy. However, we believe these 7 examples help explain the power and benefits of brand strategy well.

Red Bull – Company Brand Name

Red Bull is somewhat of a powerhouse in the world of brand marketing. Their company-based brand marketing strategy is one of the most complete but does require a lot of budget. Running F1 teams and sponsoring extreme sports athletes doesn’t come cheap but it can lead to virality.

What Has Red Bull Done?

Red Bull has always known their target market and have found a way to communicate with them. Their initial brand marketing involved finding out where their target market would hang out and hand out free products: increasing brand awareness and word-of-mouth exposure.

Now, with a much larger budget, they still perform the same style of marketing. They know where their target market will be online or what sports they enjoy and position themselves there. Be it an F1 race or an 18 year old university student looking at skydiving content on YouTube.

What Can We Learn From Red Bull?

Understanding your target market will help you position your brand correctly. Their brand is so well known most will associate it name with their favourite sport before a canned energy drink.

Apple – Individual

Apple has always pushed their products before their brand name. Hosting large expos to launch a new product and advertising their latest phone before looking to raise brand awareness. The ‘Shot on Iphone’ ad campaigns are a great example of their marketing efforts pushing the quality and ability of their products.

What Have Apple Done?

Apple focuses on the consumer within its marketing efforts and aligns this with their product. Their push towards innovation is clear from their slogan ‘Think Different’. They look to expose their product strengths and do this through TV advertising and tech influencers.

What Can We Learn From Apple?

If we’re looking to market an individual part of our brand, like a product, it’s important that we first understand the benefits. By understanding the benefits we can market these and draw attention to the selling factors. Ensuring the individual element embodies the overall brand message.

Air Jordan – Brand Extension

One of the most recognisable brand extensions is Air Jordan. A sub-brand of Nike, Air Jordans have become some of the most successful and sought after shoes in the market. They currently sell somewhere around $5 billion worth of shoes each year.

What Have Air Jordan Done?

Nike aligned their product with an up and coming basketball superstar. They also moved away from the Nike brand name as, at the time, it wasn’t ‘cool’ within the basketball scene. By focusing on the brand extension, Air Jordan, they were able to market it alongside the athlete.

What Can We Learn From Air Jordan?

Brand extensions don’t need to follow the same brand message as the parent brand. They can be unique and move away from what would be expected of the parent brand, giving them freedom to push in other directions to reach a wider potential customer base.

Aldi – Private Label

Aldi is a European supermarket that has found great success with their private label range. In fact, 90% of Aldi’s products are private label and, as the majority of their products are in-house, they’re able to control price and availability. This flexibility gives them an edge over their larger supermarket competitors.

What Have Aldi Done?

Aldi have run a number of brand marketing campaigns, however, their focus on the quality of their private label stands out. The ‘I also like this one’ campaign is a great example of how they compare themselves to others in the industry. Backing it up with consumer data, they are able to stand out as just as good but less expensive.

What Can We Learn From Aldi?

If you’re a private label brand, it’s important to know your strengths and weaknesses. Perform market research to gather relevant data and market using this information. Part of the 4 Ps of marketing is ‘price’, so it’s important to consumers that the price is competitive.

Jeep – Attitude Branding

Jeep brand themselves alongside the idea of adventure. Jeep’s marketing campaigns are all focused around the idea of the car being a tool to achieve adventures. This is a great example of how a brand can align themselves with an idea and brand the idea with the product.

What Have Jeep Done Well?

Jeep have understood their target market and have in some ways built their target market around their products. They have positioned themselves through advertisement and product placements to be recognised alongside an attitude.

What Can We Learn From Jeep?

Marketing and branding doesn’t always have to be about yourself. Branding can be an idea that you and your products envelop. Marketing this idea can associate you with that idea. You are therefore no longer just Jeep, you are the adventure car.

Enhancing a Brand Strategy

Not every brand is the same and not every strategy works for every brand. It’s important to understand who you and who your customers are before you develop a brand strategy. Knowing this will give you the best chance of success when launching a new campaign.

For more help and support in creating a brand strategy for your business or company get in contact with Fellow. You can also view our brand strategy page here.

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Brand Strategy: The Ultimate Guide to Building a Powerful Brand

Discover your brand's unique character. Reveal the truth with our free quiz!

Are you starting a new business or scaling up? A brand strategy is your blueprint. It’s the plan that guides every brand decision you make.

What is brand strategy?

A brand strategy, often called a brand development strategy, is a long-term plan formulated to achieve a series of goals, leading to consumers' distinct identification and preference for your brand. It goes beyond mere visual elements; it's the very core of your brand, encompassing its values, mission, and the perception you aim to instill in the market.

With a robust brand strategy, you set the stage to captivate your audience and distinguish yourself from competitors.

Over the past fifteen years, I’ve worked closely with hundreds of entrepreneurs, marketers, and agencies to help them refine their brand strategies. The insights in this guide aren’t just from client projects but from engaging discussions at major conferences, webinars, and deep dives on our blog.

This guide distills our experience. Inside, you’ll find practical steps, insights, best practices, and advice to help you build a brand that stands out in today’s crowded market.

Brand Strategy: The Ultimate Guide

Why brand strategy is important, what happens without an effective brand strategy, the elements of a brand strategy, branding methods, phase 1: discovery, phase 2: brand identity, phase 3: execution, five critical rules for effective brand strategy execution, great examples of a successful brand strategy.

A brand strategy acts as your company’s DNA. Just as DNA defines every facet of a human being, a brand strategy intricately weaves the characteristics and direction of your business.

A brand without strategy is like a body without a blueprint—aimless and undefined.

Why does this matter? Here are ten reasons why it’s critical to have a robust brand strategy:

• Establishes trust. A consistent brand helps build trust. Customers are more likely to return when they recognize and can anticipate a brand’s qualities. For example, a local bakery that consistently uses high-quality ingredients and maintains a cozy ambiance will ensure, over time, that locals trust it for their daily bread and coffee. An e-commerce store that sells eco-friendly products and consistently communicates its sustainable practices can make itself a go-to for eco-conscious shoppers.
• Creates brand recognition. Unique branding elements increase brand awareness and make a business memorable. For example, a neighborhood bookstore with a distinctive blue cat logo can become the talk of the town. A digital design agency with vibrant animations on its website can differentiate from competitors.
• Drives business value. A strong brand often commands higher prices due to perceived value. A cafe with a known brand of organic coffee can charge a premium over a generic cafe. A branded online course platform can charge more than a non-branded peer.
• Guides marketing efforts. A clear brand strategy directs how, when, and where a business should advertise. A yoga studio focusing on mindfulness might choose local magazine ads with serene imagery. A tech startup could leverage targeted LinkedIn ads to reach professionals.
• Fosters customer loyalty. People love belonging to a “tribe.” A clear brand can create a community of loyal followers . A vintage clothing store can host monthly 90s-themed events, cultivating a regular clientele. A streaming service with exclusive fandom forums can make subscribers feel part of a community.
• Attracts talent. A recognizable brand can attract the right talent that aligns with the company’s vision. An eco-resort known for sustainable practices can attract employees passionate about the environment. A popular online magazine can attract writers who align with its edgy tone.
• Sets you apart from the competition. In crowded markets, branding can be the differentiator . A salon offering a unique “hair spa” experience stands out from standard hairdressers. A SaaS tool offering AI-based predictions differentiates itself from basic analytics tools.
• Encourages brand advocacy. Happy customers can become brand ambassadors. Patrons of a local organic juice bar often rave about it to friends and family. Users of a project management tool can refer to it in online forums due to its standout features.
• Informs product development. A brand’s identity can guide the development of new products or services that align with its ethos. A health-focused restaurant might expand into offering cooking classes (one of my favorite restaurants in Naples, Florida, did this and created a unique way to stay in touch with customers). A website builder platform could introduce new design templates based on its user-centric brand promise.
• Provides clear direction for growth. A robust brand strategy sets a clear path for scaling operations and entering new markets. An artisanal cheese producer known locally can use its brand to penetrate neighboring cities. An e-book platform with a clear brand can leverage it to introduce audiobooks and courses.

Imagine setting sail on a vast ocean without a map or compass, with waves pushing you in unpredictable directions.

Navigating the business world without an effective brand strategy can feel much the same: directionless and fraught with pitfalls.

While a strong brand strategy is a guiding light, its absence can steer your business toward choppy waters.

• Inconsistent brand image . Without a clear strategy, businesses can portray a patchy, inconsistent image that confuses customers. A restaurant switching themes and cuisines monthly may struggle to retain loyal patrons. An e-commerce store with constantly changing website designs can deter repeat visitors seeking familiarity.
• Diluted brand value. Without a strong brand foundation, businesses risk weakening their value proposition in the market. A boutique offering luxury and bargain items can confuse consumers about its positioning. A premium subscription-based content site that suddenly floods with ads can tarnish its upscale image.
• Missed marketing opportunities. Lack of a brand strategy can result in sporadic marketing, missing out on key audience segments . A gym not targeting local residents with special offers may miss a huge potential client base. A digital course platform neglecting SEO might miss out on organic growth opportunities.
• Reduced customer trust. Inconsistent branding can erode trust as customers prefer businesses they can predictably rely on. A coffee shop with fluctuating coffee quality can lose its regular morning crowd. An online retail shop with inconsistent shipping times can push customers towards more reliable competitors.
• Struggle to differentiate . Without a unique brand identity, businesses can fade into the background among competitors. Larger chain stores might overshadow a local craft store without unique offerings. A generic music streaming platform can struggle to stand out in a market dominated by giants like Spotify or Apple Music.
• Fluctuating target audience . Without a defined brand strategy, businesses might aimlessly target different demographics, leading to inefficient resource use. A toy store marketing to kids and corporate professionals can spread its resources thin and confuse its primary audience. A wellness blog oscillating between teen mindfulness and senior health might struggle to retain a consistent readership.
• Inefficient resource allocation. Without clear branding , businesses can waste resources on endeavors that don’t align with their core objectives. A theater spending equally on all genres might find musicals are their main revenue driver but waste funds on unpopular genres. An online shoe store investing in tech upgrades might overlook the primary demand for a wider shoe collection.
• Unclear company mission and vision. Internal teams can lack direction without a brand strategy, reducing motivation and alignment. Without a clear brand image, a bookstore might struggle to curate books that resonate with its community. A tech startup without a defined brand may have product teams developing features that don’t align with the company’s core mission .
• Decreased employee morale. Employees prefer working for a brand with a clear identity, and a lack of it can lead to reduced motivation. A hotel chain without a clear brand ethos might experience higher staff turnover due to a lack of brand pride. An online media company without a clear brand voice might see decreased writer enthusiasm and inconsistent content quality.
• Limited growth opportunities. Businesses with a poorly defined brand can struggle to recognize or capitalize on potential growth areas. A craft beer brewery without a defined brand might miss the chance to collaborate with local eateries or events. A digital design tool without clear branding might overlook partnership opportunities with online education platforms.

Here are fifteen essential elements of a brand strategy:

• Brand purpose. This explains why the brand exists beyond making profits. It’s the driving force and the difference the brand aims to make in the world or its customers’ lives. A local organic grocery store might exist to promote and provide healthy, locally sourced foods to foster community wellness. An e-commerce platform could have a purpose to make unique handcrafted items accessible globally, promoting artisans from remote areas.
• Brand Promise . The value or experience a brand commits to delivering consistently to its audience. It’s a brand’s commitment to its stakeholders. A cafe can promise to serve only ethically sourced coffee. A digital streaming service can promise ad-free viewing.
• Brand positioning . How the brand differentiates itself from competitors in the market. It’s the unique space the brand occupies in the minds of its target audience. A boutique hotel might position itself as a luxurious escape from the bustling city. A fitness app positions itself as a personal trainer in your pocket.
• Target audience. Clearly defined segments of the population that the brand seeks to serve. It includes deeply understanding their behaviors, needs, challenges, and aspirations. A skateboard shop might target teenagers and young adults interested in street culture. A subscription box service focuses on working professionals interested in gourmet home cooking.
• Brand personality . The set of human characteristics attributed to the brand. For example, a brand might be youthful, fun, serious, or trustworthy. A local bookstore can exude a calm, reflective, and knowledgeable personality. A finance management app might have an innovative, proactive, and confident personality.
• Brand voice . The consistent tone and style in which a brand communicates, both in written and spoken forms. It could be formal, casual, playful, or any other manner that aligns with the brand’s identity. A high-end jewelry store can use a sophisticated and elegant tone in its brochures and advertisements. A blog about sustainable living might adopt a friendly, informative, and encouraging tone.
• Visual identity . The visual elements that represent the brand, such as logo, typography, colors, and design principles. A craft beer brand can use rustic, earthy colors and hand-drawn illustrations on its labels. A cloud storage service can use a minimalist design with cool, airy colors to reflect the idea of ‘cloud.’
• Brand story . The narrative that connects the brand to its audience is often rooted in the brand’s history, mission, or values. A family-run bakery tells the story of recipes passed down through generations. A photography website shares its journey from a college project to a major platform for photographers worldwide.
• Brand touchpoints. All the platforms and mediums where the brand interacts with its audience, including websites, social media, advertising, packaging, and in-person interactions. A car dealership can offer branded merchandise, loyalty cards, and after-sales service touchpoints. An online retailer can introduce touchpoints like order confirmation emails , newsletter updates, and retargeting ads.
• Brand values. The core beliefs and principles that guide the brand’s behavior and decisions. A fashion boutique might value ethical sourcing, eco-friendliness, and timeless design. An online news portal could value transparency, inclusivity, and grassroots journalism.
• Brand experience. The sum of all customer experiences with a brand, from initial awareness to purchase and post-purchase interactions. A spa can ensure a serene ambiance, personalized treatments, and impeccable customer service for a holistic experience. A music streaming service can provide personalized playlists, high-quality audio, and easy device synchronization for a seamless experience.
• Brand loyalty strategies. Initiatives and programs designed to encourage repeat business and deepen the relationship between the brand and its customers. A restaurant can offer a loyalty card where frequent visits lead to a free meal. An e-book platform can offer a points system where reading leads to discounts on future purchases.
• Brand extensions. Ways in which a brand might diversify its product or service offerings, branching into new categories while leveraging its established brand reputation. A famous sneaker brand can introduce clothing and accessories to its product line. A job listing site can launch career counseling and resume writing services.
• Feedback mechanisms. Systems in place for collecting feedback from customers and stakeholders, allowing the brand to evolve and stay relevant. A gym can introduce a physical suggestion box and conduct monthly feedback sessions. An online gaming platform can include an in-app feedback feature and encourage reviews on app stores.
• Competitive analysis. Understanding and monitoring competitors helps a brand to differentiate and stay ahead in the market. A home decor store can survey competing stores to ensure its offerings are unique and competitively priced. A travel booking website can use tools to monitor the deals and features offered by competing sites.

All these elements work in tandem to form a cohesive brand strategy. When executed well, they help build a memorable brand that resonates deeply with its target audience and stands the test of time. We’ll cover each element in detail below.

While branding might seem like a modern marketing buzzword, it has been a cornerstone of successful enterprises for centuries.

Today’s businesses, whether they operate brick-and-mortar stores or digital platforms, employ various branding methods to distinguish themselves in saturated markets.

Each method has its unique approach and potential impact, tailored to fit specific business needs. Here are six fundamental branding methods:

Attitude branding

Attitude branding focuses on invoking a particular emotion, feeling, or attitude in the customer rather than emphasizing the product itself. It’s less about what the product does and more about how it makes the customer feel or the image it projects.

Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ slogan is quintessential attitude branding. In their stores and advertisements, Nike doesn’t just sell shoes; they sell the spirit of athleticism and the drive to overcome obstacles.

Nike’s digital campaigns often feature inspirational videos of everyday people pushing their limits, emphasizing the “Just Do It” attitude across their social media platforms.

A local gym might brand itself as the place where “Every workout makes a champion.” Customers feel like champions whenever they walk through the gym’s doors.

A digital fitness app could use a slogan like “Conquer Every Challenge!” encouraging users to view every completed exercise as a personal victory.

Individual branding

Here, different products or services under the umbrella of a larger company are given their unique brand identities. This allows each product to have its own market presence without being overshadowed by the parent company.

Unilever’s multiple product lines, such as Dove, Axe, and Lipton, each have distinct brand identities and marketing campaigns. Each brand under Unilever operates its social media channels and websites, catering to its target audience.

A family-owned conglomerate with diverse interests – from a bakery to a boutique hotel to a car repair shop – can each have a distinct brand identity even though the same entity owns them.

A digital consulting agency can have different brand names and websites for its SEO services, graphic design, and content creation. Each service operates and is marketed as its unique brand.

Product branding

This is about giving a distinct identity to a specific product through elements like logos , names, colors, and designs. It magnifies the product’s uniqueness and differentiates it from competitors.

Apple’s MacBook series, with specific branding like ‘Air’ and ‘Pro,’ signifies different product tiers in physical stores. Apple’s website and online advertisements highlight each MacBook variant’s unique features and design, tailoring the product’s digital presence.

A local craft beer brewery might have a signature pale ale, a stout, and an IPA, each with its name, logo, and packaging design.

A digital marketplace can sell unique software tools, each with distinct branding. For instance, one tool for graphic design, another for video editing, and a third for data analytics.

Co-branding

In co-branding, two or more brands collaborate to create a product or campaign that combines their strengths and market presence. This strategy leverages the reputation and customer base of each brand.

The collaboration between Nike and Michael Jordan resulted in the Air Jordan shoes available worldwide. Collaborative digital marketing campaigns or limited online releases, like the Air Jordan launch events, generate buzz on social media platforms.

A local coffee shop and a bookshop can collaborate to offer a special “Read & Relax” deal, wherein buying a book gives a discount on a coffee.

An online course platform can collaborate with an e-book distributor. Buying a course gives access to certain e-books for free, and vice versa.

Minimalist branding

As the name suggests, this approach focuses on simplicity and subtlety. It’s about stripping the brand to its essential elements, making it clean and easily recognizable.

Mastercard’s simple logo of two overlapping circles in red and yellow is instantly recognizable on credit cards or payment terminals. Mastercard’s digital advertisements often focus on the logo, emphasizing the brand’s global acceptability without cluttered design or content.

A boutique might opt for a simple, understated logo and a single-color theme throughout its store, exuding an aura of simplicity and elegance.

An e-commerce website could employ a clean, clutter-free design with lots of white space, using just one color for call-to-action buttons and a simple logo.

Brand extension

This strategy involves leveraging the reputation of a well-established brand to introduce a new product or service. It relies on the existing brand’s equity to foster trust and receptiveness in the new offering.

Initially known for its soap, Dove extended its brand to produce lotions, shampoos, and other personal care products. Dove’s digital campaigns might introduce a new product like a conditioner, highlighting the same core values of gentleness and skin nourishment that the original soap is known for.

A restaurant can launch a line of packaged gourmet products under the same brand, leveraging the restaurant’s reputation for quality.

A popular online fashion blog can launch a clothing line. They can use their brand name, relying on their established reputation in fashion commentary to market their products.

Arming yourself with a keen understanding of these branding methods can be pivotal in sculpturing a brand’s image, both in the tangible offline world and the expansive online domain.

Crafting an effective brand strategy: a step-by-step guide

You don’t need deep pockets to build a winning brand strategy but clarity, intention, and understanding.

A solid brand strategy is your competitive edge, impressing investors and partners while paving your path to success.

The roadmap to effective branding is a three-step journey: Discovery, Identity, and Execution. Let’s look at each phase in detail.

For those with a budding business idea , your slate is clean. There’s no past identity to decipher, letting you move swiftly to the Identity phase (Phase 2). However, if you’ve been in the game, don’t rush. Understand the foundation before you build upon it.

1. Revisit and reflect on your brand’s existing identity

Your brand’s DNA is encoded in its vision (its purpose), mission (its role), and values (its ethics). Some brands proudly display these on their walls or websites, while others might keep them implicit.

But over time, things change. Reflect on:

• Cultural resonance. Aspects of the company’s culture that now align (or misalign) with your vision, mission, or values.
• Outdated elements. Parts of your vision, mission, or values might have become obsolete or irrelevant in the present context. If this happens, you may need to evolve your brand and rebrand .
• Brand essence. The core essence or feeling your brand evokes now compared to its inception.
• Marketing consistency. Whether your present-day marketing efforts and campaigns align with your core identity.
• Customer perception. How your customers perceive your brand now, and if there’s been a shift in their opinions or feelings toward your products/services.
• Market evolution. How has your target market changed over time? Are there new trends, needs, or preferences you should know?
• Operational shifts. Changes within your company operations or business model might have indirectly influenced your brand’s identity.
• Competitive landscape. Have there been significant entrants or exits in your market space that have altered your competitive stance?
• Feedback loops. What kind of feedback have you received from customers, stakeholders, or partners that might provide insights into your brand’s strengths or weaknesses?
• Innovation and expansion. How have these moves impacted your overall brand identity if you’ve introduced new products and services or expanded to new regions?

2. Conduct market research and perform a competitor analysis

Dive deep into the current market scenarios and your standing in them. Among other things, consider the following:

• Customer behavior analysis. Understand how your customers interact with your brand . This includes their buying habits, feedback, and pain points. A retail store can conduct in-person surveys or observe how customers navigate their store. An online business can use analytics tools to understand customer journey maps on the website and see which pages or products have the highest engagement.
• Demand forecasting. Predict future customer demand to ensure you’re well-prepared. A restaurant might study reservation trends before significant local events. An e-commerce platform can analyze historical sales data to anticipate future product demand.
• Competitive analysis. Identify and evaluate your competition to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to your brand. A local bakery can check the offerings and pricing of other bakeries in the town. A digital service platform can use tools like SEMRush to analyze competitors’ online strengths.
• Market share analysis. Understand your brand’s share of the total market . A bookshop might assess its sales against total book sales in its city. A digital streaming service can compare its subscribers to the total number of digital streaming users globally.
• Pricing strategy assessment. Review your product or service pricing in relation to competitors and perceived value . A fitness gym might review its membership fees compared to other local gyms. A SaaS product can analyze its subscription pricing against similar online tools.
• Feedback and reviews. Regularly review customer feedback and ratings. A spa might keep a feedback register or conduct customer interviews at its exit. An online retailer can monitor product reviews and ratings on its platform.
• Market trends. Stay updated with the latest trends influencing your industry. A fashion retailer can attend trade shows or read industry magazines. A tech startup can keep track of the latest advancements through online tech news platforms and forums.
• Supplier relations. Understand the dynamics with suppliers and the potential risks or opportunities therein. A cafe can review its relationship with coffee bean suppliers for potential discounts or premium varieties. An e-commerce store can assess its dropshipping partners’ terms and delivery speeds.
• SWOT analysis . A structured planning method to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A hardware store can list these elements considering local demand, competition, and potential opportunities. An online learning platform can conduct a SWOT analysis considering its content quality, tech infrastructure, market demand, and online competitors.
• Brand image perception. Determine how your brand is perceived in the market. A boutique hotel can assess guest feedback and online reviews and get feedback from walk-in visitors. An online influencer platform can use social listening tools to monitor mentions and sentiment around its brand on social media.

If you’re looking for help on how you can understand your market better, watch the following video:

How to better understand your customers

The foundation of a solid brand strategy lies in truly understanding your customers. Their preferences, behaviors, and perceptions shape their interactions with your brand. Here’s how you can delve deep into their psyche:

Demographic insights

• Who are they? Is your target audience primarily male, female, or diverse? Are they Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, or Gen Z?
• Where are they from? Are you catering to locals, nationals, or a global audience?
• What do they do for a living? Understanding their professions can help you tailor marketing messages.

Purchasing behavior

• Why are they buying? Unearth the motivation behind their purchases.
• When are they buying? Identify seasons, times, or occasions that drive their purchases.
• What’s their budget? Tailor your offerings to match their spending power.

Perceptions & expectations

• What do they expect from brands? Speedy delivery, top-notch customer service, or eco-friendly packaging?
• How do they perceive your brand? Use feedback to identify strengths and areas of improvement.
• What’s their take on your competition? This insight can help you differentiate better.

Purchase channels

• How do they buy? Online, in-store, through apps, or maybe a mix?

Deep-dive questions for customer feedback

You should consistently converse with your customers to further refine your branding approach. Here are ten in-depth questions to consider:

• How likely would you be to recommend our service/company to others?
• How would you rate your last experience with us?
• If you could change one thing about our products/services, what would it be?
• What words come to mind when you think of our brand?
• Describe your ideal shopping/purchasing experience with us

What other options did you consider before choosing us?

• What makes us stand out from the competition?
• How can we make your next experience even better?
• Do you feel we truly understand your needs and preferences?
• Anything else you’d like us to know?

Acting on the feedback

It’s crucial not just to collect feedback but to act on it.

Whether refining your product range based on customer input or overhauling your after-sales service, every piece of feedback is an opportunity to enhance your brand strategy.

Feedback, both praise and criticism, is a goldmine. For instance, if multiple customers highlight delivery delays, consider revisiting your logistics partnerships or offering various delivery options.

Understanding customer sentiments

How likely would you be to recommend our service or company to others.

Often referred to as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) question, this is a pivotal gauge of customer loyalty and brand perception.

A recommendation, especially to close friends or family, is a powerful testament to your service quality. The willingness to recommend is directly linked to overall satisfaction and trust in the brand.

Ask in two stages for a comprehensive view:

• “Considering your latest purchase experience, would you recommend us to a friend?”
• “Reflecting on your entire journey with us, would you advocate for our brand?”

How would you rate your most recent experience with us?

Every interaction with a customer leaves an impression. Knowing whether it was positive or negative can be the difference between retaining or losing a customer to competitors.

A negative customer service experience spreads quickly and can tarnish your brand reputation. Conversely, understanding and amplifying positive experiences can drive brand loyalty.

Proactively seek feedback post-purchase or interaction:

• Send a brief survey or feedback request after a transaction.
• Use this opportunity to gauge satisfaction, rectify issues, and show customers they’re valued.

At crowdspring, every interaction is a learning opportunity. Whether it’s a simple customer question to our support team or a completed project, we actively ask for feedback. Such dedication to understanding the customer experience has resulted in a stellar satisfaction rate, ranging between 97 and 99%. Moreover, the proactive approach ensures we address issues before they escalate.

If you could change one aspect of our products/services, what would it be?

This question uncovers potential blind spots. You have your roadmap, but customers might see potential enhancements you haven’t considered. Remember, listening doesn’t equate to implementing every suggestion. It means being receptive and discerning about the feedback.

For example, crowdspring offers core design and naming services in many areas. This includes logo design, web design, print design, product design, packaging design, and business names.

When we started fifteen years ago, we asked only a few questions to help customers draft a creative brief to look for design help. For example, we initially asked some general questions in logo design projects.

However, the answers didn’t provide much direction to designers, and we received lots of feedback about our questionnaire.

This feedback was precious. We changed our questionnaire to be more specific and informative, and this improved the experience for everyone.

It was a win-win-win.

Whatever service or method you use, make sure you’re not only listening but responding, too.

No one likes feeling like they’re yelling into the void, and your customers are no different. Make your feedback process a conversation so your customers know their input is valued.

Customers will often take the time to give you input on ways to improve if you ask, but if the exchange feels one-sided to them, they may give up.

This helps identify unseen competitors or realize why some apparent competitors aren’t direct threats.

What makes us distinct from the competition?

This question delves into your unique selling proposition (USP) . Sometimes, the USP isn’t just a product feature but an emotional or thematic differentiator.

For example, Charles Revson of Revlon believed he sold hope, not just makeup.

Your goal is differentiation. Apple and Samsung, for instance, are distinct brands with loyal customer bases, not necessarily “better” than the other.

How do you perceive our brand identity?

Understanding if customers recognize and resonate with your brand’s visual and thematic elements can guide future marketing strategies.

Which aspect of our service/product do you value the most?

Pinpointing what customers love most helps reinforce those strengths in future offerings.

What would make you choose our competitors over us in the future?

A glimpse into potential vulnerabilities allows for pre-emptive strategies.

How do you view our growth and adaptability in the market?

Perceptions about your brand’s evolution can provide insights into future positioning strategies.

How has our product/service impacted your daily life or business?

This question can uncover intangible benefits and success stories you can share in marketing campaigns.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Leaving the floor open to unexpected responses or feedback is always good. You can’t ask every question, nor can you know in advance what might be top of mind for your customers.

Asking this question allows your customers to mention anything they feel is essential. It also gives you insight into what’s important to them.

And it gives your customer the last word and clarifies that you’re not just interested in your questions.

Ways to gather customer responses

There are many different ways to collect answers to these questions.

Which one you choose depends on your goals, who your customers are, and how you can reach them, but here are ten ideas to consider.

• Customer feedback surveys. Why it’s vital: A structured approach to gather specific insights. An online company can use platforms like SurveyMonkey , SurveyMonkey alternatives , or TypeForm to gather feedback on a new website feature. Make sure you keep surveys as short and easy to respond to as possible, and don’t forget to embed elements of your brand identity ( color palette , logo, etc.) in those surveys. Also, keep this important fact in mind: every question on a survey will reduce the number of people who respond to the survey. A restaurant can hand out feedback cards to diners in a restaurant to assess their dining experience.
• Email and customer feedback forms. Why it’s vital: It provides an accessible and consistent method for customers to provide convenient feedback. An online business can embed a feedback form on their e-commerce site. An offline business can place feedback boxes near the checkout counters in a retail store.
• Direct contact. Why it’s vital: It allows a deep, personal connection and understanding of context. An online business can host a video chat session with selected loyal online shoppers. An offline company can host a focus group session for regular patrons of a coffee shop.
• Usability tests. Why it’s vital: Directly evaluates user experience and functionality. You can use QA services to test these things and more (including elements of your brand identity). UserTesting.com is one of the better-known services that help companies run usability tests on their websites, and many companies specialize in testing how usable software or a site is. Once you identify friction points, you can tweak your web design to smooth out the process. An offline business can observe shoppers’ behaviors in a new store layout to identify potential bottlenecks.
• Social media engagements. Why it’s vital: Capitalizes on spontaneous feedback and reaches a broad audience quickly. An online business can run a Twitter poll to determine the most popular product color. An offline business can post a photo of two potential new dishes at a restaurant on Instagram and ask followers which one they want to try.
• Customer service interactions. Why it’s vital: Leverages existing touchpoints and gathers feedback during or after a service encounter. An online business can ask for feedback after an online chat session. An offline business can ask customers for feedback after an in-store consultation or service.
• In-app Feedback (for online businesses). Why it’s vital: Captures feedback at the point of interaction within digital tools or platforms. A company can use in-app prompts to ask users about their experience with a new feature.
• Comment cards (for offline businesses). Why it’s vital: Offers a traditional, straightforward method for customers to provide input. A restaurant can leave comment cards at tables.
• Online forums and communities. Why it’s vital: Taps into engaged user communities for detailed feedback. An online business can create a forum for customers to share product usage tips and feedback on its website. An offline company can host a community town hall to discuss services and gather public opinions.
• Review platforms and websites. Why it’s vital: Harnesses existing platforms where customers naturally leave feedback. An online business can monitor feedback on platforms like Trustpilot or Yelp. An offline business can encourage and monitor customer feedback on local business directories or Yelp.

No matter what method you use, ensure you’re engaging with your customers in a conversation. As we mentioned, let your customers know you’re talking with them, not just at them.

Analyze your competitors

To create a strong brand strategy, a competitive analysis is essential. This not only helps you understand your position but also highlights the brand identities of competitors. Here’s a step-by-step process:

• Define metrics. Establish relevant metrics (e.g., revenues, unique visitors). Be wary of choosing irrelevant metrics; they may mislead your analysis. If you’re an e-commerce platform, track metrics like conversion rates or average cart value.
• Look at recent trends. Understand the current happenings in your industry. For a newly opened cafe, check if the coffee trend in your area is leaning towards specialty brews.
• Evaluate historical trends. Review past data to predict future patterns. A fashion retailer should look at past seasons’ best-selling items.
• Track growth. Examine both monthly and yearly growth figures. If you run an online fitness program, track sign-ups when people have fitness resolutions after the new year.
• Challenge assumptions. Regularly re-evaluate your chosen metrics. Different perspectives can yield more holistic insights. Apart from tracking foot traffic in a store, assess the average spend per customer.
• Cross-reference sources. Use various sources to validate your data. For a skincare clinic, apart from online reviews, use social media sentiments and direct customer feedback.

Don’t settle for basic information. Look at all available information to confirm or disprove your conclusions. Use any or all of the following:

• SpyFu : This is a great way to discover keywords and Adwords your competition might use.
• Google Trends : Want to stay on top of the latest trends? Need to know where customers go after they leave your site? Try Google Trends.
• Google Alerts : Set up alerts so you know what customers are saying about your competition. Set one up for yourself and get easy access to the water cooler gossip on your business.

3. Develop personas for your target customers

Personas help you figure out the following:

• Who your customers are,
• What their goals and frustrations are,
• Where they spend their time,
• When they’re the most active or available,
• Why they make certain decisions, and
• How they interact with your product line or buy your services.

What is a user persona?

User personas, also called marketing personas or buyer personas, are made-up identities that provide a detailed description of your target customer. A well-thought-out, completely formed user persona should include plenty of personal information. It should include demographic information, career history, and hobbies.

To learn more about personas, read how to grow your business through persona-based marketing .

4. Evaluate how people perceive your brand

Understanding how people perceive your brand internally and externally is vital. Analyze the feedback and sentiments of both employees and customers. Positive, neutral, or negative reactions to your brand provide valuable insights that guide any necessary brand image enhancements.

The second phase focuses on establishing and refining your brand identity, ensuring that it aligns with your vision, mission, and values while setting you apart from competitors.

1. Define your core brand identity

Your brand pillars include vision (purpose), mission (actions), and values (beliefs).

An online eco-friendly store’s vision could be a sustainable future, its mission to provide green alternatives, and its values centered on ethical sourcing and transparency. A local organic cafe might have a vision of promoting healthy living, a mission of serving organic foods, and values emphasizing community well-being and sustainable farming.

2. Articulate your brand positioning

Highlight how you stand out from the competition.

An e-learning platform might position itself as the most interactive and community-driven platform. A boutique might position itself as the go-to destination for handcrafted, unique fashion items.

3. Articulate your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Your USP (also known as a unique value proposition)  represents what your brand embodies or offers that competitors don’t.

For example, you could say that Apple’s USP is found in “user experience.” The value proposition of everything Apple does is meant to have the user at its core. Google’s USP might be in the way they connect people with information. Amazon’s USP might provide whatever product you need efficiently and at as low a cost.

A digital magazine’s USP might be its focus on in-depth investigative journalism. A local bakery’s USP could be its century-old family recipes.

4. Develop brand identity design assets

Collaborate with designers to create visual representations of your brand, such as logos, packaging, and websites. An e-commerce site must have a user-friendly interface with brand colors and a memorable logo. We cover these issues in detail in our definitive brand identity guide . A restaurant might incorporate brand colors in the decor, menu design, and staff uniforms.

Develop your brand voice & communication

Maintain consistency in how you communicate about your brand across all platforms. A fintech app might adopt a professional and reassuring tone in its content and ads. A children’s toy store might use fun, playful, and engaging language in its promotions and in-store displays.

Can marketing psychology help you increase revenues?

After establishing your brand’s foundation, it’s time to communicate this identity to your target market actively.

Brand strategy lays the groundwork, while marketing strategy utilizes various channels to relay this identity effectively to the audience.

In the execution phase, your key focus is the actual representation of your brand in the market, ensuring the strategies outlined in the previous phases come to life consistently and effectively.

1. Align branding with business strategy

Ensure your branding supports your overarching business objectives. A luxury watch brand would not benefit from portraying itself as an affordable, everyday wear. A mismatch can confuse consumers and lead to reduced trust and brand loyalty.

2. Ensure brand consistency

Visual consistency.

A uniform visual presentation enhances brand recognition. Ensure synchrony in colors, styles, and fonts across all platforms. For example, Apple maintains consistent aesthetics across products, websites, and advertising campaigns.

Messaging consistency

You must ensure you present a unified brand narrative and identity. Inconsistencies can dilute the brand’s power and might indicate unreliability to consumers. A gym promoting wellness should consistently emphasize health, fitness, and well-being across all promotional materials.

Brand behavior

This helps guarantee that the brand delivers on its promises.

For example, Chipotle faced backlash for failing to consistently adhere to its non-GMO promise, tarnishing its brand image. Execute a quick Google search for “Chipotle admits to using GMOs,” and you’ll find a list of critical articles and lawsuits levied against the fast-food mega-chain. They’ve hit on a compelling branding position but failed to deliver it reliably. Their brand image has suffered.

Brand authenticity and follow-through are vital.

3. Resonate with your target audience

Ensure that the brand identity strikes a chord with your intended demographic. Utilize brand health metrics like branded impressions, internet search volume, branded keywords performance, and more.

Monitor social media interactions, online reviews, and feedback from customer service teams to gauge brand reception. A brand targeting Gen Z might track TikTok engagement or trends on platforms frequented by this demographic.

Once the brand’s health and resonance have been confirmed, it’s time to roll out marketing strategies, ensuring that every campaign and interaction bolsters the brand identity and connects with the intended audience.

Branding is more than just a logo or a catchy slogan; it’s a promise, an experience, and an emotional connective tissue that links customers to companies.

As you venture into the execution phase of your brand strategy, consider these five golden rules to make your brand’s presence stand out:

• Story over products. People resonate with stories. While quality products and services are essential, what sets top-tier companies apart is the power of their narrative. Consider brands like TOMS Shoes, which center their brand story on giving back.
• Embrace distinction. In a sea of competition, swimming in a different direction is vital. Merely being better might not cut it, but being different creates recall. An excellent example of this is Apple’s emphasis on user experience rather than product specifications.
• Craft consistent narratives. Amidst the clamor of countless brand messages, you might not always be the loudest. However, a consistent, resonating message will be remembered. Prioritize quality and consistency over quantity.
• Customer-centricity is key. Successful brands pivot their messaging around the benefits and successes of their customers rather than their achievements. CRM platforms like Salesforce highlight customer success stories as a testament to their product’s effectiveness.
• Step into your customer’s shoes – with empathy. Empathy differs from sympathy , requiring you to understand, resonate, and connect with your customer’s needs, desires, and pain points. Regular feedback sessions, surveys, and community engagement can help understand your audience’s needs and sentiments.

Nike’s branding, with its iconic “Just Do It” tagline, centers on inspiration, motivation, and empowerment. They have consistently framed their brand around the ethos of perseverance, determination, and achievement.

By collaborating with high-profile athletes, they further position themselves as the brand for champions.

Nike’s digital strategy emphasizes storytelling, focusing on athletes’ journeys and Nike products’ role in their success. Through this, they inspire their customers to see every hurdle as an opportunity, making them not just a sports brand but a lifestyle.

Airbnb differentiates itself from conventional accommodations by promoting a “home away from home” experience, allowing guests to immerse themselves in local neighborhoods.

Their brand strategy revolves around sharing real stories of hosts and guests across digital platforms. From interviews on YouTube to anecdotes on Instagram,

Airbnb underlines the unique and authentic experiences it offers. Tapping into actual stories fosters trust and creates an emotional connection with users. Their consistent red and white color palette further solidifies their brand identity, symbolizing warmth and belonging.

Apple’s brand is a testament to innovation, simplicity, and premium quality. Their strategy emphasizes a curated product lineup, targeting the high-end market, and ensuring profitability.

Apple evokes emotions, focusing on creativity, innovation, and user empowerment. Their minimalist design and user-centric approach have resulted in an intensely loyal customer base.

On the content front, Apple prioritizes high-quality, informative content highlighting the user experience, ensuring their brand remains synonymous with excellence and innovation.

The brand turned its very name into a synonym for soda. Coca-Cola’s branding is all about sharing joy and creating moments of happiness.

Their campaigns, such as “Share a Coke,” where individual names were printed on bottles, brought a personal touch to a massive global brand. By focusing on shared experiences and evoking feelings of nostalgia, they’ve established a timeless brand that resonates across generations.

Starbucks isn’t just about coffee; it’s about the experience. Their brand strategy revolves around creating a “third place” between work and home where people can relax, catch up, or work.

In the digital realm, their loyalty program and mobile app keep customers engaged, offering personalized deals and making the purchase process seamless. The green mermaid logo signifies a coffee cup and a whole ambiance.

Tesla, under Elon Musk’s direction, redefined electric cars. They aren’t just environmentally friendly; they’re luxury, performance vehicles. Tesla’s brand focuses on innovation, sustainability, and the future of driving.

They rarely spend on traditional advertising instead of relying on word-of-mouth, media coverage, and Musk’s influential online presence.

In music streaming, Spotify stands out with its personalized playlists, user-friendly interface, and platform for new artists.

Their brand strategy hinges on understanding individual listening habits and curating experiences. With features like “Discover Weekly” and “Wrapped,” they engage users by showing them insights into their behavior and tastes.

In luxury fashion, Gucci reigns supreme by balancing its rich heritage with contemporary pop culture.

Their strategy involves blending traditional Italian craftsmanship with modern designs and aesthetics. They engage younger audiences online by leveraging influencers, creating compelling digital campaigns, and even diving into the world of memes.

Originally a DVD delivery service, Netflix became the world’s top streaming platform by understanding changing consumer habits.

Their brand is about entertainment freedom—watching what you want, when you want. Investing in diverse, original content and catering to global audiences, they’ve created a brand that stands for innovative entertainment.

Lego’s brand strategy centers on fostering creativity and imagination. While they are toy bricks, Lego emphasizes the countless possibilities they offer.

Their marketing often showcases intricate Lego builds, emphasizing the limitless creativity the toy inspires. They’ve engaged users online with video content, games, and even movies that echo the same imaginative spirit.

Branding is an art and a science, intertwining emotions with strategy. By taking the time to craft and execute a robust brand strategy, companies set the foundation for sustainable growth, strong customer loyalty, and long-term profitability.

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MARKETING INSIGHTS

How to create a brand strategy in 8 steps (+ great examples)

• Kylie Goldstein
• Mar 17, 2023
• 13 min read

When you first hear a story, meet a new person or try an unfamiliar food, what do you always remember? The way it made you feel. That’s precisely what brand strategy is all about: evoking a positive, long-lasting emotional response from your customers.

A brand strategy doesn’t stop at the way your product looks or your service is provided. It encompasses everything that represents your business, from your collection names to your logo design , from your social media accounts to your neatly designed website.

Build your brand with the Wix Logo Maker .

What is brand strategy?

While it may be widely used, the term brand strategy is often misunderstood. Simply googling it (which is most probably how you ended up here) gives you a multitude of explanations. To make things more confusing, good branding is not always quantifiable, or even rational—it is experiential, and based on feelings. It can be difficult to conceptualize an intangible quality, even more, to attempt to measure it.

If we need to give it a basic definition, a brand strategy is a purposeful plan to identify what your brand represents from the inside out. Through research and analysis, this essential process lets you determine competitive positioning and define the most authentic way to reach your target market on an emotional level.

The challenge is navigating the theoretical questions with real life data, all while sticking to your roots. In order to build a strong brand when starting a business , you need to cover each element, from your content to your design, while keeping the big picture in perspective. While the approach will change from one business to another, there are certain understandings you must go through to achieve great results. We’ll cover them in more detail in this guide.

Why should you have a brand strategy?

Imagine your brand strategy like a compass (even an iPhone compass will do), guiding your decisions in the right direction. Without it, you might go the wrong way, or worse—get lost. It should serve as a measurable point of reference to identify failure and success.

Evaluating both your achievements and shortcomings will help you learn, grow, and push your business to evolve. Additionally, your plan should illustrate to everyone involved (your team, your customers, your investors, you) what makes your business unique. If you don’t know who you are and what you stand for, how will others?

A robust brand strategy guides your decision-making and aligns all marketing activities around a cohesive vision and mission.

How to create a brand strategy in 8 steps

Here are the actions you need to take in order to build a brand strategy that personifies your own style and entices your audience:

Know what you stand for

Understand your audience

Find your sweet spot

Tell your story

Design your identity

Stay true to your word

Take your time

Include your team

Building a brand strategy may sound overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. Before you get started, check out our downloadable brand strategy template to help create a thoughtful and strategic plan for your business:

01. Know who you are and what you stand for

Today, competition is fierce in all industries, and customers demand more authenticity than ever. This is not the time to have an identity crisis. When navigating through existential decisions about your brand, keep these discerning questions in focus:

Why do you exist? The answer is your brand purpose .

How will your brand behave? Defining your values early on will guide your actions.

Where do you want to go? The answer will constitute your vision statement .

How do you plan to get there? Your mission statement will pave the way.

Let’s take a deeper look at each concept:

Brand purpose

Before you start dreaming of your brand colors and catchy slogans , take a moment to think about why you are creating your brand. “People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it”, according to author and inspirational speaker Simon Sinek. Elaborating on the “why” is what puts truly influential companies apart from the rest.

To help you out, use Sinek’s “Golden Circle”, which encourages you to focus on answering the “why”, and only then the “how” and the “what”. Let’s imagine you’re a company preparing and delivering gift boxes filled with thoughtfully curated items. Your answers might look like this:

Why: “I want to allow people to spread support thoughtful gestures, while supporting small businesses in the community, and minding my environmental impact.”

How: “I will deliver each package in less than 12 hours, partner only with local artisans and small business shops, and commit to all recycled materials for packaging.”

What: “Gift boxes that spread love and include locally-sourced, high-quality items made within the community.”

As you can see, answering the “why” first helps you define your raison d'être and, ultimately, gives your customers a sharper understanding of the core motivation behind your product or service.

Now more than ever, consumers seek authenticity and choose brands that uphold similar beliefs. Brand values are an integral part of your strategy, as they will dictate how your business will behave. Think of your core values like a moral code, which guides your social and ethical practices. To use the same gift box example, some values might include: sustainability and ethical sourcing, inclusivity and diversity, community, peacefulness and elegance.

Keep in mind though that not all values have to be socially or environmentally focused. They just need to precisely define the guiding principles you’ll apply throughout the way you do business. However, simply outlining your beliefs is not enough, you must actually practice what you preach to maintain your integrity.

Mission and vision statement

Mission and vision statements are often used interchangeably. They actually differ and each serves a unique role in shaping your brand identity.

Vision statement: In a few sentences or a concise paragraph, a vision statement outlines the goals of your business. It clearly explains both what you are trying to achieve, and represents the infrastructure for future goals and where they will take you.

Try to envision where you want your brand to go and map out your long-term steps to get there. Be mindful that your vision is not set in stone and can evolve over time. In fact, a good vision statement should grow with your brand and be reviewed periodically.

On a deeper level, your vision statement should also try to recognize the impact your brand will have in the community, in the marketplace, and in the world.

Mission statement: In a nutshell, your mission statement is an amalgamation of your purpose and values in one definitive place, all wrapped up with a shiny bow. It will serve as a roadmap for you, your audience, employees, stakeholders, partners, influencers and anyone else that will interact with your brand.

You want to keep it to just a few condensed sentences and proudly present it to anyone who encounters your business, so they instantly know who you are.

To illustrate all these concepts together, let’s look at Tentree , a Canadian clothing company that plants ten trees for every item they sell. Tentree is a prime example of a brand that leads with purpose. Look how neatly articulated the four components of their brand identity are:

Purpose: To offer sustainable, stylish apparel and actively give back to the environment by choosing eco-friendly materials, and using renewable energy for processing.

Values: Sustainability, ethical manufacturing, transparency, accessibility, comfort and planting ten trees for every purchase.

Vision statement: “Our vision is to plant 1 billion trees by 2030, which will drastically reduce climate change. We've planted over 30 million trees and restored land in over 8 countries.”

Mission statement: “As environmentalists our mission is to guide you on your journey and empower you to do your best when it comes to the environment. You don't have to be a hardcore environmentalist to make a difference. It's the little things, like riding your bike to work, bringing your own grocery bag, and buying an item that plants ten trees - they all add up. Especially when millions of other people start doing them too.”

02. Understand your audience

“Brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is”, once said branding guru Marty Neumeier. You can build the most thoughtful and well-designed brand in the world, but without customers, you’ve got nothing. Your audience has power, and if you can win them over, you will successfully shape the perception of your business.

Knowing your target audience is crucial not only for converting leads into customers, but also for understanding how people connect with your brand. For instance, think of AirBnb, who targets budget-conscious travelers seeking a hotel alternative and a local experience. AirBnb is successful because they know their customers, pay attention to their needs, and always reflect on the feedback they receive.

Defining your target market paints a clear picture of who your ideal customer is. Beyond this, you want to understand what is driving their decisions. What motivates them? Who inspires them? Where are their pain points?

By digging deeper with market research and analyzing your audience, you can then create subgroups or segments based on shared characteristics. Known as market segmentation, this process categorizes your audience based on similarities ranging from geographic location to age, gender, decisions and behaviors. Altogether, this helps you create your typical buyer persona.

03. Find your sweet spot

A little healthy competition never hurts. In fact, knowing what others are doing will help you understand better your brand position both in the market and in your customers’ minds (and hearts).

So what makes your brand stand out? Start by listing the defining characteristics that separates your brand from competitors. In marketing lingo, this is your unique selling point (USP, for short). But simply saying you have an amazing business isn’t good enough, you need to back up your claims with strategic proof.

In order to achieve this, you can conduct a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). Another way to find your sweet spot is through perceptual mapping, an exercise that can provide clear competitive analysis. Simply plot contrasting qualities on a grid (such as quality, price, size, safety, or performance), and fill in where your competitors currently sit in the market. This will provide you with a visual representation and help you find the potential gaps and opportunities.

Once your analysis becomes crystal clear, you can create a brand positioning statement. This is a short internal description (just for you and your team), which sums up what your brand is, who it’s targeting, and what makes it one-of-a-kind in the market. Unlike your mission and vision statements, a positioning statement highlights competitive differentiation rather than absolute benefits.

And now, an inspiring example. By identifying a huge gap in the skincare market for high-quality products at an affordable price, The Ordinary managed to find their spot (pun not intended) and disrupted the industry altogether. Their entire brand strategy reflects this bold move and the idea that, “The Ordinary exists to communicate with integrity and bring to market effective, more familiar technologies at honorable prices”.

04. Tell your story

Storytelling is one of the best ways to build trust and engage with your consumers. A well-crafted brand narrative should be truthful, get your audience’s attention, pique their curiosity, and evoke emotion. This is your opportunity to showcase your personality and differentiate from your competitors.

Find your voice

Remember that lasting impression and memorable feeling you’re striving for? Finding a cohesive voice that encompasses the vibe of your brand will help you express your story in a more honest and meaningful way. Your brand voice enables you to add emotion and a personal touch to all your communications.

You want your brand voice to be consistent, recognizable and easy to speak with. This is important both for internal and external information as it will ensure your communications are aligned. As a result, it will foster a consistent and positive culture for both your team and your customers.

For example, the Wix brand voice is both professional and light-hearted. From our blog articles to the copy in our very products, we strive to make our writing user-centered, authoritative, and meaningful—while remaining always approachable.

Adapt your tone to each situation

Would you speak to your five-year-old cousin in a boring, monotone voice? If you did, you’d probably have a hard time getting his attention. In the same way, brand tone plays an important role in adaptability. You are still using your same voice, but having a sense of awareness for your audience and adjusting accordingly.

This is specifically relevant since your brand voice will be used across different channels, including emails, newsletters, social media posts, ads and other branding assets. Being mindful of the restrictions and usages of various platforms (emojis or no emojis, character count, etc.) will ensure you always have a consistent voice, but a slightly different tone to suit each specific crowd and situation.

Know what you’re talking about

A great example of a brand that has a distinct voice and tells their story is Fridababy , a line of postpartum products for new moms. “From delivery to boogers, butts and beyond! Frida is the brand that gets parents. That means you. We are not a lifestyle. Far from it. We are a solution-based brand. The 411 of parenting. The who-do-I-call-in-the-middle-of-the-night-cause-my-baby-won't-stop-screaming brand”.

Fridababy was created by a mother of three, and one can tell. This first-hand experience of maternity makes the brand’s voice special compared to the competition. It is extremely honest, and does not sugarcoat any of the nitty-gritty aftercare details of childbirth. Rather, the brand pokes fun at the fussiness of it all and uses this clearly in their language. As a result, they build trust and authority, using their own experiences to guide their users and help them with some not-so-comfortable experiences.

05. Design your identity

Think of golden arches and what instantly comes to mind? Now that you’re dreaming of a Big Mac and fries, you can understand the power of strong visual design. Your visual branding is an important part of your strategy as it allows you to make an impression, speak to your audience without words, and get them to take notice. An authentic brand identity should also be recognizable based solely on visual elements.

Imagine your brand as a person, and think how you might describe them to a friend. Does your brand wear crazy bold colors and socks with sandals, or does your brand only wear black and drink ethical cold brew? Don’t be afraid to get to that level of details, as you’ll ultimately want your brand’s visual identity to feel human and relatable to your audience.

Now is the time to get creative, and integrate your brand’s personality into the visual elements. Creating an identifiable brand style guide will help maintain consistency and develop a cohesive vibe. You want your visuals to speak the same language across all mediums, and contribute to the overall look and feel of your brand.

On this note, some important visual elements to consider include:

Business cards

Photos, illustrations, and icons

Social media pages

Physical assets (printed brochures, merchandise, and packaging)

06. Stay true to your word

Ok, so, you know your purpose, you’ve found your voice, you get your audience, and you’re looking good—now what? This is the time to follow through on your actions and remain consistent in an effort to foster brand loyalty.

With this in mind, how can you encourage positive connections with your consumers? Think of your core values, and how your brand is felt by your audience, and use this in every interaction. Treat them with integrity, thank them for their purchases, and acknowledge their efforts. Going the extra mile, even with a small gesture, can go a long way in strengthening the positive perception of your brand and developing brand awareness .

First comes trust, then comes love: your consumers will return to you because they can depend on you, not just because you’re just selling a product. Don’t forget that customers love to share brand experiences, both good and bad. When all is said and done, positive interactions with your current customers will open more doors for potential ones.

07. Take your time

Remember that creating a brand strategy is a process, and there are many complexities to consider. From connecting to your vision, cultivating customer relationships, all while speaking your brand language, it is a lot to juggle. You don’t want to do it all over again or have to rebrand because it was quickly thrown together.

Beyond that, prepare to refine and evaluate your strategy once you have more feedback and awareness of the market. As your brand grows, reviewing the accuracy of your brand strategy will make everything clearer, more purposeful, and lasting. A good brand strategy should stand the test of time and stay relevant.

08. Include your team

The more the merrier! Building a brand strategy should be a collaborative process integrating many people. Make sure you speak to stakeholders, employees, and external experts if needed. Just as important, if you are on a solo mission, reach out to others—including potential customers—and try to hear as many voices as possible.

Ideally, you will form a designated brand team who are focused on building, designing, fostering, and giving life to your brand strategy across all levels. Think outside the box and push the boundaries to create an inclusive team that will offer a wide range of perspectives to contribute to your vision.

Examples of excellent brand strategies

Need a little inspiration? We’ve gathered a few examples of strong brand strategies to help you get started.

Whatever your feelings may be about the Kardashians, push them aside for the time being to appreciate the success behind Kim’s shapewear brand, SKIMS. After years of frustration due to a lack of selection in the market, Kardashian West designed a line of products for every shape, every color, and every type of support.

SKIMS brand strategy works because they very clearly defined their purpose, they know and understand their audience, and they found their sweet spot. When SKIMS first launched, the brand was called Kimono but received major backlash being criticized for cultural appropriation. They really listened to their audience, used this feedback, and rebranded in an even more effective and meaningful way.

SKIMS’s visual identity is consistent, recognizable, and still feels very down-to-earth thanks to their appealing color scheme that speaks the same language as their product.

Started by three quirky Cambridge University graduates who first sold smoothies at a music festival, Innocent Drinks is an example of a successful branding strategy. They started in 1999 with a simple mission statement, “To make drinks that make it easy to do yourself some good”, and continue to follow the same purpose today.

What makes Innocent noteworthy is their brand story and the voice and tone in which they share it. They are friendly, approachable, honest and funny. This sentiment is seen throughout their product from their visual identity and logo to their content and products.

Innocent’s brand is always consistent and reliably charming. They also follow through on their promise and give back to their community, deeply committed to sustainability, recycling, ethically sourced products, inclusivity and diversity.

Warby Parker

We’re sure you’ve heard of Warby Parker by now, and may even be wearing their glasses as you read this. Founded with one simple idea, that glasses should be affordable, Warby Parker is a game changer in the market of eyeglasses. They are pioneers of the online glasses concept and at-home try-ons, changing the way in which we purchase eyewear. Even more impressive, they have successfully created a brand that truly listens to their customers and have been rewarded with incredible brand loyalty.

Warby Parker opened new doors, finding a unique gap in the market, and challenged their competitors in an extremely new way. Not only did they find a different method to sell glasses at an affordable price, they also created their own product in-house with their materials, their branding and their language.

Their mission statement perfectly embodies their purpose, vision, personality and style. “Warby Parker was founded with a rebellious spirit and a lofty objective: To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses”.

Casper is another example of a powerful brand strategy for an innovative idea. It offers high-end yet affordable mattresses that are simple, stylish, and arrive in a creative and efficient box—all purchased online.

What really makes this company stand out is their very strong content marketing strategy and their connection to their consumers. Casper found their brand position and used their brand message to become sleep experts, providing diverse content about sleep, relaxation, comfort, and style.

Casper also really uses their audience loyalty and social proof to promote their product. Their visual identity is identifiable, aligned with their values and expressly their own.

Brand Strategy FAQ

Brand strategy is the process of defining and establishing a unique brand identity, message, and positioning that sets your business apart from competitors and resonates with your audience. It encompasses elements such as brand mission, values, personality, voice, and visual identity.

What should a brand strategy include?

What are the benefits of brand strategy, related posts.

Brand awareness: a comprehensive guide (+ examples)

What is brand identity and how to create one to elevate your business

How to build a brand in 10 simple steps

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What are the benefits of the multi-brand approach?

Nov 6, 2019 | Agencies , Scale Ups Blog , Start Ups eCommerce Blog

We all have our favourite brands. Maybe you love Pepsi. And maybe you like Walkers crisps. How about some Quaker Oats to start your day? If you like all these then guess what?

They’re all owned by the same company: PepsiCo. The multi-brand strategy is more common than the average shopper may realise, but it’s often hidden. But they don’t always have to be like PepsiCo. There are different ways to approach multi-brand strategies.

Multi-brand examples

Let’s look at Unilever, Virgin, and FedEx who all operate multiple brands but in different ways. 

Unilever – owning different brands in different markets

Unilever encompasses a variety of brands which essentially function on their own, similar to the PepsiCo example. There is often nothing to connect them to the main brand.

Unilever owns Dove, St. Ives, Cornetto, Ben & Jerry’s, Pot Noodle, Hellman’s, Q-tips, Vaseline, Lipton, VO5, and many more brands. But their advertising and brand representation is all completely unique, with nothing at all signalling a relationship between the brands.

Virgin – Same brand, different audiences

Virgin differs because while it has different brands which offer varying services, like Virgin Digital, Virgin Music Channel, Virgin Healthbank, and Virgin Travelstore, all brands are clearly related to the mother company: Virgin Group Ltd.

The identity of the company keeps supporting the other brands.  

FEDEX – Same brand, different services

FedEx is similar to Virgin in the sense there are multiple brands supported by the original FedEx Corporation brand. But it’s different in the fact the services largely remain the same.

It’s the brand identity that changes e.g. FedEx Services, FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, and FedEx Freight. They’re all exporting and delivery brands.

But the question remains: why do brands do this when they could keep things simple under one brand?

Deciding whether to make the leap to multi-brand is much easier for large multinationals than small-medium businesses. It can seem daunting and scary, and you might be unsure of whether it’s the right decision. But, it is achievable with the right planning and software, and there are noticeable benefits to doing so.

The benefits of owning multiple brands

There’s a reason multi-brand strategies are so popular. They have a range of benefits, such as:

• It leaves less shelf space for your competitors. You have a better opportunity to obtain a market majority using multiple brands.
• Keeps brand switchers associated with your company – Some customers like to try different brands and flitter between them. With multiple brands, they can switch brands while staying within your company.
• Increases competition between managers – Competition drives better performance.
• Reduces startup costs for subsequent brands through the franchise. When the initial business succeeds, you can develop a second brand, using the income from the first.

Getting a multi-brand strategy right

Like with any strategy, there are traps you could fall into.

But they’re easy to avoid with proper preparation to address how you will overcome the issues. If you want to do it right, the things to consider include:

• Ensuring you leave no room for confusion between separate brands
• Offering dedicated sites for dedicated experiences in line with your brand
• Making sure multiple brands are visible to customers
• How you’re going to effectively manage multiple brands

Check out our 9 essential things every eCommerce business needs to make sure you have a sound footing.

The multi-brand strategy is a great way to expand your business and customer reach, helping you increase your revenue. It’s perfect for companies with a team of dedicated staff behind them who want to see the company grow and succeed. If your staff and eCommerce platform are up to the task, your multi-brand strategy will be a success.

Going multi-brand or multi-country no longer has the financial barriers it used to – technology has moved forward.

Making multi site management easy

Shopit makes multi-brand management easy, giving you the tools you need to get off to a flying start. You can easily create and manage multiple brands from one dashboard, with easy global sales as your site automatically adjusts the language of your products and website.

This is just the beginning of what Shopit can do. To see more, take a look at the other features on our site, or get your free trial .

Listen to the Podcast

Our CEO Adam Pritchard talks extensively about the benefits of a Multi brand and multi site approach to eCommerce in this podcast episode with Chloë Thomas on the eCommerce Masterplan.

You can listen to the episode right here; though we heartily encourage you to check out the entire 200+ series of eCommerce Masterplan and discover more great ideas from Chloë and her guests.

You can also find it on Spotify , Apple Podcasts and YouTube (search ‘Adam Pritchard eCommerce’)

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From Hypothesis to Results: Mastering the Art of Marketing Experiments

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Suppose you’re trying to convince your friend to watch your favorite movie. You could either tell them about the intriguing plot or show them the exciting trailer.

To find out which approach works best, you try both methods with different friends and see which one gets more people to watch the movie.

Marketing experiments work in much the same way, allowing businesses to test different marketing strategies, gather feedback from their target audience, and make data-driven decisions that lead to improved outcomes and growth.

By testing different approaches and measuring their outcomes, companies can identify what works best for their unique target audience and adapt their marketing strategies accordingly. This leads to more efficient use of marketing resources and results in higher conversion rates, increased customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, business growth.

Marketing experiments are the backbone of building an organization’s culture of learning and curiosity, encouraging employees to think outside the box and challenge the status quo.

In this article, we will delve into the fundamentals of marketing experiments, discussing their key elements and various types. By the end, you’ll be in a position to start running these tests and securing better marketing campaigns with explosive results.

Why Digital Marketing Experiments Matter

One of the most effective ways to drive growth and optimize marketing strategies is through digital marketing experiments. These experiments provide invaluable insights into customer preferences, behaviors, and the overall effectiveness of marketing efforts, making them an essential component of any digital marketing strategy.

Digital marketing experiments matter for several reasons:

• Customer-centric approach: By conducting experiments, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their target audience’s preferences and behaviors. This enables them to tailor their marketing efforts to better align with customer needs, resulting in more effective and engaging campaigns.
• Data-driven decision-making: Marketing experiments provide quantitative data on the performance of different marketing strategies and tactics. This empowers businesses to make informed decisions based on actual results rather than relying on intuition or guesswork. Ultimately, this data-driven approach leads to more efficient allocation of resources and improved marketing outcomes.
• Agility and adaptability: Businesses must be agile and adaptable to keep up with emerging trends and technologies. Digital marketing experiments allow businesses to test new ideas, platforms, and strategies in a controlled environment, helping them stay ahead of the curve and quickly respond to changing market conditions.
• Continuous improvement: Digital marketing experiments facilitate an iterative process of testing, learning, and refining marketing strategies. This ongoing cycle of improvement enables businesses to optimize their marketing efforts, drive better results, and maintain a competitive edge in the digital marketplace.
• ROI and profitability: By identifying which marketing tactics are most effective, businesses can allocate their marketing budget more efficiently and maximize their return on investment. This increased profitability can be reinvested into the business, fueling further growth and success.

Developing a culture of experimentation allows businesses to continuously improve their marketing strategies, maximize their ROI, and avoid being left behind by the competition.

The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Experiments

Marketing experiments are structured tests that compare different marketing strategies, tactics, or assets to determine which one performs better in achieving specific objectives.

These experiments use a scientific approach, which involves formulating hypotheses, controlling variables, gathering data, and analyzing the results to make informed decisions.

Marketing experiments provide valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors, enabling businesses to optimize their marketing efforts and maximize returns on investment (ROI).

There are several types of marketing experiments that businesses can use, depending on their objectives and available resources.

The most common types include:

A/B testing

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a simple yet powerful technique that compares two variations of a single variable to determine which one performs better.

In an A/B test, the target audience is randomly divided into two groups: one group is exposed to version A (the control). In contrast, the other group is exposed to version B (the treatment). The performance of both versions is then measured and compared to identify the one that yields better results.

A/B testing can be applied to various marketing elements, such as headlines, calls-to-action, email subject lines, landing page designs, and ad copy. The primary advantage of A/B testing is its simplicity, making it easy for businesses to implement and analyze.

Multivariate testing

Multivariate testing is a more advanced technique that allows businesses to test multiple variables simultaneously.

In a multivariate test, several elements of a marketing asset are modified and combined to create different versions. These versions are then shown to different segments of the target audience, and their performance is measured and compared to determine the most effective combination of variables.

Multivariate testing is beneficial when optimizing complex marketing assets, such as websites or email templates, with multiple elements that may interact with one another. However, this method requires a larger sample size and more advanced analytical tools compared to A/B testing.

Pre-post analysis

Pre-post analysis involves comparing the performance of a marketing strategy before and after implementing a change.

This type of experiment is often used when it is not feasible to conduct an A/B or multivariate test, such as when the change affects the entire customer base or when there are external factors that cannot be controlled.

While pre-post analysis can provide useful insights, it is less reliable than A/B or multivariate testing because it does not account for potential confounding factors. To obtain accurate results from a pre-post analysis, businesses must carefully control for external influences and ensure that the observed changes are indeed due to the implemented modifications.

How To Start Growth Marketing Experiments

To conduct effective marketing experiments, businesses must pay attention to the following key elements:

Clear objectives

Having clear objectives is crucial for a successful marketing experiment. Before starting an experiment, businesses must identify the specific goals they want to achieve, such as increasing conversions, boosting engagement, or improving click-through rates. Clear objectives help guide the experimental design and ensure the results are relevant and actionable.

Hypothesis-driven approach

A marketing experiment should be based on a well-formulated hypothesis that predicts the expected outcome. A reasonable hypothesis is specific, testable, and grounded in existing knowledge or data. It serves as the foundation for experimental design and helps businesses focus on the most relevant variables and outcomes.

Proper experimental design

A marketing experiment requires a well-designed test that controls for potential confounding factors and ensures the reliability and validity of the results. This includes the random assignment of participants, controlling for external influences, and selecting appropriate variables to test. Proper experimental design increases the likelihood that observed differences are due to the tested variables and not other factors.

Adequate sample size

A successful marketing experiment requires an adequate sample size to ensure the results are statistically significant and generalizable to the broader target audience. The required sample size depends on the type of experiment, the expected effect size, and the desired level of confidence. In general, larger sample sizes provide more reliable and accurate results but may also require more resources to conduct the experiment.

Data-driven analysis

Marketing experiments rely on a data-driven analysis of the results. This involves using statistical techniques to determine whether the observed differences between the tested variations are significant and meaningful. Data-driven analysis helps businesses make informed decisions based on empirical evidence rather than intuition or gut feelings.

By understanding the fundamentals of marketing experiments and following best practices, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors, ultimately leading to improved outcomes and growth.

Setting up Your First Marketing Experiment

Embarking on your first marketing experiment can be both exciting and challenging. Following a systematic approach, you can set yourself up for success and gain valuable insights to improve your marketing efforts.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you set up your first marketing experiment.

Identifying your marketing objectives

Before diving into your experiment, it’s essential to establish clear marketing objectives. These objectives will guide your entire experiment, from hypothesis formulation to data analysis.

Consider what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts, such as increasing website conversions, improving open email rates, or boosting social media engagement.

Make sure your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) to ensure that they are actionable and provide meaningful insights.

Formulating a hypothesis

With your marketing objectives in mind, the next step is formulating a hypothesis for your experiment. A hypothesis is a testable prediction that outlines the expected outcome of your experiment. It should be based on existing knowledge, data, or observations and provide a clear direction for your experimental design.

For example, suppose your objective is to increase email open rates. In that case, your hypothesis might be, “Adding the recipient’s first name to the email subject line will increase the open rate by 10%.” This hypothesis is specific, testable, and clearly linked to your marketing objective.

Designing the experiment

Once you have a hypothesis in place, you can move on to designing your experiment. This involves several key decisions:

Choosing the right testing method:

Select the most appropriate testing method for your experiment based on your objectives, hypothesis, and available resources.

As discussed earlier, common testing methods include A/B, multivariate, and pre-post analyses. Choose the method that best aligns with your goals and allows you to effectively test your hypothesis.

Selecting the variables to test:

Identify the specific variables you will test in your experiment. These should be directly related to your hypothesis and marketing objectives. In the email open rate example, the variable to test would be the subject line, specifically the presence or absence of the recipient’s first name.

When selecting variables, consider their potential impact on your marketing objectives and prioritize those with the greatest potential for improvement. Also, ensure that the variables are easily measurable and can be manipulated in your experiment.

Identifying the target audience:

Determine the target audience for your experiment, considering factors such as demographics, interests, and behaviors. Your target audience should be representative of the larger population you aim to reach with your marketing efforts.

When segmenting your audience for the experiment, ensure that the groups are as similar as possible to minimize potential confounding factors.

In A/B or multivariate testing, this can be achieved through random assignment, which helps control for external influences and ensures a fair comparison between the tested variations.

Executing the experiment

With your experiment designed, it’s time to put it into action.

This involves several key considerations:

Timing and duration:

Choose the right timing and duration for your experiment based on factors such as the marketing channel, target audience, and the nature of the tested variables.

The duration of the experiment should be long enough to gather a sufficient amount of data for meaningful analysis but not so long that it negatively affects your marketing efforts or causes fatigue among your target audience.

In general, aim for a duration that allows you to reach a predetermined sample size or achieve statistical significance. This may vary depending on the specific experiment and the desired level of confidence.

Monitoring the experiment:

During the experiment, monitor its progress and performance regularly to ensure that everything is running smoothly and according to plan. This includes checking for technical issues, tracking key metrics, and watching for any unexpected patterns or trends.

If any issues arise during the experiment, address them promptly to prevent potential biases or inaccuracies in the results. Additionally, avoid making changes to the experimental design or variables during the experiment, as this can compromise the integrity of the results.

Analyzing the results

Once your experiment has concluded, it’s time to analyze the data and draw conclusions.

This involves two key aspects:

Statistical significance:

Statistical significance is a measure of the likelihood that the observed differences between the tested variations are due to the variables being tested rather than random chance. To determine statistical significance, you will need to perform a statistical test, such as a t-test or chi-squared test, depending on the nature of your data.

Generally, a result is considered statistically significant if the probability of the observed difference occurring by chance (the p-value) is less than a predetermined threshold, often set at 0.05 or 5%. This means there is a 95% confidence level that the observed difference is due to the tested variables and not random chance.

Practical significance:

While statistical significance is crucial, it’s also essential to consider the practical significance of your results. This refers to the real-world impact of the observed differences on your marketing objectives and business goals.

To assess practical significance, consider the effect size of the observed difference (e.g., the percentage increase in email open rates) and the potential return on investment (ROI) of implementing the winning variation. This will help you determine whether the experiment results are worth acting upon and inform your marketing decisions moving forward.

A systematic approach to designing growth marketing experiments helps you to design, execute, and analyze your experiment effectively, ultimately leading to better marketing outcomes and business growth.

Examples of Successful Marketing Experiments

In this section, we will explore three fictional case studies of successful marketing experiments that led to improved marketing outcomes. These examples will demonstrate the practical application of marketing experiments across different channels and provide valuable lessons that can be applied to your own marketing efforts.

Example 1: Redesigning a website for increased conversions

AcmeWidgets, an online store selling innovative widgets, noticed that its website conversion rate had plateaued.

They conducted a marketing experiment to test whether a redesigned landing page could improve conversions. They hypothesized that a more visually appealing and user-friendly design would increase conversion rates by 15%.

AcmeWidgets used A/B testing to compare their existing landing page (the control) with a new, redesigned version (the treatment). They randomly assigned website visitors to one of the two landing pages. They tracked conversions over a period of four weeks.

At the end of the experiment, AcmeWidgets found that the redesigned landing page had a conversion rate 18% higher than the control. The results were statistically significant, and the company decided to implement the new design across its entire website.

As a result, AcmeWidgets experienced a substantial increase in sales and revenue.

Example 2: Optimizing email marketing campaigns

EcoTravel, a sustainable travel agency, wanted to improve the open rates of their monthly newsletter. They hypothesized that adding a sense of urgency to the subject line would increase open rates by 10%.

To test this hypothesis, EcoTravel used A/B testing to compare two different subject lines for their newsletter:

• “Discover the world’s most beautiful eco-friendly destinations” (control)
• “Last chance to book: Explore the world’s most beautiful eco-friendly destinations” (treatment)

EcoTravel sent the newsletter to a random sample of their subscribers. Half received the control subject line, and the other half received the treatment. They then tracked the open rates for both groups over one week.

The results of the experiment showed that the treatment subject line, which included a sense of urgency, led to a 12% increase in open rates compared to the control.

Based on these findings, EcoTravel incorporated a sense of urgency in their future email subject lines to boost newsletter engagement.

Example 3: Improving social media ad performance

FitFuel, a meal delivery service for fitness enthusiasts, was looking to improve its Facebook ad campaign’s click-through rate (CTR). They hypothesized that using an image of a satisfied customer enjoying a FitFuel meal would increase CTR by 8% compared to their current ad featuring a meal image alone.

FitFuel conducted an A/B test on their Facebook ad campaign, comparing the performance of the control ad (meal image only) with the treatment ad (customer enjoying a meal). They targeted a similar audience with both ad variations and measured the CTR over two weeks. The experiment revealed that the treatment ad, featuring the customer enjoying a meal, led to a 10% increase in CTR compared to the control ad. FitFuel decided to update its

Facebook ad campaign with the new image, resulting in a more cost-effective campaign and higher return on investment.

Lessons learned from these examples

These fictional examples of successful marketing experiments highlight several key takeaways:

• Clearly defined objectives and hypotheses: In each example, the companies had specific marketing objectives and well-formulated hypotheses, which helped guide their experiments and ensure relevant and actionable results.
• Proper experimental design: Each company used the appropriate testing method for their experiment and carefully controlled variables, ensuring accurate and reliable results.
• Data-driven decision-making: The companies analyzed the data from their experiments to make informed decisions about implementing changes to their marketing strategies, ultimately leading to improved outcomes.
• Continuous improvement: These examples demonstrate that marketing experiments can improve marketing efforts continuously. By regularly conducting experiments and applying the lessons learned, businesses can optimize their marketing strategies and stay ahead of the competition.
• Relevance across channels: Marketing experiments can be applied across various marketing channels, such as website design, email campaigns, and social media advertising. Regardless of the channel, the principles of marketing experimentation remain the same, making them a valuable tool for marketers in diverse industries.

By learning from these fictional examples and applying the principles of marketing experimentation to your own marketing efforts, you can unlock valuable insights, optimize your marketing strategies, and achieve better results for your business.

Common Pitfalls of Marketing Experiments and How to Avoid Them

Conducting marketing experiments can be a powerful way to optimize your marketing strategies and drive better results.

However, it’s important to be aware of common pitfalls that can undermine the effectiveness of your experiments. In this section, we will discuss some of these pitfalls and provide tips on how to avoid them.

Insufficient sample size

An insufficient sample size can lead to unreliable results and limit the generalizability of your findings. When your sample size is too small, you run the risk of not detecting meaningful differences between the tested variations or incorrectly attributing the observed differences to random chance.

To avoid this pitfall, calculate the required sample size for your experiment based on factors such as the expected effect size, the desired level of confidence, and the type of statistical test you will use.

In general, larger sample sizes provide more reliable and accurate results but may require more resources to conduct the experiment. Consider adjusting your experimental design or testing methods to accommodate a larger sample size if necessary.

Lack of clear objectives

Your marketing experiment may not provide meaningful or actionable insights without clear objectives. Unclear objectives can lead to poorly designed experiments, irrelevant variables, or difficulty interpreting the results.

To prevent this issue, establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives before starting your experiment. These objectives should guide your entire experiment, from hypothesis formulation to data analysis, and ensure that your findings are relevant and useful for your marketing efforts.

Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias occurs when you interpret the results of your experiment in a way that supports your pre-existing beliefs or expectations. This can lead to inaccurate conclusions and suboptimal marketing decisions.

To minimize confirmation bias, approach your experiments with an open mind and be willing to accept results that challenge your assumptions.

Additionally, involve multiple team members in the data analysis process to ensure diverse perspectives and reduce the risk of individual biases influencing the interpretation of the results.

Overlooking external factors

External factors, such as changes in market conditions, seasonal fluctuations, or competitor actions, can influence the results of your marketing experiment and potentially confound your findings. Ignoring these factors may lead to inaccurate conclusions about the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.

To account for external factors, carefully control for potential confounding variables during the experimental design process. This might involve using random assignment, testing during stable periods, or controlling for known external influences.

Consider running follow-up experiments or analyzing historical data to confirm your findings and rule out the impact of external factors.

Tips for avoiding these pitfalls

By being aware of these common pitfalls and following best practices, you can ensure the success of your marketing experiments and obtain valuable insights for your marketing efforts. Here are some tips to help you avoid these pitfalls:

• Plan your experiment carefully: Invest time in the planning stage to establish clear objectives, calculate an adequate sample size, and design a robust experiment that controls for potential confounding factors.
• Use a hypothesis-driven approach: Formulate a specific, testable hypothesis based on existing knowledge or data to guide your experiment and focus on the most relevant variables and outcomes.
• Monitor your experiment closely: Regularly check the progress of your experiment, address any issues that arise, and ensure that your experiment is running smoothly and according to plan.
• Analyze your data objectively: Use statistical techniques to determine the significance of your results and consider the practical implications of your findings before making marketing decisions.
• Learn from your experiments: Apply the lessons learned from your experiments to continuously improve your marketing strategies and stay ahead of the competition.

By avoiding these common pitfalls and following best practices, you can increase the effectiveness of your marketing experiments, gain valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors, and ultimately drive better results for your business.

Building a Culture of Experimentation

To truly reap the benefits of marketing experiments, it’s essential to build a culture of experimentation within your organization. This means fostering an environment where curiosity, learning, data-driven decision-making, and collaboration are valued and encouraged.

Encouraging curiosity and learning within your organization

Cultivating curiosity and learning starts with leadership. Encourage your team to ask questions, explore new ideas, and embrace a growth mindset.

Promote ongoing learning by providing resources, such as training programs, workshops, or access to industry events, that help your team stay up-to-date with the latest marketing trends and techniques.

Create a safe environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas and taking calculated risks. Emphasize the importance of learning from both successes and failures and treat every experiment as an opportunity to grow and improve.

Adopting a data-driven mindset

A data-driven mindset is crucial for successful marketing experimentation. Encourage your team to make decisions based on data rather than relying on intuition or guesswork. This means analyzing the results of your experiments objectively, using statistical techniques to determine the significance of your findings, and considering the practical implications of your results before making marketing decisions.

To foster a data-driven culture, invest in the necessary tools and technologies to collect, analyze, and visualize data effectively. Train your team on how to use these tools and interpret the data to make informed marketing decisions.

Regularly review your data-driven efforts and adjust your strategies as needed to continuously improve and optimize your marketing efforts.

Integrating experimentation into your marketing strategy

Establish a systematic approach to conducting marketing experiments to fully integrate experimentation into your marketing strategy. This might involve setting up a dedicated team or working group responsible for planning, executing, and analyzing experiments or incorporating experimentation as a standard part of your marketing processes.

Create a roadmap for your marketing experiments that outlines each project’s objectives, hypotheses, and experimental designs. Monitor the progress of your experiments and adjust your roadmap as needed based on the results and lessons learned.

Ensure that your marketing team has the necessary resources, such as time, budget, and tools, to conduct experiments effectively. Set clear expectations for the role of experimentation in your marketing efforts and emphasize its importance in driving better results and continuous improvement.

Collaborating across teams for a holistic approach

Marketing experiments often involve multiple teams within an organization, such as design, product, sales, and customer support. Encourage cross-functional collaboration to ensure a holistic approach to experimentation and leverage each team’s unique insights and expertise.

Establish clear communication channels and processes for sharing information and results from your experiments. This might involve regular meetings, shared documentation, or internal presentations to keep all stakeholders informed and engaged.

Collaboration also extends beyond your organization. Connect with other marketing professionals, industry experts, and thought leaders to learn from their experiences, share your own insights, and stay informed about the latest trends and best practices in marketing experimentation.

By building a culture of experimentation within your organization, you can unlock valuable insights, optimize your marketing strategies, and drive better results for your business.

Encourage curiosity and learning, adopt a data-driven mindset, integrate experimentation into your marketing strategy, and collaborate across teams to create a strong foundation for marketing success.

If you’re new to marketing experiments, don’t be intimidated—start small and gradually expand your efforts as your confidence grows. By embracing a curious and data-driven mindset, even small-scale experiments can lead to meaningful insights and improvements.

As you gain experience, you can tackle more complex experiments and further refine your marketing strategies.

Remember, continuous learning and improvement is the key to success in marketing experimentation. By regularly conducting experiments, analyzing the results, and applying the lessons learned, you can stay ahead of the competition and drive better results for your business.

So, take the plunge and start experimenting today—your marketing efforts will be all the better.

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BSP-Net: automatic skin lesion segmentation improved by boundary enhancement and progressive decoding methods

• Regular Paper
• Published: 29 August 2024
• Volume 30 , article number  254 , ( 2024 )

Cite this article

• Chengyun Ma 1 , 2 ,
• Qimeng Yang 2 ,
• Shengwei Tian 1 , 2 ,
• Long Yu 1 , 3 &
• Shirong Yu 4 , 5 , 6  

Automatic skin lesion segmentation from dermoscopy images is of great significance in the early treatment of skin cancers, which is yet challenging even for dermatologists due to the inherent issues, i.e., considerable size, shape and color variation, and ambiguous boundaries. In this paper, we propose a network BSP-Net that implements the combination of critical boundary information and segmentation tasks to simultaneously solve the variation and boundary problems in skin lesion segmentation. The architecture of BSP-Net primarily consists of a multi-scale boundary enhancement (MBE) module and a progressive fusion decoder (PD). The MBE module, by deeply extracting boundary information in both multi-axis frequency and multi-scale spatial domains, generates precise boundary key-point prediction maps. This process not only accurately models local boundary information but also effectively retains global contextual information. On the other hand, the PD employs an asymmetric decoding strategy, guiding the generation of refined segmentation results by combining boundary-enhanced features rich in geometric details with global features containing semantic information about lesions. This strategy progressively fuses boundary and semantic information at different levels, effectively enabling high-performance collaboration between cross-level contextual features. To assess the effectiveness of BSP-Net, we conducted extensive experiments on two public datasets (ISIC-2016 &PH2, ISIC-2018) and one private dataset (XJUSKin). BSP-Net achieved Dice coefficients of 90.81, 92.41, and 83.88%, respectively. Additionally, it demonstrated precise boundary delineation with Average Symmetric Surface Distance (ASSD) scores of 7.96, 6.88, and 10.92%, highlighting its strong performance in skin lesion segmentation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62362061) , the Tianshan Talent Training Program 2023TSYCLJ0023, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Key R & D program under Grant 2021B03001-4, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Universities Fundamental Research Funds Scientific Research Project (Grant No. XJEDU2022P018). Thanks for all the help of the teachers and students.

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College of Computer Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830000, China

Chengyun Ma, Shengwei Tian & Long Yu

Key Laboratory of Software Engineering Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830000, China

Chengyun Ma, Qimeng Yang & Shengwei Tian

College of Network Center, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830000, China

Department of Dermatology and Venereology, People’s Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, China

Xinjiang Clinical Research Center For Dermatologic Diseases, Urumqi, China

Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Dermatology Research (XJYS1707), Urumqi, China

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Ma wrote the main manuscript text, Yang, Tian, and Yu checked and revised the manuscript; Yu provided the data. All authors reviewed the manuscript

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Correspondence to Qimeng Yang .

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Ma, C., Yang, Q., Tian, S. et al. BSP-Net: automatic skin lesion segmentation improved by boundary enhancement and progressive decoding methods. Multimedia Systems 30 , 254 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00530-024-01453-2

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Received : 30 March 2024

Accepted : 13 August 2024

Published : 29 August 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s00530-024-01453-2

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