Brand architecture

In the marketing field of brand management, brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity. It is the way brands within a company's portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, one another. According to J.-N. Kapferer, the brand architecture should define the different leagues of branding within the organization;^[1] how the corporate brand and sub-brands relate to and support each other; and how the sub-brands reflect or reinforce the core purpose of the corporate brand they belong to. Often, decisions about brand architecture are concerned with how to manage a parent brand and a family of sub-brands – managing brand architecture to maximize shareholder value can include using brand-valuation model techniques.

One may regard the designing of a brand architecture as an integrated process of brand building through establishing brand relationships among branding options in the competitive environment.^[2] The brand architecture of an organization at any time is, in large measure, a legacy of past management decisions as well as of the competitive realities brands face in the marketplace.^[3]