Brand architecture

In practice

Architecture decides the naming problem before naming starts. Under a branded house a new product usually needs a descriptor, not a name. Under a house of brands it needs a name that can stand entirely alone. Getting this backwards produces names that are technically fine and strategically useless.

Procter & Gamble's 2018 filing lists Tide, Pampers, Gillette and Ariel side by side, with no parent name in the brand list, while Marriott's FY2023 annual report lists Delta Hotels by Marriott next to Courtyard and Residence Inn. Two companies, two models, both written down in documents investors read. WARC notes that Aaker and Joachimsthaler's spectrum has more positions than these two, but practice has narrowed it to a choice between opposites.

In a naming project the architecture belongs in the naming brief before generation starts, and it is usually the first thing missing. What goes wrong is sequence: a name is chosen first, the structure is argued afterwards, and the next product forces an exception that nobody wrote a rule for. The portfolio then drifts into the pattern described under naming architecture. The wider argument, with the four questions that show which model fits, is in Brand hierarchy: branded house or house of brands?.

Where this sits in the process

The studio treats this as part of a single run rather than a separate service: the category is read, the creative direction is chosen from what the research found, candidates are generated in volume and then cut against criteria that were written down first. See how the studio works for what that produces, or the naming module for the stages themselves.

Related concepts

• Branded house: One name on everything: how a branded house concentrates both equity and risk, and what it means for naming new products.
• House of brands: Independent brands under a silent parent: why this model demands the most from every individual name.
• Endorsed brand: The middle position in brand architecture: how endorsement lets a new name borrow trust without inheriting constraints.

Further reading

• Brand hierarchy: branded house or house of brands?: How to structure the brands in a company: branded house, house of brands, endorsed brands and sub-brands. Real examples, and what each model asks of a new name.
• What is brand strategy? Why it starts with the name: Brand strategy is the decision about who a brand is for and how it differs. Why the name comes first, and how design, tonality and communication make it recognisable.