Brand Architecture

Brand architecture is the system that organises a company's brands, sub-brands, and products into a coherent structure. It defines the relationship between a parent brand and its various offerings — whether those offerings share the parent brand's name and identity, operate under separate identities, or sit somewhere in between. There are three broad models. A monolithic or branded house architecture uses a single master brand across everything (think Google and Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Meet). An endorsed architecture allows sub-brands their own identity while maintaining a visible connection to the parent. A house of brands keeps each brand entirely separate, with the parent company largely invisible to consumers (Procter & Gamble is the classic example, owning Pampers, Gillette, and Ariel as independent brands). Brand architecture decisions have major implications for logo design, since the visual relationships between entities must reflect the strategic relationships. A well-designed brand architecture makes it clear to consumers how products relate to one another.