Brand structureBrand 2.0The theoretical system also includesBrand parentStructure andBrand touchpointsStructure.brandStructure refers to the combination of different product brands of an enterprise, which specifies the role of brands, the relationship between brands, and their different roles in the brand system.A reasonable brand structure helps to find commonalities to create synergy, manage multiple brands in a clear and orderly manner, reduce damage to brand identity, make adjustments quickly and efficiently, and allocate resources more reasonably among brands.
Chinese name
Brand structure
Foreign name
Brand contructure
Definition
Refers to the combination of different product brands of an enterprise, which specifies the role of brands, the relationship between brands, and their different roles in the brand system
The organizational structure that provides fixed support for the brand is calledBrand parentA brand parent can be an enterprise, a country, a government organization, an individual, or an event. A brand parent can produce multiple brands, but a brand can only have one brand parent. The generation and death of a brand is not the same as the generation and death of a brand parent.Both have different life manifestations.If the brand parent is regarded as a plant, which includes the crown, trunk, root and other major parts, the corresponding brand parent structure includes the brand identification system and brand management team,Brand relationshipNetwork, media and word of mouth, brand production factors, and brand collaborators.Brand is just a tool for brand parent to compete for people's attention.Crown: The top of a plant's growing branches and leaves.The crown shape adapted to the changes of light conditions in the community, and reflected the utilization of light energy to a certain extent.The crown shape depends on the relative height of the beginning of the lateral branches, as well as the length and emission angle of the main branches.In the brand matrix structure, the brand identity system corresponds to the crown of the brand management team. It reflects the use of people's attention by the brand matrix, is the part of the brand matrix that can be independently controlled, and is also the cumulative amount of the brand's active appeal to the niche.The crown part can be represented by a cone model, and the face represents the brand's demand for niche, which is the maximum value of the brand identity system accepted by people, or the maximum value of the brand identity system perceived by people.It is part of defining the competition pattern between the brand and competitive brands.The thickness represents the existence time of the brand in the niche, and is a parameter to measure the brand history. The greater the thickness, the longer the brand history.
Trunk: trunk and branches are stems of plants, which are roads between roots and leaves, and can transport the substances absorbed by roots to leaves;And transport the nutrients produced by the leaves to the roots.Tree trunks are very important parts of plants. The most obvious thing is that if there were no tree trunks, there would be no tall trees in the world.In addition, the trunk also bears many heavy tasks.The trunk has to send the water and inorganic salts absorbed by the roots to the high leaves for photosynthesis to produce the organic substances needed for plant growth;The organic matter produced by leaves must also be sent to various parts of the plant by the trunk.
In the brand parent structure, the brand relationship network, media and word of mouth are tree trunks.Its functions include supporting the crown (brand identification system and brand management team), transporting nutrients (transferring the brand concept between the root and the crown), and in addition, it needs to be as long as possible to have a competitive advantage, so as to achieve a better nicheBrand developmentProvide better space opportunities.
Root: Root is a downward growing organ developed by some plants during their long-term adaptation to land life.It has the functions of absorption, transportation, storage and fixation. The roots of a few plants also have the function of reproduction.Usually, the roots grow downward, hidden below the ground, but not absolutely. Some plants do not grow underground, but grow in the air, or even upward.Also, note that not all plants have roots.Of the 500000 plants in the world, only 200000 higher plants have real roots, and nearly 300000 lower plants have no roots.They have not evolved to the level of having roots. Some lower plants have the shape of roots, but they do not have the structure of roots. At best, they can only be called rhizoids.
There are many types of roots, which can be divided into main root, lateral root and adventitious root according to their occurrence.In the brand matrix structure, brand production factors and brand collaborators belong to the same root. We can visually compare brand production factors to the main root, and brand collaborators to the lateral root. The indefinite root refers to the brand growth factors and brand collaborators that are added after the brand has reached a certain period of growth.
Brand Touchpoint Structure
Announce
edit
Brand touchpoints
The crown, trunk and root of the brand parent are the communication points established with the society. Because the brand parent is a three-dimensional structureBrand touchpointsIt is also expanded on 3D faces.There are four brand touchpoints: brand self contact, brand other contact, brand base contact and brand bottom contact. The brand touchpoint structure has a one-to-one correspondence with the brand parent structure.
Brand self contact
In the brand matrix, the part where the brand identity system and the brand management team interact with people is called brand self contact.The collection of brand self contacts is actually the surface of a cone. The vertical projection of brand self contacts is the bottom area of the cone. The measured value reflects the overall impression of the recognized brand recognition system.There are two calculation methods. One is the brand element calculation method, which sets the weight value of all elements in the brand recognition system, scores one by one through a questionnaire survey, and finally accumulates a data that is the absolute brand self contact projection value.The other is the brand niche calculation method. The method is to measure the brand self contact radius in the brand community where the brand exists, and then calculate its area:
The thickness of brand self contact is the time of brand existence, expressed in years.The thicker the brand self contact is, the longer the brand has existed. The time unit in the actual data model is "year" or "month", or even "day", which is not critical, but no matter which unit is used, it should be unified in a series of comparative brand value data.
Brand and other contacts
The brand relationship network, media and public praise are the trunk parts, which correspond to the brand and its contact points in the brand structure. They are the contact points between the brand parent and people through a third party, and are the parts of the brand that are difficult to control independently.The brand relationship network includes consumers, distributors (wholesalers, retailers, agents), suppliers, and concept leadership organizations (such as clinical practice of pharmaceutical products, views of organizations, and group initiatives).The media includes traditional media such as newspapers, radio, television and new media. New media is based on computer technology, communication technology, digital broadcasting and other technologies, through the Internet, wireless communication network, digital radio and television network, satellite and other channels, with computers, television, mobile phones, PDAs, MP4 and other devices as terminals.It can achieve personalized, interactive and differentiated communication mode, and some new media can achieve accurate delivery and point-to-point communication, such as new media blogs, electronic magazines, etc.Word-of-mouth communication refers to the informal interpersonal communication of a product, brand, organization and service between a non-commercial communicator and a receiver with perceptual information.Most research literature believes that word-of-mouth communication is one of the most powerful control forces in the market.Psychologists point out that the influence of family and friends, consumers' direct use experience, mass media and enterprise marketing activities together constitute the four major factors that affect consumer attitudes.Due to its important role in influencing consumers' attitudes and behaviors, word of mouth is known as "No. 0 Media".Public praiseModern MarketingPeople regard it as the cheapest information dissemination tool and highly reliable propaganda media in the world today.As far as marketing research is concerned, some people advocate taking word-of-mouth communication as a marketing method to enrich existing marketing theories.
Brand based contact
Brand production factors and brand collaborators belong to the same root. Brand production factors are the resources needed by enterprises for production, including labor, capital, materials, information, technology and other brand production factors, which correspond to the brand base contacts in the brand structure.
Brand bottom contact
Brand collaborators are units that provide production factor services for brands, and can serve as other brand matrixes. Brand collaborators correspond to the brand bottom contacts in the brand structure.
The root of the brand matrix is a hidden part, which only contacts specific institutions or specific groups of people, such as industry and commerce, tax, quality supervision, statistics, industry associations and other departments and employees, and does not directly contact ordinary people, including consumers of the brand matrix.This is more clearly reflected in the calculation of brand ecological projection.Brand base contact and brand bottom contact may also deteriorate to brand self contact or brand other contact under specific conditions.
Type of brand structure
Announce
edit
Shared brand structure
Shared brand structure refers to the way in which multiple types of products share a brand name.Since the shared brand has branded a unified enterprise or cultural background on various products, it is beneficial for new product categories to share products and brand image assets that have established market influence, save marketing costs during the introduction period and shorten the length of the introduction period.
SharedBrand extensionGenerally, it is not suitable for the extension of a large industry span, because on the one hand, the shared value of brand assets may be very small, on the other hand, it may also cause consumers to confuse brand identity and role.
Shared brand extension is generally not suitable for comparison has been establishedBrand influenceThe development stage of the industry is more advanced.Because, in industries with more mature development, the brand usually has a wider market coverage, while in industries with less development, the brand usually has a narrower influence.When extending from industries with large influence scope to industries with small influence scope, because the market has formed a relatively fixed concept of the original brand, it will be difficult to accept new industry and product information, and the acceptance of new industry and product information will inevitably squeeze out some of the original brand information, so the original brand image will be diluted,Market competitiveness has been weakened.On the contrary, when extending from industries with small influence scope to industries with large influence scope, most of the markets facing are new consumers who have less accepted the original brand information in the past, and industries with more advanced development tend to be more industrialized and technical in terms of brand image, so when extending to industries with less advanced development scope,In terms of brand image building, we can save time and resources in building such an image.For example, the marketing development stage of the industrial chemical market obviously lags behind the marketing development stage of the daily chemical industry. If it extends from the daily chemical industry to the industrial chemical industry, the brand influence of the daily chemical industry will not help the industrial chemical industry brand much.
Independent brand structure
Independent brands generally have strong associations with specific commodities or the functions and attributes of commodities, or have strong cultural personality.Such brands are generally not suitable for brand extension.Because the new connotation of the brand given by the brand extension is difficult to be recognized by consumers, and the original brand image will also be considered "devalued" by consumers because of the "mixed" of the new image, which will cause the tragedy of "losing the wife and losing the army" for enterprises.
Generally speaking, traditional industries and products that have an important impact on consumers' personal image should preferably adopt independent brand structure.Only in this way can the brand power be improved.Like Montblanc555 cigarettesNike, Sprite, and the fifth season are independent brands.
Parent child brand structure
The parent brand can extend to sub brands.It can be extended to the widest range with the smallest restrictions, but it is generally not suitable for cross industry extension.Because generally speaking, the parent brand is actually a corporate image brand, and its main external function is to provide a trusted background image for sub brands or sub brands.For example, P&G, an enterprise brand, provides high-quality brand image for sub brands such as Rejoice, Pantene, Head&Shoulders, Olay, etc., while sub brands focus on shaping product characteristics and brand cultural image.The parent-child brand structure model is generally applicable to industries that are more traditional and mature, but whose product quality is not easy to distinguish, as well as larger enterprises that already have a high reputation.
Primary and secondary brand structure
The main and auxiliary brand structure is generally a brand structure model used to distinguish the same kind of products or different image styles with different functions, characteristics and levels.For example, Haier Little Prince, Honda Accord and Baisha Golden Century belong toMain and subsidiary brandspattern.
Multi model brand structure
Multi mode brand structure refers to the combination of brand structures in which more than two modes mentioned above coexist.
Factors determining brand structure
External factors
Sociocultural background
The eastern cultural tradition pays attention to the clear hierarchy, the difference between young and old, and the importance of harmony.Therefore, most Oriental enterprises adopt the company's brand orientation, such as Japan Honda, South Korea Samsung, etc.Imagine that if there are two products with similar quality and sense, one is the product of a powerful enterprise group, and the enterprise also emphasizes the company background of the product in brand marketing;The other product also comes from a large company, but the enterprise has played down the product origin in order to emphasize the product personality. Then, in the eyes of most oriental consumers, a single brand will compete with a large companyBrand awarenessTo influence the purchase decision.Western culture, especially American culture, emphasizes individuality, so American companies are the majority of those who insist on using product brand orientation for a long time.
Focus of market competition
In the same fierce market competition, when the focus of competition is mainly on product quality and price, enterprises need the company brand as a guarantee to fulfill their quality and service commitments. At this time, the brand structure tends to be company brand oriented;When the focus of the competition is on the symbolic meaning of the product and the embodiment of the identity of the product user, the product brand orientation will be favored by enterprises because of its strong adaptability and customization for the target audience.
Market and consumer maturity
The more developed the market is and the more mature the consumers are, the richer and faster the channels for consumers to obtain information will be.The relatively sound product elimination mechanism reduces the task of enterprises to publicize the functions of a single product, and enterprises can devote more energy to the dissemination of the company's philosophy and mission, thus establishing the audience's awareness of the corporate culture and corporate brand.At present, the history of introducing the market mechanism in China is not long. When people buy products, they are more concerned about the product quality and even the usage information.
Internal factors
History of the company and brand
In the main throughPrivate brandWithin the brand family formed by expansion, the coordination and cohesion between product brands are strong, and each brand is not easy to conflict with the company's overall concept. Such companies tend to use the company's brand oriented strategic thinking.However, enterprises that expand brand families through external mergers and acquisitions tend to be product brand oriented.For P&G, although the product brand orientation is its consistent idea, as Olay is a brand purchased from outside, it has a different growth path from other brands, so we can see that through the same brand extension, Olay brand can have multiple product lines such as skin cream, mask, bath gel, etc,Other brands of P&G usually form only one product line, and there are multiple brands in one product category for internal competition.
Entrepreneurial factors
The choice of brand structure is closely related to the founders of the enterprise and, in a broader sense, the leaders of the enterprise. Their personalities and preferences sometimes even directly determine the brand structure strategy.Richard Bronson, the founder of Virgin Company, is an entrepreneur with an adventurous spirit. His ambition is to challenge the established field - to give consumers more value than competitors.He is also a hot-air balloon enthusiast. Every time he takes off, he attracts the attention of the media. He successfully transfers this attention to Virgin, thus strengthening Virgin's image of adventurous spirit.It is this adventurous spirit of Bronson that makes Virgin successfully implement the strategy of entering many completely different industries with the brand of Uni President, which surprised many scholars.
corporate culture
Companies that try to make their own strong corporate culture explicit tend to be brand oriented, because this can effectively play the role of corporate culture in internal cohesion, guiding behavior, external diffusion, and image dissemination.The product brand oriented company usually has a strong cultural atmosphere that encourages innovation, advocates individuality and encourages competition based on the brand team.
Brand structure tactics
Announce
edit
After formulating the brand structure strategy adopted by the enterprise, it is faced with the problem of how to reflect the advantages of the brand structure in daily operations, so it enters the stage of specific tactical strategy application.The brand structure tactics available for enterprises include:
Pure company brand.There are not a few well-known multinational companies adopting this tactic.The founders of Virgin used this brand to enter music, tourism, fashion, railway transportation, soft drinks, hotels, aviation and other completely different fields, and made achievements that surprised the public and confused critics of this practice.By observing the companies that successfully use this tactic, we can find some common characteristics: they have clear corporate philosophy and clear values;Have a good corporate culture accumulation;Excellent entrepreneurs and leaders;The variety of products or services is relatively wide, but the adaptability to different business environments is superior.
Company brand+product series.This tactic still uses the company's brand as the main target of market demands and the guarantor of product quality, but also uses the name of the product series to convey more product information to the audience.This strategy is mostly adopted by some high value-added products, such as mobile phones, computer products, cars, etc.BMW brand uses numbers after the BMW logo to distinguish the size of products and the difference of market segments.The 300 series indicates that the cars in this series are smaller and cheaper than those in the 500 and 700 series, while the numbers 316, 320 and 325 indicate different engine models in the 300 series.These high-tech products prefer to use the company's brand+product series strategy. On the one hand, these companies have obvious internal technology orientation, so while emphasizing customer relations, they need to use more impersonal product codes than ordinary consumer goods to achieve relatively "self oriented" product information communication;On the other hand, the competition in the market of high value-added products must also be backed by the company's overall strong technical and capital strength.
Company brand+sub brand.This strategy is to endow a single product or a class of products with a personalized brand name or mark while using the company's brand, so that it can generate personality and temperament beyond the common characteristics of the company's products in the eyes of customers.Haier is the first successful case to apply this strategy.Take air conditioners for example, Haier's variable frequency air conditioners are called "Little Superman", health air conditioners are called "Little Champion", and window machines are called "Little Talents".In today's market environment, there are many products that can succeed with this strategy, because the buyer's market characteristics and increasingly fierce product competition make the benefits provided to customers by appliances and other products from the original functional benefits to functional, symbolic and experiential benefits.Using sub brands can makeenterpriseOn the premise of not losing the functions and quality assurance provided by the company's brand for customers and ensuring customers' quality awareness, the brand name can enrich customers' association with each product personality, so as to enhance the communication effect with customers and enhance brand loyalty.
Company brand+productbrand。The difference between this strategy and the strategy of "company brand+sub brand" is that the former gives consideration to both company brand and product brand, and does not deliberately emphasize the subordination of product brand to company brand in marketing communication.If viewed dynamically, this tactic cannot be regarded as the normal state of enterprise brand structure, because long-term use of this strategy can neither achieve the effect of occupying different market segments by using the diversity, adaptability and flexibility of product brands, nor achieve the purpose of integrating enterprise brand resources and providing quality assurance under the company brand.However, in some transitional stages of enterprise development, this strategy is still applicable.As a restructuring enterprise of the former China Post and Telecommunications Industry Corporation, China Putian Group adopted this strategy when integrating its brands.Putian's Shouxin, Dongxin, Bird and other mobile phone brands have formed considerableBrand awarenessAs their parent company, Putian is far less well-known than these subordinate brands.After China's entry into WTO, the competition in the communication industry will become increasingly fierce, forcing the group to integrate its brand resources.At the current stage, Putian adopts the strategy of company brand+product brand.Putian Dongxin, Putian Shouxin and other brands were launched, and they were deliberately highlighted in advertisements“Putian, China”Four big characters.The ultimate goal should be company brand+product series or company brand+sub brand.
