What's up brand buildersStephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video
you're going to learn what multi-branding is how and when to use this strategy
and how it can be leveraged to dominate a category or a market
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals and
the logo using strategy psychology and creative thinking then you're in the right place hit that
subscribe button and the notification bell if you want to fast track your results make sure
you grab the pro brand strategy blueprint it's a free download and the link is in the description
now within brand strategy there are a lot of terms that cross over and some of these terms cross over
they mean the exact same things some have slight nuances and specifically within brand architecture
there are a lot of terms to wrap your head around you have an umbrella branding strategy you have a
house of brands a branded house and you also have multi branding that's another one to add
to the list but it is important to understand the slight differences and the nuances so you
can take advantage when the opportunity presents itself so what is a multi-branding strategy well
multi-branding or flanker branding as it's also known by is a strategy used by established brands
now when an established brand within a specific category introduces another brand into that same
category they use the multi-branding strategy to do that now this new brand that's introduced
to the market is completely different to the original brand within that category it will
have a completely different name a completely different brand identity in essence it will look
like a completely different brand and this usually happens within an umbrella branding strategy
and more specifically a house of brand strategy where you have a parent brand sitting on top
and you have a multitude of brands sitting underneath all with their own identities with
their own names acting as independent brands so why use a multi-branding strategy there's already
an established brand within that category why introduce another brand into that same category
to potentially compete with that existing brand well it's not about competing and this is the
key to the multi-branding strategy within a given category there are only a certain amount
of customers that you can serve within that category because there will be segments of
the market that won't want what your brand has so this strategy is all about increasing
market share and appealing to more specific audiences as i said having an established brand
is great but if you're overlooking the needs and wants of a certain segment of the audience they're
never going to look towards the original brand so therefore they're overlooking that segment and
missing out on possibly a large slice of the pie so let's look at an example here to solidify the
understanding of what the multi-branding strategy is all about now procter gamble is a house of
brands with many different brands and one of their leading brands is tied laundry detergent
now tide is a very very successful brand and has a massive slice of the pie in the laundry detergent
category now why would proctor and gamble want to introduce another brand into that category well
there are a segment of that audience that believe that the tide brand is too expensive they wouldn't
buy the tide brand because it is a little bit out of their reach so procter and gamble introduced
another brand into that category called cheer with less quality and a lower price and appealed
to that segment of the audience that wanted a cheaper option in the market so overall tai
did lose some market share initially to the cheer brand that was introduced but overall their market
share overall for procter and gamble through the two brands ended up being much larger because of
this multi-branding strategy now another example of the multi-branding strategy will be from toyota
now toyota has a brand reputation in the market as a very reliable mid-range car but they wanted
to introduce a bit more luxury into the market so it was decided that they shouldn't do that
under the toyota brand because the associations were with that mid-range reliability not luxury
so they introduced lexus into the market overall toyota was able to increase its market share and
to be able to diversify and offer more luxury to a wider audience so what are the advantages of a
multi-branding strategy well i've touched on them a little bit earlier really it's all about market
share it's all about increasing that market share and having a broader presence within the market
to be able to increase sales increase revenue and as i said overall market share so that is
the cornerstone of that strategy it's being able to grab a bigger slice of the pie while appealing
to more specific segments of the audience and what about disadvantages of this strategy are there any
disadvantages well it can go wrong and there can be some brand cannibalization there you can have
the two brands competing on certain levels and really not pulling in the same direction
if there is competition there then it's not going to work in favor of the parent brand so there are
some management issues to consider and again if it's not managed correctly this can damage
the overall brand so it is a risky strategy not to mention how expensive it is to introduce a new
market into a category so there is a lot on the table in terms of risk and it can go very wrong
but if it goes right there is a lot to be earned now the multi-branding strategy really highlights
the fact of how important it is to understand your audience and understand your market
you might have an established brand within your marketplace but chances are you are overlooking
a segment of your audience they have unmet needs and those unmet needs represent opportunity one
way or another whether it's your brand who goes out and meets them or another brand
to take advantage of opportunities that do present themselves in a given category it's
important to understand brand architecture and how you can structure your brands or any sub
brands that you might introduce to be able to take advantage of those opportunities if
you want to understand what brand architecture is all about and how to use it then this video
will show you how until next time brand like a master and i'll see you in the next video