The More Brands You Have - The Better Off You Are. Right?

Yes. And no. It's not how many brands you have - it's what you do with them, their strategic importance, the investment behind them and the logic of their place within your company or organization.

Take a look at your brands. Then ask yourself these questions:

1. Do they provide clarity?
   
2. Are they synergistic?
3. Do they leverage one another?
   

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you need to take a deeper look and probably spend some time doing a bit of brand architecture.

If you're not familiar with the term, it's exactly what it sounds like. It's an examination of how brands within your company's portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, each other other. Brand architecture will define how the different categories of the brands within your organization relate to each other and support each other - brands and sub-brands alike.

The process needs to:

• Fit your company's vision and business
• Prioritize your markets and segments
• Support those that fit and eliminate those that don't
• Provide a foundation for new and extended brands - either self-created, acquisitioned or merged.
  

Done properly and conceived with the organization's brand promise built into everything, brand architecture will focus your resources on the brands that best support your business goals - driving financial performance and efficiency.