Build Mode™
A monthly update with brand insights
and how they apply for the development of your practice and projects.
To operate in ‘build mode’ is to be in a state of creation and growth. Ambitious, with the mindset, resources, and conditions to build. To build environments. To build your company. To build and enhance your reputation. Through a deep dive into a brand principle once a month, I hope to help you on your path of growth.
Plus things I'm reading, thinking, learning, designing, and more.
Unsubscribe if you ever feel the updates aren't valuable for you. No hard feelings. :-)
DROPPING ON THE FIRST OF EACH MONTHPast issues of Build ModeBranding that resonates
Build Mode™ Issue 04.2024
Build Mode™ Issue 04.2024
It’s the third issue of Build Mode! Thanks for being here. We have an ambitious bunch made up of professionals working in real estate, architecture, engineering, construction, marketing, design, and development. Welcome all!
In today’s update, I’ll share how you can reach and resonate with those that truly value what you do.
Let’s go!
Your company can’t possibly appeal to anyone and everyone. It’d be a mistake to try. If your branding tries to appeal to everyone, it’ll end up so broad and generic that no one would bother to notice it.
By identifying a specific market and ideal client, you’ll be able to understand their unique needs and desires, appeal to them through your brand, and empower your business to grow.
Who are your people?
An intended audience (sometimes called a target audience, but that feels sort of ‘combative’ to me) is a segment of the population that would benefit from what you offer and whose values align with your own. They are usually individuals or companies with common characteristics, like demographics, or industry, or interests, or a combination of these.
Put simply, it’s the people you’re trying to reach.
And it doesn’t need to be limited to just one segment. There may be a small handful of segments with slight differences.
For example, a real estate investment firm might have different types of investors and affiliates they want to appeal to for a newly established fund. All with the shared common industry of real estate investment, but with unique traits.
One segment might be data-driven. More discerning than the average investor, these individuals would meticulously evaluate investment options. They prioritize understanding a firm’s track record and expertise.
Another might be more instinctual. They know what they’re looking for and a firm would serve them well by listening to their needs and guiding them accordingly. Their decision-making relies on chemistry and relationships, making trust easier to earn through rapport-building.
And yet another might not be an investor at all, but the conduit to investors. While prioritizing their role as responsible fiduciaries for their clients' investments, they are also driven by their own incentives. Clear and memorable information would be essential for them to deliver trustworthy advice and instill confidence in their clients.
So while an investment firm has an intended broader audience of ‘real estate investors’, understanding the specific traits of different segments within it helps identify what they care about most and how to appeal to their needs. If you’re writing and speaking to them, you’ll want messaging that is tailored, relevant, and brings them the highest value.
Why this matters:
Setting intentions on who your audience is helps you focus your branding and marketing efforts. Remember, we said we can’t possibly appeal to anyone and everyone. You can’t expect to be able to broadcast a message to reach millions of people and get prospects knocking down your door.
Your branding and marketing is most effective when it reaches those that are most likely to be interested in what you offer. Identifying and focusing on ideal clients allows you to appeal to your intended audience, maximize your effectiveness, and build stronger and more fulfilling client relationships.
So how can you be most ‘appealing’ to your intended audience?
Appealing isn’t just about being attractive (of course a brand that looks good is important – but beauty is only skin deep).
It’s resonance too.
Resonance is the sense of deep connection to one another on something that feels true.
To be truly resonant with those you serve, your brand needs to appeal to their psychological needs, their subjective desires and aspirations. Clients often make purchasing decisions based not on the rational benefits of a product, but rather, on how a product satisfies their emotional needs and resonates with their identity and values.
There’s a psychological theory, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, that reminds us that human motivation is driven by a hierarchical arrangement of needs, ranging from the most basic to the highest aspirations.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Let's break it down:
→ At the base of Maslow's pyramid, we have physiological – the need for food, water, shelter, and sleep. Products that fulfill our physiological needs are often commoditized. The brands that elevate their messaging to higher level needs become more appealing to prospects (think Casper for the mattress industry, or Liquid Death in the packaged water category).
→ Moving up the pyramid, we encounter safety – the need for security, stability, and protection from harm. How can our offering provide peace of mind and assurance to our audience? You see marketing messaging for security from brands like Ring, Volvo, and Norton Antivirus, which appeal primarily for our need for safety.
→ Next up, we have love and belonging – the need for social connection, relationships, and a sense of community. Humans are social creatures by nature. How can we foster a sense of belonging and camaraderie within our community of customers? For multifamily developers, think about what a common amenity space is really for and how to clearly message the benefits of connection and building a sense of community with our human need for love and belonging.
→ As we ascend the pyramid, we reach esteem – the need for recognition, respect, and self-esteem. How can we empower them to achieve their goals and aspirations, bolstering their self-confidence along the way? Many luxury brands play in this space, knowing that carrying their logo – whether it’s Louis Vuitton, Mercedes-Benz, or Rolex – is reflecting a self-image that commands recognition.
Finally, at the pinnacle of Maslow's pyramid, we have self-actualization – the need for personal growth, fulfillment, and realizing one's full potential. I’m not sure about you, but my social feed has been flooded with personal development coaches pitching their courses, with a key message that speaks to our innate desire to see the best version of ourselves actualized.
What you can do right now:
Now that you know about intended audience and how to speak to their emotional needs, let’s look at how you can effectively identify your ideal client and deliver a brand that resonates.
Develop an ideal client profile(s)
For each of your intended audience segments, develop a profile for them. There might be only one, or there might be five, but usually no more than that. If you find yourself writing for more than five, there’s a likelihood that some of your segments might be similar enough that they can be consolidated. Like the real estate investment firm examples above, develop multiple personas to represent different segments of your market, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of your audience.
The profiles I develop have four parts:
1. Write a description of who they are and what they value
What are their pain points, desires, fears, and aspirations? The insights here come from knowing your current clients, former clients, and conversations with prospective clients. What do they prioritize in life, and what principles guide their decision-making process?
2. Identify their functional needs
What do clients get when they work with you? Literally - what’s the deliverable? Functional needs pertain to the practical, tangible requirements that clients seek to fulfill through a product or service. They are the product, the features, the solutions.
3. Identify their emotional needs
How do clients feels when they work with you? What are their emotional needs and how they fit into the levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (physiological, security, belonging, esteem, and achievement)?
4. Develop value proposition(s)
With the insights on their functional and emotional needs, and how your product can deliver on those needs, articulate how your product or service addresses their pain points, fulfills their desires, and aligns with their core values. Where their pain points and your offer overlap lies your unique value proposition. This unique value proposition, along with the benefits you offer, further separates you from other industry players.
And finally, put yourself in their shoes. With every word you write, every graphic you create, every brand touchpoint with them… make sure it appeals to them, but more importantly, make sure it resonates.
That’s a wrap for the April issue of Build Mode!
If you have any ideas to share, or questions to ask, reach out. I’m open to hearing your thoughts and making this most useful message in your inbox this week. If you think this might help a friend, feel free to forward it to them and encourage them to join us.
Wishing you a wonderful month of April. Talk soon!
Best.
Kenny Isidoro
Work zone
Some other things I’ve been up to this past monthLaunching:
The case study for Topograph is live! It's been fun to collaborate with Eastland Partners and Wingate Companies on this one. Through an in-depth brand strategy, we identified the qualities that could make this place special, and then we went all-in on bringing this breath of fresh air to Auburn, MA. Check it out → Topograph.
Mentoring:
Last week was the kickoff for AIGA Boston's mentorship program and I'm thrilled to be matched up with a young designer fresh out of school and exploring what's next for him. The program is a great way to stay connected to the organization and help guide professionals to the next version of their professional selves.
Archiving:
If you weren’t here for last month’s issue of Build Mode on brand positioning, you can find it at mudeo.ck.page (for now). I’m still working on finding the right place for past issues and whether they stay on a separate site, on my own website as blog posts, or just as emails.
Experimenting:
I’m considering putting together a subscription service model. On-demand branding and marketing services for business leaders in build mode. Interested? If your organization would like to take part in a pilot program (aka be a guinea pig), give me a ring!
If you want to find the secrets of the universe,
think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.
Subscribe to Build Mode™
a monthly update with brand insights and how they can apply to your practice and your projects. Issues drop on the first of each month. Feel free to unsubscribe if the updates aren't valuable for you. No hard feelings.
Forget competition - you win when you play your own game
Build Mode™ Issue 03.2024
Build Mode™ Issue 03.2024It’s the second issue of Build Mode! I’m so glad you’ve joined us. We have an ambitious bunch here made up of professionals working in real estate, architecture, engineering, construction, marketing, design, and development. Welcome all!
In today’s update I’ll share what brand positioning is, why it matters, and how you can put it into practice.
Let’s go!
Ever find yourself competing with other companies? Or worse, competing with other companies on price? Ugh. Multiple players in the mix. All with a similar offering, a similar message, a similar approach?
Especially in markets that are perceived as commodities, (yeah, sometimes that includes architecture and construction) focusing on what makes you different is the secret to unleashing your brand's potential and standing out among the crowd.
Brand positioning is the process of getting there.
What’s brand positioning?
Positioning is one of the core components of brand strategy (arguably the most important, from a business perspective, among the four components – purpose, people, position, personality).
Brand positioning is the act of intentionally choosing your place in the market, one where no one else occupies, or can occupy.
It’s not only your space in the market, but also the space you take up in the mind of your audience.
How do you get to a brand position? The simplest way is to answer the question: ‘what makes you different?’ but there’s more to it than just that.
Being different makes you stand out.
Standing out makes you more memorable.
Memorability makes you more likely to attract and appeal to your ideal audience, whether it’s your next prospect or talent in your organization.
Brand position often exists in the form of a statement that indicates what makes you different, as well as the set of attributes that define what you offer, what market you’re in, and how your value is different from what others can offer.
Brand position can also exist as literal position or placement on a map of your industry. To evaluate potential gaps in the market, brands are often plotted onto an industry landscape with two axes. You can define the values and attributes of your axes to your liking. For example, one axis might be a range of price points from ‘economy’ to ‘premium’ while the other might be a personality trait like ‘corporate and stiff’ to ‘casual and friendly.’ By mapping brands to coordinates based on secondary research and gut instinct, you can reveal insights in your market, and potential areas to position your brand.
Why does it matter?
If you don’t define who you are, others will do it for you. Meaning, without a brand position that you define yourself, you’ll be categorized next to every other firm just like yours, and continue to compete for market share.
To separate yourself from the market, you need to show up and present your position in a way that speaks to your audience's needs, and expresses it through your message, identity, and offering.
There’s a survey question that is often asked in market research and consumer reports… it goes something like “within the category of X, which brands do you know of?” For example, which coffee brands come to mind? Someone might respond with Starbucks, Dunkin’, Peet’s, Blue Bottle, Caffe Nero, La Colombe… and then trail off. You want to achieve unaided brand awareness, also known as brand recall. It’s when customers can remember your business and know what it’s about because you’ve shown up in the market and made that distinction clear. Simply being known is the first step. Being known for what you intend is next level. The aim is to reduce the perception gap between what you say you are and what your audience thinks you are.
Here’s what you can do next
To define your own brand position, you need to define how you’re different. Here are five steps to get you there.
Step 1: Identify other industry players
(side note: I’m not using the word ‘competitors’, and that’s on purpose. There’s a train of thought in business that to ‘win’ you need to increase market share by obliterating the competition. But an increase in market share doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in business if the market size remains status quo. An increase in market share is dependent on the size of the market. I’m not a fan of this ‘competitive’ approach to business.)
The way I see it, the market is full of players in the game of business. Many players will compete against each other, trying to one-up each other with the next feature, monitoring their every move, claiming to be better, or the first, or the fastest, or the biggest.
There’s a better game to play.
The best game to play is one where you define your own rules. Know what others are doing so you can separate yourself into an open segment of the market.
Other industry players are the ones that are already on your radar. You run into them frequently. They are the firms on the same shortlist. They’re the existing providers you’re trying to dethrone. They are the contractors you’re bidding against. They are the ones you admire and also, the ones you despise!
Step 2: Research those industry players
Unless we have access to their internal brand strategy, the only way to understand how other industry players are positioning themselves is through their messaging. By reading and extrapolating what they say, we can interpret what they intend.
Visit the website of each industry player and look for these things:
What is their primary message? You’ll likely find this at the top of the home page or about page. Their primary message might be an indicator of their positioning.
What are their top three features and benefits? You might find this within their approach, services, or features page. Identify what benefits they are offering and to who
What is their visual identity? You’ve read into their messaging, now look at how they visually express themselves and what kind of personality they portray.
Step 3: Identify your differentiating factors
Through your industry audit, you’ll have found the positioning, values, and visual identity that other industry players offer. Now let’s focus on your unique set of attributes.
A good way to start is to list out every possible attribute that defines your brand.
Every.
Single.
One.
You should have a list of at least 50 attributes (even if, at first, they are similar to other industry players.) Once you have a large list of attributes that define your brand, compare them to the benefits of other industry players you developed. Which of these are unique to you, and you only? Choose a handful. These are your unique value propositions - the factors and values that customers can only get from you. As you go through these attributes, pay close attention to ones that get you excited and stand out among the rest. This may be your 'big idea.' See next step.
Step 4: Write a position statement
If you look up what’s included in a positioning statement, you may find templated statements with fill-in-the-blanks for target audience, category, key customer benefits, and alternatives.
Bleh. There are multiple problems with position statement templates. One, they're usually a mouthful. Two, they're uninspiring. Three, to suggest a brand position can be completed with a fill-in-the-blank is just plain wrong. Positioning isn’t Mad Libs.
When writing your position statement, don’t follow a template. What’s most important in your position statement is that you identify one big idea that makes you different from all other brands. This idea could come from the unique attributes you found in the previous step. Whatever the idea is, whether it’s the type of people you serve, or your unique approach, or your unique qualifications, or something else. Lean into the one thing that makes you the only one in a category that can deliver on this promise.
Some examples of brand positions:
For my brand agency MUDEO, I’ve defined my position as “Branding for business leaders in build mode.” It clearly identifies what I do and the unique group I’m focused on supporting – those who are ambitious and operating in the built environment through design, construction, real estate, or management.
For a new residential community coming soon to Auburn, MA, the core position is “a breath of fresh air” – highlighting refreshingly new housing stock and appealing to those who want to get outside the city and into nature.
For a popular brand like Warby Parker, their mission is “to inspire and impact the world with vision, purpose, and style” which could also be interpreted as their positioning. The inclusion of ‘impact the world’ is a clear reference to their unique Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program where they donate pairs of glasses to people in need around the world.
Step 5: Keep positioning at the center of everything you do
Positioning isn’t just a part of a brand strategy, it’s the key driver for your business. Every marketing initiative, every business decision, every bit of communication should reinforce your position.
It’s how you stand out
It’s how you’re remembered
It’s what you stand for
It’s what people love about you
It’s what keeps them coming back again and again
TL;DR
Forget competition. Use brand positioning to define what makes you different, setting you apart and occupying space that no one else can. Be aware of what other industry players are up to, then define your own space. Be a category of one to eliminate competition and stand out in the minds of your ideal audience.
That’s a wrap for the March issue of Build Mode! Thanks again for being here.
If you have any ideas to share, or questions to ask, reach out. I’m open to hearing your thoughts and making this most useful message in your inbox this week. If you think this might help a friend, feel free to forward it to them and encourage them to join us.
Wishing you a wonderful month of March and hope to talk soon!
Best.
Kenny Isidoro
Work zone
Some other things I’ve been up to this past monthLearning:
I’ve recently completed a couple more courses through Section on storytelling and data to earn certificates in strategic communication and leadership. My membership in the program recently expired and I’m considering new learning opportunities. Where and how do you learn.
Designing:
Over the past few months, I’ve been working with Eastland Partners, a real estate developer based in Worcester, and property management firm Wingate Companies, to develop the brand for Topograph, a new residential community in Auburn. Keep an eye out for a case study coming soon!
Experimenting:
I’m considering putting together a subscription service model. On-demand branding and marketing services for business leaders in build mode. Interested? If your organization would like to take part in a pilot program (aka be a guinea pig), give me a ring!
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
Subscribe to Build Mode™
a monthly update with brand insights and how they can apply to your practice and your projects. Issues drop on the first of each month. Feel free to unsubscribe if the updates aren't valuable for you. No hard feelings.
Setting the foundation for brand architecture
Build Mode™ Issue 02.2024
Build Mode™ Issue 02.2024There’s been some chatter in the architecture industry lately (or maybe it’s always been there and continually resurfacing) about how the terms ‘architect’ and ‘architecture’ have been co-opted, or rather hijacked, by lots of different industries, especially the tech industry. We now have data architects, information architects, enterprise architects, solutions architects, and many more.
I get it. And it makes sense. Architecture, beyond the practice of designing and constructing buildings, is a really useful term to describe the intentional planning and structuring of, well, anything. And that includes brand architecture, the topic for today.
Just as architecture is the combination and integration of forms and materials, establishing the foundation for occupants to inhabit, so too does brand architecture establish the setting for a brand through its intentional relationships.
What is brand architecture?
At its most basic level, brand architecture is the organizational structure and perceptual relationships between a parent brand and its sub-brands, products, and services.
Brands are complex things. They serve different markets. They have different products. They have different value segments. They have partnerships, affiliations, and endorsements. And there’s a lot of messiness and complexity within their business. Brand architecture is the process that organizes the chaos into a structure that makes it easy to understand. Whether the brand is a real estate developer, or an international design agency, or a car manufacturer, organizing the brand portfolio for clarity and leverage of the parent brand is paramount.
Let’s look at an example of how a customer navigates through brand architecture and understanding of structural relationships in a real world scenario.
Say you’re in the market for a new vehicle. You were initially researching differences between Kia, Honda, and Toyota and you decided on a Kia. That’s the top level of the structure: the brand.
Now you’re walking around the dealership, avoiding the sales associate because “you’re just looking” and you’re figuring out whether you prefer a crossover, an SUV, or an MPV (apparently that’s the new nickname for minivans now), because you know a sedan will be too small for you. Oh, there’s also a whole range of EVs too, but you decide on a standard SUV. These are examples of product types and the next level of your structure. It’s one way to create classification through brand groupings.
Now that you know you want an SUV, you’ve got size options with different models at each scale. On the larger end is the Telluride, and on the compact side is the Seltos, with Sportage and Sorento in the middle. Let’s go with the Telluride. All of these vehicle models are product brands, or sub-brands.
Think we’re done going down the rabbit hole of brand architecture hierarchy yet? Think again. Within the Telluride brand, there are even more options. Each of the trims are indicators of quality, from a basic model LX starting at $36,190 through all the options in between, S, EX, EX X-Line, SX, SX X-Line, SX X-Pro, SX Prestige, EX Prestige X-Line, and at the highest tier, the SX Prestige X-Pro starting at $53,385 (by the way, who named these?). The trim options create a vertical pricing structure that gives you the option to choose on level of quality.
Through the buying process illustrated above, you can see how a car manufacturer has structured their offering in a clear way (despite the trim names), so customers know exactly what options are offered.
The four basic models of brand architecture
There are four types of brand architecture models: branded house, sub-branded, endorsed, and house of brands.
Branded house
The first brand architectural model is a branded house. Brands in this model go to market with a single name, single brand mark, and generally, operate within a single category. They are incredibly focused. All of the products and services drive value to the parent brand.
UPS operates as a single brand name and brand mark with one primary service of delivering items worldwide. All of the products and services fit the same category, whether they are shipping goods by ground or air or freight, or helping customers ship their goods through physical retail locations.
In the design field, there are companies like Gensler, one name, one brand mark, yet working across dozens of markets through the service offering of architecture, design, and planning. Even upon acquisition of firms, targeted firms integrate swiftly within the branded house model to leverage Gensler’s international reputation. For example, when Gensler acquired Boston-based brand agency Korn Design in 2018, their strategy was to consolidate and integrate their team into Gensler’s Boston office and expand their capabilities as a lifestyle branding studio.
Sub-branded
Our next brand architecture model is sub-branded. The Kia example from above fits here. The Telluride is a sub-brand to Kia, just as the Wrangler is a sub-brand to Jeep, and the Mustang is a sub-brand to Ford. This is true for most car manufacturers. Sub-brands are brands that sit a level below the parent brand and retain association with the parent for enhanced benefit and leveraged equity.
In the building industry, many firms create sub-brands by categorizing their services. See Gilbane as an example. Since the late 1990s, Gilbane, Inc. has been the holding company for two sub-brands: Gilbane Building Company, their construction and facilities brand, and Gilbane Development Company, their real estate development, investment, and management brand. Since they offer an entirely different set of services, they adopted this sub-branded model. Through both entity’s association with Gilbane, both strengthen the name.
In real estate, Millcreek Residential has given names to their asset categories to create sub-brands. Within their portfolio is Amavi, single-family rental communities; Beckett, well-crafted apartment homes; Modera for a ‘new standard’ in apartment living, and Alister, apartment homes at great value. Their product brands, one level deeper, are modified with locations, so their local assets become Alister Quincy, Alister Oak Hill, Alister Baco Raton, which adds consistency and efficiency with brand management and setting customer expectations across the category.
A word of caution with sub-brands in real estate – if the property changes ownership or management, yet the building name remains the same, it’s possible that it becomes mistakenly associated with the original ownership and management firm, thus leaving a former owner susceptible to negative impacts on their brand equity.
Endorsed
The third example for a brand architecture model is endorsed. Endorsed brands are independent brands with a noticeable but minor affiliation with a parent brand or holding company. In practice, an endorsement might appear as a tagline added to the name and logo. An endorsement from a brand with greater brand equity gives the customer more assurance on the quality of the product.
3M has many products within its portfolio, including popular brands like Scotch tape, Post-It notes, and Command strips. Each of the brands are strong on their own but with the backing of 3M (and a logo on the packaging) they receive a brand equity boost because of their affiliation with a higher level, reputable parent brand.
When global firm PA Consulting acquired Boston-based innovation design studio Essential Design in 2018, they adopted for an endorsed approach with “part of PA Consulting” as a tagline in their name. The endorsement started a transitional phase. While Essential’s clients began to recognize the resources available through their association with PA Consulting, Essential Design brought new expertise in-house and expanded PA’s service offering and geographic reach across the globe. They have since fully integrated and become a branded house.
House of brands
The fourth type of brand architecture is a house of brands. House of brands are brands that exist across multiple categories and across multiple value propositions. They are independently branded with little to no connection to the parent brand. Sometimes, there’s an intentional disassociation from the parent brand.
Does Boston Beer Company make beer? Technically, yes, but it’s not a beer brand. They’re a holding company for many brands, or in other words, a house of brands. In their brand portfolio are drink brands across multiple categories: Samuel Adams, Truly Hard Seltzer, Twisted Tea, Angry Orchard, Dogfish Head, and new innovations like Teapot, the cannabis-infused tea. Each of their portfolio brands has strong brand equity and doesn’t leverage the parent brand.
Just as there are holding companies for consumer brands, there are also holding companies for design agencies. Look to kyu, a collective of creative organizations that form partnerships to move the needle on the economy and society. You may recognize some of the names in their portfolio like IDEO, Sid Lee, SYPartners, Godfrey Dadich, and Upstatement, the digital design studio founded in Boston. Within kyu’s brand portfolio, they each maintain their own identity while leveraging the resources of the collective and work together toward one mission.
So these are the four main models of brand architecture: branded house, sub-branded, endorsed, and house of brands. In reality, most firms use a hybrid model with two of these structures to better support the firm’s business objectives.
What’s most important to understand is how each of the brands in the portfolio all play a part in reinforcing the growth of the parent brand or holding company.
Here’s what you can do next
If you’re leading a company or managing its brand reputation (yes, even if you’re an employee, you’re part of that brand’s reputation), it’s essential to see the big picture of how an entire portfolio of brands work together. It’s also a good idea to take an audit of how your business is positioned today to identify any gaps or inefficiencies in how the portfolio is structured.
With the insights above, you now know how to break down the components of a brand architecture, from the top-level holding company and flagship brand, into groups of categories with sub-brands, and tiered quality levels. You also know the four different models of brand architecture and the benefits of each.
So, which model is right for your own brand portfolio? Every brand has a brand portfolio and a brand architecture, even if you don’t have any sub-brands. You still have a set of products, services, or affiliations that need to be intentionally positioned for clarity and leverage.
When considering the brand architecture of your company, ask yourself these questions. This is by no means an exhaustive list of questions you need answered, but it’s a start to get your foundation right.
Current structure
What are all the brands, sub-brands, products, and services that compose your brand portfolio?
How is the portfolio organized and categorized?
What brand architecture model are you currently utilizing?
Is this model clear to everyone – internal, customers, future prospects – in the same way?
Is this model best for the strength of the parent brand and all sub-brands?
Is this model intentional and purposeful?
Portfolio performance
Which areas of the portfolio are driving the strongest growth right now?
Which areas of the portfolio might drive the strongest growth in the future?
How connected and related are the portfolio brands, if at all?
Might there be any associations to create stronger leverage across all segments of the portfolio? (for branded house)
Might there be any disassociation to create separation from conflicting areas of business? (for house of brands)
Future structures
Is the brand architecture adaptable to change?
Are there any new partnerships, affiliations, or services in the pipeline?
What’s the process for adapting the brand architecture with new brand extensions?
How will the brand architecture be represented and updated?
The objectives of an effective brand architecture
Ultimately, the goals for crafting a brand architecture come down to this:
To increase brand value
The composition of the brand portfolio, sub-brands, products, services, and extensions should all be positioned to increase the value of the brand. While your own biases may lead you to focus on a particular sector, your ultimate goal is to drive increased value for the entire portfolio.
To create synergy
Like neuron connections and communications through synapses in our brains, the individual nodes of the brand portfolio should connect and collaborate with one another. Through reinforced association and collaborative efficiencies, each of them become elevated and work harder than on their own.
To clarify the offer
There should be no doubt of what you can offer. Both customers and internal stakeholders should easily understand the structure of the business, navigate it intuitively, and ease into the buying process without friction. Intuitive structure. Clear naming. Easy selling.
To enable future growth
Brand architecture is more about looking ahead than looking back. and creating a framework that allows growth opportunities to occur within the established framework, for new products, new strategic acquisitions, or new markets or categories.
With an effective brand architecture, you’ll set the foundation for a brand to inhabit and for the entire portfolio to propel forward and thrive.
Thanks for reading the inaugural issue of Build Mode!
If you have any feedback on this update, or ideas to share, or questions to ask, reach out. I’m open to hearing your thoughts and making this most useful message for you this week.
Wishing you a wonderful month of February and hope to talk soon!
Best.
Kenny Isidoro
Work zone
Some other things I’ve been up to this past monthReading:
Key Person of Influence by Daniel Priestley. I’ve taken a different approach to reading lately. Rather than read written word (which I still enjoy), I’ve been listening to audiobooks and taking notes in the process. Spotify has tons of books available on their premium plan. I find it helps me remember more and take action on the things I’ve learned.
Learning:
I just wrapped up a course from Section called Proving Business Value with Nicole Alexander, former global head of marketing at Meta. It focused on how to write a business case from end-to-end, while also diving into the most critical financial metrics used to demonstrate financial impact.
Adventuring:
Will I have to update my passport? Not sure yet, but I recently nominated myself to speak at The Design Conference in Brisbane, Australia with a keynote that encourages designers to experiment, learn, and master multiple skills through their career roles. By doing so, they’re stacking a unique combination of skill sets to create a unicorn version of themselves in the market. Fingers crossed!
Experimenting:
I’m considering putting together a subscription service model. On-demand branding and marketing services for business leaders in build mode. Interested? If your organization would like to take part in a pilot program (aka be a guinea pig), give me a ring!
If you build it, they will come.
Subscribe to Build Mode™
a monthly update with brand insights and how they can apply to your practice and your projects. Issues drop on the first of each month. Feel free to unsubscribe if the updates aren't valuable for you. No hard feelings.