Umbrella branding marketing practice involves the use of a single brand name for the sale of two or more related products. It is mainly used by companies with a positive brand equity.
What Is Umbrella Branding?
Umbrella brand meaning refers to taking undue advantage of a single brand name and logo to make the sales of different related products. All the giant companies use umbrella branding to expand their business through their already established brand equity.
To understand it, you can take the example of the “Heinz” company, as they put their logo on each related product. Due to the umbrella branding strategy, all the related products of a company align and reflect that they blog to a single brand ecosystem. You might be relating it with “individual branding” as all the products and product categories have their own identity; however, they have the remark of belonging to the same company.
All the corporate umbrella brands are big names in their industry. But, If you have a look at all the corporate umbrella branding, you will find one thing all the umbrella brands have started as individual brands with a single product. Corporate umbrella brands have a lot to explore.
Understanding Corporate Umbrella Branding
A corporate umbrella brand stands as an actual umbrella and sheds its subsidiary brands under its already established credibility, branding, trust, and popularity. It helps those brands to make better sales due to the umbrella branding. This way, all the subsidiary brands or products can quickly target a more extensive customer base.
In this way, the brand identity or brand value of a big brand is transferred to the smaller initiatives, this is how companies can do brand leveraging. And, if those subsidiary brands earn profits, they have to share their significant portion with the umbrella brand. Thus, those brands can work for a shorter time to make a brand reputation.
One of the best examples of umbrella brands is Pepsi. Pepsi has a core business of soft drinks, although they promote other products too, such as the snack food of Frito-Lay. And consumers need to realize that all those brands are the subsidiary of the larger one. Instead, they assume it to be their own company.
Consumer’s Viewpoint Towards Umbrella Branding Approach
Usually, all consumers have a similar tendency to mostly purchase from their favorite brands. Because they know that this specific brand serves the quality, consumers sustain their loyalty to the brand until they have positive experiences. Thus, people trust the same brand’s products and are more likely to purchase them. If they see the logo of a big brand on any product, they assume it to be their product.
However, umbrella branding comes with more than just the benefits of the more prominent brand. If any of your subsidiaries fails to provide quality to the consumers, they will negatively impact the whole brand. Being a part of a renowned brand might bring sales to the subsidiary brands, but they have to serve the quality to the consumers to sustain them.
Umbrella Branding Strategy
Umbrella branding has made a lot of successful brands. If you also want your brand to achieve the heights of success, you should apply umbrella branding strategies. We have mentioned all the strategies of umbrella branding step-by-step:
1. Create a Plan
Primarily, every business needs long-term business planning. Thus, you should plan every tiny detail of your business, considering your vision in your mind. It should be the strategic brand development plan.
Considering why you have started your business would help you create a better roadmap for your business. Every product or service that will belong to your business under an umbrella brand should follow the mission you have in your mind.
2. Know More About Customers
Secondly, you need to figure out who would be your targeted customers. Remember one thing; you should try to reach only some audiences with your umbrella brand; instead, select a specific set of audiences and focus more on them.
This way, you approach a larger audience with similar products or services. It will help you reach more needy consumers of your product or services and eventually bring you more conversions.
3. Know Your Core Product
Every umbrella brand should know its core product since it will be your first step towards creating authority and credibility in the market, with a clear brand position map, to understand where the brand positioning. However, you can expand your core products or sub-products to extend your product base.
Always ensure whatever product you will launch in the future under your umbrella branding should have a clear connection with your brand.
4. Build a Strong Brand Image
Umbrella branding is about taking undue advantage of an already-established brand. Thus, you must set your brand’s authority in the market with a solid logo. Because people mostly keep the logo in their mind.
It also indicates that you should choose your logo design to be versatile so that it would go with all of your product’s range and show its authoritative impact. However, you can play with the colors of your logo for the different products, just like Coca-Cola does in the Coke line.
5. Nail Down Your Personality
As you need a very impactful and consistent brand identity in the mind of your customers to become an umbrella brand, you also need to establish a strong personality. This personality must be reflected through umbrella marketing campaigns and make the customers remember whom they have purchased the items from.
Thus, you should have clarity regarding how you will speak to targeted customers, your communication language, and, most importantly, what type of emotion you want to evoke in your customers. All these additions will make your personality extraordinary.
Umbrella Branding Examples
There are various examples of umbrella branding in the market that can help you understand umbrella branding. We have mentioned some of the very successful umbrella brands below:
P&G
P&G (Procter & Gamble) is one of the most successful umbrella brands in the US. This giant corporation owns a lot of product lines across the country. You would have surely heard of its subsidiary brand names Tide, Gillette, Pantene, Pampers, Crest, and Bounty.
Unilever
Unilever has a different place among all the umbrella brands. It has so much comprehensive product range coverage in it. From body wash to green tea, numerous products consist of Unilever’s logo. However, Unilever has achieved global success despite being diverse in various fields. Dove, Axe, Lipton, Magnum, and Breyers are some of its very successful subsidiary brands.
Nestle
It would be unfair to discuss the umbrella brands and remember Nestle’s name. There are a lot of products in the market under the name of Nestle. Maggi is one of the most successful examples of its subsidiary. However, when Maggi was banned due to its high lead level, it harmed the entire brand image of Nestle. Thus, it indicates that you can play with the quality reasonably.
Final Words
Umbrella branding is one of the most successful ones, and almost every successful brand uses it in today’s world, including Apple. We hope you like a guide on umbrella branding and get to know all the required information to start your umbrella brand.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is umbrella brand meaning?
Umbrella brand meaning refers to taking undue advantage of a single brand name and logo to make the sales of different related products. All the giant companies use umbrella branding to expand their business through their already established brand equity.
What is umbrella branding with example?
Here are best examples of umbrella brands:
- Pepsi
- Nestle
- Unilever
- P&G
What is the umbrella branding strategy?
Umbrella branding — is a marketing practice that means launching a new product or even a product line under a famous brand name.
- Create a Plan
- Know More About Customers
- Know Your Core Product
- Build a Strong Brand Image
- Nail Down Your Personality