Insights

Brand architecture: the underestimated lever of corporate value

10 min. read
#digital strategy | #brand architecture | #brand strategy
Patrick Wachner
Managing Partner
„Give me a starting point and I'll turn the world upside down.“ In the brand management toolbox, structural brand management offers the greatest leverage for value creation, for customers and the company.

If you organize your product portfolio intelligently, you set the course for growth. Those who neglect it will sooner or later reach a limit. But the hurdles to changing established structures are high. So where to start?

1. time for a change of perspective

Digitalization increases complexity - this is also reflected in the growing product portfolios of established companies. Interested customers are confronted with a wide range of products, numerous options and additional offers.

For SMEs and B2B companies, it is typical that the offering represents a complex interplay of hardware, software, technology and services for different markets and applications. In order to initiate a purchase decision, the customer must first grasp and decode the multitude of terms and levels of abstraction. To put it bluntly, it's a bit like giving someone a Rubik's Cube (the colorful square puzzle) as a task on a first date before you start talking. Each colorful square represents a (marketing) offer, but the overall picture remains unclear.

This creeping development comes with hidden costs if it is not recognized and managed. The risk of not doing something is difficult to measure: What is the cost if potential customers are initially disoriented and overwhelmed? What is the cost if the company's value creation is not viewed holistically? Or if new business areas are not recognized or meaningfully integrated into the portfolio?
An intelligent brand and offer structure is not only an effective tool - it is the basis that determines the success of all other measures.
Patrick Wachner
Founder & Managing Partner
2. blueprint of a new value creation
Top management often lacks the time and expertise to devote to the topic. This creates a management vacuum. In day-to-day operations, brands are still often equated with logos and left to marketing as a purely „creative task“. Each business unit presents its offering according to its own ideas. To make matters worse, digitalization is primarily seen as the integration of the latest technologies, especially in tech and IT companies. Sales and marketing play a secondary role and lose their impact.

The longer this situation persists, the more difficult it becomes to find a way out. So what to do? Even with this realization, experienced marketing experts find it difficult to maintain an overview and take countermeasures after years of uncontrolled growth. It is even more challenging to outline a perspective for the next 5-10 years with all relevant stakeholders and decision-makers.

Nevertheless, this is precisely the most effective way. Reverse engineering with all relevant stakeholders (management, divisional management, product development, sales and marketing) in order to develop a target image and set the course for the future, taking new rules into account.
3. expand the competitive advantage

The design of the brand and portfolio architecture is not an end in itself, but an effective instrument for controlling the flow of energy within a company. This energy flow concerns communication, working time and capital, which follow the given structures. Brand management can be seen as a dynamic system in which processes can be managed and new offers and business areas can be developed.

A well thought-out brand architecture offers clarity, orientation and reflects the corporate vision. It works both internally and externally and regulates the interaction of individual offers. The structuring of these systems plays a key role in determining how effectively resources are used, from the marketing budget to cross-selling, from the differentiation of individual departments to market differentiation - everything is integrated into these structures.

On this basis, it is important to critically review the existing offering and rebalance it for the future. In consulting practice, this goes through a structured process that ranges from the creation of the rules and regulations to the development of a new target image and the consolidation of the status quo.

The goals and advantages of an intelligent brand architecture can be

  • Prepare for growth, e.g. by positioning offerings based on future topics (AI, megatrends)
  • Orientation, e.g. by consolidating/reorganizing existing offerings and improving the customer experience (CX).
  • Synergies, e.g. through the integration of new (digital) offerings, add-ons, software and services and optimization of their interaction.
  • Differentiation, e.g. by emphasizing proprietary technologies and innovations (IP).
  • Protection / differentiation from the competition, e.g. by creating a closed ecosystem as a barrier to market entry.
  • Flexibility for future integration (M&A) or the spin-off of individual business units.
Best practice at RAITH

At RAITH, the brand architecture was used to strategically strengthen the technological leadership role and at the same time emphasize the future viability of the brand. The portfolio was systematically structured through a harmonized product nomenclature and the introduction of independent technology brands - and RAITH's intellectual property (IP) was made visible and differentiable. At the same time, the new architecture reflects the company's digital expertise: RAITH is specifically expanding its range to include proprietary nanoengineering software, thereby strengthening its position as an integrated solution provider for hardware and software in the nanotechnology environment. The clear brand logic creates orientation, promotes the perception of innovative strength and makes a measurable contribution to increasing brand value.

Identification with the new target image is a decisive factor that determines acceptance and successful implementation.
Patrick Wachner
Founder & Managing Partner
4. making change tangible
Anyone seeking change should prepare the people in the organization for it. A new brand and portfolio structure is the result of complex considerations and numerous individual decisions. The implications often only become apparent afterwards and require coordinated communication within the company. Identification with the new target image is a decisive factor that determines acceptance and successful implementation.

On an emotional level, change is always associated with (unconscious) „fears of loss“. In particular, the consolidation of existing brands has an impact on the self-image and the appreciation of previous work. It is crucial to take along those who were not part of the initial development and to convey the new target image as concretely and desirably as possible.

Against this backdrop, branding plays an important role, making change tangible through the power of design. Those who experience change in concrete terms are more willing to actively help shape it. Convincingly developed, this creates clarity and the desire to contribute to the big picture. We call this approach: strategy with tangible results.
5. increase the value of the company
Once the course has been set for the future, it is important to wait patiently. Brand architecture works over time like a stock portfolio with compound interest. As long as every differentiation (brands, offers, structures) also makes a relevant difference in the market, the competitive advantage grows.

Overall, a well-thought-out brand architecture can help to increase company value by boosting effectiveness and efficiency, strengthening brand perception and maximizing growth potential. It bundles numerous management tasks into a coherent overall picture that works both internally and externally.
Best Practice - TEG (Tomorrow Education Group)

For the Tomorrow Education Group (TEG), the brand architecture was designed in such a way that it strategically steers the multi-brand portfolio and at the same time makes relevant industry specialization visible. The brands were bundled into „practice groups“ (areas of expertise) and aligned along central megatrends (e.g. „Reskilling Europe“ as an umbrella idea) - giving the entire brand network a coherent identity. This structure allows each individual business or educational offering to retain its own brand autonomy (e.g. with a specific focus on performance), while at the same time benefiting from the credibility and visibility of the parent brand. From an investor or private equity perspective, this creates a valuable system: clear control, brand clusters with economic logic and a comprehensible growth scenario.

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Patrick Wachner

Founder & Managing Partner

Patrick Wachner ist Managing Partner und Mitbegründer von Elevate. Mit seiner umfassenden Erfahrung im Branding und strategischen Marketing leitet er die Agentur und treibt innovative Projekte voran, die Unternehmen dabei helfen, ihre Markenidentität zu schärfen.