Barbara Stopher Blog

There are many reasons why a brand that has a number of sub-brands or different brand variants needs to have an over-arching umbrella brand strategy. For one thing, it is unlikely to be economically viable to continue to individually support every part of the brand and a group strategy can achieve more competitive cut through and drive brand share.

One brand that chooses to adopt a group message is Heinz with its ‘It has to be Heinz’ umbrella campaign that has been responsible for noticeable sales growth since first being run in October 2009. And, if we are to believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Premier Foods has launched a brand campaign called ‘Great Little Ideas’, which aims to give mums hints, tips and twists on how to use ‘some of Britain’s best loved food brands’ such as Ambrosia Devon Custard, Hartley’s Jelly, Cadbury’s Mini Rolls, Mr Kipling, Batchelors, Bisto, OXO, Branston, Sharwood’s and Loyd Grossman. Here the individual brands will focus in recipes such as Ambrosia Devon Custard and bananas to make a Banana Brulee.

Another reason for a brand to adopt an umbrella strategy is that, with consumers becoming more and more individual and wanting interactive relationships with the brands they trust, there is a business reason for brands to develop a strong personality that can engage with their consumers and build brand loyalty.

In a move to build relevance for their brand and engage with its consumers, Beiersdorf has recently decided to group the marketing of all products bearing the Nivea brand under a new positioning strategy that encourages women to feel good in their own skin and carries the ‘Feel Closer’ strapline.

But an umbrella strategy does not mean that all parts of the brand have to be communicated together but rather that there is a synergy between the communications so that everything borrows from, and builds back to, the umbrella positioning.

An example of this approach, where the umbrella brand is the corporate identity, is Unilever who continue to run separate brand identity advertising but, since 2009, have included ‘signature’ corporate branding on its product brand advertising for the likes of Flora, Persil, PG Tips, Magnum, Sure, and Dove.

So, if you don’t want the stresses of finance, competition or consumer loyalty to rain on your brand, get an umbrella!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 10:25 pm and is filed under marketing marvels, marketing quests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.