Glossary

Family Brand

When a company manages several products uniformly under one brand, we call it a family brand. They are often part of a common product group, product line, etc. – meaning the products are related.

Two typical family brands are Nivea and tesa. In this case, the company brand Beiersdorf as an overarching umbrella brand is of secondary importance.

What are the benefits of a family brand strategy?

Benefit of a family brand strategy: Products can be managed quickly and at low cost under an established brand, because they can take advantage of the existing trust and knowledge of consumers. Brand building efforts and marketing costs are therefore lower than with a single brand strategy.

Disadvantage of a family brand strategy: Should this product be afflicted with a negative image, this could conceivably rub off on all other products run under the family brand. Also, it is difficult – compared to single brand strategies – to specifically position individual products. Another key challenge is the high coordination effort required.

From a brand strategic perspective it is particularly relevant that the individual brand products fit well with the brand core. This is crucial for the brand's credibility, and the only way to ensure that new products will be accepted by consumers.

Fashion Brand

The term fashion brand encompasses all brands in the fashion industry.

The fashion industry is marked by rapid change, and overshadowed by crises and insolvencies. Still, the fashion market is one of the most important consumer goods markets with an overall sustained positive growth curve.

What exactly is a fashion brand?

The very heterogeneous category "fashion brand" is rather diversified in terms of price segment and product quality:

• Apart from luxury brands like Hermès and Gucci, brands of the premium segment – renowned brand items or brands in the medium to low price range – are also categorized as fashion brands.
• We are also observing the expansion of the discount segment of brands like Kik, Lidl or Aldi, which address highly price-sensitive customers in the low-price segment. In this group, quality is not a major factor in the purchase decision.
• In past years, particularly reverse integrated vertical fast-fashion brands like H&M, Zara, Primark or Mango have newly established themselves. They gained prestige by reacting quickly to fashion trends. The increasing customer demand for new styles and product variety leads to shorter production cycles and micro collections. Customers are presented with new collections and products almost on a weekly basis.

Owing to increasing dynamics, globalization, and digitization, the significance of e-commerce in the fashion industry is growing considerably. Compared to other industries, the fashion market is already logging the highest online proportion. This places new demands on digital brand management of fashion brands.

Subsequently, it is enormously important for every fashion brand to present a consistent and brand-conform appearance in both the online and offline world to prevent a break in brand perception.

Financial Brands

Financial brands belong to the category of service brands. Their owners are companies whose core business is to offer financial services. These include financial instruments (such as bonds, derivatives, and money market instruments), financing instruments, asset management, portfolio management, or financial consulting. Financial brands are often falsely reduced to banking brands.

In the past, insurance companies were also included in this category next to building associations, credit card companies, or investment firms. Since the emergence of the term insurance brand, it has been easier to differentiate.

Unlike companies who produce tangible products, financial services providers must etch their brand into customers' minds. Customer experience is particularly important. Employees are significant determinants of whether the customer decides to enter into a close, long-term business relationship or not. The closer the relationship, the stronger the effect on external brand perception.

This is why customer loyalty and new customer acquisition are essential for the success of a financial brand. Those who also manage to combine a pleasure factor with new technologies like mobile payment will charge their financial brand with a stable, emotional competitive edge. The greatest challenge, however, will be the adaptation of business models and services to the expectations of the new generations of customers, such as millennials.

Thus, differentiation potential for financial brands is not to be found in interest rates and cost leadership. Rather, it is all about relationship management (prerequisite: enabling employees), relevance (What is most important to the customer?), an integrated consultation approach (fees instead of direct debit?) and regaining trust.

Our recommendation:

Book: Brand Future – praktisches Markenwissen für die Marktführer von morgen