Management tends to invent terminology in order to give legitimacy to the branding moves it wants to make.
Typical line-extension strategies would have produced brand names like Holiday Inn Deluxe, Cadillac Light, Budget Waterford, and Kasual Karan. Even the most callow marketing people would have found these brand names difficult to swallow.
What to do? Invent a subbrand. So we have Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, Cadillac Catera, Marquis by Waterford, and DKNY. Now we can have our cake and eat it, too. We can use our well-known core brand at the same time as we launch secondary or subbrands to move into new territory.
But what sounds right in the boardroom often doesn’t make sense in the marketplace.
The marketing world is awash in conceptual thinking that has no relationship to the real world. Subbranding is one of those concepts.
Customer research at Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza produced what you might have expected: “It’s a nice hotel, but it’s a little expensive for a Holiday Inn.” The company finally got the message and is in the process of cutting the megabrand connection. From now on, the hotels will be known as Crowne Plaza, period.
A Cadillac dealership is the last place in the world where you would look for a small car. First they tried Cimarron, which went nowhere and was eventually dropped. Naturally, Cadillac didn’t give up. Its latest small-car incarnation is called the Cadillac Catera.
On the other hand, Marquis by Waterford is a big success, but partially at the expense of the high-priced line. You have to wonder if there is a Gresham’s law of marketing, too. Sooner or later, we expect the Marquis line to seriously erode the regular Waterford product.
Donna Karan has gone off in way too many directions. In addition to the basic line, there is Donna Karan menswear, DKNY, DKNY menswear, and DKNY kids. The company has also gotten into intimate apparel and beauty products. Recently, the company sold out to LVMH.
Customers have a cornucopia of choice. Subbranders assume otherwise. Why would a customer expect Holiday Inn to have an upscale hotel? Wouldn’t the customer more likely try Hilton, Hyatt, or Marriott first? Why spend all that money and still stay at a Holiday Inn! The thinking is, If I am forking out the big bucks, I want to stay with a top hotel brand.
Subbranding is an inside-out branding strategy that tries to push the core brand into new directions. It captures management’s attention because of what it promises, not necessarily because of what it delivers.
In spite of the subbranding setback at Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, the company has moved into Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Select, Holiday Inn SunSpree Resorts, and Holiday Inn Garden Court.
You used to know exactly what you would find in a Holiday Inn. In fact, that was the theme of its long-running advertising campaign: “The best surprise is no surprise.”
What’s a Holiday Inn Select? Go ahead. Book a room and be surprised.
Subbranding has taken its share of criticism, so the marketing establishment is rethinking the concept. Leading-edge practitioners today are more likely to call the concept a masterbrand or megabrand strategy. It’s especially prevalent in the automotive field.
“Ford is not our brand. Our brands are: Aspire, Contour, Crown Victoria, Escort, Mustang, Probe, Taurus, and Thunderbird.” What’s a Ford then? “A Ford is a megabrand.”
“Dodge is not our brand. Our brands are: Avenger, Intrepid, Neon Stealth, Stratus, and Viper.” What’s a Dodge then? “A Dodge is a megabrand.”
You can’t apply your own branding system to a market that sees things differently. What the manufacturer sees as a brand, the customer sees as a model. What the manufacturer sees as a megabrand, the customer sees as a brand. (Customers don’t understand the megabrand concept at all.)
Even Keith Crain, publisher of Automotive News, the industry’s bible, is dubious of what car-marketing people are trying to do. “A lot of folks out there tell you that individual models, not the nameplates, are the brands. I don’t know of any models that have ads in the Yellow Pages.”
Can a brand be marketed in more than one model? Sure, as long as those models don’t detract from the essence of the brand, that singular idea or concept that sets it apart from all other brands.
When you feel the need to create subbrands, you are chasing the market, you are not building the brand.
The essence of a brand is some idea or attribute or market segment you can own in the mind. Subbranding is a concept that takes the brand in exactly the opposite direction. Subbranding destroys what branding builds.
Branding concepts that are not driven by the marketplace are going to go nowhere. Subbranding, masterbranding, and megabranding are not customer-driven concepts. They have no meaning in the minds of most consumers.
Think simple. Think like a customer and your brand will become more successful.