A brand hierarchy, often called brand architecture, is the way a company arranges its brands: which name leads, which names sit underneath, and how strongly each product is tied to the parent. In 2000 David Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler described the choices as a brand relationship spectrum running from a branded house (one master brand, as at FedEx) to a house of brands (separate brands, as at Procter & Gamble), with sub-brands and endorsed brands in between.
Decide whether customers should choose the company name, a family brand or a product brand. That choice sets where marketing money and trust build up.
02
Set the link strength
A branded house shares trust across every product but also shares the damage when one fails. A house of brands isolates risk but must build each brand on its own budget.
03
Use descriptors and endorsements
Between the two poles, sub-brands and endorsements let a new product borrow the parent's credibility while keeping its own identity.
04
Write the rules down
A clear hierarchy says how a new product gets named, which logo appears where, and when an acquired brand keeps its own name.
Where you see it today
Google folds Bard into Gemini
In February 2024 Google renamed its Bard chatbot Gemini, the same name as its family of AI models, and launched a Gemini app (Google, 2024). One name now covers the model, the assistant and the paid tier: a move toward a branded house for AI.
Microsoft unifies around Copilot
In November 2023 Microsoft said Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise would simply become Copilot, alongside offerings such as Copilot for Microsoft 365 (Microsoft, 2023). Copilot now works as a master brand, with a descriptor added for each product it sits in.
Facebook splits company from product
In October 2021 Facebook introduced Meta as a new company brand that brings together its apps, such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and its other technologies (Meta, 2021). The corporate brand moved up a level so one product name no longer had to stand for the whole company.
House of brands still works
Procter & Gamble sells Tide, Gillette, Pampers, Oral-B and many more under their own names (Procter & Gamble, 2026). In AI-driven search and shopping assistants, each of those product brands has to be recognised and recommended on its own.
Brand hierarchy models in practice
Branded house
How it worksOne master brand with descriptors
ExampleFedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Office
Sub-brands
How it worksMaster brand plus a named product line
ExampleMicrosoft Copilot across Microsoft 365 and Windows
Endorsed brands
How it worksOwn brand, parent named as backer
ExampleHotel brands shown with 'Marriott Bonvoy'
House of brands
How it worksSeparate brands, parent mostly invisible
ExampleProcter & Gamble: Tide, Gillette, Pampers
Corporate brand above products
How it worksHolding name differs from product names
ExampleMeta above Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp
How to use it
List every brand and product name you own and place each on the spectrum from branded house to house of brands.
For each new product, decide in advance: new name, sub-brand or endorsed brand, and write down why.
Use the master brand where trust transfers; use separate brands where a failure or a different price point could hurt the parent.
Check how AI assistants describe your products: ask them which company makes each one and fix confusing names.
Review the hierarchy after every acquisition or major product launch.
The Business Engineer lens
AI assistants compress choice into a single recommended answer, so the brand that gets named carries more weight than the hierarchy behind it. The Business Engineer view is to decide deliberately which level of your hierarchy you want an AI agent to remember and recommend.
It is the structure that shows how a company's brands relate to each other: which brand leads, which sit underneath, and how strongly each product is linked to the parent.
What is the difference between a branded house and a house of brands?
A branded house puts one master brand on everything, as FedEx does. A house of brands runs separate brands with little visible link to the parent, as Procter & Gamble does.
What are the levels of a brand hierarchy?
Common levels are the corporate brand, family or umbrella brands, individual product brands and modifiers such as model names or flavours.
How does AI change brand hierarchy?
Tech companies are consolidating AI products under single names, such as Google's Gemini and Microsoft's Copilot, and AI assistants tend to recommend one named brand, which raises the cost of confusing names.
Brand hierarchy, otherwise known as brand architecture, refers to the brand strategy behind the relationships between various parts of a business. Broadly speaking, this strategy is best summarized by grouping products and services according to their associated similarities and differences.
Brand Hierarchy
Explanation– Brand Hierarchy is a strategic framework used by companies to organize and structure their brand portfolio, products, and services in a way that clarifies their relationships and significance to consumers. It helps manage and communicate brand identity effectively.
Levels
Explanation– Brand hierarchy typically consists of several levels, which can include Corporate Brand, Family Brand, Individual Brand, and Product Brand. Each level has a distinct role in the overall branding strategy.
Corporate Brand
Explanation– At the top of the hierarchy is the Corporate Brand, which represents the overarching identity and values of the company. It often carries the company name and is associated with its reputation and heritage.
Family Brand
Explanation– Below the corporate brand, there may be Family Brands, which encompass a group of related products or services. These brands share common attributes and values, and their association can enhance consumer trust and recognition.
Individual Brand
Explanation– Individual Brands are specific brands within the family that represent distinct product lines or categories. They have their own identities but still benefit from the trust and reputation of the family brand.
Product Brand
Explanation– At the lowest level are Product Brands, representing individual products or services. They may carry their unique names and identities but can also leverage the credibility of both the individual and family brands.
Benefits
Explanation– Clarity: Brand hierarchy provides clarity to consumers, helping them understand the relationships between various products and their parent brands. – Consistency: It ensures consistent messaging and brand values across the portfolio.
Flexibility
Explanation– Companies can adapt their brand hierarchy to accommodate new products, enter different markets, or reposition existing offerings. This flexibility allows for strategic growth and diversification.
Brand Equity
Explanation– An effective brand hierarchy can enhance the overall brand equity of a company. Strong corporate and family brands can positively influence the perception of individual products or services.
Examples
Explanation– The Coca-Cola Company: Coca-Cola is the corporate brand, and beneath it, there are family brands like Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which further extend to individual product brands like Coca-Cola Classic and Sprite.
Challenges
Explanation– Maintaining consistency and relevance across all levels of the hierarchy can be challenging, especially as brands evolve and consumer preferences change. – Overcomplexity can confuse consumers if not managed effectively.
Conclusion
Explanation– Brand hierarchy is a strategic tool that helps companies organize their brand portfolio, convey relationships to consumers, and build trust and recognition. It’s a dynamic framework that adapts to the changing needs and goals of the business.
Understanding brand hierarchy
As companies grow, so too do their product ranges. Brand hierarchies help businesses and indeed consumers communicate vital brand elements and feature differences between individual products in a range.
Brand hierarchy is important for the simple fact that many businesses overlook the strategy entirely.
These businesses tend to have a preoccupation with releasing products and services without first thinking about the relationship between them.
As a result, the association between offerings is vague and not reflective of the wider brand. Consumers then become confused and unable to make a purchasing decision, which negatively impacts revenue and profits.
Establishing a robust brand architecture is not difficult and can be performed at any stage of business development.
However, those who focus their initial efforts on product development at the expense of brand hierarchy may encounter a costly rebrand in the future.
The three types of brand hierarchy
Corporate, umbrella, and family brands
The highest level of the hierarchy is corporate, family, or umbrella brands.
This level uses cohesive and consistent naming and identity structures, ensuring that individual products and services are homogenous throughout the range.
The corporate strategy is particularly useful for large parent companies that have many divisions or subsidiaries.
For example, Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup and Heinz Tomato Ketchup both share similar visual branding on their labels.
They also feature the corporate brand Heinz in their names, reducing confusion among consumers, and increasing brand equity in the process.
Endorsed brands
Endorsed brands are those that have been endorsed by a parent brand that is either a corporate, umbrella or family brand itself.
In theory, the endorsement from the parent brand adds credibility to the endorsed brand in the eyes of consumers.
In this approach, products are linked or grouped according to brand identity itself and do not rely on homogeneous naming or aesthetics.
For example, parent company Microsoft lend its brand identity and credibility to Office, Xbox, Windows, and Bing.
But each endorsed brand in isolation is distinct in the sense that it is not immediately recognizable as being owned by Microsoft.
Individual
Individual brands are consumer-facing brands where no explicit link between the product and its parent brand is promoted.
In many cases, there is also no link between individual brands themselves.
This is a common occurrence when parent brands acquire smaller brands with high equity among consumers.
Here, the parent brand is irrelevant and often detrimental to brand equity compared to the individual products it takes ownership of.
Coca-Cola, for example, sells Fanta, Sprite and Dasani under their own names. These are not acquisitions: Fanta, which the company calls its second-oldest brand, took its current orange form in Naples, Italy, in 1955.
Those who are motivated to do so can discover the connection of these brands to The Coca-Cola Company, but they nevertheless continue to exist in original, recognizable forms.
Benefits of incorporating brand hierarchy strategy
Reduces customer confusion. Businesses offering a line of unrelated products confuse consumers as to the brand they are trying to create and convey. Establishing a proper brand hierarchy lessens this confusion, establishes consistency, and leads to increased brand equity.
Reduces competition. In some cases, sub-products achieve such popularity with consumers that the weaker core brand loses popularity. Brand hierarchy strategies focus on strengthening the primary brand so that products under its “umbrella” do not compete with or undermine each other.
Provides clarity. When brands are visually or otherwise segregated with a hierarchy, it allows businesses to develop a marketingstrategy for each. Since each brand will have its own target audience and brand story, clarity reduces the chances of brand dilution or improper messaging.
When to Use Brand Hierarchy
Brand hierarchy is suitable in various business scenarios
Large Brand Portfolios: When an organization manages a diverse range of products, sub-brands, and extensions under one brand umbrella.
Brand Extension: For introducing new products or services that leverage the existing brand equity.
Market Expansion: When entering new markets or segments, brand hierarchy helps in positioning and differentiation.
Rebranding: During rebranding efforts, to redefine the relationships and significance of brand elements.
Global Brand Management: In the context of global brands, where consistency and adaptation to local markets are crucial.
How to Create an Effective Brand Hierarchy
To create an effective brand hierarchy, consider the following steps
Identify Brand Elements: Start by identifying all brand elements, including the master brand, sub-brands, and individual products or services.
Define Relationships: Determine the relationships and levels of importance among these elements. What is the core brand, and how do sub-brands and products relate to it?
Hierarchy Structure: Create a visual representation or written documentation of the brand hierarchy structure, specifying the role and significance of each element.
Consistency Guidelines: Develop guidelines that ensure all brand elements adhere to the brand’s core values, personality, and positioning.
Communication Strategy: Plan how to communicate the brand hierarchy to internal stakeholders, marketing teams, and consumers to ensure understanding and alignment.
Feedback and Adaptation: Continuously review and adapt the brand hierarchy as market dynamics and strategic goals evolve.
Drawbacks and Limitations of Brand Hierarchy
While brand hierarchy is a valuable tool for brand management, it also has drawbacks and limitations:
Complexity: In large organizations with extensive brand portfolios, the brand hierarchy can become complex and challenging to manage.
Risk of Dilution: Introducing too many sub-brands or extensions can risk diluting the master brand’s equity and confusing consumers.
Market Perceptions: Consumer perceptions of brand hierarchy may not always align with the intended structure, leading to potential misinterpretation.
Adaptation Challenges: Adapting the brand hierarchy to global markets or changing consumer preferences may be challenging and require significant resources.
What to Expect When Implementing Brand Hierarchy
When implementing brand hierarchy, expect the following outcomes and considerations:
Clarity and Consistency: A well-defined brand hierarchy enhances brand clarity and consistency in communication.
Brand Equity Preservation: It helps preserve and strengthen the equity of the master brand while leveraging it for sub-brands and products.
Consumer Understanding: Consumers can better understand the relationship between different brand elements, which can influence their purchasing decisions.
Now that we’ve explained the theory behind brand hierarchy, let’s take a look at some real-world examples.
FedEx
FedEx operates an umbrella brand hierarchy where the master brand is linked to all products and subproducts.
The company has many business branches across various services such as FedEx Office, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Trade Networks, and FedEx Express.
While these branches perform different functions and operations, they remain united under the core FedEx brand.
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble utilizes an individual brand hierarchy with a vast portfolio of strong product brands that have no overt connection to the company itself.
Below is a look at just some of these brands arranged by product category:
Fabric care – Bounce, Cheer, Ariel, Tide, and Gain.
Grooming – Braun, Gillette, Gillette Venus, and The Art of Shaving.
Haircare – Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Old Spice, and Pantene.
Home care – Dawn, Ambi Pur, Febreze, and Cascade.
Oral care – Crest, Fixodent, Oral-B, and Scope.
Marriott
Marriott International’s global system totaled over 10,200 properties at the end of the third quarter of 2026, according to its earnings release.
The company uses a mixture of individual and endorsed brands. An earlier version of its portfolio grouped them by luxury and exclusiveness:
Classic Luxury – The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, and JW Marriott.
Distinctive Luxury – Ritz-Carlton Reserve, The Luxury Collection, and W Hotels.
Distinctive Premium – Le MERIDIEN, Westin, and Renaissance Hotels.
Classic Select – Courtyard Hotels, Four Points, and SpringHill Suites.
Distinctive Select – AC Hotels, Aloft Hotels, and Moxy Hotels.
Classic Longer Stays – Marriott Executive Apartments, and Residence Inn.
Distinctive Longer Stays – element, and Homes & Villas by Marriott International.
Mondelez International
Mondelez International is an American multinational food and beverage company that specializes in chocolate, cookies, powdered beverages, confectionery, and gum.
The company has a more complex brand hierarchy with various family brands, individual brands, and modifiers (models) under the core Mondelez brand. To explain this structure in more detail, consider these examples:
Cadbury (family brand) – Dairy Milk, 5 Star (individual brands), Dairy Milk Hazelnut, Old Gold, Caramilk (models).
Many consumers think of the Golf when they think of German auto-manufacturer Volkswagen, but the company owns multiple vehicle brands with each having many model designations.
Given the pedigree of some brands among car enthusiasts, Volkswagen’s hierarchy is comprised of individual brands with little relationship to its core brand aside from perhaps some minor style similarities.
Some of these individual brands include
Audi – with models such as the A3, A5, A7, and R8.
Porsche – with models such as the Cayman, Boxster, and Macan.
Lamborghini – a premium sports car manufacturer.
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles – these include the Caddy, Amarok, and Transporter.
Ducati – a motorcycle brand with models including the Superleggera, Scrambler, Streetfighter, and Multistrada.
Additional Case Studies
Unilever:
Corporate Brand: Unilever
Individual Brands: Dove, Axe, Lipton, Ben & Jerry’s, Hellmann’s, among others. Each of these brands has its own identity and stands on its own, though they all fall under the Unilever corporate umbrella.
Individual Products: Within the Lay’s brand, for instance, you have flavors/varieties like Classic, Salt & Vinegar, and Barbecue.
Sony:
Corporate Brand: Sony
Endorsed Brands: Sony PlayStation, Sony Pictures, Sony Mobile.
Individual Products: Within Sony PlayStation, you have PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation VR.
The Gap Inc.:
Corporate Brand: The Gap Inc.
Individual Brands: Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta, Intermix. Each of these brands targets a different market segment, from casual wear to upscale fashion.
Volkswagen Group (beyond the previously mentioned brands):
Corporate Brand: Volkswagen Group
Individual Brands: SEAT, Škoda, Bentley, Bugatti. Each of these caters to a different market segment, from affordable to luxury.
Estée Lauder Companies:
Corporate Brand: Estée Lauder Companies
Individual Brands: Estée Lauder, Clinique, M·A·C, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, among others. Each brand focuses on different beauty and skincare niches and demographics.
Alphabet Inc.:
Corporate Brand: Alphabet Inc.
Individual Brands/Subsidiaries: Google, YouTube, Waymo, DeepMind, Verily. Although Google was the original company, it was restructured to become a subsidiary of Alphabet, allowing the conglomerate to diversify its business ventures.
Adidas Group:
Corporate Brand: Adidas Group
Individual Brands: Adidas (with its own sub-brands like Adidas Originals and Adidas Performance), Reebok.
Procter & Gamble (P&G):
Corporate Brand: Procter & Gamble
Individual Brands: Pampers, Ariel, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, among many others. Each of these caters to different consumer needs, from baby care to personal grooming.
LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton):
Corporate Brand: LVMH
Individual Brands: Louis Vuitton, Dior, Sephora, Givenchy, Moët & Chandon, among others. This luxury conglomerate encompasses various sectors from fashion and leather goods to wines and spirits.
Key takeaways
Brand hierarchy is a means of organizing different brands and their associated products under a larger, parent brand.
Brand hierarchy can be divided into three main types: corporate, endorsed, or individual. Each has a different organizational structure based on real or perceived relationships between a parent company and its various brands.
A brand hierarchy strategy is most effective when implemented as a foundational element of business operations. It clarifies the future direction of a brand and avoids individual products within a brand potentially undermining each other.
Key Highlights
Definition: Brand hierarchy (or brand architecture) is the structure and relationship between various parts of a business and its brands.
Purpose: Helps businesses communicate vital brand elements and differentiate products or services, preventing consumer confusion and reinforcing brand identity.
Hierarchy Types:
Corporate, Umbrella, or Family Brands: Highest level, with consistent naming and identity across products or services. Example: Heinz.
Endorsed Brands: Sub-brands that have the backing of a parent brand, adding credibility. Example: Microsoft’s endorsement of products like Office and Xbox.
Individual Brands: Standalone brands with no explicit connection to the parent brand. Often seen in acquisitions. Example: Fanta under Coca-Cola.
FedEx: Uses an umbrella brand strategy with different services like FedEx Office and FedEx Ground under the main FedEx brand.
Procter & Gamble: Employs an individual brand strategy with a vast range of products, each standing alone (e.g., Tide, Crest).
Marriott: Combines both individual and endorsed brand strategies, categorizing its hotel chains based on luxury and exclusiveness.
Mondelez International: Has a complex hierarchy with family brands like Cadbury, individual brands like Dairy Milk, and model variations.
Volkswagen: Owns multiple vehicle brands (e.g., Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini) each with its own set of models, largely employing an individual brand strategy.
Strategic Importance: Implementing a thoughtful brand hierarchy strategy from the outset can guide a brand’s future direction, ensuring clarity and consistency across the board.
Alternative Frameworks
Brand Architecture
DescriptionDefines the structure and relationship between different brand elements within a brand portfolio, including parent brands, sub-brands, and product brands, to clarify brand positioning and maximize brand equity.
Key Features– Establishes a hierarchy of brand elements to provide clarity and coherence within a brand portfolio. – Defines the role and scope of each brand element to optimize brand positioning and differentiation.
Brand Positioning
DescriptionDetermines the unique space a brand occupies in the minds of consumers relative to competitors, based on key attributes, benefits, and associations, to create a compelling and differentiated brand image.
Key Features– Identifies the specific attributes and values that distinguish a brand from competitors. – Aligns brand positioning with target audience needs and preferences to drive relevance and resonance.
Brand Personality
DescriptionHumanizes a brand by defining its distinctive character, tone, and manner, based on archetypal traits or personality dimensions, to establish emotional connections and build relationships with consumers.
Key Features– Defines a set of human-like characteristics or traits that embody the brand’s identity and voice. – Shapes brand communications and interactions to evoke specific emotions and perceptions in consumers.
Brand Identity System
DescriptionEncompasses the visual and verbal elements that represent a brand, including logos, colors, typography, imagery, and messaging, to create a consistent and recognizable brand identity across different touchpoints.
Key Features– Establishes guidelines for the consistent use of brand assets to maintain visual and verbal coherence. – Reinforces brand recognition and recall by ensuring a unified brand presence across channels and platforms.
Brand Storytelling
DescriptionCommunicates the brand’s narrative, values, and purpose through compelling stories and experiences, engaging consumers on an emotional level and fostering brand loyalty and advocacy.
Key Features– Develops narratives that resonate with consumers and align with the brand’s values and identity. – Uses storytelling techniques to create memorable and immersive brand experiences that connect with audiences.
Brand Equity
DescriptionRepresents the intangible value and strength of a brand, reflecting consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, and associations towards the brand, which influence purchase decisions and loyalty.
Key Features– Measures the financial and non-financial value of a brand based on consumer perceptions and preferences. – Builds and protects brand equity through strategic branding initiatives and consistent brand management practices.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy where the marketing and sales departments come together to create personalized buying experiences for high-value accounts. Account-based marketing is a business-to-business (B2B) approach in which marketing and sales teams work together to target high-value accounts and turn them into customers.Drawing by The Business Engineer.
Ad Ops – also known as Digital Ad Operations – refers to systems and processes that support digital advertisements’ delivery and management. The concept describes any process that helps a marketing team manage, run, or optimize ad campaigns, making them an integrating part of the business operations.
Venture capitalist, Dave McClure, coined the acronym AARRR which is a simplified model that enables to understand what metrics and channels to look at, at each stage for the users’ path toward becoming customers and referrers of a brand.
Affinity marketing involves a partnership between two or more businesses to sell more products. Note that this is a mutually beneficial arrangement where one brand can extend its reach and enhance its credibility in association with the other.
As the name suggests, ambush marketing raises awareness for brands at events in a covert and unexpected fashion. Ambush marketing takes many forms, one common element, the brand advertising their products or services has not paid for the right to do so. Thus, the business doing the ambushing attempts to capitalize on the efforts made by the business sponsoring the event.
Affiliate marketing describes the process whereby an affiliate earns a commission for selling the products of another person or company. Here, the affiliate is simply an individual who is motivated to promote a particular product through incentivization. The business whose product is being promoted will gain in terms of sales and marketing from affiliates.
The bullseye framework is a simple method that enables you to prioritize the marketing channels that will make your company gain traction. The main logic of the bullseye framework is to find the marketing channels that work and prioritize them.
Brand building is the set of activities that help companies to build an identity that can be recognized by its audience. Thus, it works as a mechanism of identification through core values that signal trust and that help build long-term relationships between the brand and its key stakeholders.
According to inbound marketing platform HubSpot, brand dilution occurs “when a company’s brand equity diminishes due to an unsuccessful brand extension, which is a new product the company develops in an industry that they don’t have any market share in.” Brand dilution, therefore, occurs when a brand decreases in value after the company releases a product that does not align with its vision, mission, or skillset.
The brand equity is the premium that a customer is willing to pay for a product that has all the objective characteristics of existing alternatives, thus, making it different in terms of perception. The premium on seemingly equal products and quality is attributable to its brand equity.
Brand positioning is about creating a mental real estate in the mind of the target market. If successful, brand positioning allows a business to gain a competitive advantage. And it also works as a switching cost in favor of the brand. Consumers recognizing a brand might be less prone to switch to another brand.
Business storytelling is a critical part of developing a business model. Indeed, the way you frame the story of your organization will influence its brand in the long-term. That’s because your brand story is tied to your brand identity, and it enables people to identify with a company.
Content marketing is one of the most powerful commercial activities which focuses on leveraging content production (text, audio, video, or other formats) to attract a targeted audience. Content marketing focuses on building a strong brand, but also to convert part of that targeted audience into potential customers.
One of the first mentions of customer lifetime value was in the 1988 book Database Marketing: Strategy and Implementation written by Robert Shaw and Merlin Stone. Customer lifetime value (CLV) represents the value of a customer to a company over a period of time. It represents a critical business metric, especially for SaaS or recurring revenue-based businesses.
Customer segmentation is a marketing method that divides the customers in sub-groups, that share similar characteristics. Thus, product, marketing and engineering teams can center the strategy from go-to-market to product development and communication around each sub-group. Customer segments can be broken down is several ways, such as demographics, geography, psychographics and more.
Developer marketing encompasses tactics designed to grow awareness and adopt software tools, solutions, and SaaS platforms. Developer marketing has become the standard among software companies with a platform component, where developers can build applications on top of the core software or open software. Therefore, engaging developer communities has become a key element of marketing for many digital businesses.
A digital channel is a marketing channel, part of a distribution strategy, helping an organization to reach its potential customers via electronic means. There are several digital marketing channels, usually divided into organic and paid channels. Some organic channels are SEO, SMO, email marketing. And some paid channels comprise SEM, SMM, and display advertising.
Field marketing is a general term that encompasses face-to-face marketing activities carried out in the field. These activities may include street promotions, conferences, sales, and various forms of experiential marketing. Field marketing, therefore, refers to any marketing activity that is performed in the field.
interaction with a brand until they become a paid customer and beyond.
Funnel marketing is modeled after the marketing funnel, a concept that tells the company how it should market to consumers based on their position in the funnel itself. The notion of a customer embarking on a journey when interacting with a brand was first proposed by Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898.
Funnel marketing typically considers three stages of a non-linear marketing funnel. These are top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU). Particular marketing strategies at each stage are adapted to the level of familiarity the consumer has with a brand.
A go-to-market strategy represents how companies market their new products to reach target customers in a scalable and repeatable way. It starts with how new products/services get developed to how these organizations target potential customers (via sales and marketing models) to enable their value proposition to be delivered to create a competitive advantage.
The term “greenwashing” was first coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 at a time when most consumers received their news from television, radio, and print media. Some companies took advantage of limited public access to information by portraying themselves as environmental stewards – even when their actions proved otherwise. Greenwashing is a deceptive marketing practice where a company makes unsubstantiated claims about an environmentally-friendly product or service.
Grassroots marketing involves a brand creating highly targeted content for a particular niche or audience. When an organization engages in grassroots marketing, it focuses on a small group of people with the hope that its marketing message is shared with a progressively larger audience.
Growth marketing is a process of rapid experimentation, which in a way has to be “scientific” by keeping in mind that it is used by startups to grow, quickly. Thus, the “scientific” here is not meant in the academic sense. Growth marketing is expected to unlock growth, quickly and with an often limited budget.
Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that seeks to utilize low-cost and sometimes unconventional tactics that are high impact. First coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book of the same title, guerrilla marketing works best on existing customers who are familiar with a brand or product and its particular characteristics.
Hunger marketing is a marketing strategy focused on manipulating consumer emotions. By bringing products to market with an attractive price point and restricted supply, consumers have a stronger desire to make a purchase.
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an approach used by businesses to coordinate and brand their communication strategies. Integrated marketing communication takes separate marketing functions and combines them into one, interconnected approach with a core brand message that is consistent across various channels. These encompass owned, earned, and paid media. Integrated marketing communication has been used to great effect by companies such as Snapchat, Snickers, and Domino’s.
Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy designed to attract customers to a brand with content and experiences that they derive value from. Inbound marketing utilizes blogs, events, SEO, and social media to create brand awareness and attract targeted consumers. By attracting or “drawing in” a targeted audience, inbound marketing differs from outbound marketing which actively pushes a brand onto consumers who may have no interest in what is being offered.
Integrated marketing describes the process of delivering consistent and relevant content to a target audience across all marketing channels. It is a cohesive, unified, and immersive marketing strategy that is cost-effective and relies on brand identity and storytelling to amplify the brand to a wider and wider audience.
The marketing mix is a term to describe the multi-faceted approach to a complete and effective marketing plan. Traditionally, this plan included the four Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion, and place. But the exact makeup of a marketing mix has undergone various changes in response to new technologies and ways of thinking. Additions to the four Ps include physical evidence, people, process, and even politics.
Marketing myopia is the nearsighted focus on selling goods and services at the expense of consumer needs. Marketing myopia was coined by Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt in 1960. Originally, Levitt described the concept in the context of organizations in high-growth industries that become complacent in their belief that such industries never fail.
Marketing personas give businesses a general overview of key segments of their target audience and how these segments interact with their brand. Marketing personas are based on the data of an ideal, fictional customer whose characteristics, needs, and motivations are representative of a broader market segment.
Meme marketing is any marketing strategy that uses memes to promote a brand. The term “meme” itself was popularized by author Richard Dawkins over 50 years later in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. In the book, Dawkins described how ideas evolved and were shared across different cultures. The internet has enabled this exchange to occur at an exponential rate, with the first modern memes emerging in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Microtargeting is a marketing strategy that utilizes consumer demographic data to identify the interests of a very specific group of individuals. Like most marketing strategies, the goal of microtargeting is to positively influence consumer behavior.
Multichannel marketing executes a marketing strategy across multiple platforms to reach as many consumers as possible. Here, a platform may refer to product packaging, word-of-mouth advertising, mobile apps, email, websites, or promotional events, and all the other channels that can help amplify the brand to reach as many consumers as possible.
Multi-level marketing (MLM), otherwise known as network or referral marketing, is a strategy in which businesses sell their products through person-to-person sales. When consumers join MLM programs, they act as distributors. Distributors make money by selling the product directly to other consumers. They earn a small percentage of sales from those that they recruit to do the same – often referred to as their “downline”.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of the ability of a product or service to attract word-of-mouth advertising. NPS is a crucial part of any marketing strategy since attracting and then retaining customers means they are more likely to recommend a business to others.
Neuromarketing information is collected by measuring brain activity related to specific brain functions using sophisticated and expensive technology such as MRI machines. Some businesses also choose to make inferences of neurological responses by analyzing biometric and heart-rate data.
Neuromarketing is the domain of large companies with similarly large budgets or subsidies. These include Frito-Lay, Google, and The Weather Channel.
Newsjacking as a marketing strategy was popularised by David Meerman Scott in his book Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage. Newsjacking describes the practice of aligning a brand with a current event to generate media attention and increase brand exposure.
A microniche is a subset of potential customers within a niche. In the era of dominating digital super-platforms, identifying a microniche can kick off the strategy of digital businesses to prevent competition against large platforms. As the microniche becomes a niche, then a market, scale becomes an option.
We can define pull and push marketing from the perspective of the target audience or customers. In push marketing, as the name suggests, you’re promoting a product so that consumers can see it. In a pull strategy, consumers might look for your product or service drawn by its brand.
Real-time marketing is as exactly as it sounds. It involves in-the-moment marketing to customers across any channel based on how that customer is interacting with the brand.
Relationship marketing involves businesses and their brands forming long-term relationships with customers. The focus of relationship marketing is to increase customer loyalty and engagement through high-quality products and services. It differs from short-term processes focused solely on customer acquisition and individual sales.
Reverse marketing describes any marketing strategy that encourages consumers to seek out a product or company on their own. This approach differs from a traditional marketing strategy where marketers seek out the consumer.
Remarketing involves the creation of personalized and targeted ads for consumers who have already visited a company’s website. The process works in this way: as users visit a brand’s website, they are tagged with cookies that follow the users, and as they land on advertising platforms where retargeting is an option (like social media platforms) they get served ads based on their navigation.
Sensory marketing describes any marketing campaign designed to appeal to the five human senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are enabling marketers to design fun, interactive, and immersive sensory marketing brand experiences. Long term, businesses must develop sensory marketing campaigns that are relevant and effective in eCommerce.
Services marketing originated as a separate field of study during the 1980s. Researchers realized that the unique characteristics of services required different marketing strategies to those used in the promotion of physical goods. Services marketing is a specialized branch of marketing that promotes the intangible benefits delivered by a company to create customer value.
Sustainable marketing describes how a business will invest in social and environmental initiatives as part of its marketing strategy. Also known as green marketing, it is often used to counteract public criticism around wastage, misleading advertising, and poor quality or unsafe products.
Word-of-mouth marketing is a marketing strategy skewed toward offering a great experience to existing customers and incentivizing them to share it with other potential customers. That is one of the most effective forms of marketing as it enables a company to gain traction based on existing customers’ referrals. When repeat customers become a key enabler for the brand this is one of the best organic and sustainable growth marketing strategies.
360 marketing is a marketing campaign that utilizes all available mediums, channels, and consumer touchpoints. 360 marketing requires the business to maintain a consistent presence across multiple online and offline channels. This ensures it does not miss potentially lucrative customer segments. By its very nature, 360 marketing describes any number of different marketing strategies. However, a broad and holistic marketing strategy should incorporate a website, SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, public relations, in-store relations, and traditional forms of advertising such as television.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
