Why every brand needs a brand architecture.

According to a Harris poll, Ford topped the list of “Best Brands” in the United States in 1999. Surprising? Not at all. Because Ford, like the other brands in the Harris Top Ten, pays close attention to its brand architecture.

Basically, a brand architecture is a system for assuring that every contact a customer (whether business or consumer) has with a brand is consistent. And, consistency is a key component of building a successful brand.

If you think about it in terms of architecture, it begins to make sense: a building that really looks great and catches your imagination was probably designed so that each individual component looks perfect and enhances the overall effect of the building…right down to the furnishings and landscaping.

Great architecture works because of this attention to detail. And great brands depend on the same level of attention to detail. Each component of the brand that touches the customer must support and enhance the overall message of the brand.

Think about all of the hundreds of contacts a brand can make with its audience: the look and feel of the website; advertising messages; how the phone is answered; trade shows; literature; direct mail; even PowerPoint presentations and sales programs. Together, these and all of the many other brand contacts go into building the image of your brand.

So how are you building your brand? Do you have the architecture in place to make sure each and every contact sends the right message? Best Brands like Ford pay close attention to their contacts.

You can begin understanding how well developed your brand architecture is by spreading out all of your marketing materials and reviewing them. Is the message consistent? Does the design and overall look and feel convey the value of the brand? Is there room for improvement?

There are two other advantages to developing a brand architecture:

1. It helps everyone in the organization see and understand the connection between corporate brands and master brands, and
2. It makes decision making easier when it comes to messaging and graphic design options.

Once you begin to see your brand from an architecture perspective, it may never look the same to you. It may just be the beginning of building your own Best Brand.

1999 Best Brands:

1. Ford
2. Sony
3. General Motors
4. General Electric
5. Chevrolet
6. Toyota (tied with Microsoft)
7. Microsoft (tied with Toyota)
8. Chrysler
9. Kellogg’s
10. IBM

Source: Harris Poll