Brand Architecture - Family Brand: Heinz

 Family brands are a smart idea because if you are high in the eyes of the consumer, all your different products will have the same success. All advertising and other related marketing will work for all the products under your brand name, which is very efficient. There is also a downside to this; if one of the products gets really bad publicity then it can damage your whole brands reputation. 

Heinz is a very successful family brand due to its high quality products as well as its careful strategic advertising and marketing campaigns. They are a family brand that also owns and operates other brand names like Weight Watcher's Foods. The reason they do this is to establish themselves in other markets where their already famous brand name doesn't relate or apply. Heinz has a very generic set of products, but has a very clear idea on who their target is. They have been successful in creating other brand names because they know the other products don't apply to their family brand. 

Knowing your audience is one of the most important factors in creating a successful family brand; Heinz has very positive associations with their brand as some of their products are at the top of their market. They evoke positive thoughts as well as continue to be distinct in their different products market. Over time they have become popular with one product, which ends up leading consumers to their other options, the consumers trust that Heinz will always give them the same quality that they have proven. 

It’s not easy to start a family brand as it takes time to gain consumers trust. Heinz has taken that time and has become one of the most successful family brands ever, by taking the time to know their market and basing everything else around that. 

Brand Story - eHarmony

The brand eHarmony has made for their dating website is backed up with plenty of advertising to help portray its message. Its probably the number one dating website in Canada and other places around the world due to this. Today I'm going to tell eHarmony's brand story. 

eHarmony story begins in 1997. Dr. Neil Clark Warren had an idea, his idea came after 35 years of practicing clinical psychology, love up to that day was all about leaving it up to chance. Dr. Neil Clark Warren decided that there must be a better way to find true unconditional love for people who were suffering from incompatibility in their relationships that couldn't be resolved, or couldn't find a relationship to begin with. He started to wonder, if personality traits could determine a relationships success and could specific characteristics predict better compatibility between couples?

Dr. Warren decided that this theory needed to be tested, because love is an important factor in everyone’s lives. So he decided to meet up with Dr. Galen Buckwalter, a research professor at the University of Southern California. They decided to do tests between spouses to identify what made the most successful relationships work. They continued this research for three years until they had identified the key personality traits that made couples compatible for long-term relationships.  


From there, eHarmony was born, a dating website that is trusted by millions. The Compatibility Matching System allows members of this website to give their personality and in return get matched up with someone who they are compatible with in love and long-term relationships. The best part about Dr. Warren’s creation is that all walks of life are taken into consideration including: ethnicities, religious beliefs and political beliefs. Someone looking for love doesn't want to worry about these things and eHarmony makes falling in love easy by matching based on all of life’s criteria. 

Since Dr. Warren truly wanted to make falling into compatible love easier and still believes that it shouldn't be by chance, eHarmony still investigates through rigorous scientific research on a constant basis to keep matching people in a relevant way. Dr. Warren is still a major part of the business and believes in the power of healthy, long lasting love. 

M&M's Brand Characters

When it comes to branding, creating characters to represent your brand can be very smart. People will start feeling attached to their favourite character and that gives any brand an added bonus. The only problem is that you want to make characters that your audience can relate to.

M&M's has been extremely successful with their brand characters, simply due to the fact that they have different characters to target different audiences. Red is the genius, he thinks he knows it all. Blue is the confident one; he never lets anyone see him melt. Yellow is Red's best friend, he is the nice guy and always looks at red for the answer. Crispy thinks everyone is after him and is always looking over his shoulder. Green (the only girl) is the icon of femininity with her long lashes and red lips, she melts for no one and the Mini's are the life of the party. 

With all these characters to represent their one brand M&M's had to be careful not to overdo it. They have characters that everyone can relate to, they make all of their characters funny but they also follow their brand perfectly. All the characters are actual M&M's, either in different flavours or in different colours. This really helps with brand association for people who see the characters anywhere, whether it is on TV or on a billboard. 

M&M's in my mind got everything right when it comes to their characters. They keep me entertained, laughing, and pulling my heartstrings with every commercial I see. They are never outdated and are always coming up with new situations to add spice to their characters and brand image. 

M&M's gets an A+ on their brand characters.  

Disney's Brand Personality

Today I'm going to be talking about brand personality. If you can think of a brand, what human characteristics do you associate with that brand? Thats what a brand personality is. For instance Dove is feminine, pretty, a little bit older and more sophisicated then other soaps, and likes to feel beautiful.

Disney has a larger then life brand personality so I will be trying to get right into the nitty gritty of who Disney is in human characteristics.

Disney is a young child with a very wholesome imagination. He/she (is both) loves to believe in magic and makes life fun at any age. Disney has a big family who he/she likes to entertain with unrealistic stories that bring thoughts of fond memories and teach good moral values. Disney loses itself in imagination all the time, creavitity flows through disney all the time. Disney likes to play pretend and escape reality as much as possible. Disney knows right from wrong, he/she will always teach you a lesson if you need it.

Its important to make your brand have a personality that people can relate to and understand because people run off of relationships. If they feel like they can understand your brands personality it will make them accept it and feel a bond with it.

Starbucks Coffee Liqueurs Brand Extension

Starbucks came out with a brand extension called Starbucks Coffee Liqueurs a few years ago. The brand Starbucks has become so popular due to its high-class persona, making people who try the brand feel like they are experiencing something indulgent that they couldn't find anywhere else. 

The same goes for this Starbucks extension. The coffee liqueur comes in a simple bottle with a shot glass lid. The Starbucks logo is centered on the bottle and is located in more then one spot to make sure consumers know its made by Starbucks. Its made with 100% Starbucks coffee, which is sure to entice the market which has fallen in love with their daily "S-bucks". 

This extension has had great reviews due to its simple, yet very brand-oriented outlay. The reason for its great success is because Starbucks choice to extend its brand to something its market likes. They did the research that confirmed 50% of their cliental also drink coffee liqueur. The coffee liqueur they created is also in beverage form, which helps keep their brand identification the same. They went for something that is similar to the products they are renown for and are also enjoyed by at least half of their biggest fans. 

Knowing your market is incredibly important when thinking about brand extension. It’s not realistic to extend your brand to something that doesn't relate to whatever else your selling. It will confuse the consumer and eventually ruin the relationship you have built with them, causing major failure.

The reason why Starbucks and other brands who have extended within their target market, have been and will be successful is because they know their market and they know what their consumers will like best, and choose wisely when putting their label on something. The key is to making sure it not only makes sense to extend the brand but also to make sure the people who already support your brand will be impressed instead of disappointed. 

Brand Loyalty

What I want to express through these blogs are the major brands of our time that have been successful in creating a brand that has turned into a culture and how they were successful. I will be focusing on the top brands of our time that have accomplished this.

Today I'm focusing on brand loyalty, which is when a consumer is completely faithful to a particular brand. This means that the consumer only purchases this brand in its product category.

Apple has been very successful in creating brand loyalty with their customers, and being one of them myself. I feel like I have a better understanding of how they portray themselves.

Apple is no doubt one of the most recognized brands in the world right now. Not only because they market their product with incredible intelligence but also because they push themselves to beat the tough competition they're up against.

This company aims to inspire imagination, design and creativity, targeting a specific type of person, who have ended up falling in love with the brand created just for them.

The key to gaining brand loyalty is through targeting a specific market and focusing the brand entirely around it. Apple takes this to an extreme level, through their advertising, marketing and brand image.

They want to make creative people feel understood and over the years have continually increased their focus on creative tools and looks to impress and entice the creative market. Without their careful attention to detailing their brand image, Apple would never have created the frenzy it has today.