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Sub-brands, offspring or distant relatives? If you are looking to diversify by introducing new products, services or streams of revenue, you’ll need to consider the commercial implications for your brand. It’s rare that a single brand can stretch comfortably over every aspect of an organisation’s portfolio. Take Sony; over decades it’s developed numerous sub-brands, some of which are closely aligned to the masterbrand such as Sony Bravia; others that appear to be standalone, Playstation; and a few that have become generics — Walkman, Memory Stick (a Sony trademark). There are sound commercial reasons for developing sub-brands. If your core business is hardware, developing a software brand under the same name could be counter-intuitive for your existing clients, and confusing for a wider audience. You may want to keep a sub-brand separate so that it appears as an entirely separate entity and allows you to attract a new audience. It also ensures that you aren’t diluting the masterbrand. Apple used to be synonymous with computers; today it’s phones, a streaming service and multiple software ranges. And if a product line becomes problematic or fails — such as the Newton, Apple’s original personal organiser — keeping a little distance between the masterbrand and the sub-brand will be seen as a wise move. If you’ve invested time and effort building a successful brand, the last thing you’ll want to do is diminish its value. At the same time, if you are diversifying your business, you’ll need to ensure your masterbrand is in sync with this new aspiration. A successful sub-brand could indicate a clear direction for your entire business.

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Always. Be. Adapting. Over time brands must respond to both cultural and commercial forces. If a brand is limited in scope it will eventually become limiting to those who use it, and ultimately less effective at communicating with your target audience. If your visual identity lacks key components or guidance on how to use aspects such as illustration, it's likely that colleagues will begin to go ‘off brand’ and start developing assets or using imagery without due consideration. The result will be a messy, incoherent visual identity, patched together by multiple users with good intention, but no clear direction. As a valuable asset, any update to your brand must align with your business’ aspiration and its commercial context. Take the decision to introduce motion into a brand; by no means a new idea, however it’s only in the last decade that movement has become not just a ‘nice-to-have’, but a vital aspect of almost every contemporary brand. The reasons are obvious — social media, digital platforms and advertising have all seen the migration of brands onto screens. If social is a primary channel, having a static visual identity puts you at a very visible commercial disadvantage. But it’s not as simple as deciding to add a flutter of animation to your logo. In the same way that a great brand voice is immediately distinct and appropriate, you’ll need to define motion principles that align with your brand’s vision and values. If your intention is to be the sector thought leader, what are the implications for how your visual identity moves? If you don’t set clear guidelines, effortless transitions will soon be replaced by clunky edits. You should regularly review your brand through a commercial lens. Is it functioning as well as it could, are users struggling to apply it to its full potential? Is it adding value for your customers? If other parts of your business decided to run project management differently, or develop ad-hoc manufacturing processes without consulting senior management, this would undoubtedly lead to an internal review. Your brand should be treated with the same care and consideration.

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Here's how our Business to People branding approach helped Lloyd's Maritime Academy, a globally respected organisation, navigate a rebrand and step away from a sea of copycats.

Looking at 2025 and starting to wonder where your brand is headed? Got a spare 45min next week? Then join Vicki Young on a free webinar to discover: 👉 What you really know about your audience 👉 How to review your brand offering 👉 How to evaluate your brand values 👉 Where your brand is strongest 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼 👉 …and where you need to invest Join us on the 10th Dec. Once you sign up for the webinar, we'll send you a quick pre-read document that will help you get the most out of the call. Sign up in the comments

If your competitors have changed their business model, it's time to consider how you operate, AND how you’re branded. If your rivals adapt their offer, you should consider the implications through both a commercial and communications lens. Imagine your key competitor has pivoted to a subscription model, if they are successful what does it really indicate? — that they’ve tapped into a shift in customer preferences that you weren’t aware of, or able to take advantage of? — that their brand is powerful enough to dictate how their customers should behave? — that this is the natural direction of the sector, and they’re the ones capitalising on it? All these reasons have serious implications for your brand, so how do you respond — choose to stay the same in a rapidly shifting market and you’ll soon find yourself left behind, your brand becoming a reminder of the old ways of operating. Conversely, rebranding simply to respond to a competitor’s new direction — without any change in your own business direction — might make you look desperate. In a sector that’s changing fast, you need to ensure your brand aligns with your offer…  and your audience’s expectations. Organisations often rush into rebrands as a knee-jerk reaction to an aggressive newcomer or a rival’s new brand, resulting in a poorly considered copy-cat approach. If you can’t change your business model, it’s a good tactic to focus on strengthening your existing brand to add value to your present offer. Subtly reminding people why they chose you is often an effective tactic.

Here's how our B2P branding approach created a brand that ensures DEI experts Delta are connecting with a C-Suite audience.

Competition is good for business, but bad for mediocre brands. When the status quo is shaken by a smart new entrant, existing brands soon reveal their shortcomings. Remember how dated the established UK banking sector suddenly looked when Monzo’s coral card started getting slapped on countertops? Or how craft beer swept an entire generation of brands out of the pubs (ironically, today’s consumers are now beginning to see ‘craft’ as the generic beer). When a new brand comes along and changes the conversation in the right direction, customers are likely to take notice, because more often than not it signals a response to new behaviours and attitudes. Monzo didn’t only say ‘look at my snazzy new card’ — it said ‘I don’t need a bricks and mortar establishment to look after my money; I’m generation tap, not chip and pin.’ A radical brand launching successfully is a wake-up call to others in the sector; they need to consider the commercial reasons for its impact. Instead of critiquing the obvious aspects — its name, colour scheme etc, they need to consider the deeper commercial implications that the new brand reveals: — What societal changes does the new brand encourage or reveal? — Why does the audience find it appealing beyond the obvious name, colour etc? — How does our brand appear in comparison to the newcomer? If you aren’t asking questions such as this from a serious commercial standpoint, you’ll be in danger of losing market share in the long run. In competitive sectors, successful newcomers act as indicators of customer aspiration and needs. Going back to high street banking, we can see how the new fintech brands signalled a generational shift in attitudes to money. The old banks had relied on trust, founded upon solid stone buildings located in the Square Mile. After the financial crisis, there was an audience who found it just as easy to trust tech companies to handle their money. That's the real message behind the coral card.

Want to understand any hidden weaknesses in your brand strategy and execution? Join us for our free webinar with inhouse expert Vicki Young to discover: 👉 What you really know about your audience 👉 How to review your offering 👉 Evaluating your brand values 👉 The role of what you say and how you say it Join us on the 10th Dec. Link to call deets is in the comments.