Product Packaging – How Many Types of Brand Structures Are There? Five Main Brand Structure Forms
五种主要的品牌结构形式
为了做大规模，企业有必要做品类延伸。在品类延伸之前，我们有必要先搞清楚品牌架构问题。
所谓品牌架构，就是指一个企业需要多少个品牌、品牌之间是什么关系这两个问题。一般来讲，最常用的品牌架构有五种：
第一种，是单一品牌结构。不管企业的产品横跨多少个产品品类，品牌名只有一个，不管是企业品牌，还是产品品牌，都只有这一个品牌名，这就叫单一品牌结构。单一品牌结构，又分为一牌一品和一牌多品两种模式。
一牌一品品牌结构，是指品牌个性特别强烈，不适于做品类延伸的那些品牌，整个企业只有一个品牌。比如：宝马、金嗓子等等。
一牌多品品牌结构，是指单一品牌，横跨多个品类的情况。这种品牌结构，多为中国企业所采用。比如：美的、海尔、娃哈哈、TCL，等等。
第二种品牌结构，是多品牌结构模式。它是一种产品品牌战略，一个企业横跨多个品类，并以多个品牌涵盖之，就叫多品牌结构模式。多品牌结构，包含两种形式：
其一，是一品一牌的多品牌。比如，花王的卫生巾用乐尔雅、护肤品用碧柔、洗发水用花王品牌。
其二，是一品多牌的多品牌。比如：丝宝集团有风影、舒蕾、丽涛等多个洗发水品牌。
第三种品牌结构，叫母子品牌结构。这方面最成功的企业当数宝洁莫属。宝洁仅仅在洗发水行业就拥有飘柔、海飞丝、潘婷等多个品牌，这样通过不同品牌对不同人群的覆盖，就确保了最大限度地扩张企业的规模。
母子品牌结构，是指子品牌被母品牌所拥有，母品牌是背书品牌。上海超限战咨询沈志勇认为:母品牌往往是企业品牌或集团品牌，子品牌是产品品牌。采用母子品牌结构的企业，企业总是以一个品牌去涵盖一个产品品类，但不会用企业品牌去涵盖一个单一的产品品类。比如：宝洁不会用宝洁品牌去涵盖洗发水，通用汽车不会用GM去涵盖旗下任何一个产品品类。
第四种品牌结构，叫做主副品牌结构模式。主品牌是指在市场上具有强大影响力的品牌，副品牌则是对主品牌的价值进行调整或补充的品牌，副品牌被主品牌所驱动。
主副品牌结构的采用，一般是为了区分具有一些不同功能、特点和级别的同类产品或不同的形象风格而采用的品牌结构模式。如：海尔——小王子、本田——雅阁、白沙——金世纪、松下——画王等等。
English Version
Five Main Brand Structure Forms
To achieve scale, enterprises need to extend their product categories. Before category extension, it’s necessary to first clarify the brand architecture issue.
The so-called brand architecture refers to two questions: how many brands does an enterprise need, and what is the relationship between these brands. Generally speaking, there are five most commonly used brand architectures:
The first type is the single-brand structure. Regardless of how many product categories an enterprise spans, there is only one brand name, whether it’s an enterprise brand or a product brand. This is called a single-brand structure. The single-brand structure is further divided into two modes: one brand-one product and one brand-multiple products.
The one brand-one product brand structure refers to brands with particularly strong personalities that are not suitable for category extension, where the entire enterprise has only one brand. Examples: BMW, Golden Throat, etc.
The one brand-multiple products brand structure refers to situations where a single brand spans multiple categories. This brand structure is mostly adopted by Chinese enterprises. Examples: Midea, Haier, Wahaha, TCL, etc.
The second brand structure is the multi-brand structure model. It is a product brand strategy where an enterprise spans multiple categories and covers them with multiple brands. The multi-brand structure includes two forms:
First, one product-one brand multi-brand. For example, Kao uses Laurier for sanitary napkins, Biore for skincare products, and Kao for shampoo.
Second, one product-multiple brands multi-brand. For example: C-Bons Group has multiple shampoo brands like Fengying, Slek, and Litao.
The third brand structure is called the parent-child brand structure. The most successful enterprise in this regard is undoubtedly Procter & Gamble. P&G alone has multiple brands in the shampoo industry such as Rejoice, Head & Shoulders, and Pantene. By covering different consumer groups with different brands, this ensures maximum expansion of the enterprise’s scale.
The parent-child brand structure means that sub-brands are owned by the parent brand, with the parent brand serving as an endorser brand. Shen Zhiyong from Shanghai Chaoxianzhan Consulting believes: the parent brand is often the enterprise brand or group brand, while sub-brands are product brands. Enterprises adopting the parent-child brand structure always use one brand to cover one product category, but will not use the enterprise brand to cover a single product category. For example: P&G will not use the P&G brand to cover shampoo, and General Motors will not use GM to cover any of its product categories.
The fourth brand structure is called the master-sub brand structure model. The master brand refers to a brand with strong market influence, while the sub-brand adjusts or supplements the value of the master brand, with the sub-brand being driven by the master brand.
The adoption of the master-sub brand structure is generally used to distinguish similar products with different functions, characteristics, and levels, or different image styles. Examples: Haier – Little Prince, Honda – Accord, Baisha – Golden Century, Panasonic – Picture King, etc.