When we talk about brand strategy, we often present it as a growth multiplier. It sets the foundation for everything that follows, making interactions and conversations smoother.
But it’s not always about defining a single brand identity; sometimes, you’re dealing with an umbrella of solutions under the same brand.
The good news: there are brand portfolio strategy options. Brands can choose to present their solutions as a branded house. Think Google, where you think of the parent brand name first, and all the underlying solutions are tightly intertwined with that brand. Or companies can follow the path of presenting a house of brands, where distinct, standalone brands operate under a parent company that often takes a backseat. Think Procter & Gamble, which owns Tide and Pampers, amongst numerous other household names.
The seemingly bad news: there are options. As companies grow their brand portfolio, they can fall into a grey area where they’re unsure of which strategy to pursue. Our goal is to provide some clarity on that front and, if you’re at this crossroad, help you take the best route.
A Deeper Dive Into Two Brand Architecture Models: Branded House Vs. House of Brands
Branded House
In a branded house, everything ties back to one master brand. The parent name takes center stage, and every product, service or business unit is framed as an extension of that identity.
While we used the example of Google above, you can see this same model play out with other brands like:
- Microsoft: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure
- Apple: Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Pay, Apple Watch
- Siemens: Siemens Energy, Siemens Healthineers, Siemens Mobility
By building all products and services around a single master brand, a company strengthens brand equity, creates marketing efficiencies and makes it easier for customers to trust and adopt new offerings.
The downside is risk: if one product stumbles, the entire brand can take a hit. It also limits flexibility, since everything must align with the parent identity, making it harder to target very different markets or experiment outside the brand’s core promise.
House of Brands
In a house of brands, the parent company owns multiple independent brands. Each has its own personality, positioning and audience, with the parent often operating quietly behind the scenes.
To offer up a few more examples of this brand portfolio management that fits this mold, consider:
- Intuit: TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mailchimp
- Mars: M&Ms, Snickers, Pedigree
- Kenvue: Tylenol, Band-Aid, Neutrogena
A house of brands gives each brand in the portfolio independence to reach unique target markets and audiences. This allows for greater flexibility, tailored positioning and insulation from risk if one brand fails.
The trade-off is complexity: every brand requires its own marketing investment, while the parent company often remains invisible to consumers. Success in one brand also doesn’t directly boost the others, reducing overall synergy.
Evaluating Which Brand Portfolio Strategy Is the Best Fit for You
Deciding between a branded house and a house of brands comes down to understanding your company’s goals, markets and customer expectations. A good starting point is asking a series of reflective questions that tie directly to how your business operates and where it’s heading:
1. How important is transferring trust across offerings?
If credibility in one solution makes it easier for customers to adopt another, a branded house may serve you well. A SaaS provider rolling out a new analytics module can build faster adoption if it’s closely tied to an already trusted platform. If your solutions serve entirely different markets, let’s say, a medtech company with both surgical devices and consumer wellness products, customers may respond better to distinct brands with their own reputations.
2. Do your products or services target the same audience or very different ones?
A manufacturing company producing heavy machinery for industrial buyers and smart home devices for consumers may struggle to capture both audiences under one master brand without creating confusion. In this case, a house of brands creates space to develop tailored messages. For a sustainability consultancy offering carbon audits, ESG reporting and green supply chain solutions to the same executive audience, a branded house keeps things unified and authoritative.
3. What level of marketing investment can you realistically sustain?
Running multiple independent brands requires sizable spend to build awareness and maintain relevance. For a professional services firm, creating separate identities for each practice area may not be feasible without a large marketing budget. If efficiency is critical, a branded house leverages shared campaigns and maximizes visibility under one name.
4. How much flexibility do you need for growth and innovation?
If your roadmap involves bold moves into adjacent or even unrelated markets, a house of brands provides the freedom to experiment without risking your core reputation. Think of a company that begins in industrial manufacturing but acquires a clean-tech startup; keeping brands separate may allow each to grow on its own terms. If growth comes from deepening expertise in your existing space, a branded house provides consistency and strength.
5. How resilient should your brand be against risk?
In regulated industries like healthcare and medtech, the stakes for reputation are high. A branded house consolidates trust but also exposes the parent name to risk if one product faces scrutiny. A house of brands, alternatively, can shield the broader portfolio, containing potential fallout to a single brand without undermining the entire company.
Best Practices for Designing & Managing a Brand Portfolio
Choosing between a branded house and a house of brands is only part of the equation. The real challenge lies in how you implement and maintain that structure over time. These strategies help ensure your brand architecture works as a growth driver rather than a point of confusion.
Building a Framework for Brand Architecture
- Establish a clear brand taxonomy: Define how offerings fit into your portfolio, whether they are direct extensions of the master brand or stand-alone entities. A taxonomy should give employees and customers an easy way to understand how solutions relate.
- Create consistent naming conventions: Use naming patterns that reinforce clarity and connection. For a SaaS company, this might mean appending “Hub” or “Cloud” across modules; for a manufacturer, it could involve using product categories or series numbers to signal families of solutions.
- Document rules of engagement: Formalize how new brands, sub-brands or product names are introduced. This prevents fragmentation as companies grow, expand into new markets or launch innovations.
- Ensure internal alignment: Bring marketing, sales, product and service teams together around the same architecture and language. When everyone uses consistent terminology, it strengthens both internal efficiency and external messaging.
- Connect the portfolio to the customer journey: Consider how buyers move through discovery, evaluation and adoption. A clear framework should reduce friction, helping them understand what each product does and how the brand family as a whole supports their needs.
Monitoring and Refining Your Brand Architecture Over Time
- Conduct regular brand audits: Review your portfolio to evaluate whether the structure still reflects business priorities and customer perceptions. An annual or biannual check can catch misalignments before they become problems.
- Measure customer understanding: Use surveys, interviews or feedback loops to assess whether audiences grasp the relationships between your offerings. If customers are confused, your architecture may need to be simplified.
- Adapt to market changes: Evolving industries, regulations or customer demands may require shifts in brand strategy. A medtech company expanding from devices into digital platforms, for example, may need to rethink how it positions sub-brands.
- Integrate thoughtfully after acquisitions: Decide on a case-by-case basis whether to fold acquisitions into the master brand or keep them independent. This choice should balance brand equity, market positioning and the need for continuity with customers.
- Balance consistency with flexibility: A strong architecture sets the rules, but it shouldn’t be so rigid that it blocks innovation. Revisit the framework when launching major initiatives to make sure it can flex with growth.
Shaping a Brand Portfolio With Partnership and Purpose
Every business faces moments that define its growth journey. Choosing whether to operate as a branded house or a house of brands is one of those moments. It shapes how your story is told, how your solutions connect and how customers experience your company for years to come.
It’s also a decision you don’t have to make alone. At Kuno, we help organizations evaluate the best fit, define their brand identity — whether unified or diversified — and bring it to life through consistent visuals, messaging and market presence. Just as importantly, we continue to revisit and refine that architecture as your business grows and customers respond.
In the end, whether your future looks more like Google or Procter & Gamble, your success comes down to having the right strategy and the resources to execute it with purpose.
To see how these winning brand portfolio strategies come to life, explore examples of our work.
