brands that showcase other brands

  • Started
  • Last post
  • 7 Responses
  • foz

    I am working on a new brand that is in real estate/estate agents, the company leverages heavily off the sales staff's personality/personal brands. Most of these guys have their own website, plastic business cards, youtube channel, photography (invariably of them in a suit on a phone), one even has his own catchphrase. They are very proud of their 'branding' and from the outset have demanded to know how the new [company] branding will accomodate their brands.

    Now, bearing in mind that the sales staff are by nature, quite transient, I need to come up with a solution that can accommodate them but does not depend on them/their personal brands.

    My solution is to create zones, those zones can be customised by each sales person to reflect their brand. Those zones however, are contained within the structure of the parent brand, and accessible through it.

    I am pretty sure that I can do this, but when it comes to doing it I feel like I don't know where to start. Not like me really, but maybe you could help unblock things.

    Please post any examples you can think of where a larger brand successfully zones areas for other unique brands. It doesn't need to be real estate/estate agents at all.

    Thanks in advance :)

  • Gucci0

    Not sure I follow the "zoning" concept. Might just not be reading it properly. Do you mean specifying places in their ads where they are allowed to use their personal (second tier) branding? Or are you referring to zoning things geographically?

    At my last job, they took on a project for a real estate agent that was trying to reign in their agents a bit while still letting them have their own personal flavour. Similar scenarios, I suppose.

    • that second bit sounds similar, was it successful?foz
  • utopian0

    If I am not mistaken... I believe what are asking for is called sub branding.

    http://www.brandingstrategyinsid…

  • utopian0

    Here is slideshow explaining sub-branding.
    http://www.slideshare.net/ekulin…

    • thanks for making an effort to help though :)foz
  • foz0

    thanks utopian, but It's not whats happening here. These are not sub brands, they're unique brands just existing in a space that is branded by a host entity.

  • foz0

    Been thinking some more. The best analogy I can offer is a department store that houses concessions.

    In that scenario the branding of the store is on the outside, maybe on the signage/sales areas and on the livery. The brand I hope to build will need to be more overt than that. But the strategy is similar.

    It's interesting. You don't go to John Lewis/JC Penney to buy their branded goods, it's the brands that they house that entice you. But you do go there because you trust the store/brand and expect a level of service/support/expertise.

    The more I talk about this on here, the clearer the picture becomes for me. If anyone has any great examples of someone handling this very well, I would love to see it, likewise any insights or warnings appreciated :)

  • Nathan_Adams0



  • Gucci0

    <Bump>

    The exercise for the real estate brokerage was successful, but there needed to be a tonne of buy-in. That's where they struggled. They had to convince people to fix something that in their eyes wasn't broken. Not easy.

    The broker ended up providing templates of commonly used elements like signs, ads, etc. and designating areas (or in your case "zones") in which their personal flair could shine. Either a slogan or some version of a terribly made wordmark would appear in specific areas. The majority of an ad, for example, housed the parent brand's colours and marks, which took on a less schlocky look. The broker knew full well that shit could still fly under the radar, but they were able to (with varying degrees of success) reign things in a bit.

    Hope that helps.

    • That is gold, thanks so much for getting back to me.foz