Group Branding Strategies

Individual brands Vs Umbrella brands
An Individual brand has its own identity and the corporate or common name is not used to promote its equity. For instance, Hindustan Lever follows individual branding strategy and has several brands in the same category such as Lux, Liril, and Rexona soaps.

Advantages of Individual branding strategy are:

Some of the products that flop in the market do not have negative spillover impact on other brands. For example, Nirma is associated with the popular end of products, which becomes a major deterrent for its expansion in the premium segment.

The same manufacturer can offer consumers looking for a change, distinctly new brands.
Individual branding requires expensive advertisements and brand building exercises. Also, each new brand does not benefit from the positive perceptions of earlier brands.

In case of an Umbrella brand, the corporate or a common name is used to promote its equity.
Nirma has mainly followed the umbrella branding strategy such as Nirma Bath, Nirma Beauty, Nirma Super, Nirma Shikakai soap, etc. Only recently, did the company for the first time divert from its strategy of umbrella branding with the launch of Nima.

In Umbrella branding, manufacturers have advantage of:
Establishing a new product quickly with association (quality/ benefits) of the mother brand (a classic case in Indian context has been Godrej).
No need for name research, expensive advertisement for creating brand names, recognition and preference.

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