It’s no secret that effective branding is crucial for selling products or services to the target audience. Many businesses use mixed branding to establish a unique identity separate from the primary brand, which helps them grow and expand their market reach.
Before considering implementing mixed branding in your company, it’s essential to understand all the aspects of mixed branding. Are you often confused when you hear about mixed branding? We will clear the air.
When you finish reading this article, you’ll have the big picture of mixed branding, including its types and real-world examples. So, you can build your successful mixed brand in evolving industries. Let’s jump into it.
What is mixed branding?
Mixed branding is a company strategy for marketing products with two or more brand names to different audiences. One brand only targets a specific audience, like organic skincare, whose potential customers are obsessed with natural ingredients, not chemical enthusiasts.
Now, you might wonder if your company can reach a different audience. Yes, it’s a kind of mixed branding—that’s how you diversify your customer pool and enter a new market. It could make a difference in price point. For instance, If you own a clothing brand and sell it at a high price to a specific audience. Then, you can build a clothing sub-brand to sell at an affordable price to the target audience.
You can even partner with other brands while using mixed branding. This type falls under co-branding, which we discussed later with an example. Interestingly, sometimes customers don’t know the product comes from the same company because the target audience is different.
Benefits of mixed branding
Through a mixed branding strategy, you step into a new market and build demand for your products or services by reaching a new customer group. That way, you expand your market reach beyond your well-established market. Still, you are connected with your core brand but attract a wider audience than a limited audience.
Specifically, using sub-branding and private-label branding techniques (discussed later in the article) offers flexibility and reduces risk. You can freely experiment with various zones without harming your brand reputation.
Mixed branding reduces the risk of losing customers and increases market saturation. Sometimes, customers’ demands and trends change over time, so creating a brand for specific elements makes your brand adaptable. This leads to new opportunities and growth for your company.
When the target group is diverse, one brand’s sales growth probably does not affect the other. If you look from another perspective, a new brand can also influence brand honesty through its parent brand-built reputation.
Common types of mixed branding
Mixed branding has different kinds of branding that companies use according to their needs and preferences. Here are the common ones;
1-Sub-branding
Simply put, sub-branding is when a business creates a separate brand that somehow relates to the parent company but has its own brand identity. You can build a new identity connected to the parent organization, which helps it grow more competitively, or create new brand identities far away from the primary company. That’s how sub-branding works. Let’s understand each scenario from real-life examples.
Procter & Gamble (P&G) is among the world’s most influential consumer goods companies. It operates about 80 sub-brands under its name, which is an excellent example of sub-branding in different industries, targeting diverse audiences. P&G is home to many iconic brands that you might not know as their parent company, each with its own brand identity and audience.
Whether it’s Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Pantene, Pampers, Oral B, or Braun, they successfully cater to the needs of diverse audiences and leave a footprint in each industry.
Another example of sub-branding that connects to its parent company is Coca-Cola. They perfectly sub-brand by introducing new products like “Diet Coke” and “Coke Zero” to attract a health-conscious audience.
2-Co-branding
When you see multiple companies join hands to promote their products or services, they execute co-branding. In other words, co-branding is a strategic collaboration between two brands to market their products or services. And their success is interconnected.
It is one of the most potent ways to boost brand awareness while entering new markets and reaching diverse customers. Indeed, it is a win-win situation for all companies.
Uber and Spotify co-branding is an excellent example of selling different services while offering users the option to “choose a soundtrack for your ride.” This provides a competitive edge to both companies and helps them gain more users. Customers know they get a memorable experience while picking Uber and can listen to their favorite Spotify tunes on their ride.
3-Private label branding
The next way to execute mixed branding is private-label or store branding. In this marketing strategy, a company partners with a retailer to sell its product to a wide range of customers.
However, retailers have the right to sell manufacturing products under their name. Simply put, one brand creates the product, and the other company markets it to sell it.
Often, private-label products are considered white-label products, but that’s not the case. One manufacturer company sells white-label products to multiple retailers, while private goods are sold to only one retailer.
One of the most popular examples of store or private branding is the Michelin and Sears tire partnership. Sears is a trusted retailer that sells a wide range of goods. Instead of creating its own tires for auto center service, it partners with tire manufacturer Michelin. That way, Siren provides high-value tire production services, and, of course, Michelin boosts sales.
Tips to Craft Your Mixed Branding Strategy
Mixed branding can be complex. First, finalize which type of mixed branding you want to use to foster your company’s growth. A mistake in your market strategy can impact your primary brand.
Therefore, create distinct brand identities and smartly assign resources to maximize the benefits of mixed branding. Here are the top tips for crafting a mixed branding strategy effectively.
1-Determine Your Target Audience:
Identify and analyze your target audience to build a successful mixed branding strategy. Know their interests, purchasing habits, values, age, gender, and lifestyle.
The more you research your consumers and competitors, the better you can create your mixed branding strategy.
That way, you can tailor your strategies according to a specific audience to appeal to them toward your brand.
2-Create a brand identity:
Despite running an established brand, your sub-brand needs a distinct brand identity. Design a unique logo, color palette, and typography linked to the brand’s personality.
However, creating a brand identity is crucial while considering your target audience’s preferences. Fast-food lovers may like bold colors like red, yellow, and orange, while technology enthusiasts may prefer blue, silver, and black. This will help your customers remember each brand separately.
3-Document your mixed branding strategy:
It’s crucial to create a brand guideline to put effort into mixed branding. Document everything from brand image to personality, positioning to identity, and brand voice. This will help you market your sub-brands with the same elements on all communication platforms. And while your target group can easily recognize your brand.
4-Distribute Resources:
Allocate resources like budget, staff, and marketing for sub-brands. It’s essential to being successful in your mixed branding strategy. Each brand has its own requirements, so customize it accordingly.
Maybe one brand performs better with social media ads and YouTube, and others grow with just a website and blogs. It all depends on your specific audience and where they are most active.
5-Monitor your sub-brands performance:
The process of using mixed branding effectively never stops, as you have to keep analyzing to improve the customer experience.
Analyze the impact of your sub-brand in the market to know how well your mixed branding strategy is working. Monitor each brand’s key performance indicators (KPIs) (it shows how your brand is performing over time for a specific objective).
It includes customer engagement, sales, and brand awareness in the market. In this way, you can adjust and make changes to what is missing in your strategy and how these impact your primary brand.
Summing Up
Now you know “what is mixed branding” and ways to do it. No matter what type of organization you are running, you always crave to grow and become more competitive, and mixed branding is one way that can help.
It mainly centers around creating sub-brands to expand brand reach in the market. You can reach a different audience, either by collaborating with other brands and retailers or creating your own sub-brands, to build your business portfolio.
Whatever kind of mixed branding you choose, it can bring new opportunities for your business. But you might face some challenges, like expenses and brand reputation. With the right mixed branding strategy, you can successfully run your mixed brands.
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