Service brand relationship matrix: brand strategy for services

Brand architecture is a set of interlinked building blocks reflecting the levels of branding, from higher level corporate brands to lower level product sub-brands, and the linkages amongst them (Uncles et al., 1995). For example, not only is the powerful linkage between Nestle and its sub-brand KitKat synergistic but also the association of each benefits the image of the other. Little research has been done to understand branding decisions at the sub-brand level in services sector. The branding of sub-brands in services has been implicitly assumed to be either identical to the branding of sub-brands for physical goods, or simply not at all relevant to services marketing. We address two issues in this paper. We have made an attempt to (a) conceptualize sub-brands within the context of brand architecture strategies; (b) use Aaker and Joachimsthaler's "brand relationship spectrum" (2000a) to develop a "service brand relationship matrix" (SBRM) to understand brand architectures in services.