Question

Topic: Branding

Website/branding For A Company With Diverse Products Lines

Posted by askari on 10/21/2012 at 10:21 PM ET 125 Points
Hello Everyone,

At Clever Quarters (Please see https://www.CleverQuarters.com) we offer garage, closets and storage organizations. We also equally active in providing flooring solutions including garage flooring patio flooring and wide range of flooring solutions for commercial and industrial spaces. How should we present ourselves as an expert in two different domains in such that is not confusing and effective. Do we need to create two different brands and advertise our services separately or stick to only one brand?

Thanks for providing your views.
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 10/21/2012 at 11:59 PM Member
    I would stick with one brand and clarify, promote, and execute with two divisions. But that is what your business plan would conclude and plan for, isn't it?
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 10/22/2012 at 8:35 AM Member
    Your problem is a little bigger than you think. Not only are you trying to convey organization systems & flooring coatings (for home), you're also trying to say you do industrial flooring coatings. The home/business markets require different messaging, so you'll need to first separate these two markets, and within the "home" market, further separate the organization/flooring solutions.

    A single brand that connects everything would be useful if there's a benefit to name recognition. If you're well-known for organizers, will someone likely also entrust you to do their floors?

    My gut reaction is you've got 3 different product lines, that are unconnected, so I'd create 3 different brands.
  • Posted on 10/22/2012 at 10:57 AM Moderator
    I'm with Jay. I think you need to have a separate brand for each target audience and each distinct benefit. Otherwise you're almost certain to confuse everyone, and you'll end up with a brand image that is "fuzzy" at best.

    To be sure, there are examples of brands that have products that serve multiple target audiences with a range of benefits. In almost every case, though, they utilize the corporate brand to establish some kind of common thread, quality assurance, or trust transfer. And they have a different/distinct sub-brand for each target audience. (They are frequently large/global brands with enormous marketing budgets.)
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 10/22/2012 at 2:48 PM Accepted
    I think the answer to your question is, it depends.

    You could keep "Clever Quarters (TM)" as your company/parent brand name (since 2005 has some value), and then add "Clever Quarters for Business" and maybe "Clever Quarters for Home". Or maybe distinguish brand messaging with "Clever Quarters Home Flooring" etc etc as sub-brands to your parent brand name, depending on how your product selections most naturally divide in your customer's minds. But I am really just guessing without more information.

    If you haven't already done so, it would be good to write a business plan with a well researched and developed marketing plan section. Without the market research and conclusions it is very difficult to provide sound branding advice based solely on your post input.
  • Posted by askari on 10/22/2012 at 10:22 PM Author
    Thanks everyone for the input.
    Different brands would make sense but it would mean a lot of money to go toward the marketing and branding. From another end a single brand/website is confusing and ineffective and that's why I am seeking help from the board.
    It is a small business with limited marketing budget. Diversification of our business was done to improve our revenue per customer and it works residential products. Customers who contact us for one product/service, may likely hire us for other products as they learn more about our business.
    Puting Steve's and Jay views in perspective, I wonder if it make sense to have a single brand but different websites (departments) focused on each market domains?
    We could see three domains 1)CleverGarage that includes garage organization and garage flooring 2)CleverClosets that focuses on Home Organization and refers to garage as part of it 3)CleverFlooring that focuses on commercial and residential flooring market.
    One interesting question would be how these website would connect but probably that is a separate topic for itself.

    Thanks again for the insights!
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Branding)