Know-How Exchange : Branding

We'd need to have more details and specifics. The key considerations are the target audiences for each subsidiary and the core positioning benefit each provides. One could argue that unless the target audiences and benefits are the same across all the subsidiaries the corporate umbrella is meaningless at best, or confusing at worst.

You may need a positioning and branding expert to advise you on this. That kind of outside and objective expertise can be invaluable in a situation like this.

Different companies take different approaches. For instance Procter and Gamble, and Unilever have individual brands and you barely see the main company, while companies like Sony or Samsung largely use a master corporate brand. Others (eg Nestle, Kraft) steer something more in the middle.

The choice will depend on what level of multual connection the parts have to the whole and how you see the company developing in the future. In a basket of sub-brands it's easier to treat each brand as a separate entity and strongly focus marketing on the specific needs - or sell it off later if needed. A corporate brand on the other hand requires a raison-d'etre and requires a core set of brand values and quality standards across the products/services offered. Spreading marketing budget across brands can dilute the marketing impact - lots of small-spend campaigns per brand - compared to focused spend on one corporate brand, but you have to know how it works best for your market. As Michael said a branding expert may help.

A logo isn't a brand: a logo is a flag or banner around or under which a cluster of varying services or forces can rally. A brand will only form with the creation of images and impressions in the minds of the people using the services on offer and to direct those things as elements you need positioning (which is your messaging TO people that says "this is what we do") and conditioning (which is people's understanding of your messaging as received by them, that says "this is what they do").

If the company is XYZ Healthcare, your positioning needs to be that XYZ Healthcare Imaging, or XYZ Healthcare Oncology, or XYZ Healthcare Visiting Nurse Program provides A, B, and C in terms of services, with each service existing under a main logo (or flag). In the past it's been my position that a brand is a promise: I'm beginning to see that alone, a promise as a descriptor for a brand isn't enough, that a brand is a far more complex, organic, and chaotic structure. Likewise, healthcare isn't just one thing—it's multiple elements.

I would focus on the holding company parent.