Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about masterbrand strategies

Article • WARC Best Practice, January 2018

This article explores the current writing and thinking on the subject of masterbrands and the strategies that propel them: a dominant, overarching frame in which various products, services, and brands, operate.

What we know about brand architecture

Article • WARC Best Practice, May 2017

This article explores key insights on brand architecture, or the organisation of a brand portfolio, highlighting methods and techniques to maximise the value of a portfolio while keeping clarity for consumers and employees.

AT&T benefits from 'elastic' brand

News • 10 January 2018

NEW YORK: AT&T, the telecoms and entertainment company, found in research that it has high consideration levels for categories it does not currently trade in, a positive outcome for an “elastic” brand active in a growing number of ...

AT&T finds new ways to extend its “elastic” brand

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable US Brands, January 2018

AT&T has successfully extended its brand portfolio beyond telecoms to include a growing range of digital services and media properties.

Marketing is complex, not simple

Article • Giles Lury, Market Leader, Quarter 1, 2018, pp. 32-35

The marketing industry has become unhealthily obsessed with oversimplification, and marketers should not be afraid to challenge this orthodoxy.

Behind the masterbrand: A New Zealand story

Article • Anna Hamill, WARC Exclusive, October 2017

New Zealand created a business-orientated masterbrand which broke stereotypes and went beyond the country's reputation as a tourism destination.

Transforming B2B marketing: Six steps forward and three paths to take

Article • Julie Schwartz, Bev Burgess and Vincent Rousselet, Market Leader, Quarter 4, 2017, pp. 46-49

This article examines three paths for B2B companies to take if they want to adapt to the digital age.

The 3 A's of masterbranding: Ambition, Audience and Adaptability

Article • Nick Liddell, WARC Exclusive, December 2016

This article explores the topic of Masterbrands, a point of reference from which subsidiary brands flow, and a guiding architecture for the outlook of the company.

General Mills overhauls its structure

News • 07 December 2016

MINNEAPOLIS: General Mills, the Minnesota-based food giant, is undergoing a comprehensive restructure that will see the creation of a new global CMO role as well as four worldwide business groups.

Million-Dollar Snackables: Money talks! Driving investment decisions with new experience metrics and snackable outputs

Research Paper • Catherine Moger Rickwood, Caroline Smiley, ESOMAR, Congress, New Orleans, September 2016

This paper explains how the US-based Delta Air Lines introduced Snackables, a new report format, in order to change the perception of research within the organisation and provide increased value, without increased research spend.

Sound Research: How SONOS boosted its growth trajectory by leveraging advanced causal analytics

Research Paper • David Feick, Frank Buckler, ESOMAR, Congress, New Orleans, September 2016

This paper describes research conducted by Sonos, the wireless speaker brand, to inform its marketing strategies, communications and media mix through the purchase funnel.

Assessing Ad-Spend Patterns To Predict Brand Health: A Model for Advertisers to Determine Future Advertising-Budgeting Strategies

Research Paper • Abas Mirzaei, David Gray, Chris Baumann and Lester W. Johnson, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 56, No. 2, 2016, pp. 169-182

Can a brand's "health" be associated with a company's advertising-spending patterns? The authors of the current study applied their own definition of a "healthy brand"—a brand that "experiences sustained year-on-year growth in brand sales over the long term" (Mirzaei, Gray, and Baumann, 2015)—to a model that builds on earlier brand-performance and ad-budgeting theories.

Triple E Brand Model: new metric to manage brand health

Research Paper • Macarena Estévez and Ana Carreras, ESOMAR, Latin America, April 2016

This paper explains efforts to introduce a brand metric capable of scientific rigor in measurement, with demonstrable relationships to business growth, and capability to be managed.

Whirlpool Corp. details branding quandry

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, The Market Research Event, November 2015

This event report describes how Whirlpool Corp., the American manufacturer and marketer of home appliances, struggled with brand alignment at the same time as its washing machine brand – called Whirlpool – suffered from identity confusion.

How to use brand models

Article • Merry Baskin, WARC Best Practice, March 2015

This article analyses what brand models are for, examines different types and provides a checklist of how to use them.

Strategy Toolkit: Analysing the brand

Article • WARC Strategy Toolkit, Strategy Toolkit

This module has been assembled with one simple aim: to give the reader a thorough grounding in how to think about brands.

The agile brand

Article • Lois Jacobs and Thomas Ordahl, Admap, October 2014

This article explores the new demands made of brands as markets and disruption happen much quicker, and argues that 'agile brands' are the answer.

Brand portfolio strategy

Article • Nick Liddell, WARC Best Practice, October 2012, pp. 42-43

Some brands, such as Apple and L'Oreal, have very successful brand portfolios, while others get it wrong with a brand architecture that is a confusing mess of sub-brands.

Brand enrichment: What's in it for me?

Article • John Crowther, Admap, April 2012, pp. 14-16

Every year around 30,000 new consumer products are launched and, in a typical day, the average person sees 1,009 ads.

10 trends in global brands

Article • J Walker Smith, WARC Trends, February 2012, pp. 14-15

All brands are local at heart, with the potential to be global. The history of globalisation can give a hint of where brands are headed in a global market where uncertainty has become a key to shaping consumer decision-making.

Increase your odds of M&A success with brand architecture (Landor Perspectives 2011)

Article • Martin Bishop, WPP Atticus Awards, Highly Commended, 2011

This article argues that a solid brand architecture plan can improve the chances of success of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that involve a range of different brands.

Brand architecture: Predict brand success

Article • Robert Passikoff and Amy Shea, Admap, December 2011, pp. 20-21

The ideal brand architecture can be structured by using Leading Indicator Metrics for the brand and its category.

We got a crush on you(th)! involving influential Gen Y'ers from 15 global cities to learn why something is cool

Research Paper • Simona Sbarbaro, Joeri Van den Bergh, Elias Veris and Tom De Ruyck, ESOMAR, Qualitative, Vienna, November 2011

Generation Y (aged 15-30) is the most marketing savvy generation ever, much larger than the previous generation X, and with an impact on society that will soon surpass that of the extensively documented Babyboomers.

Are you up for the challenge of open branding? (Landor Perspectives 2010)

Article • Alex Do, WPP Atticus Awards, Highly Commended, 2010

With consumers becoming less trusting of corporate businesses, Alex Do from Landor Associates argues that brands need to become more open and adopt an open-source mindset.

Media Planning: Media is always on

Article • Marianne van Soomeren, Admap, December 2010, pp. 28-29

As brands become media themselves, achieving a balance between them is the key to marketing effectiveness.

Brand analysis