Monolithic Brands - Heinz

This type of Brand Architecture uses the company name to "Masterbrand" all of its products or services offerings e.g. Heinz, GE, Mercedes and BMW favor such systems and are “Monolithic Brands”.

At the opposite side of the spectrum from independent branding is monolithic branding. In this approach, the parent company’s identity is dominant and the product or service is often described in generic terms. At the extreme, "generic" becomes numeric or alpha designations such as with BMW car models. Units in different geographic areas or market segments will be described by a simple geographic or segment identifier attached to the brand name.

Monolithic approaches can be an outcome of corporate egotism, or fueled by a desire to influence stock market investors. But monolithic branding can also be an effective technique to extend the reputation of one strong unit into similar markets – or into even quite different markets. The trust and reputation developed in one area was used to leverage entrance into another market area.

Overall, monolithic approaches generally have a very corporate, structured format that is conducive to handling complexity, sometimes with less marketing effort than other approaches may require. They generally are the strongest approach for establishing a single brand identity among consumers. Of course, the advice of many marketing consultants aside, branding isn’t everything, and a single identity might not be necessary or desirable for every organization.

Moving down the condiment aisle in the grocery store, Heinz products stand out for their monolithic approach. Heinz Ketchup, Heinz Mustard, Heinz Dill Relish and so forth. The Heinz name is preeminent while the product itself is described in a generic manner. The logotype and position of the logo are all very consistent. Heinz moved from horseradish and Ketchup to Pickle, and then jumped to baby food.

Advantages of monolithic branding are as:

• Faster brand building of new products
• Lower brand building costs
• Strong barrier for new entrant
• Greater profits involve
• Greater freedom in marketing strategies
• Disadvantage of monolithic branding are as:
• Bad experience or decline in popularity of one brand can affect the entire organization
• Greater risk involve

Corporate identity has the power to help a firm obtain an advantage over its competitors. The promotion and protection of a firm's corporate identity represent organizational capabilities that are critical in this pursuit. The building of corporate identity, however, is not a universal prescription for success. Under certain conditions, firms may not want to allocate scarce resources to corporate identity promotion and protection. The findings suggest that firms using a monolithic approach are likely to promote and protect their corporate identity more aggressively relative to firms employing a branded strategy.