Should I Start A Separate Brand, or a Sub-Brand? What You Need to Know About Sub-Branding
Recently I had a client come to me looking to re-brand. Throughout our discovery call, it became evident that they themselves were having a hard time defining their brand lately, and separating what was feeling like two halves of their business. One half served people in need of financial services, and the other half taught how to run a financial service business to other aspiring entreprenuers.
They knew they needed to somehow separate the two ventures, but they weren’t sure how far that separation should go considering both still fell under the financial services umbrella.
Should they form an entirely new business and go through the painstaking work of developing an entirely new brand they wondered aloud? Or was there a way to keep the business as one whole, but treat one part of it as something related but meant for a different audience? And what would it look like visually and messaging wise with either direction?
To me, it was a clear sign that developing a Sub-Brand was the optimal solution. After explaining what that could look like, the client went with it, and we developed two look and feels that felt connected but separate enough to be able to make a distinction between the two.
As business owners, we have a natural knack for coming up with new ideas we see a need for and wanting to take immediate action on them (it’s how most of us got our start after all). But, sometimes it can be hard to tell whether a new idea is meant to be something held under one core business that already exists, or should become something entirely new. In this article I’m going to walk through what sub-branding is, signs to start one, and the advantages and disadvantages of creating one.
What is Sub-branding?
Sub-branding is rather self-explanatory. It is in essence a brand within a brand all owned and managed by the same company. A Sub-brand is different than a brand partnership, where one company just so happens to sell other brands under it (example: Famous Footwear selling Sketches and Adidas shoes). For something to be defined as a sub-brand it has to exist directly under the ownership and management of the parent company.
That being said, there are instances where a sub-brand might grow big enough it can live entirely on it’s own. See American Eagle’s sub-brand Aerie, which started merely as AE’s women’s underwear line, and now has it’s own storefront, team, and while it is still techncially owned by American Eagle, is managed separately from AE’s own ventures.
Signs A Sub-brand Might Be Needed
Sometimes as a business owner, your various ideas end up branching away a bit from your original intent and audience. When this happens, it might be a sign you need to develop a Sub-Brand.
Here are some other signs it might be time to Sub-Brand your idea:
The venture is within the same space as your main business, but has a different audience.
Example: You own a Retail Company that sells to a core female audience, but now you want to start selling to men as well. You decide to form a sub-brand targeting a strictly male audience in your stores to start testing the market.
The venture is a similar product but has a distinctly different feature being focused on
Example: You’re in the food industry and sell protein drinks and now want to release a purely Vegan line of drinks. You might start a sub-brand to show a distinction between this new line of options for your customers.
The venture is in a new geographical location with distinctively different cultural values, preferences and other nuances
Example: You’re a company that sells locally made hand crafted goods like mugs and tableware, and have recently grown a partnership with creators in South Korea. You decide to form a sub-brand to better market and manage relationships with your partners overseas, while still keeping the door open for local customers.
There are many other reasons that a sub-brand might come up as a point of discussion, but these appear to happen the most regularly.
What Should A Sub-Brand Look Like?
Sub-branding can have a similar look and feel, without being just a copy of what your main branding is. It can utilize similar motifs, while varying in color tones or the style of shapes used.
When it comes to determining the visual look and feel of your sub-brand, you have to start with the reason you are considering sub-branding at all – meeting a new audience.
Understanding your audience is the first key to developing strong branding, and sub-branding is no different. In this regard, developing your sub-brand is like developing an entirely separate identity for your business.
Think of it like this…let’s say your brand is like an old-fashioned grandfather – traditional, conservative, and speaks in a way that’s deep and thought provoking. This brand does wonderfully with your audience who is similar in age and mindset. But, now you want to meet a more youthful audience, so you choose to sub-brand. Your sub-brand then is like your main brand’s trendy teenage granddaughter. Bold, fun-loving, and speaks in shorter slang-filled words. To meet either audience appropriately the colors, imagery, and messaging you use is going to need to be wildly different. The grandfather main brand might prefer neutral colors, classic fonts, and peaceful, thought-provoking imagery. Meanwhile, the teenage granddaughter will be drawn to more vibrant colors, experimental combinations of styles, and imagery that’s a little more in-your-face.
Now, not all sub-brands have to be so different. You might be in a situation where your audiences are similar-minded but have different goals for themselves. In which case, we could treat your sub-brand more like it’s two paternal twins – not quite identical, but certainly have a few traits you can tell are shared. This was actually the path my client went on since the key difference were the services she was offering to either audience. She also was a smaller business, and thus didn’t want her sub-brand to appear like a whole new venture. That’s why we kept similar motifs, but varied the tones of the colors used, and re-arranged the styles of fonts being used.
It ultimately just depends on what kind of new audience you’re trying to gravitate towards and what similarities and differences they share with your core audience.
Final Thoughts
All in all, when it comes to exploring a new venture take the time to consider how that will effect your overall brand stance. Sub-branding is a great solution for testing a new market, expanding partnerships, exploring new products, and taking a bit of a risk with what your company offers without sinking tons of money in forming a whole new company. It bridges the gap between unity and specificity, offering a streamlined approach to cater to diverse audiences or ventures within the same domain. By recognizing the necessity of sub-branding, and understanding its potential, businesses can navigate the complexity of expansion and differentiation with clarity and finesse.
Thanks for reading!
My name’s Nicole Suchin and I am a Graphic Designer based in Pittsburgh, PA that specializes in branding, as well as design for print and digital marketing.
If you’re looking to brand, re-brand, or start your sub-brand – I’d love to chat more about what that could look like for you and your business!