When it comes to website design and branding, the goal is to create an eye-catching design with the right colors, images, and text that work hand-in-hand to create the ultimate user experience. We are seeing a focus on simple branding that is eye catching and helps us easily identify a business. Maybe you have started incorporating important elements into your business website such as conversion optimization, UX design, video marketing, and beautiful imagery. But even if you have mastered the ultimate eye catching design for your website, what strategy should you take if you are considering expanding and adding a sub brand?
A multi- or sub-brand strategy can be a bit more challenging since it needs to complement and not compete with the other parts of the business. If you are considering creating a website for a secondary or new brand, we have a few tips to guide you along the way.
First we need to explore the pros and cons of creating a sub brand for your business. A sub brand is a secondary brand is related to the original brand, but may be created to reach a new audience (for example Courtyard is a sub brand of Marriott as a lower budget alternative for travelers). The sub brand will have a new logo, possibly new imagery or colors, but yet still have aspects in the logo or design that help relate back to the original brand.
As you can see here, the Courtyard Marriott logo incorporates the red color and original Marriott text, but it also adds new colors and artwork to help identify it as a separate brand.
Sub brands can also establish loyalty among consumers if the product targets the same audience, but offers a unique product or service (such as the iPhone and iPad for Apple). While creating a sub brand can be costly and require extra assistance in order to maintain a seperate website, it can be helpful over the long term since you are able to catch the attention of new individuals, while further extending loyalty among your target audience.
The downside of creating a sub brand is that it is costly to market to a new set of consumers and create a somewhat separate identity. It may also hurt the business as a whole if the sub brand receives bad customer reviews.
When considering creating a sub brand, you need to ask yourself a few questions in order to identify whether this will be a good business decision.
- Will this sub brand help to grow the audience interested in my product/service?
- Do I have the resources or help to properly market and create a new website in order to separate the sub brand from the original brand?
- Is there enough demand for the product or service that my sub brand could offer?
If you were able to answer yes to some of the questions above, then this is a great opportunity to begin your sub brand and new website.
Below are some tips to help you create an effective sub brand website:
Create unique and avoid duplicate content.
It may be time consuming to create separate content for your sub brand website, so you might think that posting a few related articles across both pages could be a quick and easy solution for adding regular content to both sites. The problem with this strategy is that it actually confuses search engines, which could hurt your SEO results. Instead, create a content strategy that focuses on the different aspects of each business.
Highlight new value or benefits
Highlighting what is unique about your subrand will be important for targeting a new audience or further extending your brand loyalty. Think about what aspects of the sub brand a new visitor to your page might find appealing and how that is different from your other brand, for example, new resources/content available, a new location, unique benefits, or a different pricing for a product/service.
Create a cohesive design and logo that relates to the main brand.
When creating the design and branding for your new business website, you still want to consider the original brand to create a cohesive feel to the business as a whole. Consider incorporating some similar branding elements (such as a portion of the logo or similar text) and some of the same colors into the new site. This will help give an understanding that the two brands are related. Again, you still want to make sure that aspects of the sub brand site are unique through your design, messaging, and marketing, so that there is an ability to differentiate between the two brands.
Invest in the proper content management system.
If you are creating a new website for your sub brand, you also will want to take into consideration what type of CMS system will work best for your business. The proper content management system will help make updates to the site a smooth process even if you do not have a technical background.
Link the subrand website to your main business website.
If your goal is to increase overall customer loyalty through your sub brand, it is important to still have your new site link back to the original business. This will help your audience realize that these two brands are related and still hold the same core values, standards, or quality that your original customers are interested in.
Get assistance for website marketing and maintenance if needed.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you are considering a sub brand. With another website comes more content that needs to be created, a new logo and branding, additional marketing, SEO strategy, and regular maintenance and updates. This is a good time to explore a third party website vendor that could help identify a marketing strategy for the new site and assist with regular support and updates.
Let’s Take a Look at Your Branding Strategy
Creating a secondary or subrand may help your business target new markets of traffic and allow you to diversify your product offering. Each of your brands should have a unique feel that appropriately connects with your target audience.
Alliance Interactive can help create a unique identity for a subrand or secondary brand through new branding, marketing material and custom website design. Our team of design experts will work closely with your business to create a branding strategy that helps you stand out among competitors yet still remain true to your vision and values. For help creating a sub brand strategy and new website design, take a look at some of our services here.