Sport Brand Architecture: Branding Effects Associated with the Creation of an Umbrella Brand

Abstract

Why should a sport organization create an umbrella brand? Such a brand extension within a product category or across product categories is common, yet there is an absence of research exploring the plausible effects associated with the creation of such a brand. This conclusion is problematic because many umbrella branding related consequences may not be positive. This paper develops a model of sport umbrella branding which identifies conditions where a sport organization may find it beneficial to employ an umbrella brand and the circumstances where such branding should instead be deemphasized. To do so, we construct a theoretical model and examine the strategic choices of one non-profit sport organization to create an umbrella brand within this context. Our findings are threefold. First, the decision to umbrella brand is distinct from the firm’s objectives when the decision is not to pursue umbrella branding. Other considerations beyond profit orientation guide this decision. But decisions to adopt umbrella branding inherently include profit status. Moreover, the firm’s profit-seeking objectives may reveal valuable information about the firm’s pecking order of the firm’s most valued brands. Second, the benefits associated with umbrella branding are greater when a sport organization can coordinate activities that facilitate brand synergy across related joint products, e.g. operations. Lastly, subsumed brands should contribute to the brand equity of the umbrella brand, e.g. increase rather than diminish favorability or quality perceptions. Umbrella branding does not appear to be as an effective strategy when a subordinated product is perceived to be of variable quality or there is a poor perceptual fit across similarly branded products.