How are brands classified?
Brands can be classified into different types as:
- Manufacturer’s Brand:
Brand used by a manufacture to produce output under his own name is called manufacture’s brand like HCL, SONY, Godrej, Panasonic etc. These are mostly used at the national level and are therefore also called as national brand.
- Distributor’s Brand:
These brands are developed and owned by the distributor or reseller like wholesalers and retailers. When manufacturer is unable to promote the brand on his own, they prefer to produce the product under distributor’s brand. In India, distributor’s brand is popular in handicraft, woollen, sport industries etc.
- Individual Brand:
When different brand names are used for different products, it is called individual brand. Here the promotional expenditure is high as different brands have to be promoted individually e.g. Surf, Wheel and Washing Powder.
- Family Branch:
Here all the products of a company are sold under one family brand name. This strategy of selling goods under one brand is less expensive as separate promotion for different brand names is not required e.g. Lakme for all its beauty products.
- Umbrella Brand:
In this case all the products may be under the umbrella of one company or manufacturer. Example: – in India, Godrej, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Tata etc.
- Multiple Brand:
In this case the same product is offered by the company under different brand names. This policy is useful as it promotes competition between brand managers of two different brands and also increases company’s total market share.
