Product Brands
Product brands refer to the individual products of a company and are the foundation of its brand world. They are at the lowest and most granular hierarchy level of the brand architecture. Examples of well-known product brands are Coca-Cola, Nutella, and Ariel.
Often there is a multitude of product brands within an organization. For the sake of efficient brand management, they are frequently integrated in an umbrella brand or brand family system (as with Unilever). Individually managing the separate product brands is also an option, but it requires more resources.
The product brand's primary job is to influence and simplify the consumer's buying decision at the point of sale (PoS). This is done by means of a clear positioning at all relevant brand touchpoints, as well as a familiar look and unambiguous codes (as with logos and colors) that stay the same over long periods of time. The customer finds orientation and trusts the brand, which can often result in a significant price premium.
The brand-strategic requirement is to give the product brand a personality the customer can easily recognize. Only when this is done successfully will it manifest in increased sales through the brand.
The highest level of product brand development is reached when it has relevance beyond its own business sector and becomes iconic. These strong product brands exert such enormous attraction that customers will even follow them to other retailers.