House of Brands

A House of Brands refers to a business structure where a parent company owns multiple subsidiary brands, each operating independently and marketed under its own brand name. For example, Procter & Gamble owns Pampers, Duracell, Pringles, Tide, etc. More strikingly, Unilever owns four ice cream brands: Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum, Walls, Paddle Pop, etc.

When does this work: Each sub-brand can operate as an autonomous division with little to no coordination required with other sub-brands.

Why it matters: Operating a house of brand provides multiple advantages:

• As an aggregate, the holding company reduces its risk by diversifying their portfolio across multiple product categories.
• Each sub-brand business owner has the independence to implement their way of doing things (typically using business rules), allowing for specialization in a particular segment, allowing for focused & efficient production, marketing, and distribution strategies.
• There is freedom to experiment with new products and markets without risking the parent brand.
• Each sub-brand can be targeted towards a specific consumer segment.
• Customers have a sense of choice, even though most of the options are operated by the same parent company.