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Is there a Difference between a Company Name and a Brand Name?

The answer depends upon whom you ask.

This series revisits the basics of branding and marketing by answering questions marketers, entrepreneurs and small business owners face when growing their business. I hope this series provides you with knowledge to think smarter and a nudge to make stuff happen.


Is there a Difference between a Company Name and a Brand Name?

If you ask a marketer this question, the answer will be something like, “Yes, there’s a difference between a brand name and a company name. Every brand within a company is distinct in design and carries with it unique attributes that can be totally different from the overall company.”

But if you ask a customer, the answer is bound to be different.

Consumers do not, nor should they, have a reason to separate a brand name from the overall company name. To a consumer, they are essentially one and the same.

You’re probably thinking, what about conglomerates like Kraft, Sara Lee, and Procter & Gamble? Don’t consumers separate the company name from a product brand name? I don’t think so. It all goes back to brand equals reputation.

For example, the Kraft brand portfolio is a family of brands. Under the overall Kraft family name there exists over 60 brands including, Oscar Mayer, Maxwell House, Nabisco, and Oreo. Every brand in the Kraft family is distinct, just like every child from a parent is unique. All brands in the Kraft family share the same last name—Kraft. And because they share the same last name, consumers equate certain beliefs and feelings they’ve come to understand from knowing that family’s reputation.

Wanna learn more about a House of Brands? Read this.


REVISITING THE BASICS | archive

#01 | How Should a Brand be Defined?
#02 | What’s the Difference between Branding and Marketing?
#03 | Is there a Difference between a Company Name and a Brand Name?