Vivaldi has designed brand architecture and portfolio strategy for companies including Lay’s, Sonova, Whirlpool, Swiss Post, and SIX Group. The 15 case studies below span masterbrand consolidations, sub-brand systems, hybrid structures, and post-merger integrations. The outcomes are specific: Lay’s doubled volume year-over-year under one unified platform, SIX consolidated more than 70 sub-brands after a triple merger with 93% employee enthusiasm for the new brand, and LSG Sky Chefs built past 30% global market share on a realigned portfolio.
Search for brand architecture examples and you get the same diagrams: P&G’s house of brands, Marriott’s endorsement chart, a logo tree with arrows. Tidy. Useless. Those pages show you what a portfolio looks like after the decisions were made. They never show the decisions. This list does, because every case below is an engagement Vivaldi ran, from portfolio audit to governance rollout.
That distinction matters because architecture is not an org chart for logos. It is capital allocation. Every brand you maintain costs money to build and defend; every brand you retire releases budget and attention. The cases below show companies making those trades deliberately.
Untangling a portfolio of your own? Explore Vivaldi’s brand architecture practice, or get in touch to pressure-test how your brands relate to each other.
Four models, one question
Most portfolios resolve into one of four situations. A masterbrand that should carry more of the load, as at Sonova and Swiss Post. A sub-brand system that needs sharper roles, as at Whirlpool and KitchenAid. A hybrid structure balancing both, as at SIX. Or a post-M&A landscape where acquired brands pile up faster than anyone rationalizes them, as at Vitro and Nord/LB. That distinction matters because brand architecture defines the brand structure and organizes a company’s portfolio of brands. Which brands earn their keep? It is capital allocation. Brand architecture serves as a blueprint for navigating relationships across the company’s portfolio and should align with overall business strategy. The cases below show why clear brand architecture is important: it improves customer understanding and shapes how consumers perceive products.
The brand architecture case studies
1. Lay’s: doubling volume by unifying the portfolio under one platform
Lay’s sub-brands (Classic, Kettle Cooked, Sensations, Dips) had grown up independently, but this shift moved the portfolio closer to a branded house architecture, with a master brand above distinct lines and the same brand story connecting them in consumers’ minds. Vivaldi built the “Help Yourself to Life” platform to sit above the entire portfolio, helping transfer brand equity across the sub-brands under the core brand. The result: volume doubled year-over-year with no incremental media spend. This kind of central master brand can streamline marketing efforts, but in a branded house model shared risk means weakness at the parent brand level can harm all sub-brands.
2. Sonova: a customer-centric masterbrand for an acquisition-built portfolio
Acquisition after acquisition had left Sonova’s existing brand portfolio with product and business brands operating independently, diluting existing brand equity and making it harder for the existing brand to function as a successful brand in the market. Vivaldi shifted the company toward a customer-centric architecture, reinforcing Sonova as the masterbrand and helping clarify the brand promise across the portfolio while giving sub-brands structured roles. The outcome was a simplified masterbrand architecture with stronger presence and improved market coherence across hearing care, with clearer architecture that reduced overlap and helped prevent internal competition among offers.
3. Whirlpool: clear roles for five overlapping appliance brands
Whirlpool was managing multiple independent brands aimed at different customer segments, and Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, JennAir, and Amana overlapped enough to confuse consumers and frustrate trade partners who needed clear differentiation to stock and recommend confidently. Vivaldi defined positioning roles for the individual brands so each had its own identity and a clearer role for its target audience, backed by a segmentation framework and an investment logic across the portfolio. Clearer separation between distinct brands with distinct identities also reduces overlap and limits negative spillover onto the corporate brand. The optimized architecture opened new growth opportunities with both consumers and trade and made Whirlpool’s market position more defensible.
4. KitchenAid: simplifying the line and piloting a premium sub-brand
Overlapping product lines and inconsistent retail presence were blunting KitchenAid’s strongest asset, its premium equity, so the company was also protecting the parent brand’s reputation while exploring an extension path. Vivaldi clarified how products relate to each other, defined clear tiers, and tested a high-end sub-brand concept as a strategic pilot with clear naming and visual identity rules so the sub-brand could keep its own brand identity without weakening the master brand. The engagement produced improved trade relationships, clearer differentiation at retail, and a successful high-end sub-brand pilot, which also reduced the risk of brand dilution.
Read the KitchenAid case study
5. Swiss Post: retiring brands to strengthen the master brand
Swiss Post’s portfolio sprawled across logistics, postal, and financial services, and the proliferation was costing money and clarity. Vivaldi assessed Swiss Post’s current brand portfolio, a key step in building a solid brand architecture, then set principles for which brands to keep and which to retire and planned the migration for affected services. The rationalized architecture delivered cost savings and improved customer clarity across the offer, with the migration plan also designed to support future growth.
Read the Swiss Post case study
6. Siemens: portfolio alignment through a divestiture
Siemens’ Communications unit ran a fragmented portfolio across mobile devices, enterprise, and unified communications, just as a divestiture of the mobile business demanded a coherent narrative. Vivaldi defined distinct brand roles, supported the divestment story, and unified the remaining portfolio under one identity. The alignment shifted brand preference in key B2B segments and strengthened the unit’s competitive position.
7. Dow Building Solutions: architecture plus governance
Dow Building Solutions carried a fragmented product portfolio with overlapping positioning that commercial teams struggled to sell and distributors struggled to navigate. Vivaldi rationalized the portfolio, designed the architecture, and built a governance framework so teams could execute it consistently. The result was a simplified portfolio with unified positioning and a governance system for consistent global execution.
Read the Dow Building Solutions case study
8. Perdue Farms: a unified architecture for a values-driven food market
Perdue’s portfolio risked fragmenting just as consumers grew more attentive to how food is raised and sourced. Vivaldi grounded a future-ready strategy in market and audience analysis, clarifying the target audience across the portfolio, redefined the architecture, and mapped brand-led growth into new markets. The architecture was built to be revisited as the market changes and new markets open. Perdue came away with a unified strategy, positioning framework, and growth roadmap that modernized its relevance with consumers.
Read the Perdue Farms case study
9. SIX: consolidating 70-plus sub-brands after a triple merger
A triple merger left SIX Group with more than 70 sub-brands across three core businesses and no shared identity holding them together. Vivaldi built a unified hybrid brand architecture model that combined elements of both the Branded House and House of Brands approaches, with some sub-brands keeping their own identity while benefiting from the parent brand through endorsed brands. This hybrid model gave the group strategic flexibility across a diverse portfolio, but hybrid brand architecture can also mean more complicated brand management if governance is weak. The architecture brought cohesion across the group, and 93% of participants reported strong enthusiasm about future brand engagement. Alphabet employs a hybrid architecture separating its core and experimental brands.
10. LSG Sky Chefs: a portfolio strategy that redefined the category
LSG’s international footprint had outgrown its identity as an airline caterer, and its expanding portfolio lacked a cohesive logic. Vivaldi aligned the portfolio around a service-company strategy that opened adjacent food service ventures beyond the core. LSG became a global food service leader with over 30% market share and a ranking as Germany’s third-largest gastronomy company.
Read the LSG Sky Chefs case study
11. Vitro: one global brand after two major acquisitions
Acquiring PPG Architectural Glass and PGW Automotive Glass left Vitro with a product-centric identity, inconsistent regional messaging, and no corporate narrative matching its new scale. Vivaldi developed the positioning, architecture, and full visual and verbal identity, informed by stakeholder interviews and competitive benchmarking. Vitro emerged with a unified global brand and the architecture of a world-class glass industry leader.
12. Nord/LB: harmonizing a bank’s acquisition-heavy portfolio
Multiple acquisitions had left Nord/LB with numerous subsidiaries, a fragmented identity, and no architecture connecting them. Vivaldi consolidated and clarified the brand portfolio, providing the strategic framework and a roadmap for long-term brand development. The unified architecture clarified how the acquired and subsidiary multiple brands relate and interact within the parent company. The unified architecture revealed strategic growth opportunities and unlocked synergies across the harmonized brand landscape, creating room for other brands in the portfolio to support rather than compete with each other.
13. Coca-Cola: a portfolio strategy for an underserved segment
Coca-Cola, a classic example of a branded house architecture, uses a Branded House strategy for its product lines, though this case focused on portfolio strategy for a specific segment. Vivaldi mapped the segment’s needs through jobs-to-be-done research and translated the insight into portfolio decisions that had to fit the master brand’s reputation and brand values while addressing the segment’s hydration and functional beverage needs. Coca-Cola received a comprehensive strategy defining which categories, formats, and functional benefits to prioritize for the segment, with messaging guidance to match.
14. Jägermeister: governing one brand across fragmenting markets
Global scale had brought Jägermeister market fragmentation, with individual markets positioning and activating the brand independently. Vivaldi developed a Global Brand Leadership Model defining how the brand is positioned, governed, and activated everywhere, with room for local adaptation. The model won global senior management sign-off, with a brand governance system now rolling out worldwide and Marketing Directors collaborating across key markets.
Read the Jägermeister case study
15. Carlson Wagonlit Travel: global consistency, local flexibility
Acquisitions and regional expansion had fragmented Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s identity while more unified competitors pressed their advantage in corporate travel. Vivaldi built a corporate brand architecture with clear hierarchy, segment value propositions, and standards balancing global consistency with local flexibility. The framework delivered unified brand standards across global markets and a stronger competitive position in corporate travel accounts.
Read the Carlson Wagonlit Travel case study
More brand architecture and portfolio strategy work
The archive extends well past 15. Further portfolio and architecture engagements from Vivaldi’s case study library:
- Expanding the portfolio of a beverage giant
- Refining Swarovski’s brand management system
- JDC: building a global brand identity system across 26 countries
- Bailey Banks & Biddle: supporting Zale Corporation’s brand consolidation
- Establishing VocaLink’s brand architecture for innovation
- Revving up Hyundai-Kia’s brand portfolio strategy
- Del Monte: building a pet treats portfolio expansion strategy
- Wallace Foundation: building a master brand identity
- KCI Healthcare: building a unified global wound care brand
- Strengthening Migros’s sub-brands for future positioning
Conclusion
Architecture decisions rarely announce themselves. They accumulate: an acquisition here, a sub-brand there, a naming exception someone approved in a hurry. The cases above show what happens when a company stops accumulating and starts deciding. Lay’s doubled volume by unifying a scattered portfolio under one platform. SIX turned a post-merger tangle into a structure employees actually rallied behind. The lesson across all fifteen is the same: a portfolio is either an architecture or an accident, and only one of those compounds value.
If you cannot draw your brand architecture on one page, your customers cannot navigate it either. Contact Vivaldi and we will help you decide what belongs, what folds, and what leads.
