First published in the Sloan Management Review, elaborated in the book Brand Leadership and partly reiterated in the book Brand Portfolio Strategy, the ‘Brand Relationship Spectrum’ model became a trendsetter, and yet incredibly opportunistic tool for fin de siècle brand managers, consultants and brand-oriented CMOs in the era of mature brand equity, with a brandscape of endorsers and subbrands, rather than streamlined branded houses or house-of-brands (Aaker and Joahmistahler, 2000a and 2000b; Aaker, 2004; and Filipsson, 2008).
Much of the credibility devoted to this model was in fact based on the relatively high resolution and subdivision of established metaphors provided by Aaker and Joachimstahler. Let us consider the description of weak indicative forms of endorsement (token endorsement), in-between strong endorsement, linked name strategies and the pure house of brands provided by them:
A variant of the endorser strategy is token endorser, usually a master brand involved in several product-market contexts, which is substantially less prominent than the endorsed brand. The token endorser can be indicated by a logo such as the GE light bulb or the Betty Crocker spoon, a statement such as ‘a Sony Company’ or by another device. In any case, the endorser will not have center stage, the endorsed brand will be featured. The role of the token endorser is to provide some reassurance and credibility while still allowing the endorsed brands maximum degrees of freedom to create their own association (Aaker and Joachimstahler, 2000b, p. 13).
The thick description and semantic elasticity of the brand relationship spectrum paved the way for a more full integration of business strategy with brand strategy (Uggla, 2005). In addition, business practitioners and consultants of all kinds started to actively use and leverage the language developed by Aaker and Joachimstahler (2000b). To consider Kumar and Hansted (2004) and the assimilation of brand architecture metaphors in-use by them:
Companies like Morgan Stanley that are focused on building a single brand will pursue options for an acquisition that support the overall ‘branded house’ (or one brand for the company and its products) strategy approach, as it did with the Discover Dean Witter acquisitions (Kumar and Hansted, 2004, p. 20).
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