The author presents an overview and comparative analysis of the brand architecture and brand portfolio of two leading global automobile giants - Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor Corporation. The content and analysis are based on available secondary information, and pertain to the brands/models that are currently marketed in the US. It is found that both the companies have very similar brand architectures, with three master brands - one corporate brand covering a wide range of automobiles for the general market and two niche brands for luxury/premium automobiles. Both Ford and Toyota have multiple sub-brands and numerous variants under several automobile categories such as cars, crossovers, SUVs and trucks.

Brand architecture refers to the structuring and organization of brands by a company in terms of how they are related to or different from each other. Brand structuring and organization has two important elements - the way the brands are named and how they are positioned. For example, companies may follow a policy of using the corporate brand name for all products; or have category brands for different product categories, with numerous sub-brands under each of them. Some companies may have free standing brands for various products, without any endorsement by the parent/company brand. There are many different ways in which a company can structure its brands, depending on the context and its overall marketing strategy.

It may be clarified here that the names or alphanumeric identifications assigned to automobiles are often referred to as `models' in common parlance. However, as most automobiles—be it a Ford Taurus or a Toyota Camry—are positioned and marketed with distinct identities on the strength of the names assigned to them, such names are rightly being considered as `brands' in this article, from the marketing point of view. The word `model' would more correctly apply to the year of production of a vehicle, for example — a 1998 model of Ford Taurus. Even when a vehicle is assigned an alphanumeric identity akin to a `type number', it is quite often a `brand'. For example, Maruti 800 is a brand, and not merely a type identification, though the number 800 refers to the engine capacity. However, the suffixes attached to a vehicle name such as LX, VX, etc., are indeed the type or variant identifications under a given brand.

Both Toyota and Ford are multinational companies with manufacturing bases in several countries, and with regular sales as well over a hundred nations across the world. The portfolio of brands and models sold varies across regions/countries. In places where only a limited range of models are sold, the total brand architecture of the company is not immediately evident. Sometimes, the same models or their variants are sold under different brand names in different countries. Also, some brands are discontinued over time and new ones are introduced in their place. Given this situation, for convenience of brevity and clarity, in the case of both Toyota and Ford, the brand architecture and the brand portfolio thereunder, are described keeping in view the pattern currently prevailing in the US market (as of 2008).

Marketing Mastermind Magazine, Brand Architecture, Brand Portfolio, Ford Motor Company , Toyota Motor Corporation, Marketing Strategy, Multinational Companies, Global Brands, Lincoln Motor Company, Market Advertising, Nomenclature Strategy, Corporate Strategies.