MT450 Unit 5 Pen Brand Architecture Review Example

Five Names, Two Readings: An MT450 Unit 5 Brand Architecture Review of a Fountain Pen Maker's Portfolio

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

MT450: Brand Management Strategy

Unit 5 Brand Architecture Review

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Tremont Pen Company, its lines, the licensee, the survey and the service records are composite; the sources cited are real.

The Portfolio

The pen company followed through this course, a composite family firm in northeastern Indiana, carries five names. Tremont is the master brand, used on the flagship Model 40 and other pens from $120 to $240. Tremont Studio is a line of steel-nib pens from $45 to $70 sold to students and office buyers. Lark by Tremont is a line of brightly colored pens at $95 launched in 2021 for journal keepers and sold mainly through stationery boutiques. Kinsley is an $18 cartridge pen made by a contract manufacturer and sold in office supply chains, in a box printed "from the makers of Tremont." Finally, a licensee sells leather pen cases and notebooks under the Tremont name.

The Spectrum, as Management Intended It

Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2000) arrange portfolios along a spectrum. At one end a single master name sells everything; further along, the master name shares the box with a second name, as driver or as endorser; at the far end each product is sold under its own name with no visible parent. Management's intended placement, taken from the company's 2021 brand guidelines, was as follows. Tremont Studio is a sub-brand: Tremont drives the purchase and Studio describes the line. Lark is an endorsed brand: Lark drives, and "by Tremont" reassures. Kinsley is meant to sit near the house-of-brands end, a separate name with only a light reference to the parent on the back of the box. The licensed goods are an extension of the master name.

The Spectrum, as Customers Read It

Customer evidence came from a composite survey of 200 shoppers who had bought any of the five names in the past year and from a year of messages to the company's service inbox. Each name was then placed a second time, where the evidence puts it.

Tremont Studio sits where management intended: buyers call it "the cheaper Tremont" and expect the same service, which the line receives.

Lark has drifted toward the master brand. Asked what brand their pen was, 71 percent of Lark owners answered "Tremont." Search data show "Tremont journaling pen" searched nearly eight times as often as "Lark pen." Customers treat Lark as a Tremont sub-brand, and the separate name does little work.

Kinsley shows the largest drift. Designed as a nearly separate brand, it is read by many buyers as a Tremont product: 38 percent of Kinsley buyers in the survey believed their pens could be sent to the factory for nib service. Over the past year, 412 Kinsley pens arrived in Fort Wayne with service requests and were returned unserviced with a letter explaining that Kinsley pens are not covered. Service emails from those customers are among the angriest in the inbox.

A brand designed to stand apart is read by more than a third of its buyers as carrying the parent's promise.

The licensed goods sit where intended and cause little confusion, though seven service emails asked whether a scuffed case could be repaired.

Why the Drift Matters

Keller and Swaminathan (2020) warn that every product carrying a parent's name, or a reference to it, can add to or draw from the parent's associations. Kinsley draws from Tremont's most valuable association. The Unit 3 analysis found the nib service to be the brand's most favorable and most unique association; each refused Kinsley request teaches a customer that the promise has exceptions. Lark's drift is less harmful, but the company is spending money to maintain a separate name that customers do not use.

Recommendation One: Separate Kinsley

Remove "from the makers of Tremont" from Kinsley packaging and the Kinsley website at the next packaging run, and move Kinsley to the house-of-brands end of the spectrum in fact as well as in intent. Packaging and web changes would cost about $38,000. Kinsley sales, about $2.4 million a year, may fall by around 6 percent without the parent reference, a loss of about $144,000 in revenue. Against this, the company would stop teaching more than 400 customers a year that the service promise has exceptions, and save about $5,800 a year in handling and return postage on refused pens. The larger benefit, protecting the parent's strongest association, cannot be priced precisely, which the review acknowledges.

Alternatives Considered for Kinsley

Two alternatives to separation were weighed and rejected. The first was to make Kinsley pens eligible for the nib service. At $18, a Kinsley earns about $4 in margin for the company, while a nib service costs about $11 in bench time and return postage; with roughly 130,000 Kinsley pens sold a year, even a small share sent back would turn the line unprofitable. The second was to discontinue Kinsley. That would remove the confusion entirely but would also give up about $2.4 million in revenue and the company's only presence in office supply chains, where many future fountain pen buyers first pick up a cartridge pen. Separation keeps the revenue and the shelf space while ending the borrowed promise, so it is the option that costs least for what it protects.

Recommendation Two: Fold Lark Into the Master Brand

Retire the Lark name and relaunch the line as Tremont Journal, a sub-brand like Studio. Customers already read it that way and search for it under the master name. New packaging, retail displays and web pages would cost about $61,000. The risk is losing the boutique shops that liked carrying a distinct name; four of the line's eleven largest boutique accounts were asked, and three said the change would not affect their orders.

What the Review Leaves Alone

Tremont Studio stays a sub-brand, since customer reading matches intent. The licensed goods stay, but the license should require that every case and notebook state clearly that the Tremont service covers pens only.

The Revised Portfolio

The revised diagram shows four names: Tremont as the master brand, Tremont Studio and Tremont Journal as sub-brands that share the nib service, licensed goods under the master name, and Kinsley standing alone at the far end of the spectrum. Aaker and Keller (1990) found that a parent's reputation transfers most readily to products that customers see as fitting it, and the revised portfolio puts the parent's name only on products that can keep its promise.

References

Aaker, D. A., & Joachimsthaler, E. (2000). The brand relationship spectrum: The key to the brand architecture challenge. California Management Review, 42(4), 8-23. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166051

Aaker, D. A., & Keller, K. L. (1990). Consumer evaluations of brand extensions. Journal of Marketing, 54(1), 27-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299005400102

Keller, K. L., & Swaminathan, V. (2020). Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity (5th ed.). Pearson.