Is Launching a New Brand the Right Move for Your Company?Not all new ideas need a new brand. How to think strategically about introducing innovation into a brand portfolio to best further objectives and vision.

One of the most common challenges I see clients wrestling with — from solopreneurs to established businesses — is how to structure and manage multiple brands. The tendency is to jump straight to logo development for a new idea or innovation to become a new brand. The problem with this approach is that it takes investment, resources and time to build that commercial identity. Usually it's not until well after launch that those challenges start to present themselves clearly, impacting the performance not only of the new brand, but the entire business. Here's the good news, though; not all innovation needs to take the form of a new identity, and often, multiple ones aren't even the answer. The solution can be a lot simpler than fragmenting marketing dollars and other internal resources.

Before you start registering a new business and creating a new logo, you need to reconsider how the innovation hopefully at work fits into your overarching brand portfolio (also known as creating a "brand architecture") and what its role is in delivering business objectives and vision.