Brand Mix

Even companies firmly committed to a master brand strategy should not always use their own brand on an acquisition. Five questions to ask:

1) Do you have limited ownership or management control?

2) Is there a significant risk to your reputation?
The acquired business does not match the acquiring company's standards in areas like quality or service

3) Does the acquired brand have strong brand equity?
The acquired brand has significant equity that can be leveraged and/or is in a market where the acquiring company does not have a strong reputation

4) Would re-branding the acquisition expose you to a business risk?
Sometimes an acquired brand needs to kept separate because its integration could impact sales because of issues like channel conflicts

5) Does the acquired brand need to be nurtured/incubated?
If an acquired company has interesting technologies or products that are better nurtured by keeping them completely separate from the mother ship

Most of these exceptions should be temporary and a plan should be put in place with a specific time frame for transition. Otherwise what's designed to be short-term can easily become permanent and start undermining the overall brand architecture strategy.