What is the difference between a multi-brand store and a mono-brand one. Multi-brand store: how is it different from a mono-brand store? What does multibrand mean?

Let's say you decide to start your own business. And it so happened that you have chosen to trade in clothes or accessories as the business of your whole life. In addition to calculating the budget, finding investors and other concerns of a young entrepreneur, you will definitely have one important question. Is it worth selling products of the same brand or offering customers a mix of brands? Do mono-brand stores have advantages over multi-brand stores? Or vice versa? In this article, we will analyze some of the features of the two options that will help you decide.

Features of a mono-brand store in comparison with a multi-brand store

The emphasis is completely given to one brand, which makes it possible to adjust the entire store design to the philosophy of a certain brand and, if necessary, promptly change it.
It is usually easier for customers to combine products from the same brand. Clothes from different manufacturers will need to be chosen more carefully.
It is easier to organize promotions, since there is no need to coordinate marketing plans separately with each brand representative.
It's easier to negotiate with partners. Everything is trite here - simply because you will have only one.
The design of a mono-brand store, as a rule, is created in accordance with the brand book, so you can save on the services of an interior designer.
It is possible to cooperate with the owner of the trademark on a franchise, which is especially attractive for a young business, as it allows a startup to use the experience and authority of a "seasoned" player in the market. However, you need to be prepared for serious requirements from the franchisor both to the premises of the store and directly to its owner.

Features of a multi-brand store

The variety of brands and products of various styles forms a wide customer coverage.
A simplified legal arrangement is possible, since with the correct preparation of documents for wholesale trade the seller does not need written permission from the brand owners.
It is possible to change the presented brands depending on their popularity among buyers. Do some shelves empty quickly, while buyers rarely approach others? You know what to do: increase purchases of a popular brand, and you can even refuse to cooperate with an unclaimed one.
It is possible to create your own concept with a unique assortment (for example, sell only youth clothing or handbags from different brands).
It is possible to give the store a creative name of "own composition".
It is important to ensure that the goods different brands harmoniously combined, otherwise the store may turn into a colorful bazaar. Plus, each brand needs a "prominent" place: they should not overshadow each other.
It is advisable to hire an experienced buyer who would shape the assortment of the store in such a way that customers can easily combine things from different manufacturers.

Multi-brand stores, as a rule, have their own buyers - professional buyers who form the assortment. Based on the analysis of the target audience, they purchase products in a certain price range, maintain contacts with suppliers, attend exhibitions and fashion shows, determine the volume of purchases and size range goods. In a large chain, buyers specialize in a narrow category of items (for example, only on women's dresses), in a small one, they are responsible for a wide range of goods.

According to analysts, the higher consumer interest is represented by multi-brand stores. This fact is explained simply: such stores promise visitors wide range of, and hence the possibility of choosing, for example, a black dress, firstly, of various styles, and secondly, at a different price. However, do not rush to draw an unambiguous conclusion. A store offering clothing from a popular brand that has earned the love and trust of customers will compete in terms of customer flow and monthly revenue. And by the way, these same analysts claim that more than 60% of the revenue in most multi-brand stores comes from the same brand.

We have covered the main differences between the two types of stores, which will only help you get a general idea. In general, if you are faced with a difficult choice, you should focus not only on theoretical knowledge, but also on regional features future store, as well as take into account their financial capabilities and business development plans.

Experts from WIN & WOOL, a brand specializing in the production of knitwear, have identified the pros and cons of mono-brand and multi-brand stores. The results are in our article.

Shopping lovers have probably heard such mysterious formulations as a multi-brand or mono-brand boutique more than once. But not everyone understands what is the difference between these concepts, and how much it affects the quality and price of purchases. For those who are little knowledgeable in these matters, it will be useful to learn about the differences between the two trading formats described above in order to make a better shopping experience.

What is monobrand

A mono-brand store is engaged in the sale of clothing, footwear and accessories exclusive from one brand; goods from other manufacturers are practically not found in them. These boutiques, as a rule, are clearly designed for a small audience with certain tastes and parameters, and therefore cannot satisfy the needs of all buyers.

What is a multibrand

A multi-brand is a store that is not driven into the narrow framework of serving the interests of a single clothing manufacturer. These boutiques collaborate with dozens of different designers, offering several collections at once and many samples of clothing for every taste. An example of such a boutique is a chain of stores: https://www.noone.ru/.

Why shopping in a multi-brand is beneficial

Shopping in such stores has a number of advantages over shopping in regular mono-brand boutiques:

You can always find something interesting in them, since the collections are updated not twice a year, but throughout the whole year. Cooperation with many brands allows you to constantly replenish the assortment.

A large selection of styles, sizes and different styles within one store can satisfy customers with even the most unusual tastes. In such boutiques, you can often find casual, streetwear or even concept clothes.

Each of the brands with which the multi-brand store cooperates has its own schedule of promotions and discounts. Since there are a dozen of such manufacturers, the store has the opportunity to hold promotions almost monthly.

In the staff of such stores there is a purchaser who looks for interesting and profitable offers from designers and clothing manufacturers, so in multi-boutiques you can sometimes find rather rare items and accessories from little-known but talented fashion designers.

The abundance of shares and different types clothes, the assortment of which, moreover, is constantly updated throughout the whole year - this is the key difference between multi-brand sales and mono-brand sales.

"Is a monobrand like a monobrow?" my teenage daughter asked me. Well, yes, it is: a single-brand online store sells goods of one brand, while a multi-brand one sells goods and services of various brands. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a store, how to create an effective multi-brand online store and how to promote it - read our article.

Examples of multi-brand stores

The target audience. Everything is clear here: there are many brands, brands are different, respectively, the target audience will be different. Try to take into account the needs of buyers of different ages - sell both youth and conservative things, different social status- cheap goods, medium and luxury, and even of different persuasions - add goods for subcultures, trends and directions to the assortment.

Prices. Depends on the target audience. Take the same "Aliexpress", where you can find products of a very different price category. Especially for this, in large online stores there is a filter by price: the buyer can immediately set a convenient cost. This approach allows multi-brand stores to retain a wide variety of customer segments.

Range. At the beginning of work, select several positions, then start expanding the assortment. Remember, your strong point is brand diversity, so keep moving in that direction.

Staff. The work of employees is not very different from the duties of employees of a mono-brand store. These are managers who communicate with customers, couriers who deliver orders, and management. Differences exist among marketers - the promotion of multi-brand online stores is a special topic, we will talk about it at the end of the article.

Perspectives. According to experts, a multibrand has a much better chance of scaling a business. Purely mathematically: one brand has nowhere else to grow, and if there are many of them, there is more assortment, target audience, and growth opportunities.

Benefits of a multi-brand store

variety of target audience: everyone will find a product to their liking and wallet;
wide range of: with the proper approach, dozens and hundreds of brands of the most different categories, styles and trends;

constant demand, even during seasonal downturns. In winter, they don't buy swimwear and inflatable pools, but they destroy skis and skates;
flexibility, elasticity of sales: when there are many brands, the loss of one of them will not be a tragedy;
advantages in search engine promotion. Look at the top of Yandex: multi-brand stores are always on the first lines. This is explained simply: the more brands there are, the more links and keywords. And search engine algorithms prefer sites with a large assortment;
the ability to quickly respond to customer requests. If a brand is badly bought, you can refuse its services and start working with another;
convenience of buyers. If the client does not like one brand, he will not leave the store, but will easily switch to another;
great independence: you are not tied to a specific brand, but you yourself control the assortment and interests of your business as a whole.

Cons of many multi-brand stores

there is no unity in the presentation of goods, descriptions and photos often look different colors;
there is no clear concept in the selection and presentation of goods. An online store turns into one big market where you can wander for hours and end up with nothing to choose;
not all consumers are familiar with the brands presented. As practice shows, many do not care what the brand is called: the main thing is that it is cheap, functional and beautiful;
at the same time, many people get used to a certain brand and prefer to buy it. In this, a multi-brand store can lose to a mono-brand that has won the trust and loyalty of customers;
products of the same brand are usually easier to combine. Customers are often lost when they have to choose a variety of products from different manufacturers.

Now that you know your weak points, fix the mistakes of your competitors and turn minuses into pluses. How - now we will tell.

How to create an effective multi-brand store

1. Decide on the type of goods and brand names. This is very important stage: it is the selected categories and brands that will define your target audience for a long time to come.

3. Create USP - unique trade offer that will become the highlight of your store. It can be a new promising brand that has not been presented before, or record low prices, or a good cashback, and so on.

4. Find reliable suppliers that will supply you with goods in a timely manner. Your profit and regular updating of the assortment depend on the reliability of the supplier. If a partner manifests himself as an unscrupulous supplier, it is better to immediately refuse his services and look for other brands.

5. Enlist the support of well-known brands. Familiar names attract people, they are more trusted. At least at first, start working with well-promoted brands, and then look at the situation.

6. Prepare fallback options in case you can't work with some brands. There should be several such options in stock: force majeure always happens in business.

7. Develop site structure: many brands means many sections of an online store. Your task is not to turn the site into chaos in which nothing can be found, but to provide visitors with competent navigation and provide answers to frequently asked questions.

8. Draw up a business plan and a promotion plan for an online store. A business plan is necessary to determine the pricing policy, calculate revenues and expenses, turnover and profits, as well as predict the development of the store for some time in advance. A marketing plan will allow you to correctly allocate resources and understand what kind of goods you need, and which it is better to refuse.

Promotion of a multi-brand store

Remember your main strong point is the richness of choice and the breadth of assortments. So, this is what you should count on when drawing up your marketing plan.

1. Mission. A single-brand store, as a rule, promotes one mission, values, idea to the masses. For example, clothes for a comfortable city life, or gadgets for modern teenagers. In a multi-brand store, everything is different: dozens and hundreds of brands, missions, values will be intertwined on your site. Our advice: come up with your mission for example: combine best brands, give people the opportunity to join little-known brands, and so on.

2. Content, filling the site. This is the main page of the online store, product cards, frequently asked questions, a section where the conditions for ordering and delivery are spelled out, if any - a blog. Since there are many brands, your task is not to let the client get confused in them., to simplify his search and selection process. Remember, if a person is at least something incomprehensible, he is unlikely to deal with the issue on his own, but simply leave the site and go to another online store, since he has a choice. Means, it is necessary to structure the information as much as possible: create sections for each brand, think over product descriptions, be sure to write answers to frequently asked questions. If you have a blog, great, tell us about the brands and products presented in it, communicate with customers directly.

3. We also recommend making sections by category: clothing, appliances, household goods and so on. This is to make it easier for buyers to select items from different brands. For example, kitchen towels, a set of dishes and a tablecloth should be in the same style. Help the client: direct it to the section where things for the home are collected. Make a filter not only by price, but also by color, by material for a more convenient search.

4. Photos of goods. Disadvantage of an online store: versatile photos. It is unlikely that you will be able to shoot all products of all brands in the same style. Get ready for the fact that you will be sent photos of different quality, different sizes. Your task is to draw up requirements for the photo to bring them to the same denominator as much as possible.

5. Directly promotion. In SMS messages and email newsletters, also focus on the abundance of brands. Promote this topic, remind more often of the variety. For example, when offering products to a client for a promotion, give links to new brands - and by the way, the promotions themselves are usually made for new products in the assortment. Thanks for the purchase of the product, suggest brands of similar subject matter and price category. Take care of the client, give him a choice - people appreciate it.

6. Install a chat on the site for a conversation with a consultant and charge one of your employees to respond to customer emails. If a person has a question, not everyone will start looking for the question and answer section or write in feedback. It is much easier to use the services of an online consultant.

7. Work on your reputation, grab people's attention. Conduct contests, promotions and sweepstakes regularly, create a group on social networks, publish reviews of happy customers. Collect the circle regular customers , who will subsequently recommend your online store to friends and acquaintances.

So, a multi-brand store gives you a certain freedom of action, independence from a specific brand and at the same time - full responsibility for sales and profits. It depends only on you whether your store will not become a dump of assorted goods. Only you can attract good quality brands to your site and tame buyers. Remember that we are responsible for those we have tamed!

Multibrands and monobrands: pros and cons

The brand is a strategic asset for the company and its key competitive weapon. There are many branding strategies, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. It is necessary to choose a brand management strategy in such a way as to create a strong brand that expresses the status and values of the consumer. A company that skilfully implements a brand development strategy ensures itself an increase in revenue and market share, customer loyalty and a sustainable competitive advantage.

The main task of the company when choosing a branding strategy is to determine such a strategy that will be optimal for a particular brand in existing market conditions... This choice is very difficult and specific, because there are no universal brand management strategies.

One of existing classifications divides strategies and, accordingly, trade marks of the company into multi-brands and mono-brands.

Multibrands

When a manufacturer's products are highly differentiated, the company can adopt a multi-branding strategy.

Definition 1

Multibranding is the development of several individual brands that exist independently of each other and of the main brand of the company.

The main advantage of a multi-branding strategy is that stand-alone brands do not cause buyers to associate with the parent company and do not dilute the underlying brand. This is especially important when the company manufactures products for different markets not related to each other. A multibrand avoids the transfer of negative associations from one company product to another.

The disadvantage of multi-branding is that it is expensive. The company requires significant funds to maintain and develop each brand. Another negative side multi-branding can be called the likelihood of the emergence of vintage cannibalism.

Definition 2

Branded cannibalism is a situation in the market when the volume of sales of products under a certain brand increases due to brands belonging to the same company.

In order to prevent the occurrence of such a situation, the company can produce products under individual brands for different market segments, clearly separated from each other.

Example 1

There are successful examples of the use of a multi-branding strategy in various industries. The most popular example of a multi-brand architecture company is Procter, which owns brands such as:

Always,
Gillette,
Wella,
Ariel,
Fairy,
Pampers
and others,

each of which is leading in its own product category... However, none of the brands are directly related to the brand of the owner of P&G.

Monobrands

Definition 3

Monobrand (corporate brand) is the only brand under which all the company's products are manufactured.

The company, using a mono-branding strategy, focuses on the history and name of the brand, its strength and the stability of consumer preferences. To do this, the company needs to have a brand with an appropriate reputation and history that can be extended to all of the company's products. A monobrand of a company should be not only a signal about the appropriate quality of the product, but also have an emotional connection with customers. It is this emotional connection that will draw the attention of consumers to mono-brand products.

Example 2

An example successful implementation mono branding strategies are Mercedes and Samsung.

The main advantage of a mono-branding strategy is the ability to transfer the positive consumer experience from one product to another, sold under the same brand. This allows the company to reduce marketing budgets and focus on promoting a single brand.

The main advantage of mono-branding may turn out to be its disadvantage if consumers have a negative experience of interacting with the brand - then this impression can be transferred to the entire range of the company and have a serious impact on its market results.

Another disadvantage of mono branding is brand conservatism. Usually companies operating under a single brand do not dare to make global changes, as this can greatly damage the image and even become a threat to the existence of the company. That is why mono-brands are forced to maintain their image, familiar to consumers and loved by them, without making drastic changes to it.

Multi-brand store ... Single-brand store ... How are they different from each other? Is there any difference between them at all? And how important is this difference?

Multi is not mono

Of course, there is a difference between these concepts, and it is very, very big. The mono-brand boutique sells clothing, footwear, and accessories of only one brand. Most often, in order to impress the customer, the store is decorated in a certain way, which creates the appropriate atmosphere.

The multi-brand store sells products of a wide variety of brands and brands. As you might guess, this means that its design has nothing to do with the symbols of these brands, moreover, it may have its own recognizable symbols, corporate colors, etc.

The profitability of a multi-brand store

Multi-brand is convenient for the owner point of sale, and the buyer. For the owner, it means elasticity, the ability to flexibly regulate the assortment: there are no sales of any trade mark - you can replace it with another one and thereby compensate for the losses. A buyer in a multi-brand store is good because he also gets the opportunity not to get hung up on the products of one brand: something does not fit - not a problem, he will take a closer look at the clothes of another manufacturer.

All of the above does not mean at all that a mono-brand boutique is doomed from the outset. It just works with a well-defined target audience.

A multi-brand store is not the same as shopping center

Perhaps someone has just read everything that is written above and said: everything is clear, a multi-brand store is a shopping center with many boutiques. And that's not true! A shopping center is a shopping center, it is in itself. Multibranding in this case assumes that products of different brands are sold within the same store, lying side by side on the shelves belonging to the same seller, and not distributed among many boutiques.