Here at The Value Engineers we find ourselves asking a lot of questions.  From project-related strategic questions to debates on marketing theory and models, we consider asking questions and thinking around all angles of their potential answers part of the joy of our jobs.

So, we are delighted to point you in the direction of Giles Lury’s article in this issue Admap, asking a crucial question which all brand consultants and managers face at some point:  ‘To Sub-brand or not to Sub-brand?‘

In this article Giles covers everything from different brand architecture theories (e.g. the Monolithic vs. Mixed Economy approach to brand architecture) to tips on managing your own portfolio.

If this is a question you find yourself asking or simply if you’d like to join us in the Sub-brand or not to Sub-brand debate, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

So the Big Brother experiment is set to finally close. For years an institution – holding a mirror up to society and asking what we thought will air its final misdemeanors in 2010. Whilst it is impossible to argue that the programme was anything other than a resounding success for makers Endemol, viewing figures have been on the decline, dropping below 2 million on eviction nights for the first time in its UK history. So with the nation’s most notorious reality TV programme set to be pulled next year what (if anything) does this tell us about changes in viewing habits or media consumption?

I would argue probably very little.

For as long as I can remember the British media have loved to demonize imperfect reflections of their culture and in a fixation with Big Brother we were given a weekly opportunity to revel in exactly that. I would compare it to what will happen when our cricketers return from Australia next year after surrendering the Ashes. The recent fanfare will be quickly forgotten in a blitz of demonization and degradation. The ability to accentuate the negative in all around us is a favourite pastime of the British Media and I doubt that this will change with the passing of Big Brother. In fact, there have been recent suggestions that as viewing figures have trailed off so has press coverage in the Red-Tops. With a lack of media support, a tired format and the early adopters of the groundbreaking series moving on it’s no wonder BB has struggled.

Another reason put forward as partly accountable for the demise and of interest from a brand perspective is that the BB brand was casting a darker and darker shadow over Channel 4. Reportedly C4 felt that BB had become the equivalent of a rogue sub-brand whose worst features were polluting the vision, image and reputation of its master. This is an example of what we would call the ‘halo effect’ in reverse – rather than endorsing the quality of the Masterbrand of C4 the BB sub-brand was, through the associations with faux-celebrity and scandal, in fact doing the absolute opposite.

Watch this space for some Channel 4 post-Big Brother repositioning – although I’m not sure how they are going to pay for it because they are supposed to be skint.

As for the rest of us, I’m sure we have already found something else to watch.

Probably The Wire.