Brand as a Modular Layer: Tiered Organizational Architecture, Separability, and Firm Performance in Multi-Brand Strategies

Firms differ dramatically in their ability to manage multiple brands, recover from brand failure, and organize marketing activities – yet no theory specifies which organizational layers carry the brand boundary. This paper proposes a six-tier architecture of the firm in which brand is strictly the Tier-4 product specification surface, while the remaining five tiers are largely brand-agnostic. Three strategic outcomes follow. Multi-brand capacity scales with Tier-3, Tier-5, and Tier-6 independence rather than Business Model diversification (P1). Recovery success after brand failure scales with preserved brand-agnostic substrate (P2), providing a mechanism for the equity-transfer-without-creation regularity of Marques et al. (2020). Marketing, advertising, and branding are Tier-6 functions that create, operate, and retire Tier-4 instances; centralization choices are therefore separability choices (P4). The Aaker–Joachimsthaler Brand Relationship Spectrum is operationalized as a continuous Tier-3-visibility-in-Tier-4 parameter V (P7), and axis-specific brand-extension predictions follow on the Cultural and Ideological dimensions (P5). Two diagnostic instruments – a Multi-Brand Capacity Diagnostic and a Recovery Salvage Matrix – translate the framework for practice. Seven falsifiable propositions unify brand-portfolio, corporate-rebranding, and marketing-organization literatures under a common modularity logic, reframe documented empirical asymmetries as predictable consequences of layered architecture, and connect to competitive advantage, M&A value creation, and dynamic capabilities. Includes zharnikov-2026ah-brand-as-modular-layer.yaml (Paper Spec v0.1.0) – a machine-readable specification of the paper's claims, assumptions, and dependencies. The paper's full machine-first bundle (the SPINE claim/dependency graph and the ONTOLOGY term module) lives in the public repository; see https://github.com/spectralbranding/paper-spec for the standard. This PDF is generated programmatically from that machine-first source under a research-as-repository model.