Brand Architecture
Morningstar uses a branded house structure with five portfolio levels: master brand, family brands, products, features, and supporting elements.
Through this brand architecture, we have more flexibility to highlight different parts of our business at the right time with our audiences—all while growing Morningstar’s reputation and relevance.
Acquired companies and products will eventually follow our brand architecture strategy. The migration path for acquired companies and products is determined on an individual basis under the direction of the Brand team. See Acquisitions for information on previously acquired companies and products.
Master Brand
Every level of our brand architecture is designed to strengthen clients’ perceptions of the Morningstar master brand, reinforcing our more well-known strengths, like independent research, and strengthening areas of growing influence, like data and analytics.
The master brand anchors our brand portfolio. It encompasses our deep and long-standing commitment to investor advocacy and is based on the three pillars of our brand strategy: independence, transparency, and a long-term focus.
Family Brands
The family brand level of our portfolio includes five family brands that correspond to capabilities that build distinctive equity for Morningstar:
- Morningstar Credit
- Morningstar Data+Analytics
- Morningstar Indexes
- Morningstar Retirement
- Morningstar Wealth
Family brands help clients focus on our comprehensive capabilities rather than individual offerings, which helps expand perceptions of what Morningstar does. In turn, the family brands are supported by everything that goes along with the master brand’s trustworthy name. For this reason, family brands always include the Morningstar name and are never shortened to drop it.
Each family brand has a clear positioning and differentiators that ladder up to the master brand.
Family brands are not legal entities and shouldn’t be used in place of legal entities in contracts, agreements, or any correspondence with legal implications.
Products
The product level of our brand architecture includes all of our offerings, including platforms, services, research reports, ratings, funds, and tools. In some cases, products may be in a nested relationship under a platform. For example, Direct Platform encompasses multiple products, including Morningstar Direct, Direct Compass, and Direct Web Services. We do not treat platforms differently from other products in our brand architecture.
Most products go to market under a family brand. This means that the appropriate family brand should be visible (either a lockup or in text) close to the product name, so that the relationship is reinforced through the act of endorsement. This family brand endorsement links relevant offerings together and ensures that the brand equity accrued across all product experiences is consolidated.
In a few strategic exceptions approved by the Brand team, products go to market under the master brand. In these limited cases, the master brand should be visible, either the logotype or in text, close to the product name, so that the relationship is reinforced through the act of endorsement. Please refer to Naming Exceptions (.pdf) to learn more.
Importantly, in our brand architecture, products are not brands and do not have logos; we don’t seek to build brand equity in products that is separate from the brand under which they go to market. Product names are always represented in text; they are written in title case with the weight and color we use for copy, using standard typesetting controls. Please refer to Product Names to learn more.
Features
The feature level of our portfolio comprises the value enhancers to our products that users wouldn’t buy separately, including embedded tools, components, and proprietary technologies. They help to distinguish our products from those of our competitors by calling out unique benefits, enabling clients to evaluate offerings fully and make the right choices for their needs.
Features never have Morningstar in their names, and they are always directly associated with the products they enhance.
Supporting Elements
The supporting element level of our portfolio includes touchpoints and channels that deepen understanding and shape our audiences’ engagement with the master brand and family brands. They may be descriptively named, but they aren’t products or features. In most cases, they do not have logos.
Some supporting elements are market-enabling touchpoints that are part of how we engage clients and other external stakeholders. Examples include events, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, webinars, programs or initiatives, email signatures, and stationery.
Most of these supporting elements go to market under a family brand, although some may go to market under the master brand. This means that the appropriate family brand (or the master brand) should be visible, either as a lockup or in text, close to the supporting element name, so that the relationship is reinforced through the act of endorsement. This family brand endorsement links relevant supporting elements together and ensures that the brand equity accrued across all engagement experiences is consolidated.
Our brand also extends into the employee experience, and other supporting elements are organizational touchpoints that are part of how we support our employer brand and engage our employees. Examples include named teams, internal events, and internal programs.
These supporting elements may be under a family brand or the master brand. This means that the appropriate brand should be visible, either as a lockup or in text, close to the supporting element name, so that the relationship is reinforced through the act of endorsement. This endorsement links relevant supporting elements together and ensures that the brand equity accrued across all organizational engagement experiences is consolidated.
For more details about each level, see Brand Architecture Levels (.pdf).
