Parent and child brand hierarchy

Map sub-brands and product lines so they roll up under one parent.

Last updated: 2026-05-05

TL;DR — Set a Parent brand on any sub-brand so mentions of "Acme Pro", "Acme Lite", and "Acme Cloud" all roll up to Acme in dashboard analytics and SOV. Detailed scan results still show the original variant for transparency. Use it for multi-product portfolios, regional sub-brands, and acquired companies.

Why parent–child hierarchy exists

AI engines describe brands at different levels of granularity. ChatGPT might say "Adobe Photoshop", "Photoshop", or "Adobe's photo editor" — all referring to the same product. Without consolidation, your visibility data fragments across dozens of name variants and you systematically understate your true presence.

Parent–child hierarchy solves this by letting you declare a single canonical parent brand and link multiple child brands underneath. Pranas then:

1. Counts every child mention as a parent mention in roll-up metrics (SOV, Top Brands, AI Score).
2. Preserves the original child name in detailed results so you can still see which specific product was mentioned.
3. Stores consolidated children in scan metadata for full transparency and auditability.

When to use it

If a sub-brand has its own distinct identity in the market and you want to track it independently, don't roll it up — keep it as a separate top-level brand instead.

Step-by-step: set up a hierarchy

1. Create the parent brand first (or confirm it already exists).
2. Open the child brand: Brands → ⋯ → Edit.
3. In the Parent brand field, search for and select the parent.
4. Save.
5. Repeat for every child you want to roll up.

The hierarchy applies to future scans and dashboard aggregation immediately. Historical scan data that was already attributed to the child is also consolidated under the parent in dashboard views (you don't need to re-run scans).

Worked example

A B2B platform sells three products: PayCore (parent brand), PayCore Invoicing (child), PayCore Payroll (child).

Before setting up the hierarchy, the dashboard showed:

• Top Brands: PayCore 8%, PayCore Invoicing 4%, PayCore Payroll 3%, Stripe 22%, ...

The marketing team felt PayCore was much bigger than it looked. They set PayCore Invoicing and PayCore Payroll as children of PayCore. After the change:

• Top Brands: PayCore 15%, Stripe 22%, ...
• Detailed Results page still shows which specific product was mentioned in each query.

The roll-up reflected reality without losing the per-product detail.

How it interacts with other features

• SOV: parent absorbs child mentions; SOV reflects the consolidated view.
• Top Brands: children disappear from the Top Brands chart; only parents are shown.
• Co-occurrence: parent ↔ competitor co-occurrence is computed on the consolidated mentions.
• Brand Perception: perception drivers and sentiment are aggregated at the parent level.
• Detailed Results / Sources: original child name preserved for full transparency.
• AI Search Audit: runs against the brand you select; doesn't follow hierarchy.

Edge cases & gotchas

• Children with their own competitors: each child can keep its own competitor list. The parent doesn't inherit child competitors.
• Circular references: a brand can't be both a parent and a child of the same brand. The form blocks this.
• Multi-level hierarchies: only one level is supported (parent → child). You can't nest grandchildren. If you have a deep hierarchy (Alphabet → Google → YouTube), pick the level that matters most for analytics.
• Removing a parent link: future scans treat the brand as standalone; historical roll-ups in dashboard views detach.
• Naming collisions: if two of your children have very similar names (e.g. "Acme Pro" and "Acme Pro Plus"), make sure their aliases are distinct so the brand extraction engine doesn't confuse them.

Troubleshooting

Related articles

• Manage your brands
• Manage competitors
• Top Brands
• Share of Voice
• Reading scan results

Still need help?

Email contact@pranas.co with the parent and child brand names; we can audit the consolidation logic for you.