Many companies organize their brands in brand portfolios, and this is demonstrated to have both advantages and disadvantages (Morgan & Rego, 2009). One of many industries that organize their brands in brand portfolios is the fashion industry (Hague, 2007). Although brand portfolios as a phenomenon have been studied by a number of researchers (He, Chen, Tam & Lee 2016; Baumeister, Scherer & Wangenheim 2015; Lei, Dawar & Lemmink 2008) relatively few studies consider how companies’ internal structure impact consumers (Lei, Dawar & Lemmink, 2008). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to create a deeper understanding of how a company's consumers' perception of a brand is affected by its connection to the corporate brand.

For this study, the authors chose to investigate the H&M Group and the consumers' perceptions of the link between their brands COS as well as Weekday and the master brand H&M. H&M's brand portfolio is characterised as a House of Brands since it consists of six (H&M included) independent brands without a visible connection to the corporate brand. As a method of data collection, semi-structured interviews with eight consumers were used, four of whom are consumers of the brand COS, and four of the brand Weekday. This study shows that as long as brands are clearly distanced, customer's relationship with the brand doesn’t change significantly. Although, the patterns identified suggest that the relationship with the brands COS and Weekday may change in a positive direction, as long as these are kept distanced from the main brand H&M.