Lots of brands to describe here:

Ritz Carlton. The 5-star deluxe brand sitting at the top of Marriotts tree. Marriott keeps this very much "semi-detached" from its other names, no doubt concerned about diluting this prestigious brand.

JW Marriott. The top "in house" Marriott brand, 5 star luxury but not at the RC deluxe levels. Beds are mandated by Marriott, furniture from a Marriott catalogue, as are carpet choices, staff uniforms and all aspects as seen by the customer to ensure a similar experience wherever in the world the JW is.

Marriott Hotels. Flagship 4 star full service brand, very tightly controlled beds and furniture mean, as with JW, there's relatively little difference in room facilities and service quality wherever in the world you might go. This attention even goes to the menus and food offerings.

Renaissance. Again 4-star, full service but brand spec less tightly controlled. Rens are more individual than Marriotts.

Autograph. Privately owned 4-star hotels, vetted by Marriott and upholding high full service standards. Each hotel is individual and Marriott merely sets out a minimum spec for room sizes, work desk and bed sizes, but supplies nothing leaving each hotelier to deal with these. Each Autograph is unique, hence the brand name!

Courtyard. Limited service 3 star brand. Offers bed and breakfast, some may offer evening food, other don't. Brand spec, furnishings, beds, carpets and uniforms are all supplied by corporate, again to ensure minimum variation between properties.

AC. Another limited service 3 star brand. Marriott purchased this European chain a few years ago and it's probably best described as a modern, European Courtyard-esque brand, but less tightly controlled. The best description is probably "As Renaissance hotels are to Marriott hotels so AC is to Courtyard."

Fairfield Inns. B&B 2.5 star cheapest brand. Breakfast included, slow internet included. Again Marriott supplies furnishings, beds and carpets from a catalogue ensuring minimal variation. Very few FFIs offer food other than breakfast.

Marriott Vacation Club. MVC is a timeshare brand of apartments/holiday homes in which the timeshare sales and management element of the business has now been spun off from Marriott, but Marriott continues to manage the individual properties and sells unutilised rooms on a hotel-stay basis via Marriott.com.

From there you have the longer stay brand, Springhill, and the true long-stay brands of Residence Inn and the cheaper Towneplace suites.

Finally you have the mini-brands with few properties namely:

Marriott Executive Apartments being a timeshare operation and Execustay both of which are high-end long stay accommodation.

Edition. An uber-cool 5 star hotel brand in conjunction with Ian Schrader with a handful of properties and plans to make it 2 handfuls.

Gaylord. Another very small brand, this time of conference hotel properties.

And I should add that Marriott purchased Protea hotels in South Africa last year and it's not yet clear how Marrott is gong to deal with the brand medium-long term. The name may remain and be added to the stable, or, more likely, the properties will over the next few years be distributed amongst the main established brands, as appropriate. Likewise its recent takeover of the Delta chain in Canada.