when it all goes right

I guess it's only when things go right that you find out what you're made of, how solid your foundations are, and if you've really learnt anything useful. We're at that stage now and it's the shallow breathing, palpitating heart moments that make life frightening / exciting.... don't look down...

well here we go....

Just booked the brand licensing show for the second year running... now the serious work begins...

http://www.brandlicensingexpo.com/brandlicensing/v42/index.cvn

you'll find me on stand 642 but don't expect me to have any hair left...

top 10 learnings in business

1) you will have good years and bad years, over time you will learn the difference
2) get paid
3) when things are going well, it's time to invest to avoid competition
4) take time to consider, especially when you're in a hurry
5) don't sent emails that you spend more than 1 hour composing until the next day
6) get paid
7) put money aside for a rainy day
8) build up passive income
9) turn your tacit learnings into explicit learnings
10) celebrate your wins

why licensing is like sex

Yes, licensing is like sex. Honestly. Here's the latest article on the subject as published in brand licensing sports book... also check out Brand channel from 13/08 for paper of the week on Branding 2.0

the last post

How long does it take to get a licensing contract signed?

well that depends where you start from? If you have the approval of the board, a suitable licensee, agreed heads of terms and the outline of a standard contract you'll be lucky if you can do it in less than 3 months.

'3 months!' I hear you exclaim...' even after all the preparation'. Yes that's right, a minimum of 3 months. In fact this is the most tortuous process known to man. It's like playing volleyball on a huge court. the ball comes to your side, you look at it, pass it to the lawyer, he looks at it, passes it back to you, you look at his look at it, pass it back to him, he looks at your look at his look passes it back to you and then eventually, you pass it back to the other side who go through the whole thing on their side.... ultimately it becomes a waitathon with both sides trying to outdo each other in affecting to care as little as possible to not give away their negotiating position over points so moot you could bury them in a time capsule under the new channel tunnel station at Kings Cross.

Then, if by some miracle both sides ever ultimately agree you can bet your bottom dollar the post will take another 2 weeks before someone somewhere actually has both sides signed in their hands... then the work starts. Meanwhile everyone's been paid - the lawyers, the negotiators, everyone - oh except for the licensing consultancy, did i forget to mention them?

another quote, another book

"Brand innovation is brand management. The brand is only as good as its last three or four ideas. All of brand marketing should be treated as an innovation project. Forget the brand 'essence' - in a few years' time it may be different as a result of these new innovations. A brand is like a person it needs to evolve to stay interesting. It should be coherent - each new idea should make sense and be brilliant in its own terms - but not consistent (in the sense of endless dull repetition of the same old formula). "
John Grant - The Brand Innovation Manifesto

born in the UK

Within Europe, the UK is the most suitable country in which to commence a sequential rollout strategy for major new product introductions. In the UK, the segment of innovators (early adopters) is 24% compared with only 15% in France and 9% in Spain. Among all large European countries, the UK is the only country that is not hurt by the fact that the product has not been introduced elsewhere.
Private Label Strategy, How to Meet the Store Brand Strategy
Harvard Business School Press

when to call a licensing consultancy

a) after you've just signed away the rights to your brand?
b) before doing any licensing?
c) when you think you might have the opportunity to do some licensing?

big news on the way

Frustratingly still waiting for contracts to be signed before i can officially announce the conclusion of some fairly major licensing activity over the past 6 months - at the moment this blog is like watching ink dry

are my products underwater?

No, this is not an allegorical question, flooding in the North East means there's a very real chance that there's a warehouse somewhere with some very expensive licensed products bobbing around

my favourite new quote

"Far too many marketing people confuse brand share with brand loyalty. And far too many assume they are managing an enduring classic when actually they are presiding over an accident waiting to happen. This is a mistake that is all too easily exposed when somebody else does the brand innovation your category had been crying out for and leaves you for dust"
John Grant
Brand Innovation Manifesto

These St. Luke's guys are really fascinating!!!

emotionally drained

Suffering from completion-of-protracted-negotiation-syndrome. What am I going to worry about for the next 6 months!

statistic of the day

"Product innovation is perhaps the most obvious way companies try to stay 'ever new'. The importance of product innovation is paramount. In categories where there is a less product innovation, private label penetration is typically 56% higher than those categories where there is more active product innovation. "
Michele Blake
Winning Strategies for Brand Loyalty

website rewrite

Have spent the past 2 days working to upgrade the Golden Goose website - mostly textual changes. Amazing how much has happened since the text was last rewritten. Any comments welcome: www.goldengoose.uk.com

paper on brand loyalty

There's probably an article in 'how brand licensing increases brand loyalty', just haven't had time to write it yet. In the meantime here are some conclusions from an excellent paper on the subject by Michele Blake:

Brand loyalty is increasingly earned by building intensity of desire.

Some industry commentators propose that there is only one measure really worth tracking and that is – how many of a company’s customers would actively recommend their products to others.

True loyalty increasingly requires companies to think about creating desire and involving emotion. But consumers are increasingly uninterested in developing relationships with brands.

Today, in developed markets at least, consumers are quite literally spoilt for choice, leading to “choice paralysis,” and making people less satisfied with the choices they do eventually make. Also consumers feel stressed trying to regain control over their schedules: they just have less time for brands.

In addition, they are generally more resistant to marketing and advertising. This is partly a protective response to the sheer volume of advertising messages to whichthey are exposed and partly due to their increasing cynicism about those messages.They trust less, having had that trust abused in the past.

Income polarization is contributing to polarization in shopping habits, causing brands to lose out to more premium options on the one hand and consumers’ price shopping on the other.

Private label also threatens loyalty as consumers are tempted away from branded products to private label equivalents with their price competitiveness, improved quality, increased innovation, and shelf space advantages.

Consumers are also increasingly substituting takeaway meals and eating out for food and drink bought in supermarkets and prepared at home.

Finally, the retail environment is now a key arena for brand and promotional messages delivered to consumers at the crucial moment at shelf-front when the final brand choice is made, meaning loyalty is in the balance until the very last moment a shopper puts an item in their basket.

Building loyalty is also about innovations in marketing. One trend is streamlined portfolios, where often it is the umbrella brands, rather than the individual products that are promoted – often via a ‘lighthouse’ idea, making the brand stand for something above and beyond product. For example, successful brands are taking positions reflecting current trends for increased corporate responsibility (e.g.Fairtrade, organic production, health and wellness and so on).

Canned, frozen and chilled foods suffer the lowest consumer loyalty.

Private label is the greatest threat to loyalty, followed by unplanned shopping as consumers are tempted away by lower price private label alternatives and/ or are influenced to buy another brand (or private label) at the shelf front. Loyalty towards private label economy and standard ranges will slip in the future.

66.0% and 58.3% of respondents rate innovation and premiumization respectively,as ‘very good for’ or ‘best for’ brand loyalty, whilst improving product experienceand generating positive word-of-mouth are the most effective strategies inpromoting brand loyalty.

It is true today and will continue to be true that customers will only remain loyal to brands – assuming they have more than one available choice – if those brands continue to meet their expectations, their needs and wants. Increasingly aware of their greater range of options and better informed about those options, customers are becoming more demanding and generally less loyal, so companies have to work harder than ever to achieve even the same levels of loyalty.

The most successful companies focus on that brand or those brands where the company has the best chance for success, fully committing the organization – from the most senior levels down – to the chosen brand(s) and their customers.

To engender greater loyalty, companies will want to explore how they could more holistically solve the customer’s ‘problem’ through innovation. The most successful brands go beyond practical benefits to deliver an idea that the customer can buy into.

See the full paper here

valuable quote

The mechanics for a successful launch are simple, but often forgotten, says Dave Woodward, ex-P&G now head of Heinz UK & Ireland - "You need to gain distribution, stimulate trial, stimulate repeat purchasing and finally encourage multi-purchases and long-term loyalty"

Why Brand Licensing is like sex.

Licensing is like sex. With good sex, all the effort leads to deep satisfaction with both sides enjoying the moment. Bad sex leaves one side feeling dominant and the other feeling cheap, dirty and used. Ugly sex, on the other hand, leaves both sides mystified why it happened with noone wanting to talk about it any more.

Whilst there are plenty of guides to sex, there aren’t that many devoted to licensing. In fact in the guides to marketing and branding I’ve come across there’s usually several chapters about brand extension but rarely more than a cursory paragraph or two about licensing as a way of executing a brand extension. Licensing seems to generally be considered by marketing gurus as either a low-key, unimportant activity or a dirty little secret.

To read the rest of this article, you'll have to wait until the September edition of the Brand & Sport Licensing source book...

intriguing signage

Have to admit to being a bit of an addict when it comes to weird public information signage and couldn't resist taking a picture of this one. Whilst travelling recently I came across this one which begs the question: How many people were alarmed by noisy flushing before the need to print this became a priority?

holiday blues

As I predicted to the wife on the return from holiday, Tuesday is the cruellest day after the excitement of being back at the desk is over and the afternoon is the time when the blues are most likely to strike.

So here's the news of the blues most definitely arriving, there's a lovely sunny day outside though - perhaps that's the antidote....

latest brand licensing newsletter

Yes, once again a quarter comes to an end queuing up another flurry of royalty reminders and reports. For the latest exciting brand extensions, see the newsletter