The smell of a cuppa

Tetley launch - Le Brew... Tea flavoured perfume...

RAC at Asia Pacific Sourcing, Cologne

new article now ready for peer review

Licensing is the Marketeer’s ultimate fantasy – a too-good-to-be-true, budget-generating marketing campaign that extends the brand into new categories. As they might say in America:

Licensing: What’s not to like?

As the Marketing Director of a powerful brand with a sizeable advertising budget, you present your Commercial Director with a strategic licensing proposition including a selection of companies proposing to pay hard cash for the right to increase your brand’s profile. Despite his first thought - ‘what’s the catch?’ – you somehow manage to convince him to let you develop a licensing programme. There’s no shortage of potential partners to work with on exciting collaborations and the products you develop are bought in serious quantities by your passionate consumers. With success, bigger and bigger manufacturers make increasingly exciting offers to create better and better products. Fast forward several years, however, and the enthusiasm for licensing seems to have waned somewhat and you’re considering your career options. So where did it all go wrong?

Please email me if you'd like the full article....

more on Thomas Crapper on the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00z9j0g/The_Boat_That_Guy_Built_A_Nice_Hot_Shower/

19.34 minutes in..."There really is only one place you can go for bathroom fittings"

RAC Recommended for best battery charger

Thomas Crapper on the One Show

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00zf1zw/The_One_Show_07_03_2011/

3 mins - 8 mins

some interesting marketing books

Hi,

here's a list of some of my most influential marketing books:

http://www.brandlicensing.co.uk/brand-books-to-read

Mamika to be in the Times this weekend

Look out for 5 pages about our favourite grandma in this Sunday's Times.

Mamika in the Guardian

Thomas Crapper at Spring Fair

Golden Goose launches Mamika at Spring Fair

Brand consultancy, Golden Goose has signed a deal to represent the humorous, eclectic Mamika photographic brand from award winning photographer Sacha Goldberger.

Mamika is Sacha’s collection of funny, ironic and eccentric photographs featuring his 91 year old Grandmother, Fredericka, in a variety of guises including super hero and hilariously absent-minded old lady.

Mamika has become a global internet phenomenon with a strong following on Facebook and the first Mamika book has sold over 14,000 since its French release 4 months ago. Other books by Sacha have sold over 145,000 copies worldwide. Mamika photos have also featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles from Sunday Times, Elle and Vanity Fair.

Now Golden Goose are looking for UK manufacturers and retailers to take the Mamika brand into calendars, stationery, giftsets and paper goods. With hundreds of high quality photographs in a variety of themes and locations, Mamika is ideal for these gifting categories.

Golden Goose Account Director Charlotte Hargreaves said: “Mamika’s outlandish and ironic view of life will appeal to students and gift-givers of all ages and naturally lends itself to a wide variety of products.”

Hargreaves adds, “Mamika is outlandish, kooky and guaranteed to make you smile, its broad appeal will attract licensees and retailers exhibiting and visiting Spring Fair.”

For more information, please contact: Charlotteh@goldengoose.uk.com

new rac products

Thomas Crapper and Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay to Launch Thomas Crapper Merchandise at Spring Fair

Historic bathroom brand launches fun gift range

Award-winning giftware company Half Moon Bay have signed a two year deal with Thomas Crapper & Co to launch a range of merchandise including toothbrush holders, mugs, and even an emergency plumbing kit (complete with rubber duck!) for the UK retail market.

The brand, launched by the eponymous plumber at the height of the British Empire in 1861, introduced plumbed bathrooms and luxury bathroom fittings to the world – and picked up a number of Royal Warrants along the way. It opened the first ever bathroom showroom, on King’s Road in Chelsea, and made sanitaryware fashionable and aspirational.

This new range of merchandise is both fun and practical with four ply toilet paper printed with humorous sayings one of the products expected to do well as consumers look for interesting and innovative gifts bearing the iconic Thomas Crapper logo.

Adam Bass, director of Golden Goose (Thomas Crapper’s licensing agency) said: “Thomas Crapper is a world renowned brand name that is ripe for development. The merchandise launch is the first step in the roll out of some very exciting plans for 2011.”

‘We are very excited to launch this new gift range, it truly offers something unique to the market. The history of the brand taps into the current demand for nostalgic yet fun gift products,’ said Ashley McCracken, Senior Product Manager for Half Moon Bay.

Thomas Crapper continued as a family business from its Victorian roots until the mid-1960s when it was taken over by a rival firm. Today, it is a privately owned, independent company producing the finest British Made authentic bathroom sanitaryware, fittings and accessories.

Branding 3.0

Hi and happy new year. 2010 was certainly interesting and, as in other years, I've taken the liberty of writing an article about new media's changes and their effects on branding, it's presumptuously called BRANDING 3.0.

Please let me know if you'd like a copy and I'll send you one. Otherwise it will be published in the latest edition of Innova

Great expectations...

Can't say too much but big announcement planned for Thomas Crapper day - January 27th 2011. Happy new year to everyone.

Watch a Typical Day in New York City.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyaj2P-dSi8&feature=player_embedded#

Interesting Licensing

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/10/27/Zippo-Fragrance.aspx

Golden Goose Stand at the Brand Licensing Show 2010

Thank you to those of you who visited us.

The first registered trademark

Well with a name like mine, what else was i going to do?

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-number?detailsrequested=C&trademark=1

check out NYC video

1 minute 31 seconds - NYPD

1 minute 41 seconds - Taxi cab

Clearly, iconic images, 54 million views so far!