The publishing business....

In the publishing business the readers are the product, and the customers are the advertisers.

Reader HAS attention WANTS salience

Publisher HAS salience WANTS money
Advertiser HAS money WANTS attention

what not to drink?

So, Coca Cola has generated a workitout calculator (http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/health/work-it-out-calculator.html) so that you can figure out how much exercise you have to do in order to drink their products. This is great, now i just have to not drink their products and I feel fitter.

YES, it's an Angry Birds, Star Wars mash up!!!!

 Our stand at brand licensing - come and see us from Tomorrow to Thursday at Olympia.

Brand Licensing Show

Look forward to seeing you at the brand licensing show. If you're coming tell us why 

Branding lessons from the Olympics

Now that London 2012 is over, what implications does the event's sporting and organisational success have for branding in the UK? Here are 5 thoughts:

1) Incremental Effort
There were no quick wins for our Olympians. The pain of endless training was etched on their faces down the home straight. Brands need to show their commitment to sustained excellence and have no fear of showing the sweat and tears involved.

2) Great Britain
Unashamed British pride emotionally expressed has no hint of jingoistic overtones any more. Pride in a multi-cultural flag has been long overdue. Just don't forget the hint of modesty and understatement.

3) Brilliant Youth
Redemption is coming for hoodies with talent. Hope has been restored in a generation that badly damaged their prospects with the 2011 riots. Brands need to offer positive activities for youth to engage with.

4) Uncompromising Determination
Steel willed positivity. A new ruthlessness. Visible rejection of the mediocre. These are now attractive qualities who's human side can be revealed occasionally.

5) Joy in Performance
Pleasure from performing to millions as an act of self-fulfillment has never been so clearly endorsed as a valuable activity. Joy in realisation of a personal ambition has been portrayed as selfless. Instead of feeding a ravenous hunger for approval, it has been shown as an act of cameraderie. Brands that flaunt it should share the love

New products coming soon

Matt Roberts products to launch in Argos in January 2013.

Kingfisher Collections launches

PRESS RELEASE 26/07/12, for immediate release

New service launched by Golden Goose and Fisher Forensic Kingfisher Collections will manage royalty admin for agencies and licensors. Boutique brand licensing consultancy Golden Goose has partnered with forensic accountants Fisher Forensic to develop a royalty administration service for busy licensors and agencies. Called Kingfisher Collections, the new service offers to manage the chasing and collation of royalty reports and payments so that brands can focus on their licensing programme without losing control of their revenue collections. “Kingfisher Collections provides a seamless, professional point of contact so that licensors and agencies can concentrate on sourcing licensees, developing new products and marketing their brand to retailers without worrying about how royalties are collected,” said Adam Bass, Director of Golden Goose who has helped develop the service. Licensors and agencies using Kingfisher Collections will have the convenience and focus of a trusted accountancy firm handling the entire royalty collection process: from issuing invoices and chasing for statements and payments to generating financial and performance reports. “It’s very easy for licensors and agencies to lose track of the royalties and for the reporting to get out of kilter with the original licensing agreement,“ explained Rafi Saville from Fisher Forensic. “This can lead to licensors collecting the wrong amounts and store up potentially nasty surprises for a royalty audit.” “Most licensing departments are surprisingly small,” Added Bass, “and Kingfisher Collections will offer a seamless service so that licensees don’t even know they are talking to a firm of forensic accountants.” For more information about the service please visit www.kingfishercollections.co.uk Ends

Surely this Angry Birds licensing programme has gone too far...

RACstorage.co.uk

Check out this great new range of RAC garage storage products..

.

http://www.racstorage.co.uk/productone.html

Licensing is a “quick- quick, slow-slow business”. You need to be ready to move fast, and be patient when nothing’s happening. If you’ve achieved strong licensing success you’ll recognise this timeline of hard work, blood sweat and tears, if you’re at the beginning of your licensing journey, you may want to look away now. 

CLAPS: A five year plan for a successful licensing programme.

Read more here... 

Dunelm Mills Stocks Tetley Homewares

An aggregated world of brands

Never before were so many owned by so few

New scones coming to Asda and Morrisons soon...

mmmmm - lovely new scones....

Tetley Scones - new variants

RAC Publications....

RAC Books at today's London Book Fair

new article - introduction, all comments welcome

Whilst Napoleon once famously described the UK as a nation of shopkeepers, these days it’s not so much a nation as four major players that dominate the retail landscape. With many manufacturers losing their shirts - and their souls – when negotiating with big retail why are more and more brands;

Dealing directly with the devil

Stroll innocently down the aisles of any large high street retailer and your gaze is constantly being tugged at. Enticing special offers at knee height - the most common in-store eye-level – tempt you with seductive discounts. Stop to peruse a shelving unit and an intuitive understanding of the “good, better, best” ranging of products will gradually dawn upon you: Prices rise with their height on the fixture. Reach out to select a product (conveniently located at shoulder height) and it will inevitably be better than the cheapest equivalent and cheaper than the most expensive offering. As you drop the item into your basket you congratulate yourself on the successful selection of the best value product, blissfully unaware of the years of consumer research; the intense negotiation over positioning, promotions, cost and margin; and the many arguments over delivery and logistics that have gone into helping you make your informed choice.

If you see someone suspicious muttering to themselves and maybe taking discreet pictures on their mobile in the middle of the supermarket the chances are that person works in licensing. Unless they’re on discount, licensed products will generally be in the middle of the ‘better’ section, at shoulder height, where the bulk of the sales and the margin are. If your muttering stranger is a real licensing maven they will even be able to tell you if the branded products are licensed directly by the retailer and therefore not available elsewhere.

new group on linkedin

Have just launched a new group on Linkedin called Royalty Collections. If your work involves the collection of royalties you're welcome to join.

see if you can spot the licensed product....

Here's the RAC stand at Spring Fair. We're already looking into next year....

RAC at Spring Fair

Matt Roberts in the Daily Telegraph

read more about Matt Roberts special supplements in the Telegraph....