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Brand licensing: A powerful marketing tool for today’s shopping battlefield
Journal of Brand Strategy,
8
(3),
207-217
(2019)
Abstract
How do brands find consumers? How do they communicate with them when they do? And how do brands motivate them to purchase their product? Not so long ago, brand owners could rely on advertising to help them answer these questions. Not anymore. The Internet has turned everything on its head. New paths, both online and offline, are disrupting traditional ways of reaching the consumer. But there is another powerful but underutilised marketing tool that first emerged when advertising was still in its infancy: brand licensing. Licensing, whereby a brand owner permits other companies to create, market and sell products (or services) under their brand name for a royalty or fee, dates back more than 125 years. Until recently, with few exceptions, licensing did not have a seat at the marketing table. Now, however, in this era of digital revolution and retail transformation, it is being recognised as a way of engaging and bonding with consumers, inviting them to participate with a brand instead of pushing a brand at them. Licensing offers consumers a wider range of brand-aligned products with which consumers can interact. But it is vital that a licensing programme is well structured. This means that to be successful it needs to be able to fulfil some, or all, of the six objectives that this paper identifies. As this paper demonstrates, several major brands have implemented successful licensing programmes that follow this model, including Black & Decker, Coca-Cola, Baileys, Energizer, Polaroid, Procter & Gamble, Westinghouse and Weight Watchers (WW).
Keywords: brand licensing; marketing; consumer engagement; brand awareness; brand equity; brand meaning; trademark protection
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Michael Stone is a recognised authority on brand licensing and is Chairman and Co-Founder of the leading brand licensing agency, Beanstalk, which has offices in New York, Miami, Cincinnati, London and Hong Kong. Beanstalk is majorityowned by Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC). Michael is the author of The Power of Licensing: Harnessing Brand Equity (Ankerwycke, 2018). The recipient of 23 LIMA International Licensing Awards, he has been instrumental in driving the evolution of brand licensing as a marketing tool used by many Fortune 500 companies. His achievements were recognised by Licensing International, the licensing industry trade association, with his induction into the Licensing International Licensing Hall of Fame at the annual awards ceremony in Las Vegas on 4th June, 2019. Michael is a Member of the Board of Year Up New York, a non-profit organisation committed to bridging the opportunity divide facing urban young adults. He has served as an adjunct professor of Brand Licensing at Baruch University School of Business and Long Island University Post and is frequently sought after as a brand authority by the media. He has a BA from Hamilton College and a JD from Emory University School of Law.
John D. Trebbien is the Global Licensing Director at Procter & Gamble (P&G) and is responsible for P&G’s Global Trademark License business, which is based within P&G’s Global Business Development (GBD) organisation. GBD fosters relationships with external entities to drive mutual value creation with structures such as licensing, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions as well as other alliances. John is a 37-year veteran of P&G and has had many responsibilities within GBD, including leading the go-to-market strategy for two of P&G’s largest brand divestitures, Pringles and Duracell. Prior to joining GBD, John worked in P&G’s international business and led the creation of a business unit that leveraged external partners to create a business of US$500m in the Latin America and Asia regions. Previous assignments included various sales roles within North America and P&G’s Global Market Development Organisations. John currently serves on the Board of Directors of SPLICE, a licensing trade organisation focused on best practices for brand licensors. He has a Bachelor of Science in Business from California Polytechnic University.
