Develop a Successful Brand Licensing Program

Pete Canalichio explains in simple terms the key steps needed to develop a successful and built-to-last brand licensing program. You can view more of my videos on the Brand Licensing Process on my YouTube channel or on my videos page.

Transcript:

Hi, Hugh Simpson back with Pete Canalichio, formerly of Coke and Newell Rubbermaid. Boy, we’re at which you said the rubber meets the road. Now we’re on the final situation.

Let’s use our closet example. We have decided through a survey that the people want something to do with the back of their closet or the bottom of the floor Newell Rubbermaid doesn’t handle currently, then you go out and you source out and ask people, “are you available to do this as a third party organization?” You vet them to make sure that they can do it.

Where are we at now? Well, we’ve defined the scope of the opportunity, we’ve negotiated the deal terms and signed the contract, we are now ready to put them through an orientation process and help them with their business planning so that they are going to be in a position to win. So when you think about most negotiations, most deal-making, you’ve got one party–one person on one side who’s involved in that process–and you’ve got one party on the other side. So most of the people in the organization, whether on the brand owner side or on the manufacturer side, don’t know all the other folks or what the obligations of the contract have stipulated. So now we have to go through an orientation process, and that process is really a culmination of a number of things. One, it’s a formalized meeting where everyone from product developers to marketers to business folks to sales folks meet each other. They come to Newell Rubbermaid and literally see now what the company is all about. So in the case of when I negotiated and managed the Rubbermaid licensing program, they would come to the business unit–so that was in Huntersville, North Carolina–so they would come up the manufacturer with their five or six or eight people, and they would sit down with equivalent number of folks, and we would make the introductions and say, “okay, here are the folks that are responsible for approvals, here are the folks that are responsible for product development, R&D sales”, and make sure that they’re all organized and coordinated so that the the folks from the manufacturing side all know what their their obligations are. And the thing we would say is, “look, everyone in this room and maybe some folks back at your home office need to read this contract; they need to know what’s in there, what they’re required to do–especially the lawyers.” The lawyers are deal breakers that can break it, but the folks that are actually having to produce the product and get it on the shelf–you want them to know.

And then once you have that done, then you ask the manufacturer–the new licensee–to produce a business plan, and that business plan should mirror very much like what the forecast they gave you just a couple months before when they were doing the scope of the of the agreement. So now it’s, okay, here’s what we’re gonna do in Q1, here’s what we’re gonna do Q2, Q3, Q4–that plan then becomes a living document. So once a month–middle of February–you call the licensing manager, we’ll call the manufacturer, and say, “Okay, you said you were gonna do $50,000 in these categories of product in the month of January. How’d you do?” Well, we actually did 55,000. Great, now how did you do as far as it relates to the specific different product stock-keeping units? Well, we didn’t sell all of them. So, okay, now we need to focus on that particular one that you do focus on. So that business planning piece keeps them focused on getting where you need to be with your marketing and your channels and everything like that. So it’s no different from a regular business plan. I say, look, you know just because the third party manufacturer is managing this particular category, you shouldn’t change your standards. It should be exactly the same, and if you treat them exactly the same, you know you’re gonna be successful.

So in your package that we’re marketing here, you have all that kind of information that kind of gives them a template of how to do that business plan. All six webinars, all eight steps, all of the the templates, all of the examples, and consulting. So this is a package I don’t care what you had, you would be amazed. You can have a small item manufacturing operation that you could turn into a major operation because you are tied in with a company like Coca-Cola, or NFL that I’ve worked with, or the Newell Rubbermaid, or hundreds of corporations out there, and make yourself a nice little living, couldn’t you? It’s a terrific technique for manufacturers who know they have an innovative product that fits with a great brand out there that consumers want. So you’re fulfilling pent-up demand that the manufacturers know that they can satisfy by helping the brand owner get their product in the marketplace, in that category, and get their brand exposed and fulfill that need that the consumers have asked for.

Pete, it’s been great having you. This is the way that you want to do your business; that’s what Robert Allen was talking about–brand licensing being a new multiple stream of income for you as an entrepreneur. It’s an incredible thing, and you need to get this package if you’re a small manufacturer and you want to work with the big boys. This is a great way to do it, working with Pete, a guy that’s come from Coca-Cola, he’s come from Newell Rubbermaid, he’s working with other corporations. Do you have your opportunity to get this package, and the information is on this video.