Category: general

Quite a lot of brands went into Chapter 11 over the last couple of years. Many fashion and retail brands were among those and licensing models were thought to be the easy solution to revive those brands.

Recently, Reuters published an interview with the CEO of Cerruti.
The famous fashion house went bust in 2004. Here are some facts from the interview:

• Cerruti Chief Executive Florent Perrichon, a former LVMH executive, is ambitious to bring sales to 400 million by 2014.

• In 2009, Cerruti made an operating loss of 4 million euros, but this year the deficit should be smaller, in spite of higher marketing expenses, and the company remains on track to break even by 2012, he said.

To put things into perspective, Cerruti is one of the oldest and best known fashion brands. Giorgio Armani got his start there. 

Clearly, brand licensing is not a quick and easy fix.

Warren Buffett in his annual letter to shareholders sometimes writes:

“I still dance to work every day.”

I would not go this far, but we do like our work very much.

This week a client rewarded us with a gratification on top of our remuneration. A great gesture and of course it is highly appreciated by the team.

We experienced that before with other clients. It always reassures us in our approach to licensing, brands and quality of service we aim to deliver. And yes, it is a wonderful additional motivation.

We toast to our great clients.

This is not about our most valuable brand license so far, although it is about a contract we closed recently. This is about the time and effort that sometimes is needed, to finalize a brand license with willing parties.

The time and work that went into negotiating this brand license contract was record breaking. From first contact to signing the agreement took six months, countless telephone calls and way over 400 emails. But it was worth every second, every night hour, every extra effort that went into it.

Without patient, willing and able people on both side, licensor and licensee, this would not have been possible.

If you consider entering our field of business, bring an additional bag of patience.

Der Automobil-Industrie geht es schlecht, das ist nicht neu. Ebenso bekannt ist, dass in den vergangen 5-10 Jahren diverse Nischenanbieter gekauft wurden, manche mehrfach.

Diverse Medien berichten nun, dass selbst die Marke Jeep auf dem Prüfstand steht.

Gleichzeitig gelang Jeep die Platzierung drei zusätzlicher Lizenzen für weitere Spielzeuge, Taschenlampen und weiter Kleidung.

Vielleicht kann Jeep auch so seine zukünftige Ertragskraft beweisen.

Jeep added brand licenses for more toys, flashlights and more apparel.

According to many news sources the future of Jeep as a car brand is in jeopardy and Jeep needs to proof its future potential. In the current state the additional brand licenses can only help Jeep to survive.