Talking Brands & Sleeping Giants
When is a brand ready for licensing? Our very own Jehane Boden Spiers answers this question on Talking Brands this month along with Start Licensing’s Ian Downes and Licensing International UK’s Graham Saltmarsh.
William Blake is credited as one of the sleeping giants ready to be licensed - read more in the article featuring Licensing International UK’s Graham Saltmarsh, Ian Downes from Start Licensing, and Jehane Boden Spiers from Jehane Ltd.
Jehane Boden Spiers, Founder, Jehane Ltd
When is a brand ready for licensing? Well, as with the act of licensing itself, this thought-provoking question is answered by looking at the layers within. Anyone with experience of the licensing world will know the layers are significant. Looking at the three most common and differing states of ‘ready’ is similarly layered.
Firstly, the adjective: to be in a suitable state for action and fully prepared or easily available and within reach. Secondly, the noun: available cash, ‘ready’ money. Thirdly, the verb: to prepare (someone or something) for an activity or purpose. To be ready to enter a competitive market a brand needs to have a combination of all three qualities.
A clear, developed, and prepared identity is key. Being able to think differently as a brand is crucial; being innovative is key to staying successful. A brand must be poised to communicate their message and understand the impact. Consumers have to really value the brand before they invest their available money in it. Preparation and mindset is key.
Brands need to be pro-active and engage the zeitgeist with a consistent voice and visual narrative in order to optimise the moment and be fit for purpose.
Are there any sleeping giants waiting to be licensed? My pick is Austrian designer Josef Frank, one of Vienna’s early modernist figures. He questioned the purity of modernism in the early 1920s, working against the principal that modern equalled uniform design. Frank’s flourishing, organic designs are full of colour and life.
Frank fled the rise of anti-Semitism in Vienna in 1934 for Sweden and the design house Svenkst Tenn. One of Sweden’s most important designers of all time, there are over 2000 furniture sketches and 160 textile prints in the Svenskt Tenn archives.
Frank has received recognition and inspired designers all over the world whilst his own designs are kept closely under the wing of Svenskt Tenn. Frank’s work follows on from the work of the legendary print designer and role model William Morris.
As and when the opportunity to license Frank’s archive more broadly is awakened, the interest from licensees will undoubtedly be colossal.