Contact the senior marketing executive at your desired company (typically the CMO) and inquire if they have an in-house licensing group or agency,
Dear Lilian,
I have designed a couple of proprietary pendants.
1) What is to best way to get a licensing agreement with a major jewelry company?
2) If I was to market it myself, is there a best way to do this with minimal budget?
Steve Belleville
Dear Steve,
So I must admit – I know how to maneuver an 8-cylinder, 300+ horsepower car through the treacherous roads of the Pacific Coast Highway at 90 mph, and I know how to avoid getting rammed by an errant motorist while driving the nerve-wrecking streets of Naples, Italy.
I know how to safely cut bamboo trees with a Samurai sword and I know every single line of the movie Kill Bill and can re-enact both volumes of the film for you in their entirety.
I also know how to speak French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Greek. Brazilian Portuguese and the Nigerian language of Yoruba at varying levels of fluency and how to say “thank you” in 16 other languages.
What I don’t know how to do, however, is get a licensing agreement with a major jewelry company.
But, before you lose faith in me, darling Steve, I also know how to ask other people when I inevitably encounter a subject for which I know nothing.
So I turn this month’s column over to my dear friend, Dan Scott, former CMO of Scott Kay and a celebrated Brand Architect. Dan, love, take it away!
