Product as Promotion

Several recent announcements show how corporate brands’ licensing activity these days often walks the line between consumer merchandise and marketing:

• Luxury meets novelty. Cheetos’ first online store, introduced at the end of November, features an assortment of luxury items, some of which sound like April Fool’s jokes. In fact, the site’s Cheeteau fragrance began its life as such before becoming a real product. Several of the SKUs, which comprise an eclectic mix encompassing orange bronzer, fine jewelry, “flaming hot” pants, and more, some very pricey, sold out in short order. In a separate example, Apple accessories maker Twelve South introduced a range of novelty products that includes a candle with the signature “new Mac smell.” The $24 candle went out of stock immediately due to surprisingly high consumer demand.
• The retail experience. Taco Bell became the latest brand to open a retail outlet for souvenir-style products. It launched its shop on the Las Vegas Strip last month, next door to its fourth Taco Bell Cantina concept. The store sells both Las Vegas-branded tchotchkes and Taco Bell items ranging from the usual shirts, hats, and bags to bikinis and jewelry. The merchandise is also available through a dedicated e-commerce site. Taco Bell joins M&Ms and several other brands in creating tourist-friendly retail destinations.
• Collaboration through shared history. Indian Motorcycle and Red Wing partnered for a limited-edition collection of handcrafted motorcycle boots earlier this year. The pairing celebrates the two companies’ common roots. Both were founded in the first decade of the 20th century, are positioned as brands reflecting an Americana lifestyle, make their products in the U.S., and are currently located 80 miles apart in southern Minnesota. Other marketers have paired to honor common history or geography through unique products, a recent example being Naragansett’s Bananagrams beer.
• Fashion meets art meets brand. Perfetti Van Melle’s pairing of Chupa Chups with U.K. fashion label The Rodnik Brand, announced in October, exemplifies corporations’ increasing appearances in art galleries and on fashion runways. Rodnik’s designer Philip Colbert celebrated Salvador Dali’s creation of the Chupa Chups’ logo with a line of ready-to-wear dresses, along with a series of original art and prints. Perfetti Van Melle is making the artwork available for high-end collaborations and licensing initiatives. Brands such as Mountain Dew, Coca-Cola, and many others have similarly crossed into the realms of fashion and/or art through collaboration.

These deals reflect several trends in corporate licensing—and in licensing at large—with their focus on collaboration, their limited scope, their mostly high-end positioning (often combined with a sense of fun), and their straddling of the line between promotion and product.