Brand licensing is when a company grants permission to another to use its intellectual property. This can come in the form of likenesses, marketing materials, character properties, and even products or software.
As a business owner, you can license your properties out to earn passive income and increase brand awareness. For many, the prospect of handing over their company’s image and creations to another can seem extremely intimidating. Yet done correctly, it is safe and can reap huge rewards.
How Does Licensing Work?
Licensing allows you to tap into the market built by other brands and create shared customer experiences. Both you and the brand you license to will benefit from this. With the right licensing, they will sell more products, and you will get a fee as your intellectual property gets exposed to a wider audience.
You can see brand licensing all over the online marketplace. The gaming industry does it extremely well, taking from popular culture licenses to entice new customers. A quick look down the list of the best online casinos at rating site Casino Smash shows many companies have licensed properties on their books. From movie licenses such as Jurassic Park for slot games to television licenses like Wheel of Fortune for bingo, there are innovative solutions across the board.
Another example of online licensing can be seen in clothing brands. The quirky shoe line Irregular Choice is a strong case study A brand built on viral success, their line has expanded through clever licensing opportunities which have seen them make shoes based on popular properties such as Disney and Pokémon.
Types of Licensing Deals
Licensing deals fall into five main categories. The ones that work best are not always those that fit best with your niche either. Sometimes licensing deals that are a little off the wall can be the most successful.
- Brand and Trademark
- Patents
- Characters, art, and entertainment
- Sports
- Software
The Benefits of Licensing
Licensing is essentially the formation of a partnership with another business, and that brings all the necessary advantages with it. You benefit from their experience and existing pool of customers. This makes penetration into new markets much easier to achieve.
As both someone who is granting licenses or a business taking them up, you are diversifying your revenue stream. Be it placing your intellectual property on new products or targeting new audiences with licensed products, you are targeting a bigger audience. If you are the person licensing out, you will incur royalties from sales, creating a steady, passive income from them.
Doing this also lets you share the risk of exploring new markets. This is a huge gamble for business and one that does not always go right. By licensing to others, you have a very low-risk way of reaching into new sectors.
How to License Your Brand
When you decide to license your brand, start by protecting your intellectual property, and making sure you know its value. Follow it by doing research and ensuring the license is meaningful to your customers. If not, you could harm your image. Once you have set your rules and boundaries, you can begin licensing your brand.
