Chicken Little & the Restaurant World

The Wall Street Journal giveth and the Wall Street Journal taketh away....

The Journal was kind enough to feature Broad Street Licensing Group in an article about leveraging restaurant brands to supermarkets that has had the phone ringing off the hook. But now it has published an article about dumb brand extensions that is likely to scare off restaurant CEOs who think licensing will mean fewer visits or lower profits. No one outside the restaurant business thinks there's a shred of reality to that, but who am I to tell the CEO of a major chain he's full of ####.

And I would be the first to admit there have been stupid licensing ideas. Snuggle Fabric Softener once asked us to license the brand and its cute bear to ice cream bars because their in-bred ideation sessions had convinced middle management Snuggle meant "comfort" and not "nice-smelling clothes." It turned out that at the time, one of our clients was Good Humor-Breyers, the ice cream megalith. Their reaction to a Snuggle ice cream bar?

YUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!

Fabric softener doesn't bring to mind good-tasting treats. Yet interestingly, the Snuggle people said we weren't good "team players" because we tried to tell them their idea wouldn't work.

Sometimes it's better to tell a client a lie than the truth. I never do, but then, that's me.

Excerpted from BSLG's weekly subscription news reader service Food Business News. To subscribe or for information about licensing, contact Broad Street Licensing Group (tel. 973-655-0598)