Five conversations we keep hearing across our licensee network
Frank Goergen, Executive Director at established.inc, outlines five recurring commercial situations in which companies use brand licensing:
Get a few manufacturers, distributors and retailers around the same table after a trade show and the licensing conversation becomes fairly simple.
“We could sell a lot of that. Just not under our current brand.”
“Germany? Great market. Nobody knows us there.”
“The buyer likes the product. He hates the name.”
“We can make it. I’m just not putting our logo on it.”
These are not verbatim quotes from individual licensees. They are shortened versions of conversations we have heard repeatedly across a network of 200+ licensees.
And they usually tell you far more about why companies license brands than a presentation on brand awareness ever will.
1. “We want the volume. I’m not touching the premium brand.”
This conversation normally starts with a spreadsheet.
Someone has found a big market sitting two price points below the company’s existing range.
“Can we make it?”
“Yes.”
“Can we make money on it?”
“Yes.”
“Can sales move it?”
“Probably.”
Then somebody looks at the brand.
Silence.
Because everyone around the table knows what happens if you spend ten years pushing a name upmarket and then start sticking it on €79 products.
So the obvious question comes up:
“Do we really need to use our own brand?”
Sometimes the answer is no.
The company already has the factory, suppliers, sales team and retail contacts. What it needs is another name for another job.
The reverse happens too.
A company has lived comfortably in the mass market for years and spots a good business at €499.
“We can build it.”
“Fine.”
“Will anyone pay €499 with our name on it?”
That is the conversation.
Sometimes a second brand gives the business somewhere else to go without dragging the first one along with it.
2. “Germany looks good. Shame nobody knows who we are.”
Imagine you have a decent business in France and Germany is next on the list.
The product travels well.
You have people who can sell it.
Then you sit down with the first German buyer.
He looks at the product and at the price.
Then looks at the logo.
“Who knows this brand here?”
Fair question.
Now you have two things to sell.
The product.
And yourself.
You can absolutely build the name from scratch. Companies do it all the time.
But somebody eventually asks:
“How much are we going to spend teaching Germany who we are?”
And somebody else says:
“There’s already a German brand people know. Why don’t we look at that?”
That is when licensing becomes interesting.
Then the useful questions start.
“Do people actually know it?”
“Does it make sense on this product?”
That is the part that counts.
A name everybody remembers from an old radio in their parents’ house is nice.
A name that helps a buyer understand the product he is looking at is useful.
3. “We can make it. I just don’t believe our logo on it.”
This one comes up when companies start looking at adjacent categories.
“You know what? We could do coffee machines.”
“Can we?”
“Of course we can. Same factories already make them.”
Then someone mocks up the product with the existing logo.
And the room goes:
“Hmm.”
That “hmm” can become a very expensive sound.
Because technically, everything works.
Commercially, nobody is quite convinced.
“Would our dealers buy this from us?”
“Would consumers understand why we suddenly make this?”
Sometimes everyone agrees it does.
Great. Use the existing brand.
No royalty. No additional approvals. No second set of rules to manage.
Sometimes the answer around the table is:
“No chance. That name looks completely wrong on this.”
Then another brand starts to make sense.
You still use your suppliers.
You still use your product team.
You still call many of the same customers.
The new category simply gets a name that feels at home there.
That is how companies sometimes end up running two very different product businesses without building two completely separate companies behind them.
4. “At that price, private label is done.”
Anyone who has been in private label long enough knows this conversation.
“Good product. But at €79, we’re done.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s private label.”
And that’s pretty much the whole discussion.
Then somebody says:
“Okay. What if we put a brand on it people actually know?”
Now you have another conversation.
We have seen retailers try exactly that with a handful of products.
“Let’s put four SKUs in and see what happens.”
A few months later, the call sounds different.
“Can you give us another five?”
“Can we do this in TVs as well?”
“What else do you have under the brand?”
That is usually the interesting part.
Nobody invented a new factory or suddenly found a miracle product.
They found another way to sell something they already knew how to source and bring to market.
Some of those small tests became sizeable licensed assortments.
The numbers behind individual cases stay confidential. Under NDA, we can talk through comparable examples.
5. “I can sell that. Just not under this name.”
This one usually starts with someone showing a product to a customer who was never supposed to buy it.
“I like that.” - “Really?”
“Yes. Can I have it?” - “Sure.”
“Not with that brand, though.”
And suddenly there is a conversation.
Maybe the existing brand belongs in mass retail and the customer runs specialist stores.
Maybe the buyer likes the product at €299 and the current brand lives comfortably at €179.
Maybe a distributor sees a customer group the manufacturer never built the product for in the first place.
The natural reaction is:
“Okay. What would you sell it under?”
That can lead to a second brand.
And when it works, the discussion tends to stay very practical.
“Same product?”
“Pretty much.”
“Same supplier?”
“Yes.”
“Same tooling?”
“Yes.”
“Different customer?”
“Exactly.”
That is attractive.
But it's easy to get it wrong.
If both brands are calling on the same retailers with nearly the same product at nearly the same price, somebody inside the company eventually asks:
“Why are we competing with ourselves?”
Fair question again.
A second brand needs somewhere specific to go.
A customer.
A channel.
A category.
A price point.
Something.
Otherwise, you have simply created another logo for your team to manage.
“So what do you actually need the brand for?”
| Commercial situation | Commercial constraint | Role of the licensed brand |
| Second market position | Existing brand tied to one price or market position | Creates a separate position |
| New geography | Limited recognition in the target market | Provides a more relevant market identity |
| New product category | Existing brand lacks category credibility | Creates a stronger category fit |
| Private label replacement | Limited brand and price positioning | Changes how the range can be positioned |
| Additional route to market | Current brand does not fit every channel or customer group | Opens another commercial route |
That is usually the best question in the room.
Forget the logo for a minute.
Forget the old advertising campaigns.
Forget whether somebody’s father had one in 1978.
What piece of business are you trying to win?
“We want the €99 segment without touching our premium brand.”
“We want Germany.”
“We want to get into floorcare.”
“Our private label has hit its ceiling.”
“We have a retailer who wants the product under another name.”
Now there is something to discuss.
And sometimes the answer is:
“Then you don’t need a licensed brand.”
Good.
Licensing costs money.
There are royalties. Minimum guarantees. Marketing commitments. Approval processes. People on both sides who have to make the relationship work.
If the brand doesn't solve a specific commercial problem, adding all that makes little sense.
But if someone says, “With that brand I can get this into 500 stores,” then you start listening.
That is usually where licensing earns its seat at the table.
Is Brand Licensing on Your Table?
Across established.inc’s portfolio of 20 brands and a network of 200+ licensees, the situations vary enormously.
The useful conversations usually come back to one sentence:
“Tell me what you need the brand to do.”
And if you already have an answer, I’d be interested to hear it.
Send us the situation through our established.inc contact form, or connect with me directly on LinkedIn.
Tell me what you are trying to sell, where you want to sell it, and what is getting in the way.
That is usually enough to start a good conversation.
Frank Goergen
Executive Director, established.inc
Editorial Note
The observations in this article are based on established.inc’s experience across more than 200 licensee relationships. They reflect recurring patterns we see in our day-to-day work and should not be understood as statistically representative market research. AI tools were used to support the editorial process; the content, assessments and conclusions were reviewed and approved by established.inc.
About the author
Frank Goergen is Executive Director at established.inc, responsible for expanding the company’s brand licensing portfolio across Europe. He brings more than 20 years of international market development experience in consumer electronics and broadcast hardware, with a focus on licensing strategy, licensee development and commercial execution.
Frank Goergen | LinkedIn
About established.inc
established.inc is a global brand management company that owns, develops, and licenses a portfolio of 20 heritage and emerging brands across electronics, green energy, automotive, and lifestyle, including RCA, Thomson, Blaupunkt, Nordmende, Audio Research, Technicolor, and others. With more than 200 licensees and USD 2+ billion in global retail sales across its brand portfolio, established.inc connects product, sourcing, capital, quality, and marketing through an integrated brand ecosystem built for long-term brand performance.
established.inc I LinkedIn
