R.I.P. – Retention of Income Potential
There’s big profit potential and relatively low risk in managing dead celebrity brands, as evidenced by Iconix Brand Group‘s purchase of the Peanuts brand this week for a reported $175 million. Iconix owns the rights to several notable brands like Joe Boxer underwear, but this is its first venture into character-based brands. They figure they can pump some new life into the Schulz characters and generate as much as $75 million in annual license fees.
According to Mark Roesler, CEO of CMG Worldwide — one of the largest managers of intellectual property rights and owner of several dead celebrity brands including Marilyn Monroe, Mark Twain and Babe Ruth — consumer interest in famous people tends to increase even more once they’re dead. As a result, the earning potential of those brands is often far greater than when they were alive. Posthumous brands are definitely more stable and easier to manage without the scandals or career ups and downs, so there is less risk.
For years I’ve been hearing about “above the line” and “below the line” marketing, and though I have a general idea of what the difference is — that it emanated from the advertising agency business — I’m 
also somewhat skeptical about any hard and definitive lines in today’s complex and ever-changing market environment. Who is it that determines where this line is drawn and what falls on either side?
Doing a quick bit of research I learn that the term evolved from Procter & Gamble back in the 1950s, when they were attempting to qualify and manage how ad agencies charged for their services. Agencies made so much commission on media buys that they often did the creative and production management work for free — so, in premise, everything above the line was free and everything below the line was paid for out of media commissions.
Filed under: Marketing Theory
This inquiring mind was a little curious as to where the more progressive marketing leadership is coming from — the US or Canada — so I paid a little visit to the respective national marketing associations to uncover the hot topics of the day.
A recent Leadership Paper released by the Canadian Marketing Association makes the case that many if not most of the established brand management models used by corporate marketing professionals are obsolete and in need of change, as they are failing to help companies create competitive advantage in a rapidly changing market environment that has grown exceedingly complex.
