ABSTRACT
Not all licensing programs are successful. Some of them end with financial loss or damage to the brand’s business. This chapter concludes with the most frequent pitfalls to avoid when operating a licensing agreement. Section 1 recognizes the mistakes most encountered with the licensing partner and suggests how to deal with them. Section 2 highlights the risk-taking and the risk-mitigation that characterize licensing programs. We start with discussing growth mitigation risk, then product development mitigation risk, then market mitigation risk and then operational mitigation risk. The flip side of these types of risk-mitigation for licensors is an increase in brand risk. We then shift to examples of risk-taking that come from Brand Licensing. Section 3 illustrates how a case where these pitfalls can be avoided and overcome in order to create value and an enduring brand licensing program.
