Amid ever-changing technologies and consumer tastes, the lifecycle for new products is growing shorter. So major brands are constantly on the hunt for innovation – a quest that can lead them to license those innovations from independent inventors and development companies, or even to acquire the developers of new processes and products.

Adding a brand
During one section of his recent Licensing International webinar, trend forecaster and product development consultant Tom Mirabile of Springboard Futures offered a look at technologies and ideas developed by smaller companies that could benefit from being attached to the right brand – particularly in this time when consumers are gravitating to brands they know and trust.

“What are the driving needs and aspirations that matter to all consumers?” he asked. The answer, he said, is “intangibles.” What they’re looking for “is often invisible” – such aspects as saving time and space; promoting health, wellness and safety; giving them convenience and flexibility, among several others.

Brands can be an important part of the package.

Confidence and trust
Pointing to a modular space-saving furniture line, he asked: “What would that be if it [carried a licensed brand]. How much confidence could we put behind that? Trust is immensely important right now to consumers, and that’s home turf to licensors.”

He called a raft of other products and technologies currently being marketed by smaller startups “objects that are waiting for somebody to make them feel secure… They’re just not branded enough; they’re not associated with [names] that we trust.”

Brands, he said, should be looking at crowdfunding sites — “great places to hunt for new ideas” filled with “All of these people with great single ideas. Companies have to get used to looking in places like this.” The potential business models may involve product licenses, brand licenses, joint ventures, or even outright purchases.

Some of these companies, of course, can tough it out and ride a successful product long enough to establish and extend its own brand into other areas, pointing to Nest. The consumer “had to trust Nest on thermostats, and they had a solid three years of performance before they could move on to other categories.”

Brands can be particularly important in areas such as health and safety. He pointed to LastSwab, a cotton swab that can be re-used up to 1,000 times, eliminating the waste generated by single-use swabs. “Why is not Johnson & Johnson or someone else out there looking at this with a brand that would amp the sales up?” Mirabile asked.

Members of Licensing International can view Tom Mirabile’s entire webinar, “2020 (Re)Vision: Minding What Matters,” archived on the Licensing International website.