Licensed to Thrill

As one of Britain’s most venerable, and memorable, sanitaryware brand names launches a licensing programme, we lift the lid on an exciting new partnership.

Described even by its most expert practitioners as marketing’s red-headed step-child, licensing is not a well understood option in the marketeers toolbox. But, after recognising retailers interest in Thomas Crapper merchandise and accessories, the sanitary­ware specialist’s commercial director Warrick Knott recently appointed licensing consul­tancy Golden Goose to help turn its evocative name into a household brand.
The three-year agency agreement between Thomas Crapper and Golden Goose is clearly already a rewarding venture judging by the enthusiasm emanating from the two men responsible for it, and is largely the result of Thomas Crapper having already dipped its toe into the brand extension waters over two years ago. As Simon Kirby, md-owner of Thomas Crapper explains: “We launched our own range of bathroom preparations such as soap and oil, towels and loo roll, which were all rather tongue in cheek and they were very popular.” Which was part of the problem. “The trouble is that there were problems with economies of scale, and in that sort of business several hundred thousands of bottles are considered only medium-sized. So we simply couldn’t supply them at an affordable price point.”
But rather than putting him off, Kirby knew that it would be a great opportunity for someone with the right supply chains. “We soon realised that to manufacture and distribute these sorts of things is a completely separate business. We would either have to double the size of the firm to do it properly or not really bother.”
Enter Golden Goose director Adam Bass, who quickly recognised the brand’s untapped potential and a company looking to get down to business. “It’s just a fun, instantly recognisable brand – I instantly got it,” says Bass. “It’s such a great British brand which Simon and his team have resurrected in all its former glory with real love and attention to detail, taking great care and pride in the brand. I think it’s a British success story – there’s real provenance and heritage – and it’s a name that carries credibility and expertise.”
But before the fun part of designing products and doing deals, there was the strategic work to get through, which in Bass’s words, “takes as long as it takes”. 
“Licensing cuts across virtually every part of the business, so if you are going to license out your brand, then it clearly has to be on a product that matches with your brand strategy and marketing. Legal need to develop an agreement between the brand owner and the manufacturer, and accounting are in the mix when it comes to collecting the revenue. Finally, the product needs to be examined to see if it’s good enough, which means ensuring the necessary manufacturing and production expertise are available as a resource.”
When negotiating a licensing deal Bass explains that there is no ready-made formula for establishing any brand’s licensable value and therefore setting the royalty rate can be a tricky process: “It’s a balancing act. The overriding element is to ensure that the product itself is commercially viable. You can negotiate all you like about royalty rates, but if you then come up with a product that doesn’t sell because the price point is wrong, then nobody makes anything. So there are certain barriers that are set due to commercial points you are aiming for.”
Bass does think there is such a thing as bad licensing: “Some brand owners really don’t see licens­ing as anything more than a revenue generating opportunity. I had one client say to me ‘If I am going to let someone damage my brand, then I’d like more money out of them’, which I found interesting.
My answer was: ‘How much is it worth to completely destroy your brand?’” He recounts a common saying in licensing worth keeping in mind: “It’s never about the money until it’s about the money”.
Thankfully this was not the vision of Thomas Crapper, which having sought out Golden Goose, had a clear idea of what would be a deal too far.
As Bass points out, the final licensed product says a great deal about the core brand. “If it’s wrong, it’s wrong and it’s very important to be able to say no.”
So can he foresee having to turn down big-money tickets for the greater good? “Short-term opportuni­ties can be exciting but they can ruin the long-term brand vision, so if Asda came along and said it wanted to do Thomas Crapper T-shirts for six months for a large amount of royalty, then you’d look at it, but the challenge would be, does this rule out all further activity going forward?” Without saying so, he intimates the final answer is unlikely to be positive.
The received wisdom is that brand equity – the price or volume premium enjoyed by the branded product or service over a non-branded equivalent – can trans­late into as much as one-third to one-half of a product’s total sale price. Given the investment and time that Simon Kirby has put into rebuilding the Thomas Crapper brand, this seems a reasonable expectation.
“To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised. Certainly a good reputation is valuable.” Given Thomas Crapper’s worldwide reputation for doing something he didn’t do, ie, invent the flushing WC, Kirby doesn’t miss the inherent irony of the brand extending into new categories as a way of reaching out to a wider audience.
 “Mr Crapper was such a good marketer. He was partly famous because his products were the best. They used all the best materials and his wares were supplied to all the best places like Buckingham Palace, then known as Buckingham House; Sandringham, and Westminster Abbey.” A canny PR man, Crapper was hugely aware of the importance of a name, adorning it in big letters above the door and on all his output.
“By the time Thomas Crapper retired and died it was already a brand name. If he were alive today I’m sure he would be looking at ways of licensing out.”
For Thomas Crapper, the licensing deal could, in chicken and egg style, eventually have a considerable knock-on effect on its own methods of business.
A bathroom industry historian himself, Kirby admits that a kernel of the idea was in his head even when he bought the company. He now sees the possibility of his core products becoming more mass market as a result of the higher profile the new products will generate – Thomas Crapper currently only sells direct and through a very few select showrooms. “I think it’s probably inevitable. If these licensed products are successful and are bought in numbers, then each one effectively acts as a little advert for the firm, which in turn will benefit the licensees. It’s a virtuous circle and we will probably get a lot more enquiries.
It might even mean we’d have to take on more staff and increase production somewhat.”
While the most obvious risk to a brand through licensing is to market products that fail commercially, Adam Bass has a word of caution for KBB brand owners thinking about licensing: “The biggest risk to brands is not a small forgettable failure, it’s a high-profile success that is way off the brand values.”
Generally, the most licensable brands are the type of lovemarks that Richard Hytner spoke about at last year’s BMA conference “that generate loyalty beyond reason”, and Bass has his own favourites. “What I like about the Virgin brand is that it has got permission to fail. There’s a notion of it being some­thing that tries new things and isn’t frightened of failure, so it has permission to act in a lot of categories.”
Even Branson’s several botched balloon attempts cannot dent its attention-grabbing successes. “The ballooning was notorious for its failures but were massively successful in getting people’s attention.
I think that sort of thing rubs off on the brand and it is an example of a more fluid brand because they position themselves in that way.”
The Thomas Crapper Licensing Programme has already got off to a flying start with the signature of a two-year giftware licence with major manufacturer Half Moon Bay. With the fun merchandising taken care of, the focus now is on high-quality bathroom accessories which fit with the core brand values that Bass and Kirby are taking such care to protect.
 “Thomas Crapper is quite a niche sanitaryware brand at the top end of the scale,” says Bass. “We’re looking to produce products that reflect that positioning of the brand within the sanitaryware market. It’s fine to do some fun gift products that will be cheap and cheerful, but we’re now looking to target the sort of customer who’s looking to make a statement in the bathroom. So, as ever, there is a job to do to find the niche for the products, and there is enormous interest in the heritage industry and history.” Long may they reign!