So You Want Your Own Private Brand

By Rick London

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Ten years ago I started my own private label of humor gifts, the Rick London line. To be honest, I did not even know I was "branding". If only I knew then what I know now.

There remains a great mystique to branding, though there shouldn't be. it is simply putting your brand on a service or product.

You know what you do best. If it is art, you have a feasible product to put on the label of, say gourmet coffee or candy or cookies. In most cases, these companies farm out the manufacturing of their products. Sure, they have quality control, and make certain the products are manufactured according to their "recipe" but they don't sit in a big factory and watch the wheels turn. Most of them sit in luxurious corner offices, simply coming up with creative ideas for new or better products and marketing strategies.

When I entered the world of e-commerce, all I had to offer were cartoons, a lot of them. But I had to decide on what products to put them. I was no "trust fund baby" so I had to think smarter, better, faster than those who were.

Since I was on a shoestring, I started with a print-on-demand company such as Cafe Press and a few others. I didn't even have to pay for the web space, simply digitally-design my products and they did the rest. I left them for awhile to form my own stores, but they grew and added hundreds of more products, and improved their quality and service so I recently launched Rick London Collection there and it is already successful. It is merely another outshoot of Londons Times Cartoons.

So I found another company called Printfection that offers digitally produced items. No affiliate program yet, and not the huge variety of Cafepress, but the quality was what I was after. I would rather sell a thousand quality tees, jerseys, sweats coasters, aprons, etc. than 10,000 of the same in which the image fades, or fabric tears etc. I have gone through that experience with a number of firms. It is a live and learn process. I have used about six and Printfection (even with its flaws comes out ahead).

I also decided to start the world's first cartoon gourmet coffee line which I sell at my Londons Times Superstore. It has five blends of farm-fresh packaged whole coffee beans, an oversize cartoon coffee mug, four cartoon coasters and the gratuitous biscotti. How did I do it? The way I did it is not necessarily THE way to do it, but I can tell you it did not cost me a penny to do it. It was a barter. I gave permission to a manufacturer of such gift boxes (we do not use baskets as they tend to bend in shipping), and split the commission. He even does all the promotions and advertising, thousands of dollars worth a month.

As time went by, I got really brave. I already had nearly 8500 cartoons up on my Londons Times Cartoon site and I was ready to take them to market in a big way. I already had nearly 60,000 gift and clothing products up at my Londons Times Supertore, but I wanted something very different, the world's first and only private label cartoon gourmet coffees. Ruth London's Exquisite Coffees was born and sold at the superstore. Each basket includes 5 blends from around the world, an oversize cartoon mug and four cartoon coasters. They are top-sellers at nearly $50. I bartered the whole deal, with my leverage being my cartoons. Ruth London was my late maternal grandmother who I loved so much, and she loved coffee so much, hence the name.

And then I added personalization for only $2. I could have charged a lot more for this engraving but the volume makes up for the difference. Corporate gifts are big business, and to find a unique corporate gfit, I mean very unique, is not the easiest thing in the world. The buyer gets his/her company name and URL on any of the items in the Superstore.

This may sound a bit manipulative, and I agree, in a way it is. But it is also providing a product and service that people want, and an ideal way for a company to personally get their name to the right party. And it works and it works very well (is the feedback we get).

If you have not noticed we live in the information age and the Internet has made all information available to everyone, you've been out on a limb. Take advantage. All the information is there. All you need do is utilize it. If not for the Internet, there would be no Londons Times Cartoons, RickLondonwear, LTSuperstore, RickLondonCollection or many of the smaller niche stores I have opened, all branded under my name. You really can do it with a little effort.

Article Source: http://interpret.zar.vg

About The Author
Sassy cartoonist Internet entrepreneur Rick London has added yet another unique gift cartoon store to his repertoire of offbeat funny gift and apparel store, Rick London Collection product reviews and This and other unique content \'gifts\' articles are available with free reprint rights.