September 27 , 2018

Efrat's  Message : PresidentsMessage
 
Happy (Jewish) New Year! As the Jewish new year is upon us, we would like to wish you all a prosperous new year! I always feel blessed that I get the opportunity to celebrate two beginnings to the year: the Jewish new year, which corresponds more closely with the beginning of the school year (usually happens around September), and the new calendar year which corresponds with the winter holidays and all the light and warmth that they bring along!
 
We have had a very eventful summer here at Foresight! We have added new clients, are developing new classes, and have even had new babies added to our office family! I personally enjoyed an action-packed family trip to Iceland, and have decided to share a few of the amazing photos we took with our readers. Iceland is a country of many wonders: ice over lava fields, glaciers and hot springs, volcanoes and waterfalls, black sand beaches and the Northern Light. A country with no insects, no predators, where the first democratic parliament was instituted (look closely at some of the Game of Thrones scenes, many filmed in that very location) and 300 thousand or so very friendly Icelanders!


In this newsletter we highlight the most recent blog in our Brand series , dealing with the issue of Brand Extendibility, a marketing decision that many brand owners face as they ponder whether an existing brand could be leveraged to launch new products. Also in this newsletter is a preview of the  LES Annual meeting in Boston . I will be resuming my role as Chair of the High-Tech Sector, and one of my goals for the Sector was to make sure emerging technologies and upcoming trends are well represented in the program. We will be featuring a series of events focused on Blockchain technology, which are highlighted in this newsletter (I will be participating as a speaker or moderator in the first three).

  Warmly,

     


Foresight in the Media IntheMedia

Should Your Toothpaste Company Launch a Frozen Food Line? A Closer Look at Brand Extendibility

The latest blog in our brand strategy series  covers the topic of Brand Equity (often equated with Brand Value), and specifically looks at the concept of Brand Extendibility. A brand extension is the use of a brand on a new product or service in a different category or targeted at different consumers. When done wisely, brand extensions can save companies substantial amounts of money that would have otherwise been spent on marketing a new product or building a new brand entirely. This piece explores the value of Brand Extendibility and provides  several examples of companies who experienced missteps in attempting a brand extension and how one specific company responded when their brand was extended without their consent.

For the full article, please click here

Burberry Extinguishes Flames on Unsold Goods

Last month we published a blog in our Brand Strategy series  (here) that discussed the practice of burning unsold goods in the luxury fashion industry. The piece specifically covered an article that was published on Burberry, which had disclosed the burning of £28.6 million in 2017 (and much more in years prior). Recently, however, the company announced that it would stop this practice with immediate effect. This follow up piece discusses how companies must actively manage their brands to meet consumer preferences and how Burberry's response to the negative press and public backlash could affect their brand value going forward.

For the full article, please click here



 LES Annual Meeting: Blockchain Events  Upcoming

 

The Licensing Executives Society (U.S.A. and Canada) will host its  2018 Annual Meeting in Boston, October 14-17, 2018.  Over 500 intellectual property professionals are expected to attend, representing a highly-diverse community of IP professionals and decision makers who collaborate across multiple industries and sectors.
 
As in every LES Annual Meeting, the content is carefully selected and curated from among hundreds of submissions. As the incoming Chair of the High-Tech Sector, I was a member of the organizing committee for this Annual Meeting, and one of our goals was to make sure emerging technologies and upcoming trends are well represented in the program. If you are planning to attend, I wanted to draw your attention to a series of events featuring Blockchain technology, focusing on the intersection of Blockchain and IP. Below are some of the Blockchain event highlights (I will be participating as a speaker or moderator in the first three):

Monday, Oct. 15, 12:00pm-1:30pm: Deals of Distinction Award - The LES Deals of Distinction Award is an annual industry sector award program of LES, which aspires to recognize worthy licensing deals and promote creative and innovative solutions to business issues involving contracts.  This year's High-Tech Sector's award goes to Blockstack's $50 Million Token Presale. Blockstack is building a decentralized internet base on the blockchain network.
 
Monday, Oct. 15, 4:30pm-5:30pm: Fireside Chat with Blockstack - the High-Tech Sector's Deals of Distinction Award Recipient - Founded in 2013, Blockstack has been building a decentralized blockchain architecture for publishing on the internet, one designed around user control. In late 2017, Blockstack has raised $50 million through the sale of 440 million tokens. The sale attracted leading investors - including Union Square Ventures (USV), Lux Capital and F-Prime Capital Partners- to fund Blockstack's particular vision for a decentralized web built on blockchain technology. This fireside chat will feature representatives from Blockstack and its investor group, who will discuss the dynamics and outcome of this deal as a new funding vehicle in the blockchain ecosystem .
 
Tuesday, Oct. 16, 3:00pm-4:00pm: Blockchain: Early Stage Technology Valuation in a Media Hyped Market - From the price of cryptocurrency valuations to claims that distributed ledger technology will affect seemingly every industry, blockchain technology has pervaded media headlines over the past year. Nevertheless, the market environment is still fraught with many unknowns regarding how this technology will create value for its innovators and investors.  This panel will provide a basic understanding of blockchain and the market and legal trends affecting value.  The panel will focus on how to quantify value in early-stage technologies, like blockchain, in light of difficult to predict regulatory environments and nascent business models.
 
Wednesday, Oct. 17, 8:45am-10:00am: IP Protection in the Blockchain Industry - The discussion will examine how various entities operating in the blockchain ecosystem approach IP rights.  The panel will provide perspectives from cryptocurrency developers and exchanges, as well as from the financial services industry.  We will hear how the blockchain community reconciles open source sharing versus proprietary protection, and understand what aspects of blockchain technology may ripe for licensing going forward.