The Branding Message From Leonard Lauder

The International Trademark Association (INTA) annual meeting is occurring this week in Washington, DC. Providing the key note address this year was Leonard Lauder, Chair Emeritus and son of his company's namesake Estée Lauder. Leonard's company sells such well-known brands as Estée Lauder, Clinique and Aramis, enjoying annual world-wide revenue in excess of $7 billion. The messages provided by Leonard Lauder to the assembled trademark practitioners were profound:

• Brands stand for a promise between the product and the consumer. Consumers come to know a product by this promise. Does a brand adequately protect this promise?
• Companies must seek a broad view of what constitutes a brand. A brand is not only a product name, but also product color, design, packaging and a domain. Have all of these brand elements been protected?
• A company's intellectual property counsel must be involved in licensing and transactional negotiations. This is particularly true in that IP impacts so many aspects of a company's product and brand.
• The image of a company's product can be key to product success because it is the image that sells.

One element that Leonard did not mention, but that was presented during the course of INTA's educational offerings, is the sobering reality that over 50% of people under 20 years of age look to social media for brand information. As such, and to the above important branding issues addressed by Leonard Lauder, it should be asked whether a company's brand is adequately being developed on-line and in social media.