Licensing Your Trademark - A Positive Alternative

For a couple of years now, through our work with videos, I’ve realized that licensing is an often neglected business model.  Not only is a potential revenue source, it’s a way to work with people in a positive and permission-based manner.

Patrick O’Keefe, author of Managing Online Forums, recently wrote a post that got me thinking.  It’s called “Rethinking the Cease and Desist - Don’t Threaten Fan Communities and Groups - License Your Brand to Them.”  Patrick is a professional community manager and has a lot of real-world experience in dealing with fan communities - and I think he’s 100% right.

I believe I have the solution. You have to control your trademark. You also don’t want to abuse your vibrant fan base. You feel you are between a rock and a hard place. The solution? License your brand to the site and/or it’s proprietors.
Provide them with a license allowing them to do what they are already doing.

Let’s take a step back and talk about the issue at-hand.  If you own a trademark, like “Common Craft” you must protect it.  If you don’t, you could lose the ability to protect it in the future.  For this reason, you have to be proactive. Unfortunately, enforcing a trademark can be messy.

If you’re a major brand, you have lawyers who are constantly scouring the web for people who use the trademark in illegal ways.  For instance, if I used the Coca-Cola logo to advertise my new drink, they would surely send me a nice letter.

For small companies, it’s sometimes not so simple.  While enforcing your trademark is your duty, you have the real potential of ruining the goodwill you’ve built among your customers and fans by handling the situation in a clumsy way.  

There are the obvious cases where an organization is clearly trying to create confusion by using your trademark to promote their own products.  This is an easy one - a cease-and-desist is often the only thing that will cause them to stop.

Most often though, the person or company violating the trademark (for example, using your logo without permission) does not have bad intentions. They are a fan who wants to use the trademark to help you - not take business from you.  This is a simple case of awareness.  They either didn’t know it was trademarked, or didn’t understand the basics of trademark law.  It’s these cases that are the hardest because a cease-and-desist will seem misplaced.

This is where licensing comes in.  As I’ve written before, licensing is the business of permission. You have the right to control your intellectual property, whether it’s your words, music, videos, logos, etc. and licensing is how that control is often managed. Trademark is a tool that makes licensing possible - they give you legal authority to control what you own.  

So, to Patrick’s point, what seems like a trademark violation may be a business opportunity, or a way to have a formal, productive relationship with fans.  

Let’s say one of your fans wants to start a blog about your brand.  Without asking, they grab a logo from the web and start a blog, maybe with the name of your company in the URL.  You notice it and realize that they are violating your trademark. The problem is confusion: people may confused their site with your site. Avoiding this confusion is part of why trademarks are important. Consumers need confidence that they are dealing with the genuine article. So, if you feel it's a risk, you have a choice. One is to stop them with a cease-and-desist, which will feel harsh to one of your biggest fans.  Another option is to go them and say something like:  

“Hey, I saw your blog and I’d love to see it continue.  As you may know, I own the trademark for the logo and title your using.  I’d like to work with you to keep using them, but I need to make sure that it’s clear who owns it.  For this reason, I’d like to license it to you.  This way, you have my explicit permission to use it and we can work together on how it’s used in the future.  I’ve attached a simple document that outlines how the relationship works.”

This is a more productive way to manage this situation.  There are a number of benefits:
    1.    You protect your trademark
    2.    You create a formal relationship with a big fan
    3.    You have the opportunity to make this a business

Every situation is different, but think about #3 above. Permission doesn’t have to come with a fee, but often it does.  You could easily say that using the logo (for example) costs X amount per year.  Before you know it, you’re making passive income based on your intellectual property -  and that’s a good business to be in.

Final Note:

Of course, we are not lawyers. If you have questions about trademark law, please talk to an attorney.  Here are a couple of links about trademark and trademark infringement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_infringement

http://www.copylaw.com/new_articles/trademrk.html

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Custom Video: Rightcliq by Visa

Today Visa is rolling out a new product called Rightcliq that makes online shopping easier and more social. It works in your browser like a bookmark or plug-in. I'll let the video below explain the rest. You'll find it on the Visa website here.

About this production

Like so many online products, Rightcliq by Visa has an explanation problem that deserves special attention. A solid explanation is key for people to see the value and feel connected to what it does. For example, people have been shopping online for years.  We have our favorite sites and feel comfortable with the process. The online shopping experience is well established in our minds. Because it's so well established, we may even be skeptical of change - and therein lies the challenge.

How do you convince someone that something they already love could be even better? Our challenge with this video was to help the audience identify with the problems of online shopping (products on multiple sites, lack of input from friends, payment hassles, package tracking) and then show how Rightcliq solves them - and the key is to "show."  Explaining this kind of product is difficult with words or even pictures, but a story in video form about a person "Jennifer" who experiences Rightcliq - that's where the product comes to life.  As always, our goal is for the viewer to say "I feel that way!" about the problems and "I want to use that!" to the solutions.

We really enjoyed working with the Rightcliq team at Visa.  They were not only very professional and amazingly organized, but fun - something we value highly.

For more info, see this TechCrunch article.

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Back Into the Custom Video Business

Here’s a question.  Let’s say you’re dedicated to being a two person company and you receive many more requests for your services than you can handle.  How do you serve more customers and maintain a high quality without hiring a team?

We asked ourselves that question recently in the context of our custom video work.  Because there continues to be a lot of interest in Common Craft videos, we decided to refocus our efforts on custom videos.  This led to the idea of working with another company that could take on the parts of the process that aren’t the best use of our time.  An example is video editing.  While Sachi is an awesome self-taught video editor, others could easily learn her techniques, and edit Common Craft videos for us. This way, Sachi’s time can be spent on other parts of the creative process.  The same is true for me - is my time better spent cutting out pieces of paper, or writing scripts?

The choice was clear - more videos means getting help from another company.  For us, the choice was an easy one. Switch Marketing was a founding member of our Explainer Network and has grown over the last year to meet demand for their own videos.  We’re excited to be working with Switch on future Common Craft custom videos. They are our first and only “Common Craft Certified“ producer.

The bottom line: Our top priority is maintaining the high quality experience customers have come to expect from Common Craft. To ensure that quality, Sachi and I are involved in every step of the process and focus our time on creative. We do research with customers, write the scripts, direct the storyboards and sign-off on every production. Plus, yours truly remains the voice of Common Craft videos.  Switch helps us manage the projects and produce the videos.  It’s a great way for us to work with more clients and do what we do best. Yaay!

Of course, our video licensing is alive and well and continues to be a big priority for Common Craft.  After building a foundation for two years, we’re excited to have found our stride in both custom and licensed videos. Further, our Explainer Network of video producers continues to offer their custom video services.

If you’re interested in a custom Common Craft video, our schedule for this summer and fall is just opening for a limited number of projects.  Learn more about our custom services here.

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Common Craft Customers in 40+ Countries

The Web really is a wonderous thing. Thanks to e-commerce tools like e-junkie and paypal, two people can run a home-based business with global reach.  We've been offering digital downloads of our videos via this website for about 2 years and recently took a look at the makeup of our customers in terms of nationality. We've licensed videos in 41 countries in all.  Below are the top 20.

We've always had a goal of being as global as possible, which is why we've had ten of our videos translated with voice-overs in 5 languages.  We plan to do more translations in the future.  Over time, we've also tried to move away from using text in the videos because it makes translated videos more difficult to understand.

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Case Study: Common Craft Videos and a School District

Among our favorite licensing customers are teachers and school districts.  We take a lot of pride in making videos that are used to educate students and staff.  From time-to-time, we ask school systems for feedback and information on how the videos are used.  Below you'll find a short case study about how this system is using the videos. The school system prefers that we not use their name in this post, but the information is from their technology coordinator:

Please tell us the basics of your school system. Size, location, personnel, public vs. private, etc.

We have 30 schools that serve over 16,000 students.  We have approximately 1200 teachers and 2100 total staff.

How did your school system find out about Common Craft videos?

We found your work through YouTube/TeacherTube while creating/offering Professional Development on Web 2.0 tools a few years back.  We primarily streamed the content, but as we began developing an online hybrid course for our 6th grade students, we looked deeper into your offerings and purchased licensing for the Social Media Pack to include in our course.  Our 6th grade course is part of the traditional Fine Arts/Phys Ed rotation – otherwise known as Specials in other school districts.

Who is the target audience for the videos? How do they react to them?

Our target is wide range – staff and students.  The primary target would be our 6th grade course.  The initial videos – blogs & wikis – are not used too much anymore due to our spectacular trainings (haha).  Every time they are shown – the staff and students really enjoy them and certainly meets their need of learning without all the techno-garble.

What problem do the videos solve?

They really help solve that introduction and defining “the what is this thing” in clear and simple to understand terms.  Too often us ‘techies’ get too confusing so this allows them to watch and learn in a non-intimidating manner (with a good chuckle or two).  Since we have them in our LMS, they can review them anytime they need.

How are the videos displayed or shared?  Intranet? LMS? DVD? etc.

Primarily our LMS – Moodle at this point.  We are looking to move to Angel (budget willing).

Who (in terms of job title) is in charge of the videos and their use/distribution?

Me J  Coordinator for Educational technology

What would you say to other schools and school districts about getting the most from Common Craft videos?

These videos are a great for delivering introductory explanations to new technologies in a clear and easy to understand way.  I would not say "simple" – because that would imply the lack of content.  Each video is full valuable information presented in a fun and engaging way.  Students really like that ‘old school’ animation and gets them thinking on ways they can use those same techniques in their own introductory film-making.  ‘Experienced’ staff members like them because they are not confused with all of the techno-garble and confusing terminology.

If you're a school district or teacher interested in Common Craft videos, we offer a 20% discount. Just contact us for the discount code.  Also, school districts are only required to purchase a single Site license for the entire district.  Site licensed videos can be shared on an LMS or intranet as long as access is limited to students and staff. More info here.

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Introducing Our New "Web License" and Partnership with Wistia

For a while now, we've heard a common request from potential customers.  They want an easy way to license and share Common Craft videos on their website. Today we're announcing a new partnership with video sharing company Wistia that will help us serve this need with our new "Web License."

A Little Background...

We license our videos to individuals and organizations. Two of our most popular licenses (Individual and Site) are for offline use. Customers download video files for use on intranets/extranets, training programs, classrooms and presentations. The videos are really useful internally, but they can't be displayed on public websites. Of course, some customers want to do just that.

Problem Solved

Our new partnership with Wistia means that our customers can license high quality Common Craft videos and use Wistia's video sharing tools to easily display them. This makes adding a Common Craft video to your website:

    •    Easy - Add videos with simple copy-and-paste embed code.
    •    Smart - Gather rich info on who watches the videos and how they watch them
    •    Flexible - Choose from multiple plans, based on monthly views

This means a technology company can educate visitors on the basics of wikis, or cloud computing.
A financial institution can educate potential customers on the stock market or borrowing money.
A service organization can educate citizens about preparing an emergency kit. 

Our Web License means that any website can benefit from Common Craft videos.

This 52-second video helps explain the relationship:

If you're interested in licensing Common Craft videos for your website, look for the "Web License" option on any video at CommonCraft.com.

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What Pitchman Ron Popeil Can Teach Us About Explanation

If you've been reading for a while, you've seen us write that a secret to a strong explanation is putting the subject in the context of someone's life.  Don't just talk about what it does, talk about how it fits into their world - how it takes away pain or makes something easier, faster, better.

Recently I've been reading the Malcolm Gladwell book What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures, which is a collection of his past articles from the New Yorker. One of the articles is called The Pitchman and focuses, in part, on Ron Popeil of Ronco.  You may recognize his name from late-night TV, where he's often seen pitching a new kitchen appliance like the Veg-o-matic or the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie BBQ. He is a classic pitchman - a pro.

Though I would never call myself a pitchman, there is an element of the skill in creating explanations. Think of a commercial or an exhibit on the floor of a fair or trade show. The pitchman only has a limited amount of time to attract attention and hold it long enough for value to be clear. Common Craft may not sell Ginsu knives, but we do specialize in making value clear, in about three minutes.

There is a section of the story that struck me as particularly apt for explainers. Ron Popeil discusses pitching kitchen gadgets and how VCRs were marketed... 

You have to show them exactly how it works and why it works and make them follow your hands as you chop liver with it, and then tell them precisely how it fits into their routine, and, finally sell them on the paradoxical fact that, revolutionary as the gadget is, it's not at all hard to use.

Thirty years ago, the video cassette recorder came onto the market, and it was a disruptive product too: it was supposed to make it possible to tape a television show so that no one would ever again be chained to to the prime-time schedule. Yet, as ubiquitous as the VCR became, it was seldom put to that purpose. That's because the VCR was never pitched: no one ever explained the gadget to American consumers... and no one showed them exactly how it worked or how it would fit into their routine and no pair of hands guided them through every step of the process. All VCR makers did was hand over the box with a smile and a pat on the back, tossing in an instruction manual for good measure.  Any pitchman could have told you that wasn't going to work.

These days I see a lot of companies acting like VCR makers - handing over a gadget and focusing on features - without indicating how it fits into the lives of customers. Perhaps we all have something to learn from Ron Popeil.

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Video: Stock Markets in Plain English

Today we've published a new video: Stock Markets in Plain English

This video is one of our most requested and focuses on a few basic ideas:

• Why companies offer their stock to the public
• Why people buy and sell stocks
• What makes stock prices change
• How we measure stock markets using indices

This video is part of our Money series and one of the first to touch on markets.  It was also one of the toughest to make. Economic forces like supply and demand can quickly turn into rabbit holes. Keeping it short and sweet was a challenge. We're so excited to share it with the world.

We expect this video to be useful to teachers, but also organizations related to investing, particularly ones focused on educating those new to the market.

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Custom Video: SharePoint in Plain English

While licensing our videos is still the focus of our business, we have taken on a few custom projects this summer. The first to be published is a video we were hired to produce called "SharePoint in Plain English," about Microsoft's enterprise collaboration tool. The focus of the video is to introduce Sharepoint and illustrate the old way (project info exists on multiple computers) vs. new way (project info lives in SharePoint).

Updated: Microsoft has made this video available for download so you can share it easily on Intranets, presentations, etc.

One of the things that attracted us to this project was the potential to expose our work to SharePoint users. We were so happy to work with the SharePoint team, who was flexible and very open to our interpretations.  It was one of the smoothest projects we've completed to date and we appreciate their focus and dedication. Plus, it's always nice to work with local organizations.

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Explainer Tip: Remember the Curse of Knowledge

The following post is a part of a series called "Explainer Tips" where we share lessons we've learned in crafting explanations.

One of the books that I read just before creating our first videos was Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.  More than almost any other, this book helped me see new opportunities to present ideas in a unique way.  One idea from the book really stands out - it's The Curse of Knowledge <insert scary music.>

We've all experienced it - in talking to a doctor, an engineer or academic, we get lost. Despite their best efforts, they explain a topic using words and examples that don't make sense to a beginner. These people are suffering from the Curse.

The idea behind the curse of knowledge is that the more we know about something, the harder it is for us to explain it to someone who knows nothing.  We have a hard time being able to imagine what it's like not to know.  For example, think about a lawyer who spent his life reading and writing legal documents, talking to lawyers all day every day, etc.  When you ask this lawyer about tort reform, you're likely to get an explanation that confuses you more. This person knows too much to answer your question in a language you understand.

We're all guilty of having the curse.  We all have something in our life that we know very well - perhaps too well to explain easily.  The key is know that the curse exists.  To be able to recognize the challenge before you. Here's how:

Consider every word. Sometimes a word that is completely natural to you can doom an explanation.  For example, let's say you're a financial planner and you sit down with a young couple and they seem to get everything you're saying.  Then you mention "amortization" as if it were any other word.  You use it every day and the people around you do too.  It may seem that amortization is perfectly normal.  But it's not - their eyes glaze over and the explanation takes a turn for the worst.  You have the curse.

The Remedy

Part of the problem with the curse of knowledge is that we assume too much.  We make assumptions about what people do and don't know.  The stronger the curse, the easier it is to assume. To get around the curse, you can either start with the basics, or get a feeling from your audience about what they know.  Don't assume they speak your language or have your perspective.  If explanation is your goal, impressing them with big words and details are going to work against you.  Your time is better spent accounting for their level of understanding and their context.

Here's a great interview with the Heath brothers by Guy Kawasaki from 2007.

Previous Explainer Tips:

Make People Care

Stop Talking About Technology

Next Up:  Put the WHY Before the HOW

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