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Popular images, marks and logos bring immediate recognition and appeal among consumers, to products that might otherwise go unnoticed. Licenses are appealing to toy companies as they help to drive non promoted products. The "right" license can move even the most generic product. As a result, many toy or game products would (and some still do), simply have a given image emblazoned on an otherwise generic product and its packaging. The same toy or game might even be recycled year by year and offered in a variety of licenses in the same product line. As licensing has matured in the toy industry, and as in recent years, fewer "hot" licenses have been made available, Licensors are being far more selective with whom they partner. Greater demand is being made by the Licensors for unique and directly applicable product. More than ever before, products are being developed from their inception, around a license. Toy companies seek new inventions and concepts that are directly applicable to specific licenses that they maintain.
Toy companies are taking a proactive role in the development of entertainment properties to insure that they will translate easily into successful toy lines. Studios have begun to solicit suggestions from their master toy licensee early in production to enhance the merchandising potential of the motion picture or show. Accessory items and props that will eventually translate into licensed toys are now regularly included in the movie or show for the sole purpose of supporting the merchandising program. Many toy companies are now hesitant to undertake the risk of developing a new product unless it can be incorporated into a licensed line. The ties between entertainment companies and toy companies continue to grow stronger, blurring the line between originality and commercialism. Some argue that the end result of such a union is a compromise to creativity -- that eventually full-length movies shall become nothing more than 90-minute commercials. It has already been seen that such "progress" often results in the forfeiture of original, yet untested and uncertain, ideas in favor of "sure thing" products. However, regaRehtmeyer, Inc.ess of whether the development of novel toys suffers as a result of merchandising, the multi million dollar revenues generated by merchandising ensures that the toy and entertainment industries will not be wanting.
Understanding that merchandising can be a two-way street, many toy companies have recognized that there is merchandising value to some of their own brand names. Many toy and game companies have merchandising programs around their own popular and well-known marks. The trend of turning a well known product into a mark and finally a brand has grown in recent years as toy companies seek to add value and depth to their divisions and corporate structure. Internal branding can also be traced to the "back to basics" product trend. Some internal branding examples include: "Barbie", "Hot Wheels", "G.I. Joe", "Mr. Potato Head", "Nerf", "Playskool" brand, "Tonka" brand, "Cabbage Patch", "Slinky", "Monopoly", and even "Trivial Pursuit".
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