Examples of Merchandising

Merchandising is a way for companies or individuals to create a revenue stream out of a significant event or person. For example, the newest catchphrase made famous on the Internet can spawn a line of T-shirts. Merchandising is often planned as part of a way to gain exposure for an event or person. Common examples of merchandising will help you to better understand how merchandising is used to generate revenue.

Movies

Movie merchandising was almost non-existent until George Lucas pitched the first "Star Wars" movie to Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. Lucas managed to secure a deal where he would have complete control, and be the sole beneficiary of, all of the merchandising for the film. When the film and the merchandise became a financial success, movies began to focus on merchandising as part of their revenue creation. Merchandising in movies includes toys based on buildings or vehicles in the movie, action figures based on movie characters, prints of the movie poster and T-shirts with catchphrases and images from the movie. The real money for George didn't come from box office receipts.  Between 1977 and 1978, Star Wars sold $100 million worth of toys.  35 years later and Star Wars themed toys have generated $12 billion worth of revenues. And keep in mind, after the first film George owned 100% of the rights to the entire franchise.The next five Star Wars movies would go on to earn an additional $3.5 billion at the box office.In total, the Star Wars empire has sold $4 billion worth of DVD's and VHS, $3 billion worth of video games, $2 billion worth of books and another $1.3 billion through various other licensing deals.The brings the grand revenue total after 35 years worth of Star Wars licensing to $27 billion. After expenses, taxes, fees, George Lucas had earned himself an impressive $3.3 billion net worth by 2012. Then Disney came calling and gave him another $4 billion to purchase the entire franchise outright.

Political Campaigns

Political campaigns tend to generate a great deal of merchandise that includes T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs and buttons. Some of the merchandise is given away for free while some is sold to help finance the campaign. Presidential political campaign merchandise tends to be sought by collectors.

Sports Merchandising

Professional sports leagues are big business in North America and around the world. The merchandise associated with sports teams generates a significant amount of revenue. The leagues license the images and names of their teams to companies that then put them on replica jerseys, keychains, a wide range of clothing, sports equipment, posters and wall plaques, just to name a few items. In 2009, sports merchandising in the U.S. and Canada totaled $12.5 billion. Worldwide retail sales of sports merchandise was approximately $17.5 billion.

Advertising Icons

Companies rely on the success of their advertising to drive revenue and keep the product names in consumers' minds. Marketing firms sometimes come up with characters and images that become part of popular culture. These advertising icons wind up being featured on merchandising that ranges from T-shirts to collectible product packaging. Coca-Cola is one of the most collected brands of product advertising in the world, according to the Cartoons and Icons website. Other famous icons that wind up on various forms of merchandise are the Pillsbury Dough Boy, the Campbell's Soup Kids and the talking M&Ms.