Merchandising
November 7, 2011
All of the St. Louis Cardinals were donning the official grey championship T-shirts moments after they won the World Series. But what about the merchandise for the losers, the Texas Rangers?
November 4, 2011
Last month, Urban Outfitters drew threats of legal action from the Navajo Nation for advertising the "Navajo Hipster Panty." To avoid that potential liability, Urban Outfitters recently changed the names of all 21 of the products it had been calling "Navajo." But fellow retailer Forever 21 doesn't seem to share Urban Outfitters' concern. While a search for "Navajo" on its website turns up no results, a little digging reveals at least a half-dozen items that have the Navajo trademark in the title.
November 1, 2011
An immigration activist is calling it a victory after convincing online retailer CafePress to remove "racist" merchandise. Designed to look like an actual permit to "hunt illegal aliens," immigration rights activist Victor Hoelscher, along with hundreds of others, petitioned CafePress to get the items removed.
October 28, 2011
President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, Obama for America, sued a Washington-based promotional company for selling what it alleged was unauthorized merchandise.
October 27, 2011
Inside KISS frontman Gene Simmons' mansion, it's hard to figure out where to start. The merchandise almost amounts to sensory overload. "My favorite piece of merchandising is me," Simmons said while giving a tour to Yahoo Finance of his home office.
October 27, 2011
Looks like the couple who attempted to trademark "Occupy Wall Street" earlier this week aren't the only people trying to make a buck off of the protests. An Atlanta man is trying to get his own related trademark: The words "occupy this" with an arrow pointed down.
October 26, 2011
It was only a matter of time before opportunists started to look for ways to cash in on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Now both the 99 percent and the 1 percent are trying to claim 100 percent of the movement.
October 20, 2011
Major League Baseball is in St. Louis, telling Cardinal fans to watch out for counterfeit merchandise. But why should fans even care if a sale has baseball's stamp of approval?
October 20, 2011
Walt Disney apologized to customers after demand for limited editions of its princess dolls crashed the Disney Store website. More than 1,200 Facebook users posted comments when the company acknowledged that the site was “extremely busy” and that it “won’t allow such high volume to check out simultaneously.”
The furor erupted when the company put the last five models in its Disney Princess Designer Doll Collection for sale on its website for $59.50 each. All of the dolls — the characters Tiana, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Pocahontas — sold out the same day, the company said.
October 17, 2011
Can you up the ante on any of your products’ amusement factors? Is there some ho-hum aspect of your product that could benefit from a bit of unexpected playfulness? Why not ThinkAbout that today and see where it leads you?
