Marques 2018: Nestlé and Red Bull talk marketing and designs
Lawyers should work closely with marketing professionals to ensure that newly developed products have a unique, protectable design, according to in-house counsel at Nestlé and Red Bull.
Sandrine Royer, senior IP counsel at Nestlé, and Birgit Choudhry, global IP prosecution counsel at Red Bull, discussed the development of designs at the 2018 Marques Annual Conference today, September 19, in Paris.
Royer explained that in-house lawyers should be able to provide the marketing team with guidance on designs from an early stage.
She said that, at Nestlé, the legal team works closely with colleagues in marketing. Design options are compared and assessed on a number of factors, including “IP potential”, and given a final grade to determine each design’s feasibility.
However, while the legal team has certain wants and needs, Royer noted that there are many other factors to take into consideration. For example, the ability to actually manufacture a particular shaped product may not be possible, or the costs associated with it may be too high.
Choudhry was similarly keen to emphasise the importance of internal collaboration.
“The first thing I tell anyone designing a new product is to choose a unique design,” she said.
Choudhry explained that Red Bull has worked with a neuroscientist to assess how consumers perceive colour, and the result showed that colours are the first element a consumer sees and the last they forget—placing colour at the heart of a good branding strategy.
As such, it’s important to use colour consistently across all trade channels. At Red Bull, “colours are dear to our heart and we fight to protect our brand”, Choudhry added.
Royer and Choudhry were joined on the panel by Femke Van Horen, associate professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, who noted that “consumers think differently to how lawyers think” when it comes to branding.
Market research has shown that blatant brand imitations lose out, as consumers automatically compare the copycat with its associated inspiration. Van Horen said that this comparison makes the imitation appear less positive compared to the luxury or reliability affiliated with the legitimate brand.
However, “more subtle imitations will gain”, according to Van Horen.
She explained that similar imitations increase consumers’ familiarity with the item and conjure the luxury or reliability of the legitimate brand without invoking the direct comparison of a blatant copycat.
Also on the panel was Giordano Cardini, IP areas manager at Ferrero; Stefan Völker, partner at Gleiss Lutz; and Tom Scourfield, head of IP at CMS. Lydia Gobena, partner at Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, chaired the session.
The 2018 Marques Annual Conference is taking place between Wednesday, September 19, and Friday, September 21, in Paris.
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