PROFILE
Getting to know you ... Becoming a licensing partner of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is by no means a simple process. If that is achieved, however, a trusted partner may work with the RHS on a number of product launches.
resources include not just Lindley Library artwork but a vast range of expert advisory images, portraits of rare and unusual cultivars and photographs of the RHS shows and gardens.
In late 2018 the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) announced a brand-new RHS collection from licensing partner Moorcroft, a renowned producer of heritage art pottery.
Not all partnerships go back a long way. One of the remarkable feats of the RHS licensing campaign has been to bring the RHS brand into new and diverse categories: everything from womenswear and cushions to fragrances and gin. That has meant assessing many potential new partners in previously untried areas.
This is the third announcement involving Moorcroft. An art pottery line appeared in 2017 and was extended in early 2018. The latest beautiful collection of art pottery, The RHS Beatrix Stanley Collection, offers designs based on the floral watercolour studies of the gardener and painter Lady Beatrix Stanley as well as the iris that celebrates her name. The RHS partnership with the Gourmet Candy Company also began in 2017 and was extended in 2018. In 2019, additions to the RHS/ Gourmet Candy Company confectionery range will include Treacle Toffee, Salted Caramel Toffee, Milk Chocolate Bunnies, Milk Chocolate Hedgehogs and Milk Chocolate Butterflies, all presented in classic RHS design gift boxes and packaging, with packaging designs inspired by the RHS Lindley Library, the world’s finest collection of botanical art. Quality confectionery was a feature of another announcement in late 2018 when Amelie Chocolat, a producer of luxury continental
chocolates, announced additions to Chocolates by Nature, its range of RHS confections. Gift products and fashion accessories specialist Shruti, meanwhile, made an impact in 2017 with an elegant range of RHS scarves and plans a spring 2019 launch for the new RHS Irises & Hellebores range of fashion products. Even longer-term partners include Frances Lincoln Publishers, an RHS licensee since 1993, whose offering includes gardening books, diaries and address books, and award-winning manufacturer of garden and agricultural tools Burgon & Ball. Multiple launches from trusted partners are a feature of the RHS licensing campaign. However, actually establishing a relationship with the RHS in the first place means meeting the very high standards set by RHS Licensing Manager Cathy Snow and her team. “If that is achieved,” she says, “a trusted brand may be supported by the RHS for a number of product launches.”
But standards always remain high. Even choosing partners for the Society’s core area of expertise – gardening – is not a simple process, not least because of the high environmental standards the brand espouses. In all cases, as well as ensuring quality products, Cathy Snow says, “a good partner must appreciate the brand and have some knowledge of our shows or gardens and an interest in gardening itself ”. But the best partners will make the effort to gain the approval of the RHS. This is, after all, Britain’s oldest and best-known gardening society. The reward for a trusted partner is a very high level of consumer awareness – and, of course, the possibility that it too will join Moorcroft, Frances Lincoln, Shruti, Burgon & Ball and others in a mutually beneficial long-term relationship.
The RHS has no shortage of potential partners. The RHS is a leading – indeed, award-winning – heritage brand, with a strong media presence and an excellent support system for licensees, which was developed when the licensing campaign was rebooted in 2015. Its unmatched style PAGE 46
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