• by Karl Greenberg , May 11, 2007

Ford is boosting its licensing program this year with a deal to put the Mustang name on a new fragrance from Estee Lauder's Aramis brand. The Mustang fragrance will launch in Sears, Wal-Mart and Kohl's department stores, and will move to mass market chains later.

National ads will appear in fall lifestyle and auto books as well as in Ford's employee magazine and at Nascar races.

In the past Aramis has used a Mustang die cast as part of promotional efforts, but this is the first time it has marketed a Mustang-branded product.

The deal was brokered by Beanstalk Group, the New York licensing agency that Ford owned for three years before selling it to Omnicom in 2005. Beanstalk still handles licensing programs for Ford and Ford's Premier Automotive Group brands. Michael Stone, Beanstalk Group co-founder, president and CEO, says ad duties for the new fragrance, launching on Father's Day, are being handled by Estee Lauder.

He says that the agency has moved Ford's program beyond the mainstay of auto licensing: die cast. "I think what we have done is try to mature the program into product categories that resonate with the brands themselves. Areas like health and beauty and apparel."

He says that new products include upscale writing instruments for Jaguar, whose design matches the curvature of Jaguar cars.

"They are on the market in the UK now and will expand to retail in the U.S.," he says. Jaguar-branded sunglasses are also on tap for this year, as is a Land Rover branded mountain bike.

The latter brand is also opening stores in China and South America, per Stone. But the Land Rover stores don't sell Land Rover vehicles, at least not full-sized ones. Rather, the boutique-like shops--Chrysler Group's Jeep brand also has them--sell only branded merchandise.

Ford's licensed apparel program also focuses on Mustang, with T-shirts for young women bearing the Mustang iconography. "Ford is great on developing style guidelines; they are very active in going into their archives and providing us with images and ads," says Stone.

"I'd say Mustang is certainly one of the most iconic brands at Ford--the brand that people feel the most emotionally attached to. There are some 50 million Ford-branded die-cast vehicles sold each year. Mustang is way at the top."

Stone says licensing programs serve as a marketing channel, not just as a generator of incremental revenue from sales of branded merchandise. "It's lots of brand awareness because [with products like Mustang cologne] the product is on shelves where you wouldn't normally expect to see it. Licensing, which has been around for a long time, is under the radar screen, but at the end of the day it's a fantastic way to reach consumers, allow them to participate in the brand, and vote on it."

In 2004, Ford rolled out retro gear to fete the 40th anniversaries of the Mustang and the Thunderbird. They included retro apparel, Fisher-Price Mustang ride-on toys, and nine interactive games featuring the Mustang, such as Ford Mustang Racing by Take Two. Hasbro also launched a Mustang Monopoly game.

Two years ago, Ford targeted women with a line of nail polish via OPI (which only sells to salons) and branded apparel by Jerry Leigh of California.