Specialising in brand management and development, the company Hilco Consumer Capital (HCC) announced yesterday that it had reached an agreement with the Marley family to exploit Bob Marley's name and image worldwide. House of Marley, the joint venture created by the two parties and credited with a budget of 20 million dollars by HCC, will have exclusive rights to market products bearing the Bob Marley brand.
His family was already doing quite well at putting the singer's effigy just about everywhere, but the deal struck goes much further. First declared project: creating Marley Lager, a beer guaranteed 100% Marley, just like Bob Marley Coffee. The list is long: clothing and shoes, food and drink, collectibles, luggage, musical instruments, but also video games, restaurants, hotels! Bob Marley is going to become a real franchise. For his eldest daughter Cedella, it is above all a way of protecting Bob Marley's legacy: in a press release, she says the deal « will allow us to develop the heritage he left us by focusing on quality, while preserving his integrity and artistic sense ».
James Salter, president of HCC and boss of the brand-new House of Marley, LLC. takes a more pragmatic line. His first task, he says, will be to « fight the companies that exploit the Marley name without authorisation », and he promises to spend « as much money as necessary » doing so. Some put the damage at 600 million dollars: if the fight against counterfeiting bears fruit, HCC's executives are daring to dream of a brand worth a billion dollars in turnover in the years ahead. Before that, House of Marley will have its sights set on the 65th anniversary of Bob Marley's birth, next year.