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Cronut

Trademarked viral pastry worth millions in licensing

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Story

The Cronut chef trademarked it but refused to license away millions

The Cronut, invented in 2013 by French pastry chef Dominique, went viral and he trademarked the name — but as a purist artist he chose not to license it, walking away from what Sam estimates could have been tens of millions in licensing revenue. The lesson: name and trademark your viral food invention, because the IP can be worth more than the product.

“He actually trademarked the name Cronut And he is like a purist. He's like an artist. So he didn't actually want to license it to people, but he easily could have made tens of millions or more by licensing that name to someone. And so there's a step further. So you create the food and you got to come up with a really cute name and you could actually get a trademark and, and there's licensing deals there.”

Steal thisTrademark the cute name of your viral food invention so you can license the IP, not just sell the product.

EP 157 · 20:36 · SHAAN
Read at 20:36
mfmindex.com№ 0157-1236
Framework

Shaan's 5 formulas for making food go viral

Shaan reverse-engineered why food items go viral and found a handful of repeatable formulas: take a side and eat it in excess (cookie-dough-only ice cream), make the topping the main, exaggerate the shape, change the size (tiny or giant), change the color, or do a mashup (the Cronut).

“I like one day sat down, I'm like, what makes them go viral? So it's— and I've like broke it down to a handful of categories, which is like, it's either a— it's got to be a food that's typically a side, but you're going to eat it in excess. So for example, only cookie dough instead of— so ice cream that's just cookie dough, right?”

Steal thisTo engineer a viral food product, twist one variable: portion, shape, size, color, or mashup.

EP 48 · 17:08 · SHAAN
Read at 17:08
mfmindex.com№ 0048-1028