So, how do you think like George Lucas?
By Sadie McCrary

Calendars. T-shirts. Bedding. Movie tickets. Cereal boxes. Big Gulp takeaway cups. Toys. DVDs. VHS. Soundtracks. I’ve lined the pockets of George Lucas and his partners for years buying Star Wars merchandise – and, looking back, therein lies the genius of Star Wars’ creator and those businesses willing to take a gamble on perhaps the greatest marketing phenomenon of all time. 

It all began more than 30 years ago last month. Sitting in negotiations with 20th Century Fox to sell his script for Star Wars, George Lucas casually slipped licensing rights into the contract. He got the studio bosses – who thought the movie was going to flop – to give him the rights to license the characters and their images. Imagine their shock when Star Wars opened in 1977 and became the second-highest grossing film of all time. Not long afterward, the studio received a barrage of calls from merchandisers begging to create the varied memorabilia that my countless Star Wars-obsessed brethren and I would collect with glee. In the ensuing years, driven by the many sequels, this demand has grossed retail sales in the billions – a percentage of which goes to the genius himself.

When it came to his characters and their images, Lucas was downright fearless. And that attitude allowed him to approach anyone and everyone to plaster Star Wars characters on everything from cans of cola to bathroom towels. Arguably, thanks to Lucas and his efforts, Star Wars was where true merchandising was born. It is certainly one of the reasons stores like Target and Wal-Mart devote entire aisles to movie-themed toys and products. And the merchandising frenzy is not going away anytime soon. You can attribute that to another of George Lucas’ masterful inventions – albeit unintentional – the summer blockbuster. Believe it or not, many give Star Wars that credit, as well.

But I think the true testament to the merchandising extravaganza that George Lucas’ efforts unleashed is the creativity with which other companies have used this tool. Think “Intel Inside.” Using a bit of Lucas-style foresight and ingenuity, Intel decided to approach computer manufacturers with a proposal that would feature the Intel logo on the chassis of their computers.

And Intel’s marketing play didn’t stop there. The company even negotiated a deal with virtually all computer manufacturers to prominently include the logo in their print ads and its catchy little ditty (the one you’ve had playing over and over in your head since I mentioned “Intel Inside”) in their broadcast commercials. At a time when most consumers couldn’t have cared less which processor was powering their computer systems, before you knew it, they were demanding systems with an Intel processor. Largely thanks to this ingenious campaign, the Intel name and logo became synonymous with performance. I think even George would be proud.

Of course not all companies have that George Lucas mentality. After all, it takes a special kind of person to put Luke Skywalker’s image on a bath mat. Even Intel’s marketing guru Dennis Carter placed a lot of faith in an outside advertising agency. In these cases, it is important to approach a third party for help. You might not think your products lend themselves to this kind of marketing but, then again, neither did 20th Century Fox.

May the force be with you.

E-mail the author: Sadie McCrary

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