Walk down any frozen food aisle in the United States, and you’ll see a large and growing variety of well-known restaurant and food brands on products ranging from entrées to appetizers to side dishes. Chain restaurants such as TGI Friday’s, Steak n Shake, California Pizza Kitchen and P.F. Chang’s rub elbows with regional chains like Nathan’s Famous, O’Charley’s and Rally’s. Even outside the United States, brands like Pizza Express are entering the market with name brand fresh and frozen entrées.
That’s because all of these brands have been licensed by frozen food manufacturers to put their names on such frozen food products—a process that allows a manufacturer to “rent” the value of the name brand, paying a royalty to the brand owner for that “famous” logo. Here is a breakdown of the benefits of licensing established name brands.