Starter Kit. Idea 62 of 500. Cluster 3
A licensed Sigiriya mark, so that every bottle, tin and cap sold at the rock carries it
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
The first step
Draw a simple Sigiriya mark and put it on 50 water bottle labels and 50 tea tin stickers. Ask one kiosk near the rock to stock them for a week beside unmarked stock at the same price, and count which sells faster. Take the result to the office that manages the site and ask what a licence would require. The sales comparison is the proof.
- Who pays first
- Kiosks and shops near the rock whose customers choose a bottle or tin with the place's own mark on it.
- What leaves today
- Every bottle and tin sold at the rock carries someone else's brand; a licensed mark earns the site a share of each sale.
Ask first
- Central Cultural Fund. Ask who could license a mark for products sold at the site, and how.
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask how a company that holds and licenses a mark is set up.
Check before you spend
Who has the right to grant a mark tied to the site, how it would be protected, and what quality test a product must pass to carry it.
Find out these three numbers
- How many shops near the rock would pay to use the mark?
- What would protecting the mark cost?
- What do visitors pay extra for goods carrying the site's name?
A comparison from the book
Japan. Chapter Eleven
"The Sri Lankan version is a Ceylon mark that means something because an inspector will not let a bad batch carry it"
A mark is worth something only if someone refuses to let a bad product carry it.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.