Within a few hours of having debuted with her brand new music-based greeting card concept, More than Words (https://www.pgbuzz.net/major-consumer-launch-of-the-more-than-words-card-and-music-brand/), company founder, Ellie Fitzgerald hot-footed it back to the mixing desk to come up with a follow up ‘rendition’ due to a trademark clash with Ling Design.
The company, which combines song lyrics on a greeting card with streamable music, has now been relaunched under the new brand of Say it with Songs.
As Ellie quipped: “It worked for Prince, Sean Combs, David Bowie and J.Lo. Heck, even Little Mix joined the club when they were starting out. Changing a brand name after launch might seem a tad confusing, but in music (and in the glorious words of Abba) it’s often just the Name of the Game.”
While Ellie ensured she had all the necessary legal agreements in place with those in the music business to allow her to launch the new greeting card concept, it wasn’t until she was contacted by David Byk, ceo of the Ling Group that she was alerted to the fact that More Than Words is a long standing trademark of its Talking Pictures collection.
“David was really supportive and lovely about the whole thing, but we concluded that the business, brand and customers would benefit from a prompt switch to a more unique and memorable name,” says Ellie. “Within the highly competitive greeting card market our brand is brilliantly unique so standing out from the crowd is key. Say it with Songs accurately embodies our brand story and differentiates us from our competitors. I’m confident that by tackling this hurdle now will pay dividends in the future.”
David told PG Buzz that he fully accepts it was “an honest mistake” by Ellie and is thankful that it came to light “very early in her journey, before she had printed many cards. While, I am very keen to help facilitate new publishers coming onto the market, I also need to ensure we protect our brands, especially those like More Than Words that are sold all over the worlds.”
Ellie has now resumed the consumer PR campaign to launch her new concept, with a press release unveiling the new moniker that continues the music analogy – ‘say Hello (cheers Lionel) to Say it with Songs – exactly the same card brand blending legendary, snappy song-lyrics with streamable songs, exactly the same identity, just a slightly different name and logo. Simple!’
No doubt if Ellie “Could turn back time” she would, but then, while very experienced on the music front, she is an ‘Absolute beginner’ in the greeting card charts.
sayitwithsongs.com Instagram @sayitwithsongscards Facebook @SayItWithSongs Twitter @SayItWithSongs_
Top: Say it with Songs is a new name, but same concept.
