In 1988, Donald Trump licensed his name and likeness to a board game called (not surprisingly), “Trump: The Game.”
Among the menagerie of Trump brand extensions, the game was small potatoes, lasting a few years, then relaunched in 2005 and ultimately abandoned, as most Trump licensing ventures ultimately are.
In addition to the board game, there are (among many others) Trump University (failed under a cloud of scandal 2011), Trump Vodka (discontinued in 2011), Trump Ice bottled water (discontinued in 2010), Trump Magazine (closed in 2009), Trump Steaks (date of death unknown), Trump Mortgage (shuttered in 2007), Trump Tower Tampa (bankrupt in 2007), GoTrump.com, a search engine for luxury deals (closed in 2007), Trump Airlines (closed in 1992), Trump Entertainment Resorts (four bankruptcies since 1991) and Trump’s first high-profile failed venture, the New Jersey Generals of the defunct USFL (failed in 1985).
What’s remarkable about these failed business ventures and licensing gambits is not their quality or longevity, but their sheer number. They speak to the temperament of a man who knows how to lose . . . or rather who knows how losing contributes to winning in certain environments and under certain circumstances.
As with all kinds of winning in all areas of endeavor, effective “winning” means controlling the definition of the things that constitute winning.
If you’re playing a game where winning is measured in dollars or units sold, clearly “Trump: The Game” or “Trump Steaks” is a loser. If you’re playing a game where winning is measured in love or passion, it’s not much better.
But if you’re playing a game where winning is measured in your audience’s appetite for paying attention to you (for good or for bad), Trump’s brand extensions begin to add up over time.
This is the relevance game.
And for Trump’s history of creating garbage of various kinds, it is obviously true that Donald Trump is worth multiple billions of dollars (although the exact tally is in some dispute). This means (a) not everybody agrees with me about the definition of “garbage” . . . and (b) among the many stinkers, there have been financial and brand-building winners for Trump, perhaps none more important for Trump’s relevance during his current Presidential gambit than his 14-year run on NBC as co-producer and star of “The Apprentice.”
NEXT INSTALLMENT: “You’re fired”