How Small Manufacturers Can Benefit from Brand Licensing

India has emerged as one of the prime retail markets all over the world, not just for brands, but for entertainment properties also. These properties are foraying into Indian landscapes and creating a scenario where there is an increasing, push towards organized business than before. But somehow this push has affected the small manufacturers, who have been following the unorganized business mode right from the small T-Shirt manufacturers to the toy manufacturers.  The need here is to first get into the mainstream retail, and then remodel the retail channels. In such a scenario brand licensing is the way out for these small manufacturers. It not only helps them shifting towards the organized side of retail, but also addressing the challenge of visibility. If a manufacturer chooses to get rights of brand licensing via licensing, it gains tremendous exposure in its category in every retail store the product is sold. When sold into major chain retailers, the brand can gain thousands of additional feet of brand exposure in each category.

Samir Jain, COO Green Gold Animation, said, “A lot of small toy manufacturers are entering the brand licensing market, this is good for us and for the industry, This way the unorganized market is getting into organized mode by taking licenses and upgrading themselves from being unorganized toy businesses.” “We in-fact have many licensees who are first timers and have moved out of the unorganized sector. This is helping the industry in growing and also benefitting the licensing fraternity.” Jain added, who has on boarded a plethora of licensees for Green Gold’s iconic property Chhota Bheem. 

Vikram Goel, the owner of Infotech Resources, said, “Often manufacturers, find it difficult to enter large retail chains like Shoppers Stop, Crossword, Hamleys, etc. But when they approach with licensed products, it attracts the larger chains, and often helps them make a break through.” BY licensing the brand to manufacturer, which currently sells into a retail channel where the brand does not have a presence, the brand can gain access to that channel via the licensing relationship. Also, akin to new channel access, a manufacturer can gain entrée into new regions via brand licensing and improve his scalability.

Anand Singh, Director – South Asia, Cartoon Network Enterprise, said , The more independent the licensing business becomes, the more it will deduce the dependence on import, and it is better for the economy, license and for the local market.” Too much dependence on Chinese imports, fluctuating currency sometimes can make the licensees run for cover because they may be planning a range when the dollar was at 64, and then suddenly it goes to 50 leaving everything go haywire. 

The credits goes to the small manufacturers getting into the brand licensing business, a lot of things have changed in the past two or three years. For instance, three years ago bicycles were imported 100 percent. There was no licensed bicycle made locally, but today the entire licensed bicycle industry has shifted to Ludhiana including global brands like ‘Hero’ and ‘Avon’, and the market has become much localized. 

That has helped not only the licensees, but also benefitted the retailers to control their timelines, price points and deduced stock-outs. Hence brand licensing has elevated economy from its slow moving pace towards boom.

Why Licensing Companies?

The usage of licensing as the brand extension tool and marketing has boomed over the last three decades. When skillfully executed, an adept licensing association brings profits to all parties to the deal – be it the property owners and their mediators, licensees and their colleagues, retailers and, eventually, end users. Each of those affiliates has its own aims and goals that finally adding value to the final service or product.

To maximize the outcome, each member in the licensing development has definite accountabilities to fulfill. Every contract between the licensing parties is exceptional in its particulars, so even these duties vary to some degree.

 Licensors

There are several aims for an intellectual property (IP) owner to permit a license. The most obvious one is to make profits from the guarantee and royalty payments. But licensing also can cater a number of other purposes. In some cases, those “supplementary” reasons to license might in fact be more significant to the licensor than the sheer amount that is earned. Ponder the following amongst them:

Marketing support for the core business in many ways like a movie, television show, sports franchise or simply children’s merchandise that the retail display and propagation of these and other licensed products not only generate commodity sales but also helps promoting  the core property. Say for instance that any toy or apparel linked to a movie benefits movie promotion whereas sports fan wearing any sweatshirt with their favourite team logo expressing their passion for the team, in turn promoting the sports, team or league to by-passers.

Ranging a corporate brand into different classifications, locations of a store, or into novel stores overall. Licensing signifies a way to move a brand into new businesses without making a foremost investment in new manufacturing developments, machinery or facilities eventually reaping the benefit in royalties, but also in exposure in new channels or store aisles.

Retaining control over an original creation Licensing signifies a way for artists and designers to payback from their innovative efforts, while keeping up control over how they are used. For brand owners mainly those doing business in the universal marketplace, licensing and registering the brands in numerous markets are a way to safeguard the brand from being used by others without approval.

Licensees                      

Licensees lease the rights to a definite property for incorporation into their produce, but conventionally they do not share proprietorship in it. However, licensing provides a number of essential functions to them. Acquiring the consumer awareness and marketing profits of a well-known brand, character, logo, design, etc. The most noticeable advantage to a manufacturer or service provider the licenses a brand, character, design or other portion of intellectual property is the marketing influence it brings to the product.

Agents and Consultants

Licensors often retain licensing representatives or licensing firms to accomplish their licensing programs. These agents undertake duties for their clients such as agreement negotiations or the product endorsement processes. In return the experts receive a certain percentage of all royalty revenues. For the licensor the benefit of engaging licensing professionals involves their expertise and network of connections. The licensor also evaluates the cost of the advisor against the cost and time require in building up an in-house licensing division to handle business.

Manufacturers, on the other hand, may employ a licensing specialist whose duties are corresponding from the other side to those of the licensing representative. The licensing expert backs up the manufacturers who are mainly associated in licensing, but who do not have internal work forces to handle the business. It is the professional’s accountability to signify manufacturers in their licensing activities, comprising the assessment of properties, the inspection of their availability or the expansion and implementation of licensing policies. The terms under which licensing companies are paid vary comprehensively, but the foremost percentage is paid in commissions derived from product sales.

Cartoon Licensing – Entrepreneurs’ Profitable Dream Venture

“Yabba Dabba Doo! Scooby Dooby Doo! Beep BeepZoinks! I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, Jinkies!
That's All I Can Stands, I Can't Stands No More! By the Power of Greyskull! It's Hero Time!” these and many more catch lines we have grown up hearing since our childhood. Moreover we have grown up imitating and enacting our favourite characters like Chhota Bheem, Power Puff Girls, Ben 10, Popeye, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Betty Boop, Donald Duck, Tom & Jerry, Scooby Doo, Dexter, Smurfs, Garfield, and many more. With passage of time these adorable cartoon characters came out of comics strips into the real world of animation. These characters came to life with their funny, delightful looks and voices delivering their favourite lines capturing the hearts of populaces of all age groups.

Now these cartoon characters have become a part and parcel of our lives entering our wardrobes, kitchen, stationery, online games, gadgets and many more ways. This has motivated corporates to associate with their businesses with the most popular characters not only to expand their business but also earn huge ROI.  But it is also important to understand what actually this concept is.

What is Cartoon Licensing? 

The concept of licensing is not so old in India or not many people know what the aspect is all about. Let’s simply put it as a contract between the artist or the creator of that character (licensor) and a manufacturer or vendor (Licensee) to feature the artist’s artwork (property) on a precise merchandise manufactured by the licensee for a selected period of time and in a chosen territory. Further the licensee pays the licensor a royalty fee for each manufactured article sold based on the wholesale price of the item.

While manufacturing any toys and clothing for young adults and kids, you may at some point of time thought of licensing a cartoon character to utilize on your merchandises. Such licensing deals comprise you licensing the rights from the possessor of the cartoon character to apply images of the characters on your products.  In return the character proprietor gets a royalty fee of each product you sell. Apparently, your goods will delight in a much greater capacity of sales as divergent to having no character licensing in place. People are likely to to purchase ‘character-licensed’ products as a appropriate character used on the precise commodities will often enhance the demeanor the product and initiate sales. However in some cases you do have to give away an arm and a leg in order to license a character.

Following are the aspects you need to analyze in order to avoid giving away a major chunk of amount to license a character making more money for yourself.

•    Do you actually have to go for the renowned cartoon characters?
•    Don’t demand on the cartoon characters that appear on TV!
•    Select a character for its appearance, not its reputation!
•    Where to look for these lesser-known cartoon characters?

Cartoon licensing has always been in demand concept of venture model with high time benefits for both licensor and licensee. Be it notable or any kind of cartoon character it has always attracted not only the masses but also the upcoming business entities and established entrepreneurs. So enjoy cartoon licensing while making your dreams come true.

Global Brands Brings Boom in Licencing World

Hungama launches official Force 2 game. Mobile Gaming has been one of the swiftest extensions for Bollywood movies these days and is being taken up by gaming industry stalwarts. MAC Cosmetics has yet again come together with singer Mariah Carey for their another make-up collaboration. Sony Pictures names India’s most notable licensing company to represent Emojimovie in India signing on for the program for Indian Territory, 20too Sony Pictures Consumer Products has announced India’s top licensing as the licensing agent to represent its upcoming film Emojimovie: Express Yourself in India. The studio has nominated 12 licensing agents across several territories that will produce an international consumer products program for Emojimovie.

BIOWORLD Merchandising targets to build a resilient product portfolio for apparel, accessories and footwear with over 100 brands across the entertainment industry. “We believe our combined strengths will unlock the opportunity to accelerate growth in the category. With a wider reach and deeper portfolio of products, we will maintain our position of leadership in the category of licensed merchandise, giving the Indian consumer a one stop shop for all their popular culture merchandise needs,” said VoxPop’s founder and CEO Siddharth Taparia. These kickass designs are screen printed on 100% cotton Redwolf exclusive tees with high quality ink and are some of the best Breaking Bad T-shirts in India!

Warner Bros. Consumer Products has amalgamated with Hot Topic for a new apparel collection motivated by the forthcoming movie ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them’. “Our Fantastic Beasts collection is beyond amazing,” said Cindy Levitt, senior vice president, merchandising and marketing, Hot Topic further adding, “The beautiful period piece dresses and coats with wand pockets will make everyone who sees the collection want to be a wizard!”

The production house Arka Media works has engaged Mumbai-based licensing agency Black White Orange Brands as their global licensing agent. This would authorize BWO to represent the Baahubali franchise across end user products & brand associations, shared Bhavik Vora, founder and CEO of the agency. Precise to Baahubali, the firm is working on three features: the movie, animation and the Virtual Reality content. “For the movie and animation, we are developing two separate strategies for consumer products and promotions. Also, the creative assets that have been created for both content lines are very distinct in its look and the way it will be positioned to the consumers,” added Vohra.

Enhanced by the achievement of the first part, the creators have decided to generate an entire brand-plan of the film. In words of Shobu Yarlagadda, CEO, Arka Mediaworks, “We decided to look at the other verticals like comics, games, merchandising, and brand partnerships etc. as independent revenue verticals and not necessarily to promote the film.

"As admirers gear up to celebrate Winnie-the-Pooh’s 90th anniversary next month, Disney has unveiled a range of new merchandise to mark the milestone. The deal will mark Eva Flotter’s foray into brand licensing. The collection will be launched at the annual distributor’s meet of Eva Flotters scheduled on 11thSeptember. "We haven’t launch anything, but our annual dealer’s meet at 11th September is when we are launching the Cartoon Network products," said Shalu Agarwal, MD, Action Eva Flotter. "The collection is most likely to mark brand’s foray into online space as well. Though the brand is not online yet but probably that is where we want to come up with this new range," Agarwal added.

With massive internet usage it has become very easy to express the springs of leisure and amusement. Entertainment licensing is now booming in current times due to entertainment culture of Indians raised due to entry of global companies in native market. Entertainment has now become the second nature across the sphere. Numerous corporations have come up with assorted ways to keep populaces entertained in most appealing way.