Brand licensing's marketing ways

Licensing

The initiative of License India in a forum format, 'Marketing Conclave: Licensing Can Help!' which was held on Friday, May 6th, 2011 at Tivoli Daffodil Hotel at New Delhi, saw marketers from across the industries, understanding and comprehending 'Licensing' across multiple genres for product, promotional and brand. This event was supported by International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA) with Bradford License India as the knowledge partner.

Some of the key note speakers included Martin Brochstein, SVP, Industry Relations & Information, LIMA, USA; Rob Ridder, Partner, Bradford Licensing LLC, USA; Jibi George, COO, Dream Theatre; Rahul Gambhir, Director- Licensing, Tommy Hilfiger; Ashish Kulkarni, CEO, Big Animation; Atulit Saxena, COO, Brands Future Brands Ltd; Pankaj Sikka, Manager - Licensing, Bioworld; Dimpy Mohanty, Founding Partner, LexCounsel Law Offices and Tushar Chawla, Partner, Economic Laws Practice.

Many consumer products marketers believe that 'brands' has become important like ever before and many a time, the only differentiator in many product categories. Brands with strong consumer recognition, relevance and loyalty have been successfully extended into new product categories. In fact, for years, brand extension licensing has been used as a strategy to generate revenues. But today, the scenario is changing, with more focus on other benefits that a carefully crafted licensing program can deliver, apart from just royalty revenues. Commenting further, Rahul Gambhir, Director - Licensing, Tommy Hilfiger said "Only if handled right, Licensing is a low cost and high gain prospect. A right partner, right category, right time, right pricing, and right controls makes a successful model. The opportunities in licensing are limitless. We have only seen a trailer in India."

Jibi George, Chief Operating Officer of Dream Theatre added, "The key to success in Licensing is that the product must bring the brand and property alive. Therefore, it is important to identify brand attributes, understand target audience, map product categories, ensuring the balance of core and secondary categories while working with key retail for creating the right retail environment." "The next big leap in marketing strategies is brand extensions which are seen as an excellent strategy to enhance and reinforce existing brand equity. Typically, a licensee benefits from the popularity of a particular brand. However, there is also a reciprocal benefit that the licensor receives from the advertising and promotional support by the licensees. Licensing revenues can soon become the most profitable revenues of the company. Because the investment in building the brand has already occurred, there are few additional costs associated with putting forth a licensing program. As a result, a high percentage of revenue is pure profit." opined Michelle Minieri, President, Bradford License India.

To add to this, Martin Brochstein, SVP industry Relations & Information, LIMA, USA, said "Over the last few years, we have seen a lot of change in the Indian licensing industry. India, once a closed market, today, has a foray of international and strong local brands to choose from. Today, we have celebrities and properties who have become licensors - Harbhajan Singh with his very own chain of restaurant and IPL team such as Kings XI Punjab with their own range apparels. Licensing is no longer limited to character licensing in India. The licensing industry in India has gained substantial momentum now. The licensors, for sure, stand to gain the maximum, but this has also opened doors for others in the value chain, like independent licensing agents, retailers, advertisers, consumer products manufacturers and distributors."

The conclave also saw the display of the array of merchandise available for licensing from various known brands such as Me to You, Pepsi, Donald J Trump, University of Oxford, Pampered Girls, Teletubbies, Guinness World Records and Zorro to name a few.