FMCG brands are oriented towards licensing

Vrinda Oberai

Licensing

The fast moving consumer products' (FMCG) market is growing and experiencing expansion like never before. One major source behind their growth remains to be licensing besides co-branding, which acts like a catalyst when it comes to adding to the revenue streams of the potential brands.

Although the licensed merchandise is gradually gaining ground across all categories, but FMCG is witnessing some terrific activity in this regard. There have been initiatives in this regard from big names like Disney who has different licensing agreements (in India) with individual brands

Mickey Mouse: On Dabur Real fruit juice

Réal fruit juices, the flagship fruit juice brand from the House of Dabur - one of India's leading FMCG Companies, also in the recent times, announced a tie-up with Disney Consumer Products under which Réal will use the image of Disney's most beloved character Mickey Mouse to adorn the Réal juices and nectars packs.

Commenting on the healthy eating habits, Mr. K.K Chutani-Marketing Head, Dabur Foods, Dabur India Ltd, said, "It is our pleasure to work with Disney Consumer Products and hope our relationship with Disney helps us encourage healthy eating choices and lifestyles among Indian kids and families. With Disney's most beloved character, Mickey on Réal fruit juice packs, we aim to create a whole new experience and excitement for kids."

like Dabur, Cadbury, Nerolac and Weekender for different products categories.

Emami: Banking on character merchandise

The Emami Group has recently made a move to grab a bigger share of the licensing pie by adding more licences to its portfolio. It's more than a year that the Group tied up with Walt Disney to produce and market Disney's school and fashion bags in India, for which it has the exclusive rights.

The Disney characters include adorable characters Hannah Montana, Princess and Jungle Book. The Emami Group owns two reputed Kolkata retail brands - Frank Ross and Starmark. Frank Ross is a leading pharmacy chain and Starmark is one of the leading book and music retailers in the city (Kolkata) with four large-format stores - all located in premium malls.

However, Disney gets a fixed royalty for the total number of products sold through Emami.

Emami's retail strategy includes banking on merchandise distribution, with character merchandising forming a very promising category. Disney is game to make this deal a success and aiming to make these- mass market product options.

The trend setter and the world scenario

Throughout the world, the market leader in this regard - Disney's full range of branded merchandise like apparel, toys, home décor, books, magazines, interactive games, stationery, electronics, fine art, foods and beverages follow the licensing agreement route. Disney also has exclusive Disney stores to retail these products in case of countries like US, UK and Japan.

Looking at the overall scenario worldwide, it is revealed that rapidly increasing buying power, investment demands coming from the Middle East, the Balkans and Western European countries in conjunction with the increasing number of retail chain stores in Turkey has increased the market share of the fast-moving consumer goods. The resultant increase in the number of local and international retail chains and the investments of these channels, contribute in a big way to improve the quality and the competition in the FMCG sector.

However, international companies, eager to make headway to countries such as India, have to deal with a concept of Intellectual Property Rights, which needs to be addressed to the Indian audience in great detail.