This week, Ian Downes looks at how pop ups hold good potential for licensing.
As we all know in licensing one of the biggest challenges is getting product into retail.
At the recent BLE a lot of ‘good show, bad show’ chat is measured in the volume of retail buyers seen. There is often retailer envy – who saw the most buyers, how senior where they and how often did they come back to the stand.
There is no doubt retailers are the gatekeepers of the licensing industry. But there are alternative routes to market. Most notably the ‘pop up’ retailing. The trend for temporary short term retail outlets is particularly popular with fashion brands and FMCG brands. It is a way of getting your products on the high street in volume, creating a consumer PR story and positioning your brand how you think it should be positioned.
Marmite had a very interesting and effective pop up shop on Regent Street a year or so ago. In my own work we had a retail unit in the Beanotown exhibit on London’s South Bank. This form of retailing holds good potential for licensing.
However, one of the most successful ‘pop-up’ retail operations almost goes unheralded – that is Calendar Club. At this time of the year shopping centres see Calendar Club stores pop up either in vacant shop space or in the walkways in temporary space.
The shops focus on selling calendars in all formats (I also spotted a fair few diaries) and a significant percentage of product in store is licensed. My quick estimate would put the share held by licensed calendars at around 70%. Licensees such as Danilo, Portico, Carousel and Flametree all had a strong presence.
All these companies should be applauded as the standard of product was high, the mix of subjects broad but appealing and they also help police the sector ensuring ‘official’ calendars succeed in the market (making it harder for ‘unofficial’ titles). The spread of subjects was interesting ranging from TV and film through to music, sports, authors and brands. It was reassuring to see Danilo’s official Cliff Richard Calendar on shelf. I was pleased to see The Beano Calendar by Portico in store, but less pleased that I couldn’t find the Jacqueline Wilson Calendar. The retailer did save the day though — when I asked if they stocked the Jacqueline Wilson Calendar – they said no but reported they had it online and offered me a Free Postage voucher to buy it later. I thought this was a good strategy and showed a desire to keep a sale. Of course I would have preferred to see it on shelf in store.
It is worth visiting your local Calendar Club – the business model seems a good one and they are a big supporter of licensing it seems. It is also a good challenge to find the most bizarre calendar in store – the one I thought fitted this bill was The Bacon Lover’s Calendar…. not one for me but apparently very popular.
My calendar spy predicts that this year’s best selling calendar could be between Star Wars, One Direction, Minions and Frozen. This probably reveals the fact that calendars have become a very popular gift item with many being bought for other people rather than just self-purchase. I often wonder how many calendars the average UK household has? Maybe a question for my calendar spy to answer.
One licensing programme that I have always been impressed by is that based on the Haynes Car manuals.
The programme had some great success in the apparel category when it first started, but there has been some great new product coming through recently.
I spotted some gift and kit lines in Waterstone’s this week using the Haynes licence. One that stood out was Haynes Retro Radio Kit – this seems like an innovative idea, well targeted and a good blend of licence with subject matter.
This is a good example of a licensor looking to keep consumers interested with innovation. There were also Camera Kits.
It also showed me the growing potential that book retailers like Waterstone’s offer licensing. The store I visited had a good selection of non-book lines with an emphasis on gifts, accessories, stationery (including calendars) and kits. Licensing figured significantly.
In this context, licences can be linked to popular book subjects and hold appeal to specific parts of the store’s customers. For example, in the children’s section there is a lot of book-related plush and in and around the sports section, lots of sports-related gifting lines.
Another licensed product that caught my eye in Waterstone’s was some RHS product by Burgon & Ball – a trowel and fork set. This was well designed with great packaging, positioned near the gardening books and it was easy to see how people would pick this up as an additional gift item.
I think book retailers in the UK hold great potential for licensing and licensed products. Both parties should see benefit from working together, not least matching product with book subjects – just like Burgon & Ball, RHS and Waterstone’s have done. Great use of an appropriate licence in the right location.
Ian Downes runs Start Licensing, an independent brand licensing agency. His Twitter handle is @startlicensing – he would welcome your suggestions for what to look out for.
