‘Character & brand themed cafés and touring exhibitions are flourishing sectors’.
The UK licensing sector is in pretty rude health at the moment, but how much is this replicated in other countries?
All this week, The Source will be checking out the landscape of some key overseas territories with the help of some experts, and discovering that there are some challenges – and properties – which are universal, regardless of location.
Today: Japan
With the first ever Licensing Expo Japan having taken place in April, all eyes have been on the territory recently.
Kaori Taniguchi, general manager of LIMA Japan, comments: “In terms of licensed properties, Disney and other classic properties are strong. A property type that is increasingly popular are characters based on virtual stickers used for communicating on the SNS messaging system, LINE.
“Character and brand-themed cafés and touring exhibitions based on licensed properties are both flourishing sectors. This has led to many new players entering the licensing industry.”
Kaori continues: “While the number of physical retail stores is decreasing, overall retail sales are not dropping. This is because retail itself is evolving into these new forms of selling environments.”
Kaori says that consumers are now demanding that brands have a strong backstory, while the popularity of Japanese properties has extended out into the rest of Asia.
“The important factors to ensure a property’s success are entertainment value, the brand’s world view and the message it delivers to the consumer,” she says. “All these elements are resulting in strong competition between brands.”
This feature originally appeared in the summer 2017 edition of Licensing Source Book. Click here to read the full publication.
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