The View from the Other Side

You, as an art licensor, might wake up every day thinking “Hmmm, wonder who I should contact about licensing my art today?” You can start your morning thinking about new markets and potential licensees, but, hard as this may be to believe... those potential licensees are not likely to be waking up thinking about you.

Their morning will start more like this: 

”Oh crap, Target has changed our meeting AGAIN, I will be in China that week and Bob doesn’t do well with that buyer. The factory that makes the wire handles can’t meet our ship schedule, and the new plush shipment has been confiscated by Customs because the testing paperwork wasn’t filed? Am I surrounded by idiots? What am I going to tell the retailers? Hey, I wonder if we ever got the factory to the price point we need on those ceramic pieces – better have our China coordinator check on that. If we can’t get the pricing we will need to drop them from the new release and that will leave a major hole in the line – that’s gonna suck. And I can’t believe we are having ANOTHER review meeting on the January release – we should have had that in the system two weeks ago and NOW they want to take another look at it? We are already working on Summer 2014 for God’s sakes, I DO NOT have time for this BS. What else was there… oh yeah, need the textile print proofs today, we have GOT to have those samples in house by the first. There’s something else… oh, I still need to go through that pile of art. Maybe we could use some on  the new mugs… no way I have time for that today, maybe tomorrow… or maybe Mary can do it…”

And so their day goes.

One comment we heard often at both the Dallas and Atlanta markets was that the licensees had not even looked at the art they obtained from Surtex. They were still putting the 2014 product release to bed, or final touches on the new catalog, or just hadn’t had time, and so on… but they hoped to get to it sometime soon. 

From a technical standpoint, licensing is a business model and not an industry. It is a method of commercializing your product or invention (i.e. your designs) without bringing it to market yourself. And your clients definitely do not see it as an industry, for them it is a tool to make and sell better product. Licensing is but one of a number of ways that they can source one of the components of their product. I am telling you this because, to be successful long term, it is vital that you realize how your piece fits into the puzzle. Licensees will gravitate toward those who make their life easier – whether it’s because you only send appropriate, targeted art, or your files are correctly sized, well organized and readable, or you (happily!) respond to any request within hours instead of days or weeks… it all matters. Keeping your client’s perspective in mind will help you help them, and for them, that is really what it’s all about.  

 

Turning Up the Heat in Dallas

It wasn’t nearly hot enough in Florida so we headed off to the Dallas Home and Gift market to see what was happening there. I’ll tell ya, there’s nothing like that midday Texas heat shimmering up off 12 lanes of freeway to make you appreciate a sea breeze. Actually it really wasn’t all that bad – the nights are still below 80 - but that will change in a few weeks…

Dallas is the kickoff of the summer show season and while it is not as big as Atlanta, the big players are all there and many debut their mid-year releases at this show. There are 2300 permanent showrooms and several times a year they set up hundreds more temporary booths on a number of floors. Mix in a lot of regional and Texas vendors (oh wait – that’s the same thing in the Republic of Texas) and you have a pretty impressive venue. The Dallas Market Center is just north of downtown and has four main buildings: the 4 story Trade Mart with about one million square feet of space, the 15 story World Trade Center (3.1 million square feet), the International Trade Plaza (440,000 square feet) and the Market Hall at 214,000 square feet. A lot of ground to cover in a few long days but we managed to pull it off.

Trade Mart entry (World Trade Center is poking up on the right)

Traffic started out a little slow on Friday morning but did build through the day, and it really ramped up for the weekend. The exhibitors we talked with had mixed opinions on how the show was going, from good to really bad, but that seems to be the case in most every show. We have not heard any final wrap-up from the exhibitors or the DMC but probably will next week in Atlanta.

Atrium of the WTC

Mid-season releases tend to be a little spotty, not everybody does them and/or not every time. They can range from a little refresh of a collection to a full blown roll out of a new line (our favorite…) however we're happy no matter what they are. We had several nice debuts this time, here are three of them:

Ellen Krans at Burton&Burton

Life Is Country® at Big Sky Carvers/Demdaco

Ronnie Walter at Carson's

One of our goals at every show or market is to meet new clients, and this one turned into a pretty good trip. We also managed to lay some important groundwork for Atlanta next week.

Wait – next week? But I just got home…

Snippets

The pen and paper have been busy, between Housewares, Surtex and a few Atlanta leftovers a lot is being said. I only wish I could get them all, but ya just can’t stop a meeting to write down a good one, and then ya just can’t remember them all afterward, try as I may… but here are few for you:

“There are a lot of mixed signals, it’s not exactly clear where the market is going.” – a product developer/importer

“I just met with a guy who insisted we have our contract in place before I can do any presentations with  his art – that just doesn’t work for us.” – from a meeting at a well known tableware company

“One thing I’ve learned after all these years in this business is that the product misses outnumber the hits, and you just need to pick yourself up and keep on moving.” – an agent

“We switched rep groups hoping to increase sales and they fell by half – no one can explain it.” – a gift manufacturer

“So I’m looking at 30K of travel and show expense this year and wondering if spending 10K more might help – and then I’m thinking I must be nuts to be thinking that.” – an agent

“To me, someone who has a successful ecommerce presence is motivated and smart – exactly what we look for. Anyone telling you differently has another agenda or their head up their...” – an agent on the question of artists who sell product on the net

“This is really great and I am sure it will sell like crazy, but it’s just not our customer.” – a manufacturer

 “The good old days of cheap China manufacturing are gone.” – from a large gift company

"She claims to be one of the top licensing agencies, but if that's the case why have we never heard of any of her artists?" - an agent (and always a good question...)

“It’s either a sun setting or a moon rising, I am not sure which.” – overheard in the Javits food court where a non-exhibiting agent was showing a portfolio at the next table(!)
 

“I like this personally but we’ve already got it covered a couple different ways.” – a manufacturer
 

 “Pick your poison – boutique retail or mass market – there are problems either way.” – an art director
 

 “It’s really tough for us out there because the key accounts are in complete control.” - an art director
 

I’m going to start teaching a $1000 course too… it will be called “How to Get Your Head Out of the Clouds and Do Some Art”. – an agent
 

“The problem is we make a presentation based on them ordering 3 products and then they only order 1. Now we don’t have enough product to fill a shipping container so we have to turn the order down, and no one is happy about that.” –a manufacturer
 

“You reach a point where you can see the shades come down and their eyes glaze over so you just need to stop showing them art.” – an exhibitor about showing too much
 

“You never know about that X-factor out there, because the product, the price, everything was right but it still didn’t work.” – a licensee explaining why a line didn’t work
 

“Traffic doesn’t matter, I don’t care how many people are walking in the aisles if they can’t do anything for me.” – an exhibiting agent
 

And my favorite one of the group:
 

“I don’t know if I can do it or not but I’m a pretty good ‘tryer’.” – an exhibitor

Surtex... and Elephants

Surtex is over. Many people walked the aisles, a bunch stopped at our booth, we had a great show and we are going to do really well because of it.

The End. 

It really can be that easy. Lost in all the post-show hoopla is the fact that Surtex is but one tool in an artist’s marketing program, and careers do not live or die because of it. There are many successful licensed artists and also many large and significant art licensees who never set foot in the place. Of far more importance is 1) the ongoing quality of your offering and 2) a well executed year-round marketing plan. Surtex is done and there will be endless postmortems, blogs and reports to digest but all (well, at least those who know) should pretty much tell you the same thing – traffic was down but the quality of attendees was up, not a lot of lookie-loos, and the licensees were focused and ready to commit. It was a decent show, full of pretty good to great art without a lot of clunkers, not a record setter but a nice solid three day event. 

We did not talk to many artists as we stay pretty busy, although we heard they were out in force and only one (it still happens!) marched right up into the middle of a meeting and started pitching - to all of us, client included. Funny in retrospect but not particularly so at the time. There was also the usual coterie of former exhibitors who seem to feel they now have the right to work the show aisles instead of actually paying for a booth, a position I will never understand. They clearly are not there to evaluate the “possibility of exhibiting” so I question why management grants them access. I would also extend that line of reasoning to those artists who are on their 2^nd or 3^rd (or greater) year walking the show while still claiming to be “thinking about” exhibiting. Seriously? Nobody’s buying that - either get a booth or stay home.

Speaking of things I don’t understand, there was some interesting discussion about the agents who charge their artists to be on the walls of the booth. Normally I would be of the mindset that how someone runs their business is not my business, but then I’m not usually one to ignore the elephant in the room. The amount charged can vary widely, however one agent reportedly collects a 4-figure fee to be on the wall of the booth - a 10 foot booth with a dozen or more artists displayed, arranged 2 or 3 to a banner. Do the math – 10, 12 or 15K collected to support a 5000 dollar booth? Sure, there could be a couple of thousand dollars additional (maybe) in other expenses, however that still puts a lot of excess cash into someone’s pocket.

Brand licensing agencies have long operated on the commission plus expenses (shows, travel, advertising, etc.) model, however they charge a smaller percentage which offsets what can be significant expense billings. It is one thing to require your artists to help defray the cost of exhibiting, even though I do not agree with that practice (what’s the 50% for?), but turning those artist contributions into a profit center is reprehensible.

Anytime you are paying out money you should fully understand how it works. If it’s for a booth at a show request a full accounting of all the expenses you are “sharing” so you can see how your portion fits into the big picture. Ask for photos. When in doubt you can check with other artists or agents about what is normal practice, at least as much as there is such a thing, but no one collecting expense money from you should ever object to answering ALL your questions about where that money goes. You will need to invest in your career but first make sure your dollars are being spent wisely.

And now back to that bunch of client requests...

Actually, It IS Your Job

A lot of people are telling those coming into art licensing that this is a business and you need to approach it as a business – but I think you should go even farther…

You are an owner. This is a different experience than working for somebody, you now work for The Me Company.

You are the receptionist, the first point of contact and the public face of your company, so plan to look and act like a professional.

You are the marketing officer, so you need to understand where your products fit – and where they don’t.

You are the production department. Quality with efficiency is your goal.

You are the CFO, deciding how to apply limited assets to reap the greatest return while you constantly and realistically assess the probability of becoming profitable.

You are the sales person, so you need to find, initiate and follow through with your customer contacts.

You are the operations manager, arranging priorities and scheduling the work.

You are the quality control officer. Every product is inspected and flawless before it goes to...

You, the shipping department. Delivering your product as promised - accurate and on time.

You also have the big job in the big office: you are the CEO, the Director of Innovation, the Department of Strategic Thinking, so you need to work with the big picture. Your business will evolve and change constantly, the markets will shift and what is going to work tomorrow is always a question, and you have to answer that question. There are very few things on this path that are truly out of your control, so whatever happens will be your fault. The success or failure of your company - whichever it is – is whatever you decide to make it. Always.

The sooner you accept that the sooner you can choose success.

And don't forget to make a fresh pot of coffee before you sweep out the back room...