It’s very easy to think that character design alone determines the success and failure of a character’s brand and how many licensing and merchandising deals it can get. Actually, the first criteria for marketing opportunities is massive exposure before anything else. Licensing agents and manufacturing companies are often opposed to acquiring properties that look good but don’t have massive exposure.

Assuming we’ve caught on to the popularity of a certain character brand (eg Dandy the Lion), we’ve won 70% of the battle with the licensing people. They would have been convinced that Dandy the Lion is worth licensing. These are really our first customers. We need them to feel that Dandy the Lion is worth licensing before they bring it to market.

The next hurdle we have to cross would be the end consumers, our secondary customers. They are the ones who determine the longevity of our brand and the true buyers who will convince the licensees that Dandy the Lion is worth licensing and that the license is worth continuing. Your purchasing rate, power and frequency will determine how long more W&W products can remain licensed.

Now, there are many product categories in the market when it comes to character brands.

Just to name a few:

– plush toys
– wood toys
– Stationery
– children’s clothes
– storybooks and activity books
– table games
– video game
– electronic toys
– animated products
– product promotions
– e.g. breakfast cereals, snacks, baby food, etc.
– store and franchise concepts
– and more

Very few character brands have been able to close a licensing deal for each of the categories listed here, with the exception of perhaps some of the main Disney characters and Sanrio’s Hello Kitty, and this was probably due to their own investments. It is almost impossible to expect to have licenses for every category, even if it is a leading brand. In addition to luck and finding the right partners, there is also the brand positioning factor to consider. This is due to the fact that not all character brands are eligible to be licensed for all categories. It all comes down to brand recognition and identity.

For example, The Simpsons is extremely famous and popular, but would it ever be licensed for an educational product? I doubt it. Parents wouldn’t associate something like The Simpsons with being educational, unless you took creative license to put a spin on the educational factor.

With the above establishment of licensing and merchandising in a broad aspect, I would now like to briefly discuss how to determine if a character can and will be licensed from 2 perspectives: the business perspective and the visual perspective.

1. How to determine if a character’s brand is distinctive enough for marketing from a commercial point of view?

Any character mark will be distinctive and attractive enough for the licensors to do so, provided it has achieved sufficient exposure. I’d like to use Mr. Bean as an example here. Mr. Bean doesn’t look good. In fact, in my opinion, he is downright ugly! But he’s gotten enough exposure around the world for people who license it to pick him up and stick his cartoon stunt double on all sorts of merchandise. The same can be said for so many other character brands found on the market today.

2. How to determine if a character’s brand is visually distinctive enough for merchandising?

As mentioned above, it will be difficult to create a character design that fits all categories due to the fact that there are brand positioning issues to consider. However, it’s entirely possible that on the merits of the character design alone, a design will be created that fits most categories. However, I would like to mention that character skins only form the basis of licensed merchandise. Much more depends on how manufacturers use the designs with their products. This falls under the brand assurance and product integrity strategies that a licensor will need to implement to ensure the integrity of character brands.