Inside - Kidscreen

consumer sumer
products
Wolverine’s Canadian
heritage certainly
enhances his appeal
with that country’s
consumers
22 July/August 2011
North
facing
Marvel fi nds Canada-specifi c
CP program paying off with
double-digit sales gains
B
BY GARY RUSAK
lue-chip licensor Marvel has developed a unique vision of the North American
soft-goods market that is paying dividends north of the 49th parallel.
“The strategy is to make sure we are treating Canada as a separate territory
in and of itself,” says Paul Gitter, president of consumer products for North
America at the Disney-owned company. “What we did in the past was combine
Canada with the US. But we found that the US licensees didn’t pay enough attention
to the Canadian market.” (According to industry org LIMA, the Canadian
licensed consumer products market is currently valued at roughly US$8.4 billion in retail.)
Two years ago, Marvel started to take a new approach and identifi ed Canadian manufacturers
and possible licensees who possess specifi c expertise in the Canadian retail and consumer
landscape. And owing to manufacturing realities that hardlines are more effi ciently produced in
Asia, the approach is restricted to softline categories, which aren’t insignifi cant in terms of sales.
Marvel’s Canada-specifi c licensees currently include Black and White (footwear), Montec (bedding)
and Coledo (back-to-school), and Gitter says the company plans to keep adding to the list.
As the Canadian economy continues to outpace its neighbor to the south, Gitter says that it
has become imperative to deal with licensees who have connections to the country’s growing retail
base. “So much is changing,” he says, referencing the recent announcement of mass-market
giant Target’s plans to open more than 100 Canadian locations over the next 24 months.
“We need people that understand the retail dynamic,” Gitter says. “Canadian companies
prevail because their focus is 100% on the Canadian market.”
The company handles all deals out of the US and deploys a small team into the marketplace
on a regular basis to work with retailers and licensees.
And Gitter says a similar strategy is being employed in markets around the globe that resemble
Canada’s, including separating programs that in the past have fallen under European
umbrella deals and developing diff erent approaches tailored to meet the country-specifi c needs
of next-door neighbors Australia and New Zealand.
“Anytime we can localize and better service the community with local affi liates and local
manufacturers, traditionally we see sales increase,” Gitter contends. In fact, he says Canadian
sales have shot up by 20% since the program began.
The logical extension of the concept is to specialize even further, perhaps at a micro level.
And Marvel has in fact gone down that road with a New York-specifi c program. “We are even
doing it at the State and city level,” says Gitter. “We partnered with the NYPD and NYFD to
co-brand shirts with Spider-Man.” The New York program began in July, and Marvel confi rms
that other key cities are being evaluated for similar campaigns.