‘MARKETING CONCLAVE: LICENSING CAN HELP!’ concludes successfully

‘Marketing Conclave: Licensing Can Help!’ held on May 6, 2011 at New Delhi, by License India in support with International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA) and Bradford License India as the knowledge partner, concludes successfully. The event saw marketers from across the industries, understand and comprehend ‘Licensing’ in multiple genres for product, promotional and brand.

Licensing in India is on the rise and would be valued at US $500 million in five years believes licensing experts. While the figures are miniscule compared to other international markets, India is fast establishing itself as a strong potential market in the future world of licensing.

Elaborating further, Gaurav Marya, President, License India said, “Brand extensions are flourishing for a number of reasons. A strong brand commands loyalty, emotions, preference and associative powers, which are hard to duplicate by the competition. The brand is the USP for many products today. Also, in the much cluttered marketplace, where it is very expensive and time consuming to get brand recognition and brand affinity, many companies choose brand extension licensing to launch new products, by leveraging the power of existing strong brands.”

Some of the key note speakers included Martin Brochstein (SVP industry Relations & Information, LIMA, USA), Rob Ridder (Partner, Bradford Licensing LLC, USA), Jiby George (COO, Dream Theatre), Rahul Gambhir (Director- Licensing, Tommy Hilfiger), Ashish Kulkarni (CEO, Big Animation – A Reliance Big Entertainment Group Company), Atulit Saxena (COO – Brands Future Brands Ltd), Pankaj Sikka (Manager – Brand Licensing, Bioworld), Dimpy Mohanty (Founding Partner, LexCounsel, Law Offices), Tushar Chawla (Partner, Economic Laws Practice).

Brands with strong consumer recognition, relevance and loyalty have been successfully extended into new product categories. In fact, for years, brand extension licensing has been used as a strategy to generate revenues. But today, the scenario is changing, with more focus on other benefits that a carefully crafted licensing program can deliver, apart from just royalty revenues.

The conclave also saw the display of the product lines available for licensing from various known brands such as Me to You, Pepsi, Donald J Trump, University of Oxford, Pampered Girls, Teletubbies, Guinness World Records, Zorro to name a few.