Last Word

LINK LINES: Keynote speakers and a roundtable participant from License!'s LINK conference held in Miami, FL, in November, offer strategies for success.

"To

grow our brand

, we need to invest in real estate. We currently have 61 hard in-store shops (we fixture them and have dedicated personnel to merchandise them) and 167 soft ones. In the next few years, we will have 300 of these in-store shops."

—

Todd Kahn

EVP AND COO

SEAN JOHN

"Direct-to-retail is somewhat of a necessary evil. The consumer and retailer are demanding better goods. Either we license better vendors or the retailers do it on their own. This means figuring out the

best supply chain

. Direct-to-retail has been very successful for us, especially in Europe."

—

Bruce Morrison

VP, GLOBAL SALES

DISNEY CONSUMER PRODUCTS

"Emotional branding is the most powerful tool. Share of

heart

is more important than share of voice, mind, or wallet."

—

Warren Kornblum

PRESIDENT/CEO

SHADOW ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

FORMER TRU CMO

"The road map for success: Communicate

connect

with and educate them, treat each age segment differently,

create

innovative and differentiated products, step up a notch with retail partners, promote your brand, market it, and

captivate

the consumer. And "Just Say No" to overlicensing: There isn't enough room for all these licensed products in the market."

—

Marshal Cohen

CHIEF INDUSTRY ANALYST

NPD GROUP