The Audi

Musings from Dennis #35: It was Takashimaya Singapore’s 3rd anniversary in 1995 and we were so happy to meet up with the potential sponsors of a brand-new Audi Cabriolet for our anniversary shopping centre lucky draw (or sweepstakes). I was super excited and so we were super punctual and my boss was there as well. She was very disciplined and organised in her ways (and I learnt financial spread sheet management from her) but she had this snarky air about her and a temper to boot. This morning she waited 15 minutes and the weather forecast wasn’t great. The sponsors arrived but the marketing head wasn’t there. So sorry, the executive said, my boss is a very busy man. “What? Only he is busy and the rest of us are not busy at all?” my boss decried as she stomped off the room. As she left, I instantly pictured in my mind that beautiful car “slip sliding away and driving off into the sunset”, and the deal dead. Oh no. After a long awkward silence, the Audi marketing head walked into the room, apologized for his tardiness and we did get that car after all despite the fact that my boss was no longer around for the discussion. Someone in Singapore eventually did drive off in that brand-new car into his sunset!

Mutual Respect please

Musings from Dennis #34: I am glad when I go around stores these days I see signs imploring customers for mutual respect with their salesstaff and this is good. Even licensing meetings with retailers are much better conducted these days. A decade or two ago it was not the case: My boss wanted to leave because we were made to wait for close to an hour for this supermarket chain senior buyer to meet us. I also waited alone for close to an hour too for one hypermarket buyer to meet me and after 45 minutes, he came up and asked it was really necessary for us to meet (?!!). One of our licensees had it worst: He was chided by the buyer when the trade margin negotiation proved uncomfortable and was reprimanded in the local language “Listen, we are the buyer and you are the supplier. Buyers are like parents and suppliers are like children. So obey your parents”. Licensors, licensees and retailers form a unique triangle of partnership, with all corners equal and mutually benefitting each other. That is how I see things happening today, how wonderful.

Filipino Excellence

Musings from Dennis #33: So impressed. I cannot be more impressed by any high level of excellence in product knowledge and salesmanship in Asia than what I had witnessed in the Philippines when I visited the 4-day Toy Expo organized by Toy Kingdom in August 2018 in Manila. These sales promoters were not full time on the job but they were so well trained that instead of just being polite and ready to serve the customer when the time for purchase came, they actually knew what they were selling. That action figure had this much articulation, this PAW Patrol toy has the following features and here is how it works.. I saw and marveled (pun not intended). Really the best I have seen in all of Asia. Kudos to the TK team. I could sense the passion and sense of interest in these guys seeing a future in retail for themselves! Amazing. 

Oh S***!

Musings from Dennis #32: That morning flight. Somehow when I travel for business, I try not to go directly from plane to any meeting immediately as some passengers do when they take the short less-than-an-hour-long flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. I had to catch one early 6am+ flight once and that flight was eerily quiet. Here was everyone, silent and likely sleepy. Many, like me closed our eyes and gambled for a quick shut-eye. Then it was time for the cabin crew to serve some hot or cold beverages. All was well when suddenly from behind me a shrill “s***!” pierced through the still cabin air and woke many of us up! Our ‘demure’ stewardess had spilt a cup of coffee directly onto the passenger right behind me and onto his shirt! No turbulence at that time! She quickly realised her "linguistic error". Profuse repeated sorries and attempts to clean him up ensued. Eventually the chief steward handed him a laundry voucher because he said, “I have no time to let you get my shirt cleaned because I have a meeting immediately when I land”. He passed me by when we disembarked, and it was a light coloured shirt. Watch and learn, Dennis, watch and learn.

You'll Never Know!

Musings from Dennis #31: My first day at work at Takashimaya Singapore. (Also my first day at work since I returned from my honeymoon). I walked into the office but it wasn’t unfamiliar. I had come here every Thursday for the past 2 years as part of the retainer agreement between my employer Pico Art and this retailer. Of course I was the event management vendor and here was my client. No sooner as I walked in 2 'new' colleagues approached me, one at a time. “No issues between us right?” they both said smiling (one nervously). Of course in all graciousness I said of course none. You see, the first one was very mean to me just a few weeks before and treated me disrespectfully until I called her boss to complain. The other gave me an unreasonable deadline so much so that even if I had forgone sleep it still could not be delivered. Well their boss had been promoted and moved to another department, they hired me to take over and now these two along with others report into me. Fast forward 2 decades and on the flip side, the person we hired back at Fun Characters for Malaysia and reported into me years before ended up being the same person I had to pitch to for a license for our new Nick Jr preschool IP! Lesson in life? Treat everyone well and with respect, especially when we want to remain in the same industry. Very glad that no enmity exists and everyone became friends but it is just such an interesting reflection which I am sure many of you may have also experienced. I know that the people (not) mentioned here know who you are so shout out to you guys!

Detained!!

Musings from Dennis #30. The licensing business can be both fun and hazardous at the same time. Back then, my former colleagues used to get prospect licensee information by tearing the hangtags off the merchandise at retail. I prefer to write them down but here was the problem, when the security sees you they will stop you in your tracks and demand you delete the info. I then hit upon this idea – call myself in the office and leave a message by reading out loud the leads on the packaging; then head back and retrieve the info.. At times when the guards would approach, I would pretend to talk to someone! Sometimes the ‘research’ included taking photos (in those days it was highly restricted) and I remember those tough guards at Carrefour Indonesia like hawks everywhere looking at me holding up my camera (we did not have camera phones then). Such was an experience at the Isetan store at Lot 10 Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was actually snapping our Disney items on shelf with no 'spying' intentions but was stopped in my tracks and subsequently detained in the store’s security office! I managed to get them to call the buyer and thankfully she released me but not after a while!

Smile!

Musings from Dennis #29. Smile (and keep on smiling!). Ever wondered how to keep that smile on your face during presentations or ceremonies or zoom calls when you really don’t feel like it? I learnt this in my mid 20’s at Sentosa when I had to present trophy after trophy to children who won in the different age band categories of the drawing contest they took part in (if there were 20 participants, we had 3 main winners and 17 consolation prizes, and so forth – you get that – on and on and on for like 45 minutes at a stretch). Then I remembered how those Singapore Air flight stewardesses kept smiling on and on and tried this – fix your left and right cheek muscles above the usual mark and stick it there. See? It lifts your face and you got a fixed smile all the way!

Travel Safe

Musings from Dennis #28: Heard about the taxi driver and the reverend who both died at the same time and went up to Heaven? At the gates, the driver received a golden, gem-crusted coat and was ushered in with pomp and pageantry. When it came to the reverend all he got was a simple pullover and was asked to just walk in. He scoffed “Hey don’t you know who I am and what I have done verses this guy here who simply drives people around?” he asked the angels. Came the reply “Over here we go for results. When you preach, people sleep. But when he drives, people pray!”. And that was exactly what I did one Friday evening when a taxi driver brought me from my last business meeting from the Kuala Lumpur city centre to the airport, a good hour away on the highway. I had asked him to rush because I was going to miss my plane back to Singapore if he did not help me. Well he did, and I found myself hanging onto the car roof handles for dear life and was praying so hard as a result. He even almost missed the left turning to the airport and swerved sharply right back in when he realized it and kept at the same high speed! Well I did get to the airport on time, and also lived to tell the story! Just one of those adventures every time we travel for business!

Power of Branding and Finding Nemo

Musings from Dennis #27: Nemo was hard to ‘find’! When a new idea is out for licensing, it often is met with misunderstanding or rejection. Finding Nemo, the Disney/Pixar IP was one such challenge for me to license as it was the first time a fish character was available for licensing, way back in 2002. “A fish is a fish is a fish” and “who wants to license a fish” and “I can put a fish image on my product, sell it and need not pay you any royalties for it” were familiar retorts (surprisingly I had a much easier time with Ratatouille). They just don’t get the power of a character and how they relate to consumers. Soon after the movie broke and when anyone walked into any aquarium and they see a clown fish or a blue tang – they did not call them by those names anymore, they just say “that’s Nemo!” or “that’s Dory”! That is the power of branding.