Musings from Dennis #276. New Arrivals. I was taken aback when our apparel licensee walked into our office and shared how slow sales were for his latest Mickey Mouse apparel collection. He declared, quite confidently, that “no one wants Mickey anymore.”
I asked
whether this sentiment extended across his entire range. His answer was no—only
the new arrivals. He went on to say that sales would pick up only after he
marked the products down.
What struck
me immediately was the complete lack of energy or curiosity in his approach.
Every discussion felt flat, prompting me to conduct my own retail
check—something very much part of our responsibility.
When I
arrived at his sales counter, there was decent shopper traffic. I spent about
30 minutes observing customer behaviour from a short distance. It quickly
became apparent that while the new arrivals were prominently displayed on the
wall, they were largely ignored. Instead, shoppers were drawn to the sales bins
placed right beside that wall—and they were actively making purchases.
A closer
look revealed the real issue. The items in the sales bins were not old stock;
they were the new arrivals from the previous month. In other words, our
licensee had decided that one month was the maximum time he was willing to wait
before marking items down—despite the fact that the products were still very
much in season, on trend, and available in full size runs.
Unwittingly,
he had trained his customers to wait. They knew that if they exercised just a
little patience, they could buy a still-new T-shirt at a discounted price. The
wall display had effectively become a showroom, while the sales bins did the
actual selling.
I shared
these insights with him, but was met with the same lacklustre response. It soon
became clear why a change in licensee was necessary. Once that change was made,
sales improved dramatically.
Sadly, this
is a common pattern. Many IP licensees are quick to blame the IP itself for
poor performance, without first examining their own sales strategies, retail
discipline, and creative execution.
By
contrast, we once had a Mickey footwear licensee who took a very different
approach. Rather than heavily overlaying his designs with character graphics,
he incorporated Mickey subtly while embracing the latest footwear silhouettes.
Those years turned out to be some of our strongest for Mickey footwear in the
Singapore market.
The lesson
is clear: strong IP still needs smart strategy, disciplined retail practices,
and thoughtful design to succeed.
