Licensing fever hotter than ever at SHOPA: full-featured products big in '95 - School and Home Office Products Association show, 1994 - includes related article on new products being introduced at the show

Discount Store News, Dec 5, 1994 by Shari Sanders

NEW ORLEANS -- The licensing craze is stronger than ever in the school and home office arena.

"Licensing is very important, especially in the Back-to-School area," said Michele Miladinov, stationery buyer for Kmart.

Miladinov said that in order to keep Kmart's licensed product selection fresh and exciting, she will work with new vendors and search out innovative products and packaging concepts in the coming year.

Characters like Tasmanian Devil, Batman, Simba and Nala from The Lion King, and sports heroes such as Shaq adorn a growing number of products across an ever-increasing range of categories. All of these and more will be featured at the fourth annual School and Home Office Products Association show scheduled to begin here Dec. 8 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

This year's SHOPA event, titled "Focus on the Future," will run through Dec. 10 and spotlight a plethora of products for Back-to-School and home office.

Nearly 500 exhibitors will be available, occupying 440,000 gross sq. ft. for exhibition, product preview and planning meetings. About 9,000 visitors are expected, including many international guests from Canada, Mexico and even from as far away as Russia. The Russian attendee is reportedly a buyer from an office supply chain in Moscow.

And this year, licensed products will be a big sales and profit contributor to many companies.

According to Suzanne Tanner, senior account executive, U.S. sales, Warner Bros. Consumer Products, 1995 will be another banner year for licensing. An impressive list of Looney Tunes licensees has been assembled, led by Stuart Hall, which will churn out as many as 30 skus of stationery product, and Dixon Ticonderoga, which will go forward with pens, pencils, crayons, markets and poster paints.

Other Looney Tunes licensees include: Thermos, lunch kits; Scotch/3M, Post-it-Notes; Le Page's, printed tapes, character-shaped glue bottles; Pretty Papers, die-cut memo pads, stationery; National Design, writing implements; and Stylus Writing Instruments Co., precision writing instruments.

Tanner is also touting products that support the summer '95 film release of "Batman Forever." Animated and live-action images are being produced by: Impact for notebooks, portfolios; Gibson Cards, greeting cards; Noteworthy, stampers, pencils, pens; Empire Berol, pencils; Plymouth, writing tablets, construction paper, message books; Creative Plastics, children's utility boxes; Mello Smello, stickers; Highgate Products, temporary tattoos; and Unique Industries, party goods, invitations.

Mead will also manufacture products bearing images of Garfield and various Disney properties.

Sports licensing fever is also smoking in the world of school supplies. National Basketball Association Properties, the licensing and marketing arm of the NBA, is entering this market for the first time. Nancy Fitzpatrick, licensing coordinator, youth products, said NBAP never had a concentrated effort in back-to-school products.

However, "based on how well the other leagues were doing in this area and how our properties were performing in apparel and hard goods during the Back-to-School selling season," Fitzpatrick said NBAP assembled a small licensee group and will debut the initial collection for Back-to-School.

Led by Mead (organizers and paper products) and Pentech (writing instruments, novelites), the NBAP lineup includes: Starline, player-identified notebooks, binders; Pyramid Handbags, soft-sided nylon pencil cases, lunch bags, backpacks; Thermos, hard lunch kits; RGA, small accessories; Wincraft, pencils; Daydream Publishing, calendars, day planners; and National Designs, pads and pens.

For '95, Mead will also debut collections bearing the marks of the NHL and NFL and expand upon its successful Nike collection. Distribution for these lines, which stretch price points as high as $24.99, includes mass merchants, grocery and drugstores, wholesale clubs and office superstores.

Retailers are finding sports licensed school products to be a beneficial niche marketing tool.

"By allowing us to tailor programs to specific regions and tap into the surrounding markets, we've been able to bring some new 'fans' into the department," said Nora Cline, stationery buyer for Hills Stores in Canton, Mass. "Our ability to pull together a style shop incorporating product from our other merchandising areas such as kids' apparel and accessories helps us maximize the hype of a local team."

In addition to licensing, manufacturers and retailers said that function will also drive sales this year.

According to Mark Davis, vice president of marketing for Dayton, Ohio-based Mead School and Office Products, customers at all retail levels are becoming more demanding. "They want high-quality items that fill multiple needs and increase their productivity," he said. In response, Mead will broaden its Cambridge collection of time-management products. "Last year, retailers reported a marked increase in profitability by devoting more space to value-added products instead of commodities," he said.