While kids today show unfettered determination when it comes to what they want, children’s television networks are working overtime to turn this demand into a multi-million rupee business. To stay top-of-mind, television channel Nick is focused on growing its merchandising business through its characters Dora, Ninja, SpongeBob SquarePants and Oggy.
Continuing from its last year’s initiative, the brand has stepped up investments in its back-to-school range which will now have 50 school bags up from the 30 last year. The new collection will caster wheels — a consumer insight helped build this feature into the bag. Fashion bags are being added to its current line-up of apparel, toys, stationery, gifts and novelties. The existing merchandise portfolio is available in 5,000 outlets across 300 cities, but the company plans to take the count to 100 more cities and 7,500 outlets.
Nickelodeon has partnered with 35 licensees like Mattel (for Dora toys), Funskool (for Dora puzzles and board games), Colgate (for Dora toothpaste) and Bilt (for Dora and SpongeBob SquarePants colours and notebooks) to reach out to kids. “SpongeBob which has an appeal both among kids and young adults will soon be present in teen apparel,” says Sandeep Dahiya, senior vice-president (consumer products), Viacom 18 Media.
The company feels the fast-moving consumer goods space is ideal for merchandising tie-ups — it licensed Dora to Colgate toothpaste last year — and this year it hopes to give a bigger thrust in this area. The brand has also tied up with McDonald’s recently and SpongeBob Happy Meals will soon be a part of the fast-food giant’s menu.
“Food and personal care products work well for licensing iconic character brands because they have better distribution and products can reach out to consumers in the smallest of towns. These categories are viewed as ‘indulgence’ in the necessities space and so show greater propensity to consume,” says Jiggy George, founder & CEO, Dream Theatre.
Besides building a brand pull for its characters, Nickelodeon also wants to use merchandising as a way to build the parent brand. “Often there are concepts with universal appeal and do not fit into one character or age group. Hence for novel concepts that appeal to both children and families, we will use the Nick brand,” says Dahiya. Last year the company partnered with Simba Toys to launch a new outdoor game called Nick Squap, which has sold 45,000 units since launch.
Nickelodeon is the not the only channel scrambling to use merchandising as a means to building stickiness with its channel. Cartoon Network and Disney too want a piece of the action in this Rs 562-crore market which is growing at 30 per cent year-on-year. Cartoon Network is leveraging the strong pull of its Ben 10 character by extending it into categories like footwear, watches, eye wear, stationery, chocolates and, guess what, home furnishing!
Experts concur merchandising not only provides television channels an alternate touch point to interact with consumers, but is also a strong revenue line. In India, Nickelodeon’s merchandising is a small contributor (10 per cent) to the television channel’s turnover. Globally, it is 50 per cent, so the opportunity is huge.
