Cartoon characters in home textile
Fabric accompanies the child from birth, first baby swaddled in a soft bike, then placed in a silk envelope with a bow, and his house, waiting for a big towel and your own bed linen. For bed-sheets and pillow cases parents often choose a well-known cartoon characters - to your child dream good dreams, so the room was bright, he was able to fall asleep in the company of those heroes who sees on TV, DVD or the Internet. As cartoon characters appear on the home textiles, we were told at `Home Style #39;.
According to the agency `` Aniteks, the company is leading in the production and sale of household textiles in Russia. It was the first to use it in their production Russian licensed brand. However, let#39;s start from the beginning
In the early days of its operations, the company has worked with the adult range, she had several brands, which were issued under the bed linen, towels and bathrobes, blankets and bedspreads, pillows and blankets. Later, realizing the growing demand for children#39;s products, it was decided to expand the product portfolio is at the expense of children#39;s areas, and in 2006, the company is launching its own brand #39;fidget#39;. `Despite the great quality of the product: only natural fabrics, beautiful prints, a wide range, good advertising support-ing - the sale did not please #39;, - says Olga Ivanushkina, Director of Marketing and Advertising#39; Home Style #39;.
What prevented the growth of sales? The company has called for two reasons: if they had a poorly developed children#39;s customer base, and the brand was unknown. Olga invited to promote their own brand to use the license with recognizable characters, however, to convince the leaders of the effectiveness of this method of promotion could not immediately needed for almost a year!
Olga said that before purchasing a license needed to assess the risks and to understand whether it is possible to transfer a cartoon drawing on a cotton surface so that it retained the right color scheme and was beautiful. The difficulty is that, for printing an image on a conventional fleece-tion rug 150 x 200 cm This product requires a vector format image in very high quality - 600 dpi.
Cotton fabric - plain and terry - and limit the number of possible colors - only 12 are suitable for printing. According to Olga, this complicates the job, especially when it comes to licenses with their individual characteristics and color palette.
However, the decision to purchase a license to the company was still pending. This is the moment of choice. Under the sight were several licenses, especially foreign. But the choice in favor of them had to be abandoned. `First, the leading international manufacturers of bed linen and terry products already had a license for almost all of the most interesting cartoons, we do not want to enter a new product in a tough competition.
Secondly, some of our unscrupulous competitors actively selling counterfeit products featuring popular foreign cartoons produced in the countries of South-East Asia. Third, we thought about the long-term project, we would choose the license of serial cartoon, which would have a permanent hire on Russian television and, accordingly, would have a large loyal audience similar to our potential clients#39;, - says Olga.
Comparing all the possibilities, #39;Home Style#39; left alternative choice: either `Smeshariks` or `Luntik and his friends#39;. Fluffy Luntik unlike Smesharikov while only just gaining momentum, cartoon recently appeared on the screens, and counterfeit products if there was, the poor quality - and the product itself, and the image of the hero (this cartoon characters is difficult to re-draw). As a result, the choice fell on Luntik, and in February 2009 `Home Style` signed a contract with Warner Bros. #39;Mill#39; on the production and sale of bed linen, terry cloth and blankets with cartoon characters.
The project and its cost is fully justified itself. Products with Luntik sold well, but, interestingly, in 3.8 (!) Times increased sales of products under its own brand #39;fidget#39;. #39;We were able to significantly expand its customer base and enter our children#39;s range in almost all the major networks in Russia and Ukraine Small wholesale buyers gladly take products featuring Luntik in their retail stores. Network buyers are very interested in this range, because it is unique!
Oh, and incidentally began to buy the rest of our children#39;s range, tasted it, appreciated #39;, - says Olga. The effect of semi-chilsya is the one that counted, and Olga: Thanks to a licensing Customers spotted the usual collection of the company.
`A year later two of our main competitors have entered into contracts for the manufacture of licensing products. Both, however, with foreign licensors - they had no other choice #39;- smiling Olga. As for the `` Smesharikov, the right to use these characters in the production of home textiles have been purchased by one company, but, according to Olga#39;s success to no avail.
Naturally, the company decided to repeat the first successful experience and enhance-ment of assorted licensed products. And in April 2010, a contract was concluded with the `` Soyuzmultfilm to manufacture and sell children#39;s products for the home with cartoon characters `Well, wait a minute! #39;,` Lion and Turtle `,` Winnie the Pooh `,` Cheburashka and Crocodile Gena `and` Buttermilk `. And in December 2010 `Home Style #39;has added to its portfolio and more` Masha and the Bear#39;.
Now, according to Olga IVANUSHKIN best selling products featuring Luntik `` - the hero is popular. Cartoon channel broadcasts `Russia` in the popular children#39;s program `Good night, kids`. `Probably products with Masha and the Bear` `will be no less popular than` `Luntik, but we just started selling, so is difficult to predict #39;- explained Olga.
The company plans to produce textiles for another Russian license and is negotiating to buy foreign. Home sales on the Russian license, announced on December 2011.
