To Be or Not to Be at a Single Exclusive Retailer

• Author: Michael Sanford Stone
• Profession: B.A. from Hamilton College and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law
• Pages: 147-170

147

CHAPTER 7

To Be or Not to Be at a

Single Exclusive Retailer

Looking to buy HGTV HOME paint? You can buy it only at a

Sherwin-Williams store or at Lowe’s. How about Better Homes

& Gardens sheets and pillowcases? Only at Walmart. You want

that Food Network pot and pan collection? Only at Kohl’s. Adam

Lev ine ’s mensw ear i s jus t your thi ng? On ly at K mar t. “S omet hing

Navy” by blogger Arielle Charnas? Only at Nordstrom. And this

isn’t limited to brick-and-mortar retailers. Look ing for Simple

Joys by Ca rter ’s, a li ne of baby a nd ch ildr en’s clo thin g sold in mu l-

tipiece bundles? Only at Amazon. Ditto Starter apparel, only at

Amazon. Direct response TV retai lers such as QVC and HSN fre-

quently oer exclusive licensed products. Oen, a sing le retailer is

the sole destination for a brand’s licensed products or for certain

categories of licensed products from that brand.

Yet one size doesn’t t all. Before embarking upon this strat-

egy, brand owners need to consider a number of factors that will

determine whether a single retai ler strategy is right for the brand’s

licensing program (or a portion of it). As you make this assessment,

keep in mind that the reta iler is the “gatekeeper.” No one will buy

The Power of Licensing

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your licensed product if it’s not on the shelf (or on the screen),

and in a retail exclusive model, the retailer has some very st rong

incentives to support your licensed products. Most major retail-

ers today, across virtually all types and channels, have developed

retail exclusive programs with licensors. And in t he future, we can

expe ct to see more of th is in t he e-comm erce spac e. To determ ine

whether this strategy is right for your licensing program, it helps

to think about this strateg y from a historical context.

A Brief History of the Single Retailer Strategy

Working with a single retailer is by no means a new strateg y. It’s

been around a long time. Celebrities, music icons, athletes, corpo-

rate brands and designers, among others, have been pursuing and

implementing this strateg y for decades. Chapter 2 mentioned an

exclusive arrangement e Coca-Cola Company had with Sea rs &

Roebuck Co. back in the 1960s for a line of music-themed T-shirts.

In fact, Sears was a pioneer in retail exclusives. In 1981, it launched

a collection of licensed fashion apparel branded by then-super-

model Cheryl Tiegs, selling al most a billion dollars in its 10-year

span. Shortly thereaer in 1983, Sears introduced another active

apparel collection licensed by the #1 tennis player in the world,

Australian Evonne Goolagong. At about that same time, in 1985,

Kmart launched an exclusive apparel collection licensed by then-

star of the television hit Charlie’s Angels, Jaclyn Smith (a program

that is still going strong, but more on that in the nex t chapter).

And in 1968, Macy’s developed an exclusive relationship with

the United States Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States

Tennis Association). It was the rst year that an event, called t he

Nationals, limited to “amateurs,” became the U.S. Open Tennis

Championship, open to all players (one of the Grand Slam events

of tennis to this day). Macy’s opened exclusive USLTA “Head-

quarters” shops in all of its stores with USLTA-branded apparel

and other merchandise as well as tennis equ ipment, promoted the

concept shop in advertising and other marketing vehicles, and

sponsored sanctioned USLTA tournaments. In addition, Macy’s