Even ladies are fond of Warner Brother characters

Licensing – sought of as a brilliant mode of expansion by brands, has gone major breakthrough with deals happening across a wide variety of category and lingerie being one of them. Soie, a brand by Ginza industries has inked pact with Warner Brothers for Superman and Wonder woman branded sleepwear and lingerie. In a tête-à-tête with Retailer, Amrit Sethia, COO, SOIE shares insights about the licensing deal with one of the honchos of entertainment sector and the brand SOIE

Talk to us about licensing deal between Soie and Warner Brothers.

We approached Warner Brother to get their license for innerwear and sleepwear products because we are a brand Soie into western garments and we also do sleepwear and lingerie. The Warner Brothers category was already taken in outwear section, so we opted for loungewear and innerwear. That is what we went for because we thought hiring these characters would add value to our products which has happened.

Who is the target group for this category?                                         

Target audience for this category starts from 16 till 30. We don’t limit age-bracket, but that is what we consider. The products that we have made are for ladies. The below 16 category has already been taken by some other brand. 

What is the revenue sharing model for this deal?

I don’t think I would be disclosing that. What I can tell you is that they ask for a minimum guaranty for the brand for a year or percentage in revenue, whichever is high. 

Did you face any challenges while dealing with Warner Brother?

First of all Warner Brother being a big company with huge portfolio of cartoon characters, people are definitely noticing. Everyone has seen Superman and Batman suddenly coming out in market on outer garments in last 3 years. 

What the brand wants from us a very good manufacturing facility so that they do not need to constantly check upon the quality of products that a licensee is selling off because a licensee not only sells the brand licensed products but also the brand.

They visited our manufacturing unit to see the quality norms we follow and were pretty impressed. The first hurdle was getting our process approved as per their parameters.

Secondly, none of the brands in India have ever done Warner brothers collection on innerwear. Disney, Winne the pooh etc. were there and characters like superman and Batman were there on men’s apparel but none has done it on innerwear. That was the thought with which we targeted a new set of customers along with existing set. Females are fond of wearing these Warner Brother characters on their tee, sleepwear, so why not target those people. That is when we tied up with company and launched two characters – Wonder woman and Superman.

What the brand requires from us is that when we design any product with their logo on it, we have to send it to them for approval. Warner Brother approved the design, the packaging and there we not many challenges we faced. 

Did you have liberty of choosing price points or Warner Brother had a say in that too?

Price-point is totally ours and they would not comment or interfere on pricing. We being a brand that believes in competitive pricing, we have a notion of not over-pricing the product just because it has brand name. We want to reach the masses and that is why we placed the price quite competitively. 

What are the price-points for Warner Brother collection?

The lowest is Rs 490 and highest is Rs 1,290.

What are the distribution channels you have opted for this collection?

We do online sales as well. Amazon.in has been our exclusive online partner. We don’t have these WB products anywhere else except Amazon and our own website. The presence is there in more than 800 outlets across India.

What is your take on growth in this sector?

Market has evolved a lot over past few years. Earlier this industry was very secretive or the consumers had their shops fixed in their neighborhood. Eventually as numbers of brands in market have grown, consumers have moved to new brands and they have moved in a big way. Success of Zivame tells us a lot about how e-business has helped this sector to grow.

How do you integrate Supply Chain and logistics to ensure smooth distribution?

The warehousing facility is same for all the channels.  We have one warehouse at Surat and all dispatching happens from there.  In terms of catering to MBOs, we receive orders and dispatch from there. We have separate teams handling each of these divisions of business.

Not just in SCM, we have our own production team. So, everything that Soie produces is our in-house production so that we can control quality at every level right from raw material to stitching, everything is managed in-house.

All the products have been made in cotton except one which is in spandex. All the raw material has been made by the parent company that is Ginza.

Are you in talks with some other licensor?

I don’t think we should be disclosing it. We are in talks with a player for other category. 

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