Who are the decision-makers behind the deal? We parsed the data behind the Licensing Sourcebook to find out. It turns out, you’re most likely to be talking to a Licensing Director when making an agreement.
With almost 10,000 listees, the data available is not a representative image of the licensing industry—we only list revelant points of contact for people who are interested in dealmaking. We’re missing the coordinators, account executives, assistants, attorneys, and others who help the global $167.5 billion industry keep on growing.
Conversely, that gives us a good indication of who the actual decision-makers are. Most of them are directors (21.4%), followed by presidents (16.4%) and owners/partners (14.7%).
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We included titles with “Head [Licensing]” (319) together with directors, as most corporate heirarchies tend to place them at the same level, in terms of pay and reporting requirements. If someone’s title was “Head & VP [Licensing],” they were counted twice; once as a director and once as a VP. But even counting only those identifying as a “Director [Licensing]” (1,728), the title rose out on top as the most common.
It is important to note however, that titles are not used consistently in the licensing business. For example, a director in a very large company could be equivalent to a VP at a smaller one (and size isn’t the only differentiator). Unlike in other industries, titles don’t always correlate with responsibilities.
Larger companies may have several deal-makers on staff for different product categories, brands, or territories. On the other hand, small businesses tend to assign licensing-related responsibilities to the owner or partner. The most important factor in determining who does what in any given business is largely based on how much of the company’s business model is based on licensing revenues.
Because more than 60% of listees in the Licensing Sourcebook are from the U.S., these titles tend to follow the American corporate convention. It more likely for decision-makers to be the Managing Director or General Manager in Asia and Europe, for example.
What’s in a Name?
When looking at licensing exec’s titles, unsurprisingly, the top descriptor is licensing (30.1%), followed by marketing (18.2%) and [business] development (10.6%).
But there are dealmakers who don’t identify as “licensing professionals” at all—with some denying that the “licensing business” exists as such. While licensing is technically a marketing and/or sales tool, TLL uses the terms industry and business interchangeably for practical purposes. When conducting our Annual Licensing Business Survey, for example, we will necessarily treat licensing as an industry in determining retail sales of licensing merchandise. The growth rate and volume of retail sales of licensed merchandise sales will differ from that of generic merchandise, especially since the companies involved, retail trends, and even business models might differ.
When we asked our readers which labels they most identify with in a professional capacity last year, 60% of respondents stated that they preferred licensing, followed by a role-based label (marketing, business development, etc.; 50%) and industry (apparel manufacturing, entertainment, etc.; 40%, multiple responses allowed). Including neutral responses, licensing and role-based led in popularity with 90% each.
Based on that survey, the majority of respondents preferred to use partnership (91%) when referring to deals—in the colloquial sense. But only 2.2% use the word in their title, and a significant portion of those execs are also responsible for marketing partnerships as well as traditional licensing deals.
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