ABSTRACT
The term ‘merchandising’ is applied to the exploitation of a character, personality, brand or design from one medium by licensing its use in the context of another medium. Merchandising may take two forms: the direct reproduction of the character or design as another product such as a soft toy, or on a T-shirt, stationery, bed linen or wallpaper, where it will form the main feature; or to endorse an existing brand-name product or service such as a breakfast cereal, a yoghurt, fast food, petrol, insurance, banking and internet service providers. The key areas for merchandising are clothing and accessories, health and beauty, toys and games, furniture and homeware, stationery, publishing (where books are derived from characters which originated in another medium such as film or television), music, DVDs, computer games (including online and interactive products), apps for use on smartphones and tablets, and food and drink items. It is difficult to obtain exact figures for the total value of merchandised items worldwide; in 2017, it was reported that the top 150 global licensors accounted for around $273 billion, with Disney as the regular top performer, reporting sales of $56.6 billion, including products based on Star Wars, Marvel’s Avengers, Frozen and Disney Princess. Warner Brothers Consumer Products generated $6.5 billion including DC Universe and Harry Potter merchandise; Hasbro followed at $6.2 billion, Universal Brand Group (which includes DreamWorks Animation) at $6.1 billion with Mattel some way behind at $2.3 billion. Fifty-five global licensors reported sales of $1 billion or more.
