Mattel’s Helen Genia talks partners bringing more focus to online and making sure you’re following the consumer.
All this week, LicensingSource.net will be catching up with a selection of licensees across key categories to ask them how their businesses have been impacted by COVID-19 and what conversations the industry needs to be having to aid recovery.
Today: Helen Genia, senior manager, consumer products, Mattel.
“It certainly has been a challenging time – from a very stuttering March and April where the key Easter period was lost for some of our key partners, to what now I think is becoming a more positive outlook with retail opening up, with people learning to readjust to the new normal. There have certainly been some categories that have benefitted and some that have struggled.
At the beginning of the crisis and as we continue to adjust, we had a very clear objective to support our partners and to have open conversations, so that we could all navigate this situation as efficiently and effectively as possible.
This is an evolving situation, so being nimble and following the consumer is key. Online retailing has been a major factor in some categories’ success, so partners will now have to bring more focus to this area of their business from marketing to retail.
Ensuring propositions online are robust and in line with the rest of the market, has become what consumers expect as normal now, so it will need to become even more of a priority for some businesses.”
This feature originally appeared in the summer 2020 edition of Licensing Source Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.
Want to read more news like this? Simply sign up to our daily digest by clicking here. You can also follow @LicensingSource on Twitter and @licensing_source on Instagram.
