Hello Kitty is a major fashion statement for the young, and a phenomenal branding success for Japanese licensor Sanrio

Some of the biggest brand names in the world are positioning themselves in Hong Kong for new licensing opportunities in the Chinese mainland, confident the SAR offers protection for their investment.

Licensing agents Asia Licensing Partners and Japan-based licensor Sanrio agree that Hong Kong's licensing industry is going from strength to strength.

For Japan-based licensor Sanrio, creators of Hello Kitty, Hong Kong is the springboard to an as yet largely untapped potential.

Since the brand was born 25 years ago, Hello Kitty has become the biggest fashion statement for teenagers and pre-teens in Asia, with sales running into billions of dollars every year.  Eighty five per cent of Hello Kitty sales are in Japan, the rest largely in the US, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The company now has its sights set on the Chinese mainland. General manager Hiro Nishino says there are two main reasons why a growing number of international brands have set up in Hong Kong to expand their licensing activities in the region.

"Firstly, Hong Kong is the gateway to China where there is plenty of business opportunity and potential," he said. "Secondly, the consumption power in Hong Kong is still considerably big when compared to other south-east Asian countries."
 

Secure base for IP

Mr Nishino added that international firms have confidence in Hong Kong as a secure base for their valuable Intellectual Property (IP). In addition to the protection offered by Hong Kong's sound IP laws, he said that the SAR government and its Customs and Excise department "are very supportive to the IP owner".

""Exposure to the China market is one of our main objectives now. That's why events such as the Hong Kong Licensing Show and Conference are so important to us. The show will draw many quality licensees, and we hope it can help us explore many other regional opportunities."

	Jay Smith, president of Asian Licensing Partners, says Hong Kong is the best place to be located for expanding licensing networks

"Hong Kong was the best place to locate our headquarters because of the amount of consumer products trade that is either based here or facilitated through here. Of course, there are also 1.3 billion consumers right next door to us (in the Chinese mainland), and every brand in the world wants access to that market," Mr Smith said.

"But China is not the only important market for us in the region.  Hong Kong is centrally located geographically and it's relatively easy to travel to the huge markets of Japan and Korea, to our South Asia office in Singapore, and to our West Asia office in Delhi." He added that Hong Kong is more experienced in licensing than most of the rest of Asia due to its 30-year experience in toy licensing and production.

He continued: "Hong Kong offers capital and sophisticated management ideas, two things that are very necessary for brand licensing to work. Hong Kong companies are very open to the concept of licensing and they understand the value of brands. I believe they also understand that the traditional business model is shifting somewhat - rather than Hong Kong being a place that mainly facilitates export of products to the rest of the world, it is now also becoming a place that facilitates products, and brands, being brought to Asia from the rest of the world."
 
Mr Smith added that in the past few years, toy and character licensing has accounted for 80 - 85 pr cent of the licensing activity in Asia, while in the US last year it only represented 44 per cent. "The fields that our company works in - sports, fashion, and corporate brands - last year accounted for 46.1 pr cent of licensing activity in the US - so there are huge areas of licensing that are not being taken advantage of in Asia at the moment."

Related links:
Sanrio www.sanrio.com
Asian Licensing Partners www.asian-licensing.com