Welcome!

Ira Mayer’s knowledge and vast network of contacts and connections in the licensing business are rooted in his 25+ years as publisher and executive editor of The Licensing Letter, Entertainment Marketing Letter, and other newsletters and research studies.

As a consultant, Ira conducts competitive research and assists companies in the licensing business in extending product lines, expanding distribution, and opening new markets.

Ira lectures widely on retail and consumer trends; provides executive and academic education; and conducts retail tours focused on the competition among licensed, national and private label brands.

For more about Ira, including his two decades as a rock and roll critic, click here.

NY NOW Summer ’23: Smaller Is Better - NEW YORK, NY; August 14, 2023—NY NOW, once known as the NY International Gift Fair, is in the best sense a more compact show than pre-Covid. Producer Emerald Expositions has streamlined a show that prior to the pandemic was already losing some of its mojo to the huge and unwieldy Atlanta [Gift & Accessories] Market […]

New Product Introductions, Marketing Campaigns Call for Understanding Online and Physical Retail Realities - BROOKLYN, NY; March 3, 2020—Created for Karen Raugust and my “10 Keys To Success in A Changing Retail Landscape” session at #NYTF, these slides can serve as an outline for just about any product introduction or marketing campaign, toy or otherwise. Let us know if we can help you ask the right questions and flesh […]

Toy Fair NY 2020: What Was Cool, What Might Last, What Was Missing - NEW YORK, NY; February 26, 2020—Characters (and logos) trending up: Harry Potter and Frozen II are still everywhere. Don’t underestimate the staying power of NASA for kids, especially with the namesake organization increasingly active once again. And EVERYONE wants Pink Fong’s Baby Shark license for something. (So maybe there’s another season in Baby Shark, but […]

Shopping the Stationery & NY NOW Aisles for Specialty Licensing Opportunities - NEW YORK, NY; February 5, 2020—In: Cannabis and CBD products, including specialty packaging companies catering to that market. Out: Reusable straws, at least from a fancy design standpoint, now that they’re commodified. And here are my finds for new products well suited for licensing, and others ripe for expanding existing licensed offerings.

Holiday Retail: Exuberant Shoppers, Race to Stock Shelves, Inventory Gaps -

Looking to 2020 From the Intersection of Pop Culture, Marketing & Consumer Research -

Confronting the Apparel Industry’s ‘Going Out of Business Model’ - “What made us successful yesterday may be the reason for our failure tomorrow,” said Edwin Keh of the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel at the Sourcing Journal Summit: The New Fundamentals. Indeed, the rate of change in the apparel and footwear industries over the past decade will be mightily outpaced by the […]

Is There No Rest for the Disney Consumer? - On the surface, embedding 750 sq. foot Disney Stores in 25 Target stores starting next month, with another 40 planned a year from now, is a win-win: It’s a great differentiator for Target, gives Disney properties further exposure, and guarantees additional distribution for some licensees’ and Disney Store-exclusive merchandise. But: • To what extent will […]

Creativity, Craftsmanship and a Sense of Humor = Standouts at NY Gift Shows -

Suck It Up: Straws Are the ‘It’ Product at NY Now, National Stationery Show - NEW YORK, NY; August 13, 2019—How can you differentiate one reusable straw from other reusable straws? Let me count the ways based on eight among many on display at NY Now and the National Stationery Show at the Javits Center here this week. Materials: Stainless steel, silicone, titanium, paper, glass. Style: Floral/beach/animal motif, solid color, […]