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.
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 […]
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 […]
Retail Radicals: Prescriptions from the Trenches for Revitalizing Physical and Online Selling (and Renting!) - NEW YORK, NY; August 8, 2019—The themes articulated through nine very different presentations at The Robin [Lewis] Report’s 10th annual Retail Radicals forum at Columbia University were consistent to a fault, with overlapping examples (often humorously so), and a common outlook despite the presenters coming from divergent sectors of the retail industry. The themes: Detrimental […]