How retailers use the Internet to find college-gear vendors

It started with casual apparel—sweatshirts, jerseys and ball caps that sported the logo and colors of one’s favorite college. Today, the trademark maize-and-blue, green-and-white or (insert your alma mater’s colors here) logos may be available on boxers and camisoles, silk ties and sundresses.

If the college or university is big enough—or its fans are dedicated enough to demand the market—there’s a supplier somewhere putting the school’s logo on stemware, shower curtains and sprinklers.

With college-affiliated product lines rapidly expanding, stocking the merchandise presents a challenge. Reputable retailers buy only from licensed vendors, which means identifying licensees whenever seeking new suppliers or reordering from old ones.

“It can be tedious—checking supplier lists, making sure you’ve got the latest lists, dealing with changing contact information. And lists don’t include photos or introduce retailers to new products,” said Jennifer Johnston of the college bookstore division of the Nebraska Book Company.

The Internet, however, is making it easier to keep information flowing between suppliers and retailers. College and university licensing programs or their agents are using the Internet, to varying degrees, to improve the system for everyone on the supply chain.

License management 101

Maintaining a licensing program has become increasingly complex for colleges and universities as well. Each school sets the parameters of its licensing policy: fees, artwork use guidelines, product liability insurance minimums and human rights policies to ensure suppliers aren’t involved in sweatshop labor or other unethical labor practices.

“At Michigan State, it’s not difficult to become licensed to produce merchandise, in part because it’s a public institution. The fee is fairly low: $200 annually for non-apparel categories and $500 annually for apparel,” said Terry Livermore, manager of MSU’s University Licensing Programs.

MSU’s licensees sign a renewable three-year contract. When it is up for renewal, the supplier’s record of product quality and adherence to artwork and other guidelines comes into play.

A licensing program is also charged with helping buyers and vendors find each other. Ideally, the program also helps market to retailers the full range of product lines, although major licensed suppliers play this role as well.

Because managing a licensing program has become so complex, many colleges and universities outsource the job. Firms like the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) and Licensing Resource Group will handle artwork approval, quality control and other contractual issues.

CLC, a huge licensing firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, handles merchandise licensing for the University of Michigan and Wayne State University (plus the NCAA, the Heisman Trophy and over 180 other schools and conferences).

Central Michigan University, Western Michigan University, Ferris State University and Grand Valley State University use Licensing Resources Group, a firm with offices in Holland, Michigan.

Spartans, apparently, prefer to do things differently. Michigan State University handles merchandise licensing in-house, through its University Licensing Programs.

To help retailers and to improve the entire licensing program, Livermore and his MSU team have launched a new website aimed specifically at retailers: www.msumall.com.

Not e-commerce

The MSU University Licensing Program website’s Internet address may sound like it’s for an online store, where consumers or retailers can buy MSU merchandise. In fact, the msumall.com website sells nothing.

Rather, Livermore regards it as a “comprehensive information resource.” Buyers place orders directly with licensed suppliers as always, but the site provides information about suppliers and available merchandise.

“We wanted to make it easier for retailers to wade through the morass of licensed products and their suppliers,” said Livermore.

“Nearly 500 companies are licensed by the university, and we hope the website will also increase retailers’ awareness of the breadth of MSU merchandise and help them find suppliers of merchandise they might not have known about before,” he explained.

Visitors to the msumall.com website will find the feel of a department store, categorized for ease of use. The 22 departments include the expected apparel, sporting goods and gifts, but also the less-expected: health & beauty, hardware and electronics. To give a sense of the site’s depth: home furnishings, housewares and domestics are separate departments.

Within departments are subcategories, with names designed to be familiar to merchandise buyers. The apparel department has over 100 subcategories, including outerwear, jerseys/football and jerseys/basketball. The food & beverage department has 19 subcategories, office products has 31 and pets has 17.

Under each subcategory appears a list of specific items—some with photos—along with supplier contact information. Kaye Arnett, Livermore’s assistant, is busy adding photos to the site as they become available. “We have 854 product photos up now, and we’re adding more all the time,” Arnett said.

If the website works as intended, a buyer for a store that carries MSU apparel might become interested in housewares or hardware by browsing the website.

“University licensing programs are characteristically dominated by apparel. Through this site, Michigan State University’s goal is to diversify its retail presence,” said Livermore.

Brad Ballein, manager of the Student Book Store in East Lansing, said the website did expose him to a few new items.

“I’m really familiar with Michigan State product lines since we carry a lot of this stuff. Even I saw a few items on the website, mostly in housewares, I hadn’t known existed. The site would probably be even more helpful for a smaller retailer who doesn’t carry a huge inventory of MSU merchandise,” Ballein explained.

Livermore also hopes the website will attract the attention of stores that don’t typically carry college products or MSU merchandise. Some airport gift shops, for example, may carry U of M apparel but not MSU apparel, or they might carry only apparel and assorted small trinkets when other product lines would sell well at such stores.

Livermore says the site is young but functional. “We will be making running changes as our technical support’s time allows. We welcome input.” He’s accepting feedback at 517.355.3434 or licensing@union.msu.edu.

Currency

The website will also help retailers stay current and prevent unlicensed suppliers from getting business. Some retailers unknowingly buy from suppliers they believe to be licensed, when in fact the license has expired.

Livermore estimates there is about a 20-percent turnover in its licensees each year. “With these dynamics, it can be difficult for buyers to know which suppliers have dropped off the list—or new ones that might be more competitive or offer higher quality,” explained Livermore.

Supplier lists, with names and contact information, are still commonly used, but they go out of date and are much less “user-friendly” than an electronic resource. Nor can a licensing program easily get supplier lists to retailers who aren’t on a mailing list.

“Because our website is wired directly into the office’s database, it provides an up-to-the-minute list of suppliers in each category along with contact information,” said Livermore.

In focus

This past January, Livermore and Arnett invited retailers to a focus group to give input on the new website. They sought retailers who carry a lot of college-related merchandise; buyers from big chains like Meijer, college bookstores and sporting goods stores took part.

The participants liked what they saw and offered suggestions for improving the website. They said it was a great idea, and some said it would likely make their jobs easier.

“I’ll probably use it to look for really offbeat items, since we already work well with our suppliers of the typical merchandise. Sometimes customers come in with an oddball request, and if anyone makes the product, this website would probably list it” said Ballein, who attended the focus group.

Rick Karel, a buyer of sports apparel for Meijer, had a similar reaction: “If I were a gift merchandiser, this is really cool. I could get in there and find anything I wanted.”

However, Karel orders apparel representing nearly 60 different teams and finds it more efficient to use vendors who are licensed for all these teams. He says he has no need for websites to locate suppliers—he has good vendor relationships and trusts them to know what’s going on.

The focus group allowed buyers and the site designers to brainstorm on ways to make the website even more useful. Livermore and his team got feedback on other ideas they are considering, such as whether to require free user registration for full access to the website.

Registration would allow MSU’s program to see whether the user is part of the intended audience (i.e. buyers for retail stores). By collecting registered users’ e-mail addresses, the program could maintain a mailing list to distribute other valuable information to their audience.

The competition

In a sense, university licensing programs compete just as their schools’ teams do. A well-managed licensing program (or a university’s licensing agent) is an important revenue generator for schools.

MSU’s choice to handle its own licensing means that it competes with large firms like CLC (U of M’s contracted licensing agent) that offer numerous services to schools, suppliers and retailers. The msumall.com website helps sell MSU merchandise by helping retailers, without getting into the complex and wholly different businesses of wholesaling or retailing.

Ballein, who has used CLC’s website, describes it as “very sales-oriented.” CLC’s main website features links to both its retail site, CollegeGear.com, and its business-to-business site, The Collegiate Exchange. Even the business site is geared more to selling than to assisting retailers, according to Ballein.

CLC does offers many retailer services. The Collegiate Exchange website lets registered retailers buy products from licensees online. Retailers can search for product by institution, event, product category or licensee, have access to the CLC licensee directory of contact names, addresses and phone numbers.

“As a retailer, I’m thinking, are they helping me or competing with me?” Ballein said of CLC’s program. “We know the MSU site isn’t competing with us, they’re trying to help us sell more product.”

The University of Michigan pays a hefty sum for CLC’s premium services. The services provided by Licensing Resource Group, the firm used by many mid-sized Michigan schools, is closer to MSU’s program. They don’t do retail, but rather focus on facilitating information between their clients (schools), retailers and licensees.

Licensing Resource Group’s website provides downloadable supplier lists. There are no photos of merchandise and no online purchasing, but the lists are relatively current and the company provides support.

Class by itself

Until licensing firms arose to fill the need, all schools ran their own programs. What is notable about MSU’s choice to remain in-house is that they keep up with the fast pace of changes in the industry, offering much of what the “specialist” firms do.

It’s a big task, with a lot of revenue at stake. Livermore claims MSU offers a larger retail market than U of M within the state.

MSU is the seventh largest university in the country and the largest in Michigan, with a total enrollment of nearly 45,000. U of M’s total enrollment is closer to 39,000. Its high national reputation draws many out-of-state students who may be ardent fans but who go back to their home states after graduation.

“Nearly 85 percent of MSU students are from Michigan, and most remain in Michigan following graduation,” said Livermore. Supporting evidence: the MSU license plate is the state’s most popular design, ahead of even the U.S. flag.

Regardless of the school or its licensing program, retailers who carry any kind of college-related merchandise know how well this product line can sell. Students, alumni, diehard fans of a college sports team—all love to identify with the colors and logos of their schools. Anything that makes learning about and carrying this popular merchandise easier is welcome.

This article was written by Amy Buttery, Michigan Retailer staff writer.