Specialty Shops Giving Studios a New Showcase
After perusing the Judy Jetson cosmetic kits and Fred Flintstone bolo ties, Pat Hockings found just what she wanted: a $2 refrigerator magnet with the likeness of her Space Age cartoon hero, George Jetson.
“I’ve always been a Jetsons and a Flintstones fan,” said Hockings after shopping at a Torrance gift shop owned and named after Hanna-Barbera, the Hollywood animation studio whose cartoon characters populate the store. “There is nothing in there you really need. You just go into the store for the fun of it.”
George Jetson has joined Kermit the Frog and Mickey Mouse in the mall in the most recent effort by Hollywood studios to exploit the popularity of their well-known film and television characters. The market for such shops, however, is limited by the small number of entertainment firms with a stable of characters that have broad appeal.
“I would not expect this to be a trend that can be duplicated by everyone,” said Sarah A. Stack, a retail industry analyst at Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards. “I think very few cartoon or character franchises have the impact of Disney.”
So far, Walt Disney Co. and Hanna-Barbera have opened up company-owned stores. Jim Henson Productions, which has agreed to be purchased by Disney, has a licensing agreement with a Toronto-based chain of stores called Muppet Stuff. Meanwhile, the Children’s Television Workshop agreed to let a California toy store and children’s apparel chain use the name and characters of its popular “Sesame Street” program.
In a growing mail-order operation, Time Warner Inc. hawks Bugs Bunny jelly beans and “Murphy Brown” coffee mugs and shirts through its Warner Bros. Collection catalogue.
Hollywood studios have long derived profits from licensing the likenesses and names of their characters for use on everything from T-shirts to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts camp grounds. The new stores lend the studios and their productions greater exposure and can serve as an important marketing tool if managed well, say industry analysts.
And in tough economic times, the name of a well-known and trusted entertainment program or character goes a long way in setting a new retailer apart from competitors. “It’s the integrity” of the name that is valuable, said Gene Platin, who heads the four-store Sesame Street General Store chain.
The merchandise of these stores meshes with retailing and demographic trends. “We have noticed is a big surge in children’s toys, children’s clothes, family oriented gift items and just fun types of things,” said Iris Callie, vice president of leasing for Westfield Inc. Westfield operates the Westside Pavilion, where Hanna-Barbera opened its first mall store in July.
Walt Disney Co. launched the trend three years ago when it opened the first Disney store in Glendale. The chain, which helps promote recent Disney film productions, has grown to nearly 80 stores, including its first international outlet on London’s fashionable Regent Street.
Disney spokesman Chuck Champlin said the company is “very pleased with the operation,” which will grow to more than 100 stores next year. “We don’t see any decrease in the popularity, and we get many repeat visitors in each stores,” he said.
The stores also give Disney more power to control and manage the carefully cultivated image it has created for its characters. “You could argue that many of the Disney characters are brands . . . and as long as they continue to cultivate the core images of those brands they can do no wrong,” said Robert Kahn, executive director of corporate image consultants Landor Associates in Los Angeles.
The Children’s Television Workshop also scrutinizes the operations of the Sesame Street General Store chain, said Platin. “Every product that does not carry the Sesame Street name they have to approve. Our buyers cannot just go out and buy a crayon set. They have to send it to New York (where the workshop is based) to get approval” first.
Earlier this year, Hanna-Barbera, whose productions have often dominated Saturday morning childrens’ television programs, joined the fray by opening a store at the Universal Studios Tour in Florida and then in malls in West Los Angeles and Torrance.
“Our classic characters are going to be very important,” said Sandra Gilbert, vice president of Hanna-Barbera’s retail operations. “But it’s the new characters and the new shows that will add freshness to the stores.”
The stores, decorated in the vivid colors used in the Flintstones and Jetsons television cartoons, are geared to attract and entertain kids and their parents with a mix of gifts, toys and apparel. At the back of the stores, a space-age console out of a Jetsons cartoon lets kids view Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Aiming at nostalgic parents and children is a strategy that seems to have paid off.
“Cartoons never burn out--I still watch the Flintstones,” said Kris Dykes of Torrance, who picked up a Scooby-Doo whistle at the Hanna-Barbera store in the Del Amo Fashion Center. “I have a kid, and every time we walk by the store she goes inside.”
Dykes said there is enough room in the retailing world for Hanna-Barbera and Disney stores to grow. At the Del Amo Fashion Center, Disney officials say business has actually increased since a Hanna-Barbera store opened in the same mall in September and several shoppers say the patronize both stores.
“We go to the Disney store all the time,” said Jennifer Peterson, a San Pedro resident who had just finished strolling through the Hanna-Barbera store with her two infant daughters. “I like it, and there is something for kids to do,” she said of the store.
But the Del Amo Fashion Center, the largest shopping mall in Southern California, may be the exception in housing both a Disney and a Hanna-Barbera store.
“I would not see a need to have both a Disney store and a Hanna-Barbera,” said Callie at the Westside Pavilion, which also houses a small Muppet Stuff store. “With a Hanna-Barbera store, there is no need for a Disney store.”
