Collective Licensing International was acquired by
Payless in April 200and now has 10 brands under its umbrella, all focused in
youth lifestyle and athletic fashion.  The company boasts over 30 licensees
worldwide.  Bruce Pettet, president and CEO of Collective Licensing
International, said that it’s really a stable of world-class licensees
they’ve put together, representing the CLI brands in 105 countries.


Mr. Pettet said the CLI business is up 56% this year
with a model that has a “tremendous operating margin.”  He
described a “very efficient” model that is based around the
“Collective Process” and stressed “consistent global brand
messaging throughout the world.”


The first element in the model is Consumer Insight,
which is a combination of factors that enables CLI to deliver trend right
consumer product and inspiration to their global licensees.  Pettet said they
spend a lot of time in
London,
Tokyo,

Australia, Southern California
and
New York

to see what is happening in the marketplace.  He said they take those
experiences and combine it with a lot of research, particularly youth-oriented
research, including the Internet and in music. 


Pettet said that Consumer Insight then gets driven
into Creative Marketing.  CLI does all the advertising for their brands,
including all the creative, including video and 30-second spots.  He said their
licensing partners are then able to tap into marketing creative and product
through a proprietary B-to-B website that delivers through in-store
promotions.  A licensee for apparel in
Australia
or footwear in
France

can go to the Airwalk website download graphic images to use on their product
or download all of the Airwalk ads.  This enables CLI to keep much tighter
control of brand messaging.


As far as the upside to the CBI platform, Pettet said
that the synergies in design collaboration are one of the primary
opportunities, but he also said he saw a tremendous opportunity in global
sourcing synergies. He said that licensors, in general, can’t take a
complete package of shoes to their licensees, but CLI can go to a licensee in


Europe and tell them where to get it made.  


He also said that this is now a powerful brand
acquisition platform.  “We know that you can buy great brands, you can
lock them into this model and they instantly become incredibly
profitable,” said Pettet.