Fashion licensing charms Bollywood icons now

Rising number of Bollywood celebs are now associating themselves with fashion, apparel and accessories companies by becoming licensing partners. From Salman Khan to Hrithik Roshan to Kareena Kapoor and Bipasha Basu a long list of filmstars are now looking at it as a new and lucrative

business proposition. Many have teamed up with brands to launch them or create their own lines.

Experts feel that longevity of the effort and its fruitful culmination solely depends on the kind of product the licensor chooses to associate with and the way the licensee manages the distribution and product development once the celebrity hype dies down.

Celebs as licensors

Salman Khan started the trend when he partnered with Mandhana Industries to create the Being Human line of apparels and accessories. The brand has gained recognition and success both within and outside the country. Celebrity e-commerce platform, The Label Corp, which launches private labels across different categories with celebrity endorsements, added a third chapter to its offerings. After roping in Sussanne Roshan for its home decor private label and Malaika Arora Khan for fashion products, the company has now got Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu for its next fashion accessories portal ‘The Trunk Label’. Meanwhile Hrithik Roshan is the latest celebrity to partner with online shopping portal Myntra.com to retail brand Hrx coined from his name.

While the trend is catching up fast in India just the fact is that Indian celebs have woken up quite late to licensing opportunities. Their western counterparts have already been doing it for years. For instance, Nike joined hands with the legendary US basketball player, Michael Jordan in 1984, when he was just a rising star. And while he was fined for wearing Nike’s Air Jordan shoes by NBA officials, company bore the fine on player’s behalf and also advertised it as: “...Fortunately, the NBA can't keep you from wearing them. Air Jordans From Nike.” The shoes got instant success and sold twice as much around the world even today compared to the time when he was playing.

Lacoste was perhaps one of the first brands that was built on a licensor's name. It took after Grand Slam tennis champion, Rene Lacoste's loosely-knit cotton pique shirt with a collar. The polo T-shirts of today were introduced by Lacoste as a result, and the brand has grown since then.

On home turf, so far celebrities have associated themselves with licenses for perfume brands. The first Indian to get started was yesteryear's actor Zeenat Aman, with a perfume named Zeenat. Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Shilpa Shetty and M S Dhoni are some of the others who have their own line of perfumes.

Success still far away…

Compared to the West, Indian celebs have yet to witness the kind of craze and success, since the trend is gradually picking up in the country and is still at a nascent stage. Experts say, for Indian celebs to experience growth and success of their licensed label, both the licensor and licensee should market the product line when the celebrity is at the peak of his/her career.

Indeed a celeb’s charm does help in giving a product the initial push, later it entirely depends upon the licensee’s marketing tactics to keep brand loyalty and momentum alive. And to do that the licensee will have to keep introducing innovative gimmicks and spruce up distribution to sustain brand recall.

Experts point out that the trend will pick up when celebrities start considering it as a way of earning substantial money, apart from an effective channel to connect with the fans.