Could a hoodie sweatshirt be a step towards saving the art teacher's salary? Or a foam finger to keep the football coach? What about a bumper sticker to retain the orchestra director?
Both colleges and high schools, the latter on a smaller scale, have benefited monetarily from licensing programs, relying on them for academic funding and scholarship generation. Putting on my licensing hat, I whole-heartedly believe that this model can be applied in a smaller capacity to schools of the public youngster variety for proportionate benefits.
Harnessing the power of licensed merchandise can assist many school employees, including those at elementary and middle schools. A PTA sweatshirt here, a bumper sticker there, cups at sporting events, school spirit pom poms- each use of a branded or "official" product that has been produced through a licensing program generates a small percentage of royalty that is reinvested back into the school or program it is representing. Depending on contracts, colleges can garner 7-12% or more of an item's price in stores or from direct to consumer sales. Licensing also increases the visibility of a school's brand and makes higher quality products available, or at least products that meet set standards.
While licensing has upfront costs for establishing brand standards, enforcing them and consulting experts, it can be a consistent way to produce revenue long term. Students, parents, faculty, staff, and the community are all customers of the school's brand and more than likely they already own something splashed with school affiliated insignia. T-shirts are the best money maker and the most common purchase annually. Just think, for every science club t-shirt created for a junior high, fifty to seventy five cents of it could wind up going back to the school to help support keeping qualified science teachers on staff, allowing them to continue sparking the interest of the future chemists, engineers, and explorers of the world. Every annual marching band show shirt produced with the school name on it could kick back more money to the visual and performing arts departments to make sure rehearsals continue with a talented music educator at the helm, increasing students' potential to succeed in all areas of academia.
Marketing can help where state dollars fail. Partnering more aggressively with sponsors for events, performances and even portions of the school's inner workings, like the library, can create a win/win situation for education and local vendors. Sure, the idea of a Pepsi Basketball Court at ABC Junior High School sounds significantly invasive to the uninitiated, but it's what can save after-school sports without sacrificing salaries. And big companies are looking for ways to gain positive visibility in communities both big and small. Take a look at the fire hydrant and extinguisher initiative by KFC, and an Indy.com article "KFC pays Indiana cities for 'fiery' ad space"!
(photo: from Indy.com)
While there are plenty of arguments that the challenges of starting an elementary school or middle school licensing program will overshadow the early results, you can't deny the potential success modeled off of higher education implementation. While the neighborhood middle school may not have the same die hard alumni as a Big Ten college, all of those college graduates had to start somewhere. And if you can get them to relate to their middle school even remotely as enthusiastically as they do to their collegiate alma mater, they may be open to supporting the school through buying licensed products or sponsoring a sports team. They may bite at the idea, especially if it means ensuring that the same opportunities they had as children, if not more, will continue to be available to current students.
School by school, district by district, show choir by show choir, a tailored licensing program, large or small, will benefit schools in need of supplemental funding. With no funds to start the efforts or attract talent for marketing, this may have the distinct aroma of a non-profit calling. But aren't our nation's children the ultimate for-profit investment?
Caitlin McCready is a product of arts education and believes that dance, choir, band, and art opportunities in middle and high school are the foundations her successful, happy, and grounded creative marketing career. Her husband is a band director with degrees in Music Education - Wind Conducting and Chemistry, and was told as a teenager that music is not a reliable career. Caitlin recieved similar coaching regarding a degree in art yet both have, with effort, beaten the "odds" so far.
Posts
