{"id":6641,"date":"2014-05-10T09:18:14","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T13:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/?p=6641"},"modified":"2020-01-21T18:56:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T22:56:34","slug":"natori-an-appealing-apparel-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/2014\/05\/10\/natori-an-appealing-apparel-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Natori: An Appealing Apparel Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, May 5, Ken Natori guest spoke at my Licensing class (CEO 035<\/a>)<\/span>.\u00a0 He generously spent an hour and a half talking about his company, founded by his mother, Josie Natori, and answering questions on all aspects of licensing posed by the class.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Natori2\"
\nFirst \u2013 what is the Natori brand:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Natori uses its brand equity to build East-meets-West lifestyle brands including ready-to-wear, accessories, bedding, towels, fragrance, home fragrance, swim, eyewear, and more<\/p>\n

Their three-pronged brand strategy includes:
\n\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Josie Natori \/ Natori http:\/\/www.natori.com\/<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0 (luxury, heritage)
\n\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Josie http:\/\/www.natori.com\/JosieByNatori<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0 (contemporary)
\n\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0N Natori http:\/\/www.natori.com\/NByNatori<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0 (accessible to all women)
\n
\n<\/span>\"photo3\"
\nNatori is one of the few companies that has retained its ownership in a world of mergers, buyouts, etc. This has allowed them, among other things, to maintain their own vision and control over their products and licensing procedures.<\/p>\n

There were two things Ken brought up that really left a strong impression on me and the class. \u00a0The first was related to his business ethics. When asked about who his licensees are and how he selects them, Ken brought up a simple, but powerful, equation: Partner over Product. This means the people he does business with are the most important element of licensing. By choosing the right partner, Natori is establishing a long term relationship with each licensee. This philosophy is similar to putting together a management team: \u00a0licensing is like a marriage. \u00a0You are in it for the long-term. Licensing is an ongoing dynamic relationship that, if done well, and Natori does it well, goes on for years. Translation: a win-win relationship that grows business (for both the licensee and licensor) while maintaining the brand.<\/p>\n

Because of Natori\u2019s relationship with their licensees (win-win and long term), the licensees have an in-depth understanding of both the company and the brand. This fosters on-target contributions for new product ideas as well as new vertical opportunities.<\/p>\n

The other thing Ken brought up that left an equally strong impression was also related to business ethics. \u00a0Natori built and owns its own manufacturing plant overseas. Not only does this make business sense and allow the company to keep control over the quality of the manufacture of many of their products, but equally, and some would say more importantly, Natori controls the circumstances and pay of their overseas employees. This methodology completely sidesteps the human rights issues (aka sweatshops) commonly found in overseas garment manufacturing. As a result, Natori\u2019s stance makes them a green company by virtue of their humane treatment of their employees.<\/p>\n

My next post will cover more elements that distinguish Natori from its competitors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong>
\nShe is the author of Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, May 5, Ken Natori guest spoke at my Licensing class (CEO 035).\u00a0 He generously spent an hour and a half talking about his company, founded by his mother, Josie Natori, and answering questions on all aspects of licensing posed by the class. First […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"post-templates\/post-middle-column.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8577],"tags":[9301,8576,8613,19555,28763,32779,28733,38568,8661],"class_list":["post-6641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-small-business","tag-brand","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-licensing","tag-luxury","tag-manufacturing","tag-natori","tag-partners","tag-small-business","tag-strategic-partners"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1v7EM-1J7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}