Why Licenses Matter @ Department 56
My nephew is a digital producer on location in Dubai for six months. When he first told me of his trip, the first thing that popped into my head was not “congratulations” or “how exciting” but “Did you know that people in Dubai don’t like the Flintstones, but those in Abu Dhabi do?” Yes, a dad joke. And I’m not even a dad, but he and I both chuckled at the silliness of it, which segued into a discussion about the things he would be filming there and the culture and what an amazing opportunity this would be for him.
I recalled that conversation recently when a collector asked, “Why do you do so many licenses?” I could have answered a dozen different ways, but when I paused to reflect on the question the answer was the same for why a silly punchline like “Abu Dhabi do” works, and that’s “familiarity,” especially if you watched the Flintstones any time in the past half century.
Nostalgia has long been a calling card of Department 56, but it works best when it’s paired with familiarity. A scene of a family in a snowy lot picking out their annual Christmas tree may ring nostalgic, but if you’ve experienced that very thing yourself, nostalgia is met with familiarity, and suddenly a piece becomes a reminder of happy times you’ve spent with those you love.
Layering familiarity into our Village pieces is the unsung hero of why our collections resonate with so many families across the world. We strive to strike a chord of what feels familiar, as nostalgia is not enough on its own. As an example, sisal trees are nostalgic to most of us, but our towering, glittered NIGHT ON THE TOWN TREES feel right next to THE GRIFFITH TOWER because the luxe twinkle of a night in the city is familiar. Or for a simple design like BRANDY’S TAVERN, it’s the coloring that makes the piece work.
Village master artist Paul Lundberg worked for days tweaking the colors to create an aesthetic somehow familiar to our nostalgic memories of Main Street at Christmas. It’s that yin and yang of nostalgia and familiar that help make Department 56 pieces memorable.
When you mix in a license, you supercharge the familiarity with more people, many who may not be acquainted with Department 56 or Village to begin with. That’s important, because growing our collector base is important. To illustrate, our popular National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation pieces resonate with Original Snow Village collectors and non-collectors alike because of the added popularity of the film. You don’t have to be a collector of Village to appreciate the grin-inducing glow of THE GRISWOLD HOLIDAY HOUSE, but we have countless testimonies from customers that tell us they began collecting Original Snow Village after they first purchased it. The same can be said of Disney, The Grinch, Peanuts, or any of the other myriad licenses we develop: familiarity helps grow customers into collectors.
Given our experience and success record with licenses, it was a shoo-in for us to make our inaugural Village Dealer Exclusive a licensed piece. Like us, our retailers want to attract collectors and future collectors alike, and a licensed piece carries that familiarity factor. As I mentioned in a previous blog, ELLEN & I WANT TO HELP commemorates one of our favorite scenes in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and it, like all future Village Dealer Exclusives, will never be sold on our website or on Amazon. If you want the piece you’ll have to visit your local Village dealer, which makes for an exciting trip even if you aren’t looking for a Village piece!
But in kind, we are also launching our first ever D56 Exclusive opposite the Village Dealer Exclusive to only be available through our website and on Amazon. This is exciting news (and perhaps I should have led with this … !!!) but our inaugural D56 Exclusive will debut for preorder on 5/6 Day and was chosen for its popularity with another of our top collections, Harry Potter Village. If you’re a fan of the series, especially if there are characters you’ve been missing, you’re going to love what we debut, so be certain to watch your email next Tuesday when we celebrate 5/6 Day together!
It may go without saying, but the longevity of Village Dealer Exclusives and D56 Exclusives will depend upon their popularity. But licenses have been and will continue to be a hallmark of our Village series, especially where familiarity is needed. The fun is not just how we incorporate them into our launches, but how you incorporate them into your collections. The familiarity in your own home, among your own family and friends, is where the true magic happens!
I vow to bring another blog to you soon. I receive a lot of positive feedback on this series – and thank you, sincerely – and I want to share more exclusive sneak peeks on what we are working on. I don’t need to mention how #TARIFFIED the industry is right now, but our global reach and ingenuity will help us stem whatever tides come our way, together. I only bring up tariffs here in the sense that they’re another dotted line to why we harness licenses.
In addition to nostalgia, on top of familiarity, licenses deliver joy. It seems cliché, but like seeing McDonald’s arches rising above the treetops in an unfamiliar area or spotting your favorite teams’ jersey on a fellow traveler and knowing you have something in common, a familiar license can transport you to a different, often happier time and place. Saturday morning, balancing a bowl of cereal on your crossed legs, watching Fred and Wilma and Dino and yelling YABBADABBADOO at every chance, we are in the business of joy and joy, like Villages, endures.
Until we gather again …
