Casey’s General Store is expanding into Ohio and adding more prepared foods and home delivery to its small-town format.
Let’s say you have been driving a long time in the dark through the country. You need gas and are getting hungry, but you haven’t seen any gas stations or convenience stores for miles. Your headlights pick out the population of a small town you finally have reached. It is only 500, so you hope you have enough gasoline to get you to a bigger town.
Then you see the familiar yellow and red neon, friendly backlit logo of Casey’s General Store, and you know your needs will be met with friendly, courteous service and delicious food prepared right in the convenience store.
Not only that, but in some smaller towns, you might have located the center of nightlife, where residents gather in the evenings to stock up on supplies, enjoy a meal, a snack or dessert, and socialize as people used to at the chain’s namesake, the old-time general store. Of course, if the driver had downloaded Casey’s new smart phone app, he or she would have known where the next Casey’s location was. That’s something the old-time general store didn’t have.
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SEGA of America celebrates 25 years of Sonic the Hedgehog with new games, new merchandise and much more in 2016.
By Eric Slack
A leading presence in gaming for more than 50 years, SEGA is synonymous with innovation. It was one of the first companies on the interactive scene, and Sonic the Hedgehog became the perfect mascot to symbolize SEGA’s efforts to break barriers when he debuted in 1991. Celebrating Sonic’s 25th anniversary in 2016, SEGA of America’s leaders are looking to continue to build on that pioneering spirit.
“The Sonic Pillar team combines an experienced team from the world of entertainment alongside executives with a history of the Sonic brand from Japan,” says Ivo Gerscovich, chief brand officer and senior vice president of SEGA of America. “It makes for a powerful combination as we look to elevate Sonic into an entertainment icon across film, television, games, consumer products and many other areas.”
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The Licensing Shop and Bulldog Licensing play it smart with Shopkins to ensure the collectible toy brand continues to be a sensation.
By Janice Hoppe
Shopkins fans’ excitement rises with each crinkle of the blind bag until they have finally ripped it open to reveal a common, limited-edition or ultra-rare character. “The fan base loves doing the unboxing ceremonies on YouTube and social media,” The Licensing Shop President Steve Fowler says. “It’s kids talking to other kids through these sites, not suits creating a marketing program. It’s truly organic growth.”
Developed by Australian-based Moose Toys, Shopkins are grocery store-themed collectible characters that children collect, share and trade. Each rubber character has its own unique name and face, turning everyday items into cute and colorful figurines. “It’s a brand that translates so well and is built around pocket money,” Fowler explains. “Fans can buy a two-pack for $2.99, so it’s not a huge commitment. Kids and their parents buy a lot of two packs because they want to complete their collection.”
Shopkins launched Season 1 in summer 2014 and every six months since then has debuted a new season. Season 6 will hit stores in October along with the release of a first-ever DVD. A second DVD is scheduled for September 2017. Each season has at least 140 characters and fans want to collect them all. “The two-packs are in blind packaging, so you don’t know what you are getting,” Fowler says. “Moose Toys has created characters that are common, limited edition and ultra-rare. When you open it up and get No. 149, you are shrieking in delight and the fans want to capture that moment on camera because they don’t want to miss replaying that excitement.”
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TNG aims to grow its services beyond magazine wholesaling.
By Alan Dorich
When people go to a grocery store checkout lane, they often look at the magazine rack for that last impulse buy. There’s a good chance that those magazines were put there by TNG, the largest magazine wholesaler in the United States.
“We have 70 percent of the market share,” Chief Revenue Officer Mike Carter says. “We deliver to 70,000 doors every week in the United States and Canada.”
But magazines are only the tip of the iceberg for the company. Smyrna, Ga.-based TNG also provides merchandising and logistics services, and the distribution of general merchandise, beverages, packaged foods and snacks.
The company also sells its own line of housewares and clip strip items, which were designed for grocery retailers and are merchandised in the appropriate categories across the entire store. “We have 300 items that fit in seven brands, [including] kitchen gadgets, bar ware, pet, cleaning, coffee accessories, and bath and spa items,” he says.
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Hanky Panky’s intimate apparel is known as much for its comfort as for its fashionable designs.
By Chris Petersen
It’s said that a Hanky Panky thong is sold every 10 seconds, and for good reason. The New York City-based lingerie and sleepwear company’s unique thong panty design has been recognized far and wide as the most comfortable in the world, and that has helped solidify the company’s status as one of the leading designers and producers of women’s intimate apparel in the country. What’s even more incredible is that the company’s rise to success started with a simple gesture of friendship.
Co-founder Gale Epstein was working as a fashion designer in 1977 supplying unique designs to small boutiques while working for larger companies. While playing around with embroidered handkerchiefs, she got the idea to use them to create a handmade set of lingerie as a birthday gift for her friend, Lida Orzeck. “She loved it, and we realized that maybe other women would like something like that, too,” Epstein says.
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Retail Monster works closely with its partners including, A+E Networks and Entertainment Retail Enterprises to meet licensing, retail, sales and marketing needs for brands and franchises across a variety of categories.
By Stephanie Crets
Endless opportunities abound in the world of licensing, retail, marketing and sales – more than most brands can even imagine, in fact. But that’s where Retail Monster comes in to assist brands, retailers and licensors looking for solutions for brand extensions, licensing opportunities and preferred suppliers. Launched this past March, Retail Monster operates out of strategic locations near big retailers in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Orlando and Bentonville, Ark., with plans to expand to Minneapolis and internationally next year.
Retail Monster does more than licensing a brand before bringing it retailers. In fact, it does the reverse approach and brings brands to retailers as a pitch to generate excitement on the front-end, which makes licensing easier overall. It has also found that suppliers who sell intellectual property-based products are skilled at selling those products but struggle when pitching the brand behind them. Retail Monster, however, is more than comfortable helping a supplier pitch their products to retailers and linking brands with suppliers, licensors and retailers.
“We have a unique ability so sell brands to retailers and suppliers through brand ambassadorship,” CEO and founder Michael Connolly says. “What we offer in addition to that really rounds out our vortex. Our key differentiator comes in the sales and marketing services. The most important thing is we’ve decentralized our structure; we haven’t built one big infrastructure anywhere. We can be in front of retailers to pitch within the day and that’s the game-changer. Selling true products and licensing big brands give us a distinct advantage.”
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Brother’s Food Mart has won rave reviews for its famous fried chicken.
By Alan Dorich
People do not normally think of convenience stores as places where they can get top-quality cuisine, but Brother’s Food Mart has proved them wrong. In fact, CEO Imad "Eddie" Hamdan says the chain’s fried chicken has become a rite of passage for people when they come to New Orleans.
“If you go to Miami, and [you meet] somebody who has been to Louisiana, they’re going to know about Brother’s,” he says. “When people come to New Orleans, they’re going to try Brother’s chicken. It’s just something that you have to do.”
Based in Harvey, La., Brother’s Food Mart operates several locations in New Orleans and other cities in its home state. Hamdan notes that the company opened its first location in 1991 before moving three years later to a larger spot across the street that had been owned by its competition.
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IBM offers streamlined solutions personalized to help retailers transform their businesses and deliver a superior shopping experience.
By Stephanie Crets
IBM is making the lives of retailers and shoppers easier with solutions that address critical business needs. Vice President and CTO Vish Ganapathy describes the retail solutions as a “streamlining imperative” in three areas.
First, retailers can deliver superior shopping experiences by understanding, connecting and engaging with their customers to provide timely, relevant and personalized messages and offers. Second, retailers can build an efficient merchandising and supply chain system that allows them to anticipate and meet the needs of customers. Lastly, retailers can transform and optimize their operations – from administration and human resources to IT and business management – to improve performance and efficiency.
“Our software-based solutions are the biggest value,” Ganapathy explains. “We provide a single digital engine for commerce, marketing and order management and help retailers integrate large merchandising and supply chain systems. In addition to these highly intelligent solutions, we have predictive analytics and price optimization. This makes retail operations more efficient and allows retailers to make more informed decisions. We have a wide variety of solutions for each of our three imperatives.“
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