It might come as a surprise to some of you as to why an Entertainment Marketing Brand Consultancy would find themselves at a Franchising and Licensing Expo in Marina Bay Sands.
You're not alone.
Some of the booths that we encountered too didn't understand why.
But if they knew just how the root of Entertainment''s revenue is, in fact, licensing, they might just comprehend why.
Then again, that might be too presumptuous.
The world of licensing and franchising is a well established one, with protocols, techniques and methods of their own, so much so that there's actually an organization dedicated to global franchising- and they had a pretty huge booth over there.
I might have learnt more had I gone to talk to them two guys sitting at the booth in their shirts, suits and ties, gazing intensely at their laptops and their phones.
But I didn't come here to talk about becoming a member to help me franchise the brand consultancy worldwide.
I came here to get a bit of vibe, to see what opportunities there were and maybe to explore a little bit more.
This was good opportunity to see which industries were active in franchising, and which were taking baby steps forward.
This was also good opportunity to see who wanted to expand where.
Most of the exhibitors seemed to be from F&B, or doing something related to food.
Didn't matter from where they came from.
There was a kebab factory, an American cuisine brand, a coffee brand from the Middle East, and if I'm not wrong, a company offering lotus seed snacks from Vietnam.
I got a little fascinated by a company specializing in all things Japanese matcha.
It wasn't because they were offering matcha prepared in a variety of different ways nor was it because they were selling the matcha powder separately, but because- out of the many things they offered on the menu- they had a matcha soft serve ice cream.
And they were obviously very proud of it.
I'm the last person to ask when it comes to this business, but for a moment- standing there in the middle of the Sands Expo Hall- I thought about the potentiality of this little matcha soft serve I was holding in my hand.
Sometimes I wonder if it is necessary to franchise the whole thing lock, stock, barrel out, or if it possible (like what some other industries have done) to split the whole system into smaller units and franchise/license them out one by one.
That being said, I'm seeing it purely from a consumer's point of view, not from a business point of view where the reality of costing and execution make it less feasible than what we hope it to be.
Of course, there have been instances when whole new systems were created.
Or existing systems modulated.
Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it doesn't.
Maybe that's why those who wish to franchise their brand out tend to bring out their best, and those that want to franchise in a brand hunt for the most apt.
Customer tastes are a very important thing.
What appeals to one group might not necessarily appeal to another.
Boba tea, however, has (more or less) made itself an exception.
In recent years, this fun, usually cold, well-shaken beverage has taken the world by storm, uniting the east and west together, the young and old together, and the tea drinkers and non tea drinkers together.
People who once claimed they prefer coffee over tea have found themselves sipping on (variations) of ice cold milk tea complete with chewy balls of tapioca pearls, and (sometimes) lashings of milk foam and cheese.
No wonder, then, that nearly two-thirds of the Taiwan pavilion were dedicated to brand owners of boba tea.
They had quite a number of offerings- there were fresh fruit teas made from fruits grown by native farms in Taiwan, a delish mango beverage with chunks of juicy mango and a thick layer of cheese foam on top, and another one with taro pearls sunk prettily into the milk tea.
Perhaps the most outstanding booth in this pavilion was the Shihlin Night Market one.
The size of the banner quite distracted me from the healthy (instant) soup noodles its neighbor was introducing.
I've written a fair bit about the food brands who were at this particular expo.
But there were some other interesting businesses on hand too.
We spoke to a rep from a Vending Machine company originally based in Hong Kong but who were looking to expand their presence in Singapore with more products, and more machines.
We also got ambushed by an FDW agency looking to extend their coordinator pool by licensing their system and network for a fee of $50,000 tops which said coordinator could then work from anywhere, receive the benefits of the company's resources, and earn back the ROI.
And there was also a debt collection agency- whom I can only assume was attempting to license out their system, but I didn't speak to them, and I dont think there were many that did- either.