Stu Seltzer on Brand Licensing

Photo by iStock/aurielaki

In this episode of Lehigh University’s College of Business ilLUminate podcast, host Stephanie Veto chats with Stu Seltzer ’87 of Seltzer Licensing Group about the world of brand licensing. Mr. Seltzer adjunct teaches a Master of Business Administration course at Lehigh and an undergraduate course at New York University. He was inducted into the Licensing International Hall of Fame in 2024, and his new book, Brand Licensing for Dummies, is available now.

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Below is an edited excerpt from the conversation. Read the complete podcast transcript [PDF].

Veto: You graduated from Lehigh in 1987, and I know you love your alma mater. Why stay so involved with the institution?

Seltzer: Well, Lehigh also a family affair because my wife, Danielle, class of ’87, also went to Lehigh. My brother, class of ’91, went to Lehigh. My father, which is where I really grew up going to football games with him, is class of ’58. So there's a lot of Lehigh. My nephew, Shane, class of 2017. So a lot of Lehigh in our family and a lot of love for Lehigh. I mean, my father has been very outspoken about how much he loved Lehigh and kept in touch with the Lehigh friends, and still does. So it's been a great impact on all of our lives.

Veto: How did your time at Lehigh help shape your career?

Seltzer: At Lehigh, I had a great experience. I was president of SAC at the time - I think it's now called the Student Senate - and really enjoyed my friends and the fraternity life. And you learned the business world during the classroom, but then there's so many other great experiences, leadership opportunities and other things going on at the school. You really get to try a lot and kind of try to find out where your passion lies.

Veto: How did you find your way into brand licensing specifically?

Seltzer: My first job out of business school was at Yves Saint Laurent, which is a fashion company. At the time, Yves was alive and well, and he was focused on making dresses that sold for five to 10 thousand dollars each. And I was focused on really helping expand the brand and worked on licensing deals. One of the first deals I worked on was Yves Saint Laurent's first-ever eyewear deal with Luxottica. This is an eyewear deal. It was fascinating because, by licensing this company and the name, they made eyewear that sold around the world. And that was the first deal I worked on, but Yves Saint Laurent had a tremendous business of licensing for their brand. That's where I learned how this whole business of licensing works. And then from there, I got recruited to work at Warner Brothers, and worked on the Batman brand. Instead of working with 15 licensing partners, which is what Yves Saint Laurent had, Batman had 450 different licensing partners. I really enjoyed that experience working on two of their big Batman blockbuster movies and so forth.

Veto: You then started your own company, Seltzer Licensing Group, 26 years ago. What was your initial goal when you started your own business?

Seltzer: The initial goal was to survive. No, the initial goal was really-- I was working in the licensing area, and I had seen a few of these licensing agencies pop up and thought that I could really create a new agency and add value and do things a little more different, a little more strategic and set ourselves apart. I could really add value to a lot of these big companies that didn't have the 100-person licensing department that Warner Brothers had or the big brand and the big support that Yves Saint Laurent had. There were a lot of companies that we worked with that didn't have any licensing people, so we were operating almost as the outsourced licensing department.

Veto: What is brand licensing and why should companies use it?

Seltzer: Brand licensing is really unlocking the power of those brands, throughout some of the clients we're working with today, a client like Dove soap or Good Humor ice cream, and taking those brands and matching them with another product to really help spike sales. There's really two goals in licensing. If you're the licensee-- if you're the manufacturer, you're looking to take a brand that will really spike your sales. So in the case of Breyers, we'll say, Breyers ice cream, they will license in Reese's, and they will be the exclusive maker of Reese's ice cream. And they do that because they know they can sell more ice cream. So the whole point of licensing, we believe that licensing is a growth strategy. This is a way to really help companies grow.

Veto: What's one of your biggest takeaways from doing this line of work?

Seltzer: This business is still very much relationship-driven because you're in the business of trusting somebody else with your company jewels, with your brand. When we work with Chef Boyardee or Breyers, these relationships are really based on a lot of trust, and you have to build this trust in partners. Imagine Reese's, which is owned by Hershey, and Unilever Breyers working together. These are food products. You have to make sure they are maintaining the utmost highest quality standards and nothing ever goes wrong. So the key aspect is really knowing these people and partners and understanding their values because you really have to trust them.