Akron doesn’t normally come to mind when you think about the recording industry, but don’t tell that to Karen Mitzo Hilderbrand and Kim Mitzo Thompson. They are the respective CEO and president of Twin Sisters Productions LLC, an Akron-based independent record label and music publisher of children’s audiocassettes and CDs.
And yes, they are twins. So what is it like running the company with a relative?
“I think being (in business with) a relative is different than being (in business with) a twin,” Thompson says. “We are so close, and we both can’t imagine being in business with anybody else.”
Thompson began her career as a teacher and used music to teach basic skills to her first-graders. When she began teaching third grade, she and Hilderbrand wrote “Rap With The Facts” to teach multiplication, and parents and students loved it. They researched the school supply market and launched Twin Sisters with one product.
Thompson left teaching and Hilderbrand left her industrial engineering job to grow the company full-time. Today, Hilderbrand spearheads operations, Thompson handles product development, and they both work with their sales team. The 18-year-old company now offers CDs of lullabies, religious music, foreign language instruction, social studies, science, math and its newest products, Musical Play in the Box and Speechercise, “a musical workout for your mouth.”
Twin Sisters’ sales, marketing, administration and product development office is in Akron, with its distribution center in Cuyahoga Falls. The company owns the copyrights to all of its music, most of which is recorded in Nashville (some is recorded in Canton), using children singers and professional musicians. This is quite a change from the early days, when the duo provided the vocal talent.
Smart Business sat down with with Thompson and Hilderbrand to discuss their company’s role in the children’s music industry.
In 2000, Twin Sisters was sold to Cinar Corp. In 2003, you bought it back. Why did you sell, why did you buy it back and what changes have you made?
Thompson: We (sold it) because we thought it would be great to be working on some TV, film and PBS programs. … Over the years, (Cinar) ran into some troubles, and they needed to sell off all the different companies they had purchased. So we had the opportunity to buy our company back, and we did that.
Hilderbrand: During those years when they owned it,… we ran it the same way …
Thompson: … That we do now. The only change is that … they had distribution in North Carolina. We had all of our functions right here — the sales part, development, administrative — and they had the warehousing facilities.
Our company does music for children but our slant is … that our music has a teaching element in it. … Children can listen to the radio and memorize words by hearing something maybe one time, and so it’s just a really good teaching tool to help children, and it’s a good motivator. They get excited because they can sing and dance and learn at the same time.
In addition to independent religious, educational and children’s stores, your products are sold at Borders, Wal-Mart, USA Baby, Toys “R” Us, Babies “R” Us, Berean Christian Stores and Holcomb’s. How did you attain these corporate partnerships?
Thompson: We went to trade shows that sell to school supply stores and catalogs, and, in turn, those stores sell to teachers. We really started with the teacher market and have branched off from there in other specialty retailers.
Hilderbrand: We have national sales managers that work for us, and they go out and call on these accounts directly. We call on buyers.
Thompson: Karen and I go on the larger sales calls with the national sales managers, and we’ve established relationships over the 18 years we’ve been in business.
Hilderbrand: It just has to do with having the right product and being able to participate on the same kind of terms they need. You have to be able to ship on time, produce the product and be able to handle the distribution the way they want it. If you can do all that, then it’s no problem.
Twin Sisters has won more than 120 major national product awards. How do you stay on top of trends in the children’s music industry?
Hilderbrand: We go to all of the trade shows for our industry, we shop, we have kids of our own, we stay up on the research. … A lot of the record competition copies us as well, so we just try to stay on top of what’s coming forward.
Thompson: We go to Toy Fair in New York; we go to educational trade shows called NSSEA.
Thompson and Hilderbrand (at the same time): The National School Supply and Equipment Association.
Hilderbrand: We go to CBA (the Christian Booksellers Association), we go to NARM (the National Association of Recording Merchandisers) and Book Expo, which is the big book show in Chicago. We’ll go to the baby shows and the JPMA (Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association).
Thompson: We also meet with teachers and have focus groups. If we have a product idea, we’ll bring teachers in and get their opinion on what is missing and what we need to add. We want to make sure we have age-appropriate products and the right skill level on those products.
Our own kids are great because (they) are very honest with (us.) Sometimes I’ll just play it in my car and see the reaction, or they’ll say, ‘Oh Mom, play that again.’
Hilderbrand: We’re focusing on doing more book product with music in the future because we feel books are here to stay, and there’s a lot of creative book product coming out now.
Thompson: (These are) activity books and workbooks … to incorporate learning along with the CD. We’re also looking at other trends in the music industry that are changing.
Hilderbrand: Like Latin products, that’s the newest trend.
What are the keys to your success?
Thompson: You have to find a niche. Find something that can really meet a need. That’s why we have been successful because we have really stuck to our niche in educating children with music. It’s fun and it’s motivating, yet it is a proven method that really works.
Kids get excited, and that’s what you want. If your child has to learn something, make it as fun and as exciting as possible.
Hilderbrand: It helps to really like what you do every day because then you don’t have the typical burnout problems. We still really like what we do, so that makes it fun. I think our staff feels the same way.
They love when the sales (managers) sell (our products) because they can go to the stores and say, ‘I worked on that.’ HOW TO REACH: Twin Sisters Productions LLC, (800) 248-8946, www.twinsisters.com
