Wen | Zhang Mengyi of the Weekly Magazine of Finance and Economics
Edit | Yang Jie
Some time ago, Because the fans "lowered" the screen of Disney's "top stream" IP Ling Na Belle, it was on the hot search, but this time, it was its Christmas goods that were speculated out of the sky-high price.
At 8:00 p.m. on the 12th, Shanghai Disneyland officially opened the online reservation of three Lingna Belle products. According to the announcement released by Shanghai Disney Resort on December 10, the three products released this time include regular Lingna Belle plush toys, 2021 Christmas series Lingna Belle plush toys and 2021 Christmas series Lingna Belle plush toy key rings; the sale method is online reservation and offline purchase. That is to say, consumers need to make an advance reservation on Shanghai Disneyland's WeChat public account, and go to the Disneyland Store to queue up for purchase on the date and time of the reservation, and once the reservation is made, it cannot be transferred, rescheduled or cancelled.
(Source: Disney WeChat public account)
However, on the day of the appointment opening, as soon as the time arrived, many netizens found that the reservation page was blank, suspected of "collapsing". At about 8:40 p.m. that night, some netizens said that they had swiped out of the reservation page, but it showed that there was no reservation number and date.
At 9:00 p.m. on the 12th, Disney responded through the Weibo account "Duffy You" that due to the huge instantaneous access to the designated goods reservation channel in advance, some tourists' access interfaces appeared white screens and other conditions during the period, but the reservation system as a whole ran smoothly, and as of now, all the reservation places have been booked.
Due to the "hard to find a fox", Ling Na Belle's Christmas limited edition goods have been coaxed up on the second-hand platform. "Finance and Economics" Weekly noted that on a second-hand platform, some sellers said that if they need to buy Lingna Belle Christmas limited plush toys, they need to increase the price by 1700 yuan on the basis of the original price, Lingna Belle's Christmas limited keychain needs to increase by 1300 yuan, and the regular doll increases by 1000 yuan. There are also many sellers who package the three peripheral sales of Disney this time, and the price is mostly around 2800 yuan to 4000 yuan, which does not support separate sales.
Many consumers expressed dissatisfaction and disappointment in this. A netizen left a message on the social platform: "That night, three people in my family were using their mobile phones to make reservations, but the mobile phones of the three people could not open the page. Are Disney's merchandise for ordinary fans or for scalpers? ”
Another netizen said: "On the same day, I wasted forty minutes by stepping on the appointment, and still did not make a successful appointment." Disney's marketing strategy was very disappointing, and I would rather not let the scalpers make money. ”
(Source: Screenshot of second-hand platform)
It is worth noting that many sellers have "auctioned" Ling na Belle's Christmas merchandise, and the price is also very high. An auction information of a second-hand platform shows that the current auction price of Lingna Belle's regular toys is 688 yuan, and the auction price of the keychain is about 1,000 yuan. "Finance and Economics" weekly saw that in the three surrounding auction activities initiated by a seller, the current bid has reached 2820 yuan, a total of 27 people want, and there are still three days before the end of the auction. One netizen even said that he was willing to exchange Feitian Moutai for a Christmas Lingna Belle three-piece set.
Many netizens have suggested that Lingna Belle has changed from becoming "Chuansha Maotai" and has been hyped into a "financial product with room for appreciation".
This phenomenon also attracted the attention of the Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission, which specifically asked Shanghai Disney on this matter: "Why is it so difficult to buy?" ”
In response, Shanghai Disney responded that as one of the regular goods, Lingna Belle plush toys will continue to be replenished, the current shortage of goods is due to the recent epidemic, the replenishment time and quantity of goods continue to be affected, and the first batch of replenishments that began to be booked on Sunday night was limited. At the same time, Shanghai Disney apologized to the majority of consumers, and said: "We will never create any hunger marketing, and will continue to replenish and continue to increase the number of replenishments in the coming months." ”
This is not the first time that Disney's IP peripherals have been robbed. On the eve of this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, Disney launched the Mid-Autumn Festival limited rabbit "Star Dew" doll, the official price of 359 yuan, the total number of sales of 7,000, each person limited to two. However, on the third day after the sale, the product sold out. Subsequently, the Mid-Autumn Festival model of Xingdailu was generally sold at a price increase of more than 750 yuan on the second-hand platform, and the list price of some sellers was even more than 1,000 yuan.
After Disney launched a new IP "Lingna Belle" in September this year, some netizens said that they had to queue up offline for 4-7 hours to buy Lingna Belle peripheral goods. The price of Lingna Belle's related goods on the second-hand platform is also generally ridiculously high, a pendant with an original price of 99 yuan is priced at more than 400 yuan, and the medium doll with the original price of 219 yuan was once coaxed to 888 yuan.
Therefore, many consumers question whether this is Disney's hunger marketing strategy, in order to harvest the "leeks" of fans.
In this regard, marketing expert Du Jiayi believes that "hunger marketing is a commonly used marketing method, but in the short term, excessive sales of peripheral products of a cartoon character will be detrimental to the product image." What Disney has done is control the production of products in each category, hoping that all IP will be as long as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. ”
It is understood that Ling Na Belle and Xing Dai Lu are members of Disney's "Duffy family", most of them only have appearance and personality, but there is no corresponding work and story, the traffic is comparable to the top stars in the entertainment industry, and the ability to "circle money" is also very good. According to data released by Shanghai Disney this year, since the opening of the park, the park has sold more than 5.77 million plush toys, which is equivalent to at least one Disney plush toy in every four Shanghai residents. Some media have reported that if the Star Dew theme products sold by Shanghai Disney so far in 2018 are superimposed, its total height is equivalent to 119 Mount Everest. The 2020 Disney financial report also shows that Star Dew is the company's fastest-growing sales product.
The explosion of Ling na Belle and Xing Dai Lu is regarded as a successful attempt by Disney to "make stars", but this IP operation model has also been widely disputed. Not long ago, the Lingna Belle doll was exposed to disrespect tourists and treat consumers differently during the performance, and the topic of "Lingna Belle's head" was on Weibo's hot search, and for a time Disney and Lingna Belle were caught in the whirlpool of public opinion. An IP image that becomes popular by fragmented marketing, how long will it maintain traffic, and whether it can continue to attract fans is still a question worth exploring.