Image source @ Visual China
Chief Business Review
In the blink of an eye, 2022 has quietly arrived, in order to win the opening of sales in the new year, the merchants have once again shown their skills to attract the attention of customers. In many sales models, "blind box" marketing is undoubtedly the "star" keyword in 2021, which has become more and more mature after a year of growth, and the heat has not diminished at all: Starbucks launched a series of blind box cup sets for Christmas, once launched, it will burst the network, all kinds of unboxed videos swept a book, attracting tens of thousands of likes, and the strength proves that the concept of "blind box" still has a strong attraction to consumers, and will undoubtedly become the driving force of the New Year's business publicity again.
The concept of blind box first appeared in the field of tide play, and gradually affected stationery, catering, entertainment and other fields, from the tide play blind box, to the hand account blessing bag, to the side dish blind box, its strong adaptability makes it "unimpeded" and "smooth sailing" in all walks of life. Why is blind box marketing popular? What are the success factors? After all walks of life out of the circle, how to go well in the future of blind box marketing?
Premise: soil for nurturing new consumption concepts
A blind box is a toy box in which the customer cannot predict a specific product in advance before consumption. It arose in Japan and became known as mini figures. Its unique random properties and low threshold are two points that distinguish it from previous consumer goods. Its random attributes are similar to the lottery in game culture, opening treasure chests, buying is not necessarily like, this random attribute is very high "treasure picking" feature is one of the biggest features of the blind box.
In addition, the "low threshold" attribute of the blind box is another factor that has swept all walks of life: it can be used as a carrier of a variety of well-known IP at home and abroad, carrying various cultures such as tradition, trends, and locomotives, and is sold to the rest of the world indiscriminately through the network platform. The "low threshold" attribute of the blind box also allows it to break through the limitations of the small circle layer, truly go to the field of mass consumption, and meet the pursuit of the new consumption concept of young people at present.
According to the survey of the "New Consumer Industry 2021 Annual Strategy Report", Generation Z, as a consumer body, pays more attention to the needs of the spirit and the all-round consumer experience. Different from the traditional consumer demand in the past, they not only pay attention to the appearance of the product and the brand story, but also have a specific pursuit of the form and process of consumption.
"Playing fashion, playing with attitude, playing art" is the understanding of many young people who pursue personalization on new consumption. In their eyes, tide play is not only a toy, but also a carrier of personality. Therefore, when there are "random" and "low threshold" blind boxes colliding with tide play, a huge chemical reaction will occur and it will be very successful in the young group. Among them, the most successful example is bubble mart.
Winning formula: core IP+ business model
Bubble Mart is the first to integrate the concept of tide play and blind box, under the blessing of the integration of the two, its net profit rose from 1.56 million in 2017 to 451 million in 2019, becoming the leading boss in China's tide play industry in one fell swoop. From obscurity to vigorous out-of-the-loop, the creation of core IP and business model is the magic weapon for its success.
Starting from the buyout of designer Wang Xinming's Molly in 2016, Bubble Mart began to carry out independent research and development of IP, and set up its own original designer team to create core IP, and now has a series of IP products such as DIMO and LABUBU.
In addition, it is also ingenious in the design of blind boxes and series dolls. By opening the blind box to increase the pleasure of the user experience to stimulate its excitement value, by adding hidden models to the series, to stimulate the user's desire to buy and collect, and let users spontaneously share "out of the box video" and "scarce dolls" on social platforms, to achieve secondary dissemination within the young group. This product concept and marketing method has also been concocted into many industries.
In the field of hand-book stationery, blind box dolls are also packaged into hand-book stationery to sell together, this "flower transfer" method only borrows the trend blind box as its own accessory product, simply forming an A + B package. Another kind of "cultural and creative blessing bag" realizes the integration of the blind box concept and the original IP, randomly combines the different tape series of the original designer to form a hand account lucky bag, and adds the tape of the "hidden model" to "try to eat", which fully stimulates the purchase desire and delayed satisfaction of the hand account.
In addition, Starbucks's blind box Christmas cup, Chenguang's Jiumu Miscellaneous Goods Club's stationery blind box, and Henan Museum's "Archaeological Blind Box" are all leaders in the use of blind box concepts in various industries. By allowing users to personally use the mini version of the Luoyang shovel, the archaeological blind box personally digs out the miniature imitation model of the treasures such as the lotus crane square pot and the four gods cloud gas map buried in the sand of the blind box, extending the excitement of opening the blind box for a moment to the entire "excavation" process, deepening the concept of the blind box and enriching the form of the blind box.
With the "high progress" of the blind box concept in all walks of life, the concept of blind box has also changed from the initial praise to the current mixed praise, which has caused various problems in the second-hand market in some industries.
Mixed reviews, falling corrections
According to the Ai Media Data Center's survey of the problems of Chinese netizens on blind boxes in 2020, nearly 1/3 of netizens believe that blind box publicity has a gimmick and the product lacks practicality. In October 2021, Bubble Mart was falsely publicized about the composition of trendy sock blind box products, causing the stock price to fall by 0.83% on that day. Although Bubble Mart later apologized and handed over the fine, the consumed user trust was not compensated by the 200,000 fine.
Nearly 1/5 of netizens believe that the biggest problem lies in the unreasonable pricing of blind boxes and serious product premiums. Due to the scarcity and hunger marketing created by the product concept, some collectors have a serious premium in the second-hand market. Bubble Mart's limited edition Molly large dolls sold worldwide cost 4999 yuan, while the list price on idle fish can reach 89999 yuan.
The above problems have also attracted the attention of the China Consumer Association, and it is also a document to remind operators to standardize the sale of blind boxes, and consumers must not follow the trend and blindly buy. The appearance of the China Consumer Association indicates that after the blind box marketing is out of the circle, its development should move in a more standardized and healthy direction.
The way forward, quality is king
In fact, as an auxiliary marketing and sales means, blind boxes cannot provide core value for merchants and continuous output in essence. The product value behind this marketing concept is the core that makes consumers willing to pay for it. Some merchants often put the cart before the horse, selling "three noes" blind box products, "cutting leeks" to users, and making the original intention of selling goods deteriorate. Therefore, it is necessary to reverse this concept, further improve the quality of sales products, check product design and user experience, and realize the quality of products as king.
In addition, the concept of blind boxes also exists in some industries. Taking the catering industry as an example, blind box side dishes to a certain extent make consumers lose the freedom to choose independently, and with the "mandatory" operation of forced sales by merchants, which is not in line with the industry attributes of the catering service industry. Therefore, in the application of the concept of blind boxes, we can refer to the "dynamic blind box" of Henan Museum to make the concept of blind boxes truly adapt to local conditions. Catering merchants can launch "semi-blind box side dishes", taking into account the freedom of customer selection and the mystery of random side dishes, and truly realize the "localization" of blind box catering.
As an emerging marketing strategy in the past two years, the appearance of blind boxes in many industries has triggered changes and progress in new sales models, which has undoubtedly promoted the change of industry marketing methods and brought new vitality and vitality to many industries. However, the drawbacks of the second-hand market premium problem exposed still need to achieve benign guidance for operators and sellers by improving the industry system and standardizing market behavior.
After all, the blind box is only a form, and the blindness of the heart is really incurable.