Ignition Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original
Produced by Burning Finance
Author | Zhang Lin Cao Yang
Edit | Cao Yang
KFC may have expected that joining forces with Bubble Mart to launch a blind box would bring enough attention to it. But KFC may not have expected that this time marketing has brought more controversy to it.
On January 12, the China Consumer Association issued an article entitled "Using "Blind Boxes" to Induce Excessive Consumption of Food, When Resisting!" ", name KFC and Bubble Mart jointly launched the blind box package.
The China Consumer Association believes that fancy promotional methods such as buy-give-away, points, discounts, and red envelopes are emerging in the sales of goods in an endless stream. As long as it is reasonable and legal to improve the efficiency of the merchant and the consumer to get the benefit, there is nothing wrong with it. However, as a catering enterprise, KFC's on-demand purchase of instant consumption is the characteristic of the commodity, and the sale of limited blind boxes is to stimulate consumption by means of "hunger marketing", which can easily lead to consumers impulsive consumption in order to obtain limited blind boxes, and cause unnecessary food waste due to excessive purchases.
In this regard, netizens have a different attitude. In the topic #China Consumer Association Comment kFC blind box #, some netizens agree with the views of the China Consumer Association, in their view, "spend more than 10,000 yuan to buy KFC, just for those few blind boxes, is not a waste of what?" "If you can eat all the packages, there is nothing to eat, but I hope not to waste food"...
But most of the netizens believe that "this is market behavior, the fault is not KFC, it is the person who grabbed the blind box." "Isn't this free buying and selling?" ”......
More views also pointed out that the blind box as one of the new consumption of traffic passwords, by young people for a long time, KFC this time to hitch a blind box express, is a kind of its marketing methods, "but the blind box market speculation behavior, indeed should cause thinking." ”
As of the press release, the Weibo topic #CFC Blind Box has accumulated 240 million views and more than 9,500 discussions.
For the comments of the China Consumer Association, KFC customer service replied to consumers that there is no plan to suspend activities, and will feedback the irrational consumption situation to the relevant departments for verification, blind boxes will continue to sell, and the specific situation can be consulted with local restaurants.
Bubble Mart, on the other hand, was silent about this and has not yet responded. Burning Finance also asked the relevant people of Bubble Mart on this issue, and as of press time, the other party did not respond to this.
As an emerging form of commodity, blind boxes have become extremely popular in the past two years, giving birth to different forms, resulting in the phenomenon of "blind boxes for all things". For example, the popular blind box of cultural relics in the Forbidden City, the blind box of the museum, etc., all show the strong vitality and influence of the blind box economy.
But at the same time, there is also a lot of industry chaos in blind boxes. For example, many merchants are under the banner of blind boxes, but in essence, they are cleaning up old inventory. Some merchants use blind boxes to openly sell various gambling, violence and other elements of goods, bringing a very bad impact to the public.
In the eyes of many people in the industry, the future blind box still has certain development prospects. However, "the market should promote the development of the blind box economy towards standardization and positive energy." ”
DIMOO family barrel for $99
At 9:00 a.m. on January 1, 2022, KFC's official WeChat public account pushed the article "KFCx Bubble Mart Dimoo Handmade No. 4 Release".
According to the information in the article, from January 4, 2022, consumers purchasing KFC designated packages (99 yuan family barrel) will receive KFC China 35th anniversary KFC X DIMOO limited edition series handmade, this time the IMAGE OFIMOO is inspired by KFC cuisine, there are ice and snow sundae, good night fries, sweet corn, is Coke, burger saturated flying colonel 6 regular models, and 1 hidden ace fried chicken, a total of 7 models. A total of 263,880 copies were sold nationwide.
Photo / KFC blind box poster information
Source / KFC official official official account
Of course, netizens also gave KFC very positive feedback on this activity. Under the push, netizens have said that "hoping for the stars and hoping for the moon has finally come to the good eldest child of Dimo, and the child has to do the multiple choice questions, and of course I choose to do it!" "Mrs. Cute, I want to have it all." ”
On the day of the product's release, "KFC Dimeo" rushed to the Weibo hot search. Burning Finance learned that the blind box package is mainly sold in flagship stores in first-tier and second-tier cities, and there are only 36 packages in each store. According to the sales rules of this blind box package, in order to collect the whole set of dolls, you need to buy at least 6 packages, and the probability of rare hidden models is 1:72.
36Kr - future consumption report, a clerk who works at a KFC store in Chaoyang District, Beijing, said that "the number of packages allocated from the store to the store is limited, depending on the arrangement of the headquarters, some are 30, some are 40, and there is no way to sell out." ”
As a result, the "small luck" of the blind box and the shortage of supply of the product completely ignited the enthusiasm of netizens. The discussion of the "KFC Blind Box Dimeo" in the Little Red Book is endless. Not only are there blind boxes that netizens have bought by themselves, but there are also a large number of strategies on how to buy. In the Little Red Book search for "KFC Blind Box Dimo Raiders", it has been released for only one week, and the related notes have exceeded 2600.
Some consumers even spent 10,494 yuan at a time to buy 106 packages. It was this information that triggered the comments of the China Consumer Association.
In order to ensure the desired style, some netizens have studied the specific weight and packaging characteristics of different handmade, and even used various instruments to scan the blind box, and identify the style by judging the shape of the blind box.
In addition, a large number of consumers have also purchased "substitute food" for "seeking a baby". Weibo netizen "life is quiet and good", said, "Find KFC dimo to eat 70 yuan a copy, postage I out." Of course, in addition to breeding the "demand for substitute eating", "substitute eating service" was also born. Netizens "kila_ranranranran As of the press release, the topic of "eating on behalf of" on Weibo has received 13,000 discussions and 110 million reads.
Even so, "can't grab" and "difficult to make an appointment" have become the most frequent messages under related Weibo topics. As a result, the "price increase" became the inevitable result of the product.
Idle fish on the second-hand commodity sales platform, "dimoo KFC" has long become a popular product. Burning Finance found that the price of a brand new unopened "Bubble Mate KFC Joint Dimoo Hidden Ace Fried Chicken" was as high as 1,000 yuan, more than 10 times higher than the original price of 99 yuan. And the seller clearly marked the words "do not accept the price reduction". As of 10:00 p.m. on January 12, 2022, the post has been viewed more than 2,800 times and has been flagged by 33 people as wanted.
In addition, Beijing Daily reported that the price of a set of 6 KFC blind box dolls has been hyped to 600 yuan to 1500 yuan on the second-hand platform.
KFC and Bubble Mart are mutually beneficial
In fact, buying a set meal and giving away toys is a common marketing method used by KFC, and it is basically "who fires and who plays". Pokémon, Minions, Hamtaro, Meow, RabbitSki, Happy Goat, Tom and Jerry... These popular IPs, KFC have produced co-branded toys, and KFC has been jokingly called "hidden toy factory" by some consumers.
In addition, in March 2020, KFC also linked up with the popular mobile game "Original God", and the purchase of designated packages was accompanied by in-game props and limited badges. Public information shows that at that time, there were players queuing for 12 hours, just to buy limited products.
Yang Yang, a former employee of KFC, told Burning Finance that many of the toys launched by KFC are limited editions. The basic gameplay is "sell out of one and sell the next one", and the entire series is sold out. "Some customers come almost every day to ask which one to sell tomorrow, afraid of missing it, but it may not be in the form of a blind box, and it has not aroused such a big public opinion."
Photo / KFC Weibo
KFC's not-so-good financial report data may be one of the incentives for it to continue to link up with IP. According to Yum China's 2021 Q3 financial report, as of the end of the third quarter of 2021, KFC restaurants reached 7908, operating profit fell by 31% year-on-year, profit margin fell from 18.6% in the same period of 2020 to 12.2%, same-store sales fell by 8% year-on-year.
Internet analyst Zhang Shule said that the main reason for KFC's profit decline is that in the environment surrounded by Chinese Internet celebrity restaurants, young people are no longer keen on a series of Western-style fast food chains such as KFC. In order to seize young consumers, KFC began to consider co-branding with IP such as anime and games that young people love, and summoned young people through young marketing methods such as blind boxes and games.
Zhang Shule told Burning Finance that compared with the simple purchase of a blind box product, the reason for the explosion of the KFC blind box is that the "must eat and get" gameplay increases the difficulty of obtaining the blind box, and binds the accidentality of the blind box and the sense of gain and the satisfaction of appetite, rather than simply throwing money to buy the blind box, which further stimulates the user's desire to buy, so to some extent it has achieved a different crazy effect from the past to open the blind box.
"But that's where the problem is." Zhang Shule pointed out that blind boxes have uncertainty, and users need to buy a large number of packages in order to get their favorite styles. KFC's neglect of its own commodity attributes in this brand marketing did not take into account the food volume of individual consumers, and created scarcity in order to pursue the sensational effect of blind boxes, which not only increased the difficulty of the game, but also caused consumers to buy a large number of packages for a set of blind boxes, and could not eat the phenomenon of waste.
For the other party of the joint marketing, Bubble Mart, there is also a need to expand the popularity of IP. For a long time, Bubble Mart has been questioned for relying too much on head IP, and in the industry's view, the momentum of Bubble Mart's independent research and development of IP is far less than before.
According to the official information of Bubble Mart, in its IP lineup, the revenue contributed by a sister MOLLY once reached 40%. The joint DIMOO is the fastest growing new IP of Bubble Mart. From the perspective of revenue, the revenue contributed by DIMOO to Bubble Mart increased from 100 million yuan in 2019 to 205 million yuan in the first half of 2021, accounting for 11.6% from 5.9% in the past, becoming the largest IP surpassing the Molly series.
Zhang Shule pointed out that the essence of the joint name is to connect potential consumers who may not be deeply reached by themselves across borders, so as to form brand exposure and mutual benefit. Bubble Mart's circle is Generation Z, while KFC's users are concentrated in the post-80s to post-95s, as well as teenagers under the age of 12, which is the powerful consumers and future potential users that Bubble Mart needs.
The blind box is not a traffic master key
With its unique way of selling, blind boxes have once become a very influential product form for young people, especially the post-95 circle layer. Guotai Junan released the "blind box economy: curiosity not only kills cats, but also emptys your wallet" shows that on Tmall, there are nearly 200,000 consumers who spend more than 20,000 yuan per year to collect blind boxes, and the most powerful consumers even spend millions of dollars a year to buy blind boxes, of which post-95s account for the majority.
With the popularity of the concept of blind boxes, blind boxes have long become traffic passwords in the field of consumption, and once there was a phenomenon of "everything can be blind boxes". For example, ticket blind boxes, milk tea blind boxes, stationery blind boxes, cosmetic blind boxes, fresh blind boxes, book blind boxes, etc., and even off-orders have begun to appear blind box play.
This is undoubtedly another reason why KFC wants to take the blind box express train.
However, with the continuous heating up of the blind box economy, the chaos of blind boxes has also emerged in an endless stream. In recent years, while the blind box economy has brought traffic to brands, if it is not well managed, it will also have a reverse effect. For example, blind box quality control and after-sales, price increases, secondary sales and other issues, so that Bubble Mart has repeatedly fallen into the crisis of word of mouth; "book blind box" has been criticized, is considered to be clearing unsalable books, shopping experience is too poor; blind box mail small pets, but also disregard morality and law.
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, told Burning Finance that the biggest problem with the joint marketing of KFC and Bubble Mart is the use of this blind box, a marketing tool and method favored by the new generation, which has generated the question of "causing excessive consumption".
Zhang Shule told Burning Finance that the main reason for KFC's marketing incident is that the hunger marketing is too crazy, resulting in vicious hype in society, and the follow-up is easy to cause the catering industry to follow the trend. "The blind box is just a product ecology, and it is indeed an entry point for brands that want to tap into the Z generation market, but it is not a golden oil." After all, the blind box model of some industries is not in line with their brand attributes, but will be eaten back. ”
Independent analysts and investors, e-commerce and retail industry researcher Zhuang Shuai Zhuang Shuai told Burning Finance that the blind box is a form of sales with obvious advantages and disadvantages, and its special feature lies in the sales model with the nature of the lottery, the advantage is that the surprise brought by its uncertainty can make users have the desire to buy, but no one can stand the daily lottery. In the long run, consumers will gradually adapt to this stimulation and thus enter a period of fatigue.
As Zhuang Shuai said, the blind box that was once extremely popular has long appeared a trend of "ebb and flow". On the Little Red Book, there are more than 40,000 notes related to "blind box retreat". Even Bubble Mart, who gained fame by relying on blind boxes, began to change channels. In recent years, its founder Wang Ning has repeatedly stressed in public: "Bubble Mart is not a blind box company, it is essentially an IP-based tide play company, and it will become the most Disney-like company in China in the future." ”
Zhang Shule said that the blind box is killing the tide to play. "After incubating the consumption habits of two-dimensional fans and users in a larger circle through the blind box, Tide Play Company is already exploring new ways to play and new ways to precipitate IP. Therefore, the blind box trend has now become an obstacle to the tide play business to the deep water: first, the vested interests of the blind box are reluctant to be reluctant. According to bubble mart prospectus, in 2017, product sales based on Molly's image accounted for about 89.4% of the company's total brand product sales. This kind of wealth gathering energy can be seen. Second, IP precipitation is too dependent on blind boxes, which is bound to make the already superficial tide play more impetuous. ”
Zhang Shule added that as a secondary product, the outlet period of the blind box has passed, and the relevant mainstream blind box manufacturers have been changing tracks and increasing the cultural attributes of their own IP, ensuring that there is more derivative space and vitality for the two-dimensional tide play, as well as collection value.
For the future of blind boxes, Zhang Shule believes that it is the right way for the development of blind boxes to bring surprises and suspense to consumers while being reasonably priced and will not trigger a gambling mentality. For players, "only by managing your mindset and making yourself a mature player can you have fun." ”
Resources:
"KFC blind box that induces excessive food consumption, the second-hand platform is still exploding", source: Beijing Daily.
"Behind the KFC Blind Box Marketing Overturning: The Development of Young Markets Suffered Setbacks, Profits Fell by More Than 30%," Source: Aoyi News.
"Occupational Substitute Eating, a New Product Rolled Out of a Blind Box", Source: 36Kr - Future App.
*The caption and some of the inner text illustrations are from Visual China. In the text, Yangyang is a pseudonym.
*Disclaimer: In no event shall the information herein or the opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice to any person.