As the most popular event at the beginning of 2022, the Beijing Winter Olympics has earned enough attention from all walks of life around the world since the opening ceremony. Everyone is talking about not only the invigorating competition, but also the cute Winter Olympic mascots "Ice Pier" and "Snow Melting".
On various social networking software such as Xiaohongshu, the crowd that buys the "ice pier" and shows off it is in stark contrast to the people who can't buy the "ice pier" and are extremely frustrated.
Duplicitous consumers complained about "a pier is difficult to find" while willingly braving the cold wind to queue for 5 hours at the gate of Wangfujing, just to be able to take home a "rock sugar panda", but the queue is only the first step in the long march, it is difficult to have the qualification to enter the store, consumers also have to pray that there is goods in the store.
As the same Olympic mascot, the "Fuwa" in 2008 does not seem to have been treated in this way, so why is there a phenomenon of "one pier is difficult to find" now?
Multiple factors are affected by the combination of factors, and "one pier is difficult to find" is only a temporary phenomenon
"A pier is difficult to find" is actually the result of the action of various parties.
As the mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the ice pier has actually begun to be sold in 2019, but the atmosphere of the Winter Olympics was not strong at that time, and most netizens did not pay much attention to this ordinary-looking doll.
By the time the Beijing Winter Olympics opened this year, coinciding with the Spring Festival holiday, most people were on vacation at home and had plenty of time to pay attention to the event. The popularity of the Winter Olympics has increased rapidly, and the "ice pier" and "snow melting" as mascots have also been sought after. It is also because of the decline in the production capacity of the factory during the Spring Festival holiday, the number of products on the market can not meet the soaring consumer demand, which eventually leads to the situation of "one pier is difficult to find".
But this phenomenon is temporary, with the end of the Spring Festival holiday, the factory resumed work, production capacity will gradually keep up, "one person, one pier" is no longer empty talk.
In fact, the explosion of the "ice pier" has a strong accidentality and timeliness. The Winter Olympics increased heat, holiday concentration and all walks of life "tap water" crazy goods and other factors are indispensable, coupled with the rapid development of the "cute economy" in recent years, consumers for the "cute" items showed a higher degree of love and acceptance, and the big-eyed "ice pier" is a cute doll.
However, the close connection between the "ice pier" and the Winter Olympics also determines that its peak heat must appear during the Winter Olympic Games, and with the end of the event, the attention and sales of the "ice pier" will gradually decline.
This situation is somewhat similar to the popular "Lingna Belle" some time ago, the difference is that "Lingna Belle" is backed by Disney, and the IP shaping ability and continuous marketing ability are relatively strong, which also makes the long-term commercial value of "Lingna Belle" higher than that of "Ice Pier".
After the opening of the market yesterday, as a licensed producer and retailer of the Winter Olympics as a "ice pier concept stock", YuanLong Yatu rose and stopped at 20.33 yuan / share. For manufacturers of ice piers, how to maximize the value of "ice piers" in a limited impact cycle may be the most worthy of consideration at present.
The mascot economy can only be "short-lived"?
Generally speaking, mascots have high commercial value as a window for large-scale events or specific areas to display their images.
Taking the mascots of previous Summer Olympic Games as an example, public information shows that the Olympic licensed goods of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games sold for 500 million US dollars, and the licensed goods of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games sold 700 million euros, most of which were contributed by the mascots. The economic value of the mascot of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games reached 2.5 billion yuan, bringing huge benefits to the organizers of the event.
"Kumamoto Kuma", which is loved by domestic netizens, is also the city mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan. The bear was born in 2010 with the original purpose of attracting tourists to Kumamoto Prefecture and promoting the local economic development, and according to kumamoto prefecture officials, annual sales of "Kumamoto Kuma" related goods will be at least 169.8 billion yen in Japan and abroad by the end of 2020.
Kumamoto Bear can last more than ten years to "not fall", and the Olympic mascots will generally stop after the event, is it possible that the mascot of the city mascot has a higher business cycle?
In fact, looking at the world, many cities have launched mascots for image promotion, but few can leave traces in the hearts of consumers. Perhaps the reasons for this can be glimpsed in the development of Kumamoto Kuma.
Like most mascots, Kumamoto Kuma is a "cute" doll with a decent appearance and does not show a great advantage among consumer groups. In my opinion, Kumamoto's greatest attraction is not in its appearance, but in its "human design".
Since its birth, Kumamoto Kuma has taken "real characters" as the starting point, and around this setting, Kumamoto Prefecture has carried out a series of marketing activities. From various anthropomorphic actions such as cycling and eating, to the "Kumamoto Kuma Osaka Disappearance Incident", "Looking for Blush Incident", "Weight Loss Incident", etc., Kumamoto Kuma is like "you and me" who will appear around at any time, and the attributes of the doll are gradually weakened, replaced by a "person" with a distinct personality, which is the secret of Kumamoto Kuma's success.
Lingna Belle's popularity is also similar, in addition to the soft and cute image, the strong interaction with the audience adds "human flavor" to it, bringing consumers a feeling of "fairy tales shining into reality".
On the other hand, the "ice pier", although the current heat is enough, but the lack of interaction with consumers is its hard wound. On major platforms, the content related to "ice piers" is mostly difficult to buy, urge production, or consumers post the existing "ice piers" and win a voice of envy.
In addition, what is talked about is the Japanese journalist Tsujioka Yoshido's obsession with chasing stars on the ice pier. It can be seen that today's wave of ice piers is essentially people's passionate consumption under the psychology of the crowd, with the end of the holiday production capacity increased, the situation of "one pier is difficult to find" has been improved, scalpers are flooded, the situation of inflated prices in the second-hand market will gradually disappear, people's consumption rationality will return, and the desire to buy "ice piers" may not be as strong as today.
From a market point of view, it is a good thing that the event mascot returns to its normal value and balances supply and demand. But from the perspective of production retailers such as Yuen Long Yatu, it may be more uncomfortable.
However, "ice pier" as the "face" of the Beijing Winter Olympics, "hunger marketing" is bound to be banned behavior, manufacturers, retailers want to draw more commercial value from it, may only expect the Olympic Organizing Committee to appropriately relax the authority, the official intervention to increase the interaction between the "ice pier" and the outside world, enhance its "human design".
The mascot economy is not the same as a flash in the pan, and as long as it is properly managed, the mascot can also become a long-term wealth code.
Wen | Xiaoqian Notes (ID: xiaoqianshuo)