In recent years, in order to get close to the younger generation of consumers, many brands have adopted the IP of the cartoon image as their spokesperson, and the home furnishing industry that has relied on offline in marketing has also begun to follow this trend.
IP, the English abbreviation of intellectual property, now refers specifically to cross-media content operations with long-term vitality and commercial value. A name, a movie, an article, a design, a statue, etc. can all become an IP, among which cartoon animal images have been the most sought after by enterprises in recent years.
Millennials and Gen Z are gradually upgrading from functional needs to personal emotional needs in consumption, and IP has embodied the brand to meet the needs of consumers.
The most commonly used animal image as an IP is the Internet company, take Alibaba, almost every product has a cartoon character as an endorsement. In addition, Tencent's Penguin and JD.com's puppy Joy have all fulfilled their responsibilities of empowering the brand. Nowadays, home furnishing companies that lag slightly behind in marketing have also begun to use animal image IP.
The reason for choosing animal images has the following considerations, first of all, the animal itself has a high memory and is easy to resonate with people. Instead of creating a new image, it is better to design on the basis of the original animal to reduce the cost of memory for consumers.
For example, Quanyou Home uses a panda named YOYO as a spokesperson, the panda itself has Chinese characteristics, and consumers at home and abroad have a high degree of favorability for pandas.
Secondly, when the brand enables an animal image, the user will also associate the image, personality and other characteristics of the animal with the brand itself. For example, Italian home furnishing brand Natuzzi Italia released a new IP image "Na Rabbit" on April 7 this year, so that this somewhat awkward Italian brand can re-recognize consumers with a soft and cute image and memorable name.
According to NatuzziItalia, a cute rabbit, coupled with large flying ears, means that its household products can make people "comfortable to fly".
In addition, animal IP images often have cute shapes, which is just a microcosm of the current "cute economy". As the generation of 80s and 90s watching animation grows up, a cute image can narrow the distance with young consumers and weaken the marketing traces.
The prototype of the Dibiao home IP "Abu" is a lion, and the definition given by the brand side is that Abu is a "big warm man" who provides personalized care for countless families. During the design process, the brand weakened the domineering image of the lion, highlighting the warmth and cuteness with rounded lines and warm yellow tones.
In addition to creating a cartoon image as an IP, another commonly used marketing method is to co-brand with the already famous cartoon IP, which is especially common in the luxury industry. Givenchy's Bambi series, launched in 2013, is regarded as the forerunner of the co-branded cartoon IP of luxury brands, and since then, brands such as Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Gucci and other brands have been co-branded with cartoon images.
In recent years, home furnishing brands have also targeted cartoon IP co-branding. For example, the American home furnishing brand Pottery Barn launched the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" joint home products, for movie lovers, placing such furniture in the home is like being in a movie scene.
In the domestic cartoon IP, B. Duck Little Yellow Duck is also very popular with brands in recent years, it is understood that its authorized goods and business types exceed 20,000 kinds, carry out more than 100 international brand cooperation projects, home products are naturally among them.
It is not easy to create an IP image and let the public accept and like it, which is why the brand chooses the joint name, so that the original IP awareness empowers the brand.
Whether it is to create its own cartoon IP or to co-brand with well-known cartoon IP, it reflects the awareness of home furnishing companies to seek new changes in the face of new consumer demand. However, creating IP is a protracted battle, not to follow the trend to launch a cartoon image even if it is innovative, continue to operate this image, make it personified and penetrate into the minds of consumers is the meaning of creating cartoon IP. Otherwise, so many cartoon cats, who remembers your family?
Source: The Paper