In a plush toy made of cotton and cloth, the young man found "gold".
"What is the difference between jELLYCAT dolls and gold mines?" Jiang Jiang, a lover of jELLYCAT plush toys, told an interesting report.
There are indeed many young people who grab gold, and many of them have begun to fall in love with the "gold in plush toys" - jELLYCAT in the past two years.
Source: Screenshot of jELLYCAT's official website
This plush toy brand, which began to be launched in the UK in 1999, is now not only expensive, often two or three hundred, but also hard to find.
"The online flagship store was out of stock, and I went to two shopping malls in Tianjin and didn't see it, and finally I bought it in Beijing," says Xiao Yu from Tianjin, recalling the experience of buying the jELLYCAT "Pirate Dog" last year. In Taobao jELLYCAT's overseas flagship store, "Pirate Dog" still has a variety of sizes that are out of stock.
Source: Taobao jELLYCAT overseas flagship store
In fact, jELLYCAT started out as a comfort toy for babies and toddlers, but why do today's young people "spend a lot of money" on it?
More and more young people are falling in love with "furry"
According to hamleys data, in the first half of 2023 alone, the price of jELLYCAT's popular products will increase by as much as 20%, and many daily products will also increase by about 10%.
Behind the explosion of jELLYCAT, more and more young people are falling in love with "furry".
There are not a few plush enthusiasts like the aforementioned Jiang Jiang and Xiao Yu. According to the data of the China Toys and Juvenile Products Association, the post-00s have become the largest consumer group of plush toys, accounting for 43%, and the post-90s generation is 36%.
When it comes to why they like plush toys, in the eyes of Jiang Jiang and Xiaoyu, "cuteness, companionship, and healing" are the main reasons. Indeed, young people have become the main consumer of plush toys, behind which is the gradual rise of the "healing and pleasing economy".
A consulting company released the "Eight Models for Influencing the Future Economy" last year, mentioning that under the healing economy, "consumers actively seek various channels to obtain emotional support, and look for various alternative companionship and stress-relieving experiences to heal themselves".
As one of the carriers of the "healing economy", plush toys are naturally in a hot state.
According to data from the China Toys and Juvenile Products Association, in March 2024, plush fabric toys continued to sell well on the Tmall platform, with sales increasing by 30.1% year-on-year and the average sales price increasing by 25.4% year-on-year.
Among the many plush fabric categories, jELLYCAT is even more popular.
According to data from the China Toys and Juvenile Products Association, during the "Double 11" period in 2023, jELLYCAT surpassed Disney and became the first in sales of plush fabrics, with an average transaction price of 465 yuan. In March this year, plush cloth toys continued to sell well on the Tmall platform, from the perspective of different price ranges, the sales of products in the price range of more than 400 yuan accounted for 14.1%, the largest increase, and among the best-selling items in this category, the first place in sales was jELLYCAT's "Pirate Dog" plush toys, with an average transaction price of 2759 yuan.
The more you sell, the more you earn. Data shows that in 2021, jELLYCAT's sales on Tmall exceeded 100 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.1%. In 2022, jELLYCAT's annual report showed that its full-year revenue for 2022 was £146 million, an increase of 72% year-on-year.
From hundreds to thousands, why can jELLYCAT, which is not cheap, achieve "only increase in popularity, not decrease"?
Why jELLYCAT?
From the current consumer demands and consumption concepts of young people, we may be able to find part of the answer to the popularity of jELLYCAT.
According to the survey of "2024 China Consumption Trend Report" of Zhimeng Consulting, 64% of consumers attach more importance to spiritual consumption, especially young consumers are more and more concerned about "spiritual self-satisfaction". And the soft and healing product attributes of jELLYCAT are inherently "emotionally concentrated". and with the accurate sniping of the "emotional value" of young people, it naturally hit the hearts of this generation of young people.
In the official introduction of jELLYCAT, the plush toy is given the setting of "furry friends", with its own personal story background, such as Barcelo Bear is the "perfect bedtime companion". "The bear rider always protects me at night", "The bear will turn into a warrior to drive away nightmares"...... On Xiaohongshu, many netizens shared the story of Xiao Xiong bringing emotional comfort and companionship to himself.
The user's secondary creation based on the anthropomorphic attributes of the doll also helps jELLYCAT to further go out of the circle. For example, "Lively Eggplant", which has become a popular emoji on the Internet. Xiao Yu told Interesting Report that she had seen the doll's emoji on the Internet before a friend gave her the "Lively Eggplant" as a gift. The entry "jELLYCAT eggplant" on Xiaohongshu has been viewed nearly 59 million times so far, and netizens have drawn big dark circles on the eggplant, accompanied by text to express their emotional state. jELLYCAT, which has become the "spiritual mouth of the Internet", has naturally been further widely disseminated.
Source: Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
In addition, according to iiMedia Research's "2022 China Brand Marketing and Consumer Behavior Monitoring Report", consumers are most concerned about the consumption of non-daily necessities, in addition to the quality factors, they also pay attention to whether the products are the latest models, whether they are in line with their own personality, appearance and other factors. In other words, the success of jELLYCAT is not only due to the premise of the current demand for "spiritual pleasure", but also the rich category, novelty and uniqueness, quality and safety are also important reasons why jELLYCAT can continue to impress young people.
The first is the category, and the rich category undoubtedly corresponds to the diversified and personalized needs of the subdivided group. On the jELLYCAT official website, the types of dolls currently mainly include the animals series and the amuseable fun series, and there are many sub-series under the large series, such as the bears under the animal series, and the bears bear is also divided into stupid bears, strawberry bears, pajama bears, etc. Different colors, different sizes, different uses, and different character scenes have created a variety of jELLYCAT products, and there are more than 400 products under the animal series alone.
The bears series under the animal series|Source: Screenshot of jELLYCAT's official website
There are many categories, and the update and iteration are also fast. New Spring New Products, Early Spring New Products, Spring and Summer New Products, Anniversary New Products...... jELLYCAT continues to introduce new products to stimulate users' desire to buy. As for the new frequency of jELLYCAT, netizens ridiculed that "I hope that the speed of making money can keep up with the speed of new product releases".
Source: Screenshot of Taobao jELLYCAT's overseas flagship store
In terms of novelty and uniqueness of product design, the amuseable fun series further creates the characteristic brand symbol of jELLYCAT with the iconic "beanie eyes, smiling face", and strengthens the interesting and unique product positioning. On Xiaohongshu, many users add "beanie eyes and smiling faces" to various things around them when they are second created, and gradually form an interesting cognition that "everything can be jELLYCAT".
Some products of the amuseable fun series|Source: Screenshot of jELLYCAT's official website
In addition, although some complaints about the poor packaging and unstable quality control of jELLYCAT can be seen on the Internet, Jiang Jiang and Xiaoyu are positive about the feel and quality of jELLYCAT. In addition to the two series, jELLYCAT already has comfort products for young children such as comfort towels and blankets. As a soothing product for young children, jELLYCAT has relatively high safety requirements, and from the official information, each product has been tested by the UK, USA, Europe and Australia safety standards.
However, the cute style, safe quality, comfortable feel, and diverse products...... Although various reasons can be found for the popularity of jELLYCAT, the average price of a few hundred yuan is not cheap, and more importantly, the price of jELLYCAT is still rising.
"More than 10 centimeters in size, the price is hundreds", and there are many complaints about the "high premium" of jELLYCAT on the Internet. In addition to the love of plush toys, what else supports consumers to pay for "high premiums"?
Two words: gift-giving.
jELLYCAT is officially positioned as a "British high-end gift brand", and there is a detailed gift service interface on the official website of jELLYCAT, providing gifts suitable for different scenes. According to iiMedia Research's "2024-2025 China Brand Marketing and Millennial Youth Consumption Trend Research Report", the purchase of gift consumer goods that maintain social needs is one of the important consumption demands of new young consumers.
jELLYCAT official website gift service interface|Source: Screenshot of jELLYCAT's official website
In other words, jELLYCAT, which positions itself as a high-end gift brand, also covers a more "popular and just-in-demand" social consumption scene and expands a wider user base. Since the gift carries the heart, the high price is not necessarily a disadvantage for the gift, and it may even be an advantage. In addition, many jELLYCAT products will adjust different prices according to different sizes, from one or two hundred to thousands, and the maximum range can adapt to the gift consumption needs of different scenes and different groups.
Jiang Jiang has purchased jELLYCAT as gifts several times and has received jELLYCAT gifts several times. In Jiang Jiang's opinion, "jELLYCAT is one of my brainless choices for gifts. Well-known, good texture, innovative design...... I will be very happy to send my friend jELLYCAT and heal each other. Orange, who is not a big fan of jELLYCAT, also told Interesting Report that the only time she bought a jELLYCAT doll was to give it as a gift to a friend.
But when asked if they knew about domestic plush toy brands, plush toy lovers Jiang Jiang and Xiao Yu both said that they really hadn't learned that there were domestic plush toy brands like jELLYCAT. Judging from the data, the plush toy market is also dominated by foreign brands such as Disney and jELLYCAT.
Can domestic products break through the "road of replacement"?
According to the data of the Tmall platform, in the first half of 2023, the sales of plush fabrics increased by 30.4% year-on-year, and the products in the price range of 200-400 yuan increased the most year-on-year, and the price positioning of Disney and jELLYCAT is in this range.
The China Toys and Juvenile Products Association's tracking of the sales data of various categories during the "Double 11" period on the Tmall platform last year also showed that the top three brands in the sales of plush fabrics were jELLYCAT, Disney, and Disney Resort.
Is it because there is no plush toy brand as well-known as jELLYCAT because there is a lack of plush toy companies in the mainland?
From the perspective of the distribution of the global toy market, according to the data of the "2022-2027 China Plush Toy Industry Development Trend and Investment Risk Research Report" released by the China Research Institute of Puhua Industry Research Institute, Chinese toys account for about 70% of the world market. According to the data of enterprise investigation, there are 18,300 plush toy-related enterprises in China, and 501 new ones will be added in the first quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 61.09%.
And that might be the problem. The entry threshold of the plush toy industry is not high, so there are a large number of mainland production enterprises, but it also means that the industry concentration is not high, and the overall situation is still in the state of "there are categories without brands", and many products have been made but not big brands.
"For example, the once very popular Kapibala and Dudu Cat", Jiang Jiang said, for example, "After an image is popular, although many manufacturers are producing, they have not formed a unique brand." ”
Liang Hankun, a senior industry analyst of Guangdong Toy Association, once said in the article "Analysis of the Focus of the Current Toy Industry" that the number of production enterprises is large and the competition in the same industry is fierce. Taking "Kapibala" as an example, Taobao searches for "Kapibala dolls", and you can see different prices from different merchants. So many merchants are selling Capibala dolls, and the merchant market competition can allow consumers to obtain "price performance", but it also means that the image of Capibala is not strongly linked to a specific brand, and it is difficult for merchants to stand out from similar manufacturers.
Source: Screenshot of Taobao app
However, Li Zhuoming, the current honorary president of the Guangdong Toy Association, pointed out in his article "How Long Can China's "World Toy Factory" Status Be Maintained?", which was published in 2020, that after decades of development, the mainland toy manufacturing industry chain is complete, the industrial supporting facilities are perfect, and the production technology is advanced.
In other words, "Made in China" is not a problem, and with the strong growth momentum of the plush toy industry, there are currently domestic plush merchants who are undertaking this wave of traffic and turning to "Created in China" own brands.
For example, the rookie brand Chongker has emerged on the super simulation plush toy track, and the brand founder Lu Bin said at the 2024 Taobao Tmall Toy Trendy Toy Industry Summit that integrating the three major fields of artificial intelligence, robotics and plush toys to develop innovative products that can replace real pets to provide companionship functions is its future development direction.
But all in all, judging from the popularity of jELLYCAT, providing high-quality and creative products on the right track, and then continuing to strengthen the brand advantage through various ways, there are good brands, and consumers who are willing to pay for the brand will naturally have it.
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Author: Big Cake Editor: Tennessee Duty Editor: Min Min Click to enter "Oops My Rabbit Store"