Young people who buy expiring food spend 6,000 yuan to buy dolls

"Core Tips"

In this summer's graduation season, Jellycat once again came out of the circle with popular items such as graduation boiled eggs. The expensive and hot Jellycat, what does it rely on to pry the wallets of contemporary young people?

Author | Ye Danxuan

Edit | Xing Yun

The watch hands walked towards 18:30, Li Tian left the workstation on time and went straight to the Beast Pie store in Sanlitun, Beijing. "Grabbing a potted doll from Jellycat and Fauvism" became her most important mission of the day.

She has already swiped countless videos shared by her friends during her work hours: after buying a suitable plant plush doll, she is checked out and "packed" at the checkout counter by a clerk wearing a cute gardener-style apron.

At this time, the florist clerk will loosen and water the plant doll with a toy shovel and shower, and put it in a potted box. Then, a card with a message specific to the plant doll is placed in a huge tote box, with a "care note" for the plant on the back of the card.

In the process, the customer and the clerk completed a performance with a strong sense of faith, as if what was taken from the store was really a living, heavy plant. In fact, Jellycat's new plant products that were frantically snapped up this time are not cheaper than a real plant, and the price of 400 yuan at every turn does not discourage fans.

Li Tian said that the most popular white orchids, bluebells, tulips and other categories were quickly out of stock the next day, and now some prices on the second-hand platform have been speculated to more than 700 yuan. In the Jellycat purchasing group where she is located, it is hard to find a flower.

After sharing the whole process of his purchase on social media, someone asked in Li Tian's comment area: "Can this plant really grow?" Li Tian replied, "With its sense of faith." ”

Not only plant dolls, but many Jellycat fans who rushed to buy them admitted that they were willing to queue up to make an appointment to buy them, but also for the emotional value brought by the clerk's "performance".

Jellycat's sales myth seems to have been written with this vague sense of emotional value and belief.

1. Consumption downgraded, but I spent 6,000 yuan to buy dolls

Wu Meng and Li Tian met in the same Jellycat purchasing group. At that time, Li Tian had just become obsessed with Jellycat, and squatted in the official flagship store to grab several popular styles of peanut penguins, and joined this purchasing group in desperation.

Jellycat is creating different "out-of-stock kings" every year, so it has also derived professional purchasing agents like this: one is the channel clerk, who can place an order for the style that their private domain customers want at the first time of replenishment, and usually the dolls purchased through this channel do not need to increase the price too outrageously, and even superimpose the exclusive discount of the mall or store, and can also be won at a price lower than the official website.

Another more common purchasing agent is more like professional scalpers, who squat in different purchase channels, and even transfer a large batch back to China after purchasing on overseas official websites, and then sell at a higher price, depending on the style, ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan.

Wu Meng has 8 different Jellycat purchasing groups on WeChat, and 4 more in his Xiaohongshu account. "At the beginning, it was also to grab the white dragon, which was very popular at the time, and it was out of stock everywhere, so I added a lot of squatting to arrive." Before Bailong could buy it, Wu Meng was captured by Jellycat and fell into the pit of plush dolls, and bought both popular and unpopular styles.

Wu Meng calculated an account, and in the first year of entering the pit, she spent a total of nearly 6,000 yuan on Jellycat. This year, she just graduated, and her salary was only 7,000 yuan/month.

"It's crazy to say, but I don't regret it at all." Wu Meng's usual consumption is not extravagant, but it can be regarded as saving. Because she had just graduated and was shy of money, she bought the vegetables and meat of the day in the special price group of the supermarket in the community almost every day. And she now has more than 20 Jellycat dolls of various sizes, the largest of which is a 56cm Barcelo bear, which costs as much as 1299 yuan.

Li Tian also gave himself a 67cm Bonnie rabbit doll priced at 999 yuan as a birthday gift when he celebrated his birthday in March.

For a doll, the price of thousands of yuan is considered luxury. But for Wu Meng, the world of dolls created by Jellycat has a meaning beyond the toys themselves.

When he first entered the workplace, Wu Meng was confused and anxious. Many classmates posted their kittens and puppies in rental houses in the circle of friends. Wu Meng was very envious, but she looked around the rental house she shared, and felt that letting the kitten live here with her, she could only welcome her to go out early and return late every day, which was a little unbearable. The moment she touched the Jellycat West Highland White Terrier puppy, she was healed by the real and delicate plush texture.

After a friend gave her as a job entry gift, she posted a photo of herself and the West Highlands plush puppy on her circle of friends: "A young man's first puppy. ”

Since then, this puppy has become a part of Wu Meng's life, and even when she traveled to Shanxi to visit ancient times, Wu Meng took her puppy with her. She said she hoped that the puppy would be the one who had seen the most scenery. For Wu Meng, the little doll lying quietly next to the bed every night is no different from the comfort brought to her by a real dog.

Whether it's a long-haired animal, or a short-haired vegetable, Jellycat offers an addictive, subtle touch.

Xu Xu, who bought a Bonnie rabbit for her 2-year-old daughter, also got into Jellycat herself. At first, it was just that my daughter's skin was sensitive, and I almost only recognized Jellycat, but later, when I bought toys for my daughter, I was slowly attracted by this feeling.

In 2023, Wu Meng moved from Beijing to Hangzhou with her Jellycat potted plants and small animals. She said that if it is really to raise flowers and small animals, it may be very inconvenient when changing cities. "But now that I've put these potted plants back on the shelves, I feel like they can accompany me to any corner of the world to create a home of my own."

2. Plush toys, a disguised financial product for young people?

After Jellycat became more and more popular, price increases became inevitable.

Despite being criticized for starving marketing, Jellycat has remained steadfast, and the price of popular models has continued to rise, with some styles increasing by as much as 20% in half a year. Li Tian joked that the only financial product in his hand that outperforms inflation is Jellycat.

The price increase and hot sales have brought about a sharp increase in performance. According to the annual report disclosed by Jellycat, total revenue in 2022 was £146 million, an increase of 72% year-on-year. Net profit was £43 million, an increase of 83% year-on-year. It is worth noting that from 2020 to 2022, the compound annual growth rate of net profit is close to 30%. At the same time, Jellycat's gross margin is as high as 61%.

At the same time, from 2018 to 2022, Jellycat's ROE (net profit margin on equity) has always been around 100%, with the most prominent in 2021, as high as 124%.

Not only is Jellycat making a lot of money, but fans are also getting a piece of the hot market. On the second-hand platform, the price of Li Tian's same Yummy rabbit has been as high as 600 yuan, which is 3 times the tag price at that time.

Jellycat's fun series, launched in 2018, expands the design idea of plush toys to all aspects of life. It can be said that everything you can see in life has the potential to become the next doll image of Jellycat. Li Tian said that now on the second-hand platform, the market price of an out-of-print Jellycat microphone doll is 800-900 yuan, which fluctuates depending on the quality.

The microphone is just the tip of the iceberg of Jellycat's whimsical design ideas. This summer's graduation season, Jellycat is once again out of the circle with hot items. Jellycat superimposed elements on the original hard-boiled egg series, in addition to the original smile hard-boiled egg series, there are also hard-boiled eggs for the bride and groom and hard-boiled eggs for graduation. And the hard-boiled eggs of graduation wearing a bachelor's hat and an innocent and clear smile have become the sweetheart of the graduation season on social media.

On Xiaohongshu, the content of graduates who were tasseled by the principal with their graduation boiled eggs continues to rise. "Leopard Change" learned during a visit to the Jellycat Wangfujing store that the graduation eggs have been selling well since May, and many stores are out of stock after the college entrance examination. At present, the official online sales channels have also shown that all are out of stock.

The same treatment is also Jellycat's hand-held bouquet series, 520 superimposed graduation season, the use of hand-held bouquets is more diverse, and the degree of demand is better than that of graduation boiled eggs. The clerk said that the bouquets in all stores in Beijing are now out of stock, and the replenishment time is temporarily uncertain.

This level of popularity is clearly what Jellycat expected.

Back in 2014, Jellycat's brand definition expanded from primarily for children to for all ages. And now Jellycat China's official WeChat public account also reads "high-end gift brand".

According to a report by Circana (market research company), from January to April 2024, consumers over the age of 18 spent $1.5 billion on toys, surpassing the 3 to 5-year-old group, becoming the most important age group in the toy industry.

The transformation from toys to gifts has allowed Jellycat to leapfrog and cover customers from children to people of all ages.

What's more, the premium space for toys is obviously not as high as gifts.

In addition to the ever-increasing price of the product itself, Jellycat has also launched a lot of gift-oriented customization services.

At present, the competing products in the same price band on the market in major cities in China are still dominated by plush toys in the shape of animals. After Jellycat's gift-based transformation, the rapid growth of SKUs has not only brought a wider adult customer base, but also shaped the consumption preference of those who are willing to pay a high premium for it.

"A plush toy of three or four hundred, expensive is certain, and it is distressing to buy it for yourself, but if you give it to a friend, you can get it from the brand or the price." Xu Xu said.

3. Social currency catches the traffic express

The myth of Jellycat's sales in the Chinese market is almost tied to social media.

Each Jellycat doll has its name and file written on a label hanging on the main body. Many social media users see it as their "account" for their Jellycat dolls. "Multi-child families" like Wu Meng even bought storage books specifically for these labels, recording the date each doll entered their lives and preserving its "birth file".

This high degree of anthropomorphism of dolls, from the conscious shaping of the brand to the spontaneous second creation of users, forms a closed loop of consumption logic that is constantly spiraling. The more anthropomorphic, the more intimate and fun it is, the easier it is for more people to join the carnival and thus attract more consumers.

From the popular "Mr. Eggplant" to Ronnie Rock Jumping Penguin, to Barcelo Bear and Aunt Octopus who can help with the baby, every popular doll in Jellycat is inexplicably popular.

However, most users who anthropomorphize and dress it up on social media don't really care whether the doll is simulated or has a practical role like Aunt Octopus, but this kind of second creation can be constantly copied and innovated in a small way, and at the same time become a good social material.

Jellycat's success in the Chinese market is almost a replication of the success of overseas: leading to high-frequency social media exposure, hunger marketing, and pervasiveness in the channel.

Although there has never been an official response to the Hunger Marketing rumors, Jellycat is the fast fashion of the toy world, with both new and unshelfed shelves at breakneck speed. On the brand's website, Jellycat has been updating the discontinued dolls every year since 2010 and calling them retired designs.

An artificially created sense of urgency is the biggest driver of consumer behavior.

Li Tian said that when she was at the top, a sentence in the purchasing group "There is only one, subject to the first transfer" or "about to be out of print/out of stock" will make her suddenly have an urge to collect dolls that she was not aware of before. This impulse is indeed not groundless, when she first entered the pit, she fell in love with an out-of-print little owl, and searched for it on the second-hand platform to no avail, "It is still my white moonlight".

The wide range of channels allows Jellycat to appear in front of consumers with high frequency offline.

When I was studying in the UK, I found that Jellycat appeared most often not in the brand's own stores, but in department stores such as Harrods and toy stores such as Hamleys in the UK. Nowadays, in China, Jellycat has also extended from the counter, appearing in toy stores in different business districts, supermarkets such as BHG, and chain bookstores such as Sisyphus and Pageone.

The high exposure rate of the online and the pervasive channels of the offline easily complete the closed-loop attack on the consumer mind.

However, the domestic plush toy industry is fiercely competitive, and the players in it are endless. According to Qichacha data, the number of domestic plush toy companies registered in 2023 will reach 1,288, a year-on-year increase of 14.39%. As of now, the number of registrations in the first quarter of 2024 has reached 501, a year-on-year increase of 61.09%.

The expensive and fiery Jellycat has caught the traffic express and pried the door to the business of young people's emotional value. In the extremely "involutional" plush toy market, there are many dolls, and it is not easy to copy another Jellycat, but it is not so easy for Jellycat to maintain its popularity all the time.

(At the request of the interviewee, all names have been changed)