The author | Maureena
Editor| Li Chunhui
"Chuansha Daji, Mother loves you."
Pink fur, curly eyelashes, this cartoon fox nicknamed "Chuansha Daji", is a doll character launched by Disney this year, the daimyo Lingna Belle. Only a month after his debut, he had a top-notch row, and he formed a Disney money-grabbing female star duo with the predecessor Purple Rabbit Star Dailu.
Last year, the Star Dew doll was fried to four figures, and this year, Lingna Belle debuted in a large area around the relevant area. Even the daigou who runs Disney every day advises the hard candy jun, "it is too hot to increase the price, and so on." Some fans complained that now if they want to buy a little fox, they have to accept bundled sales, and they have gained the Hermès experience at Disney.
But somewhat unreasonable is that unlike elsa, who was popular because of "Frozen" and a series of Disney IP movie roles, this wave of "Disney actresses" has no works at all, and it is directly announced. Could this be the legendary marketer? All by selling people?
Thinking about the blind box Molly and Sanrio stars sought after by young people, could it be that the new generation of IP is no story?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > purple rabbit on the throne</h1>
Don't look at ChuanshaDa's own limelight, in the eyes of hard candy Jun, the suspicion of its marketing coffee is still relatively large. When it comes to starting from scratch, it has to be the first generation of actressEss, Delure.
In March 2018, Star Dailu entered Shanghai Disneyland as a good friend of Duffy Bear. The real fire is still false red, depending on the ability to carry goods. Disney headquarters revealed that the total height of the Star Dew related goods sold in the Shanghai park alone is 119 Mount Everest, and the "top stream" is deserved.
But initially, the purple rabbit's influence was limited to theme parks. Until the relevant peripherals had names in the Lo circle, Xing Dai Lu took the first step to break the circle counterattack.
From the appearance point of view, the star dew with long eyelashes, soft smile or lavender purple is indeed highly suitable for plush derivatives. In addition, the name of the family is also good, "Star Dew", it sounds like an ancient romance, the Mary Sue heroine in the comics, it is simply the favorite of primary school students. I don't know which ghost came up with the idea to translate "Stellalou" as "Star Dew", rather than the more common "Stella Lou".
And today's plush peripheral development, has long been not limited to dolls of different sizes, Star DaiLu plush satchel, because of the moderate size, but also with all kinds of Lo outfits perfectly matched, has become the object of the Lo circle girls to buy. The Lo circle overlaps with the audience of the baby circle, and Xing Dai Lu naturally gains a sense of existence in the baby circle.
The surrounding areas of the star dew sold in the park are of different sizes and types, but the images are basically the same, all of which are shaped with upright ears, wide eyes, and mouths with an arc. The baby changers can give more personality to Star Dailu. For example, the ear is changed to a hanging ear, the eye is changed to a crescent moon laughing eye, the mouth is changed to a beep mouth, and even the eyeballs can be changed to starry sky eyes or diamond love eyes.
Originally cute enough, Star Dailu doubled her appearance under the skillful hands of the baby changer and had a uniqueness. As for The costumes of Star Dew, there are everything from fashion to costumes to meet all the needs of the Lu people.
Today's little love beans, many of them are people in the baby circle or Lo circle, especially the 48 series of small idols, almost everyone is two-dimensional. In addition, Siba's base camp is in Shanghai, and the little idols who have nothing to do with their feet often go to Disney to punch in a full set of Lo outfits. Since 2019, Xing Dai Lu has appeared many times in the daily Microblogs of 48 Little Idols, and the purple rabbit has further "invaded" the rice circle.
At this point, Xing Dai Lu has become a little famous, but there is still a distance from the public female star. Adding fuel to the popularization of Xingdailu are social platforms such as Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.
As a grass planting base camp, Little Red Book users are quite sensitive to the smell of popular culture. Compared with other partners of the Duffy family, the star dew with its own dreamy purple is more in line with the theme of "fairy tales". Surrounded by the overwhelming "Encounter with Star Dew" notes, it is difficult not to be curious about the purple rabbit.
In 2019, there were many short videos related to Shanghai Disney on Douyin, and the cameras were mostly aimed at dolls in the park. The first to become popular was the chipmunk Chichititi, then Winnie the Pooh, and later it was Star Dew's turn.
The star dew in the short video will not only move, but also wave hello to people, sell cute praise, and will make various reactions according to the actions of tourists. If the little red book based on graphics and text sucks up face powder, the vibrato short video sucks a lot of personality powder for Xing Dailu.
People have the psychology of following the trend, and the creation should be more hot spots. A Star Dew note clicks more than 10,000 times, there will be a hundred Star Dew notes born, a Star Dew video will become a hit, and other creators in the same field will also focus the lens on the purple rabbit. When Star Dew became the traffic password, all creations revolved around it, so there was Star Dew everywhere.
At this time, when you keep seeing and everyone around you is talking about this purple rabbit, you have to understand this "new top stream". Some people even joined the team to buy the surrounding area of Star Dew just for talking.
These people, either out of true love or because of social show-offs, buy Star Dew and make up a sizable buyer's market. Disney has further created topics for Star Dew through limited releases and other methods. The profit margin formed by one buy and one sale has attracted deliberately hyped scalpers. With the joint efforts of many parties, Xing Dai Lu naturally appeared on weibo hot search, and after several times, her influence expanded again.
Today's Lingna Belle is just a more "subjective initiative" to replicate the success of her predecessors.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="53" > the birth of the money-snatching family</h1>
Both Star Dew and Lingna Belle are from Disney's Duffy family. Unlike Lao Di's other IPs, the Duffy family has no animation support, just pure cartoon images. Now, the Duffy family, which has no story, has become Disney's "money grabber" and has been jokingly called "a traffic star without works".
However, the Duffy family is also painstakingly explored. Duffy was originally born in 2002 as an ordinary doll bear without even having a name of its own. In the North American campus, Duffy sat on the cold bench for several years until the neon gold, which loves kawaii, repackaged it.
The shape of the doll bear is very poking at the taste of the Japanese, how to put it to the center of the stage? All it takes is a reasonable and simple story.
So the doll bear had its own name: Duffy. It was originally a doll that Mickey Mouse liked, and Mickey hoped that it would become his true friend, so the wonderful fairy sprinkled star powder on it, and Duffy became a living bear.
In 2004, Duffy appeared at Tokyo Disneyland as a welcome character in the park. Due to the contractual relationship with the parent company, Duffy products can only be sold at Tokyo DisneySea Park initially, and cannot even appear on the official websites of other regions. But it is precisely because of this "regional limitation" that Tamiflu has become a must-punch role for Dongdi.
In 2010, Duffy lifted the ban and appeared at Disney parks in other countries and regions. Subsequently, Duffy had a girlfriend Shirley Mei, a lively maroon bear; in 2014, the painter cat Geraldoni appeared in the park as Duffy's new friend; in 2017, she welcomed a new friend, the rabbit Star Dailu who wants to become a dancer (in 2018, Star Dailu entered the Shanghai park); in 2019, the puppy KeQi'an joined, and in 2020, the turtle Oremilla debuted.
The members of the Duffy family have several things in common: soft and cute-looking, especially female dolls, all have big eyes that flutter kazilan; their background is simple, and they can be explained in one sentence; their personalities are pleasing, not like animated characters and complex mental processes.
Unlike established stars such as Mickey Donald, who worked around the world, the Duffy family, who was reborn in Tokyo Disneyland, is an Exclusive Asian Offering. Therefore, the doll design of the Duffy family also tries its best to please Asian consumers, especially the aesthetic preferences of Asian women, such as large eyes, long eyelashes, and cute and pure images.
Bears, cats, rabbits and puppies are all common doll creation themes, and the animal itself is plush, which is easy to make people think of "cute". The only exception is the turtle Olmila, who is indeed slightly inferior to her colleagues.
Just like love beans need human design, the simpler things are, the easier it is for fans to bet more personal emotions and become the bearer of fans' dreams. The Duffy family is like a virtual idol or love bean in the Disney IP sequence. They have no complicated stories, only simple pleasing images and people, they are always cute, always lively, and never collapse.
Compared with virtual idols and real love beans, the Dolls of the Duffy family have an absolute advantage. Virtual idols can not see and touch, always lack of real sense, offline paradise is the stage of Duffy, can achieve the needs of fans face-to-face contact; real love beans even if they are labeled as human, but also a big living person with personal will and action, Duffy can ensure that the human setting will never collapse.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="54" > new stars don't need a story? </h1>
Even if you figure out the whole process of the birth of the Duffy family and the popularity of Xing Dailu, many old two-dimensional elements still wonder: the previous Mickey and Disney princesses are all supported by stories, and now the new IP really does not need a story?
The IP that has become popular without a story is not only the Duffy family. Molly, who came out of Bubble Mart, was called "ugly doll" by "Sunspot", but it did not prevent young people from emptying their wallets for Molly; Sanrio, who had created Hello Kitty, had become a new traffic director in recent years; and Brown Bear, Kenny Rabbit and Sally Duck, who were born in the chat software Line, had also been popular for many years by relying on pop-up shops and co-branded models.
What they have in common is that the design is simple, the appearance is cute, and the amway of the shape and KOL quickly become popular, and there is no rich content system behind the support (Yugui Dog has animation, but in China, it is still popular by "cute").
Sanrio and KFC linked up with the jade gui dog night light
Just as the so-called media is information, short videos are popular, fragmented marketing is popular, then the form of idols will also change. The stage for a new generation of IP stars is no longer magazine tv, but social media.
Just like a song must catch the user within 15 seconds to become a blockbuster divine comedy. The simpler the content, the more conducive to the spread of short videos, 15 seconds of content is difficult to say the cause and effect of love and hate, but for conveying cuteness, it is enough.
As the founder of Bubble Mart explained the reasons for Molly's popularity, "A lot of IPs make you like this image by expressing emotions and states." "IP image is a kind of spiritual sustenance, the simpler it is, the more malleable it is."
In other words, the stories of the new generation of IP stars are not created by the company, but written by fans. For example, Lingna Belle has been given labels such as "delicate and cute", "little boy personality", "a little naughty", "little arrogant" and so on. And these personality features, in addition to the witty reaction of the doll player, are also self-interpreted by fans. They saw what they wanted in the little fox, which is why they liked it so much.
IP with a complete story as a support will lose some malleability because the story is too full. The most typical is the phenomenon of Disney princesses being cold in recent years. With the awakening of female consciousness, the older generation of princesses such as Snow White have lost the younger generation of fans because they are always waiting for salvation and are not independent enough.
From this point of view, not having a work is also an advantage. After all, in today's network environment, any work with a point of view can be found in the groove, but who can refuse to be cute?
In addition, the complete story system is also difficult to add new characters, but the Duffy family can push new people in the way of "new friends" every year. From the perspective of industrial cost performance, IP without a story may be the trend of the future.
Matthew Ball, a former Amazon studio executive, once said that an entertainment company only does three things: create or tell stories, build love for those stories, and turn love into money. Nowadays, the right to tell stories is handed over to the masses, and the masses naturally establish love in the creative process, and the company skips the intermediate steps to make money directly.
It is worth noting that this kind of CUTE-based, "co-creation" type of IP image has problems such as the moat is not high and is easy to be replaced. But in the era of short and fast social media, longevity may not be a necessary attribute. Judging from the arrangement of the Duffy family to disclose a new member every year, just like xiu fans have new sons and new daughters every year, Lao Di does not care how long you love a single IP, there will always be a new IP on top after the carnival.
Of course, Disney can take the road of the Duffy family, and Gein's old Di family is thick enough to become a century-old store and form a brand effect. For new brands, this style of play is not necessarily fully adapted, the Line family is all the rage, and now it has no choice but to go over, and Bubble Mart has no explosive model after Molly, and it is also the topic of being whipped every three to five.
Yesterday's Star Dew Today's Lingna Belle will be tomorrow who will be on the throne of "female star"? The only thing that Hard Candy Jun can be sure of is that next year, he will still scold Disney for money while crying and shouting for daigou to help him grab a new doll. After all, cuteness is justice.