The wind of business is coming in waves, is it really fresh?
People always say that when the economy is bad, small commodities with good quality and low price will be very popular. Is it really that simple? Can all grocery stores and small commodities take off?
Why do IPs nowadays not need stories, but only need some memes and some emoticons to become very popular?
It seems that stories and spiritual cores are no longer so important? Everyone's expectations for the future are getting closer and closer, and shorter and shorter.
Has emotional consumption become a rigid demand?
Is it useless to create no actual value, can it only be a flash sale or is there a chance to move towards continuous sales?
Do we enjoy the purchased goods or the purchase process?
Today, let's talk about the current topics around trendy toys, groceries, the second dimension, and emotional consumption.
----01
The image of healing and compensatory consumption.
The recently popular Jellycat limited-time restaurant sells toys, processes and emotional value.
Here, I want to talk more about the limited-time mode.
Why is it not eternal? Because its emotions do not come from the product itself, not a cake that smells fragrant every time it comes out of the oven, and allows consumers to eat it in their hands. Their essences are not the same.
In fact, this old British brand has always been very strong, just like brands like Issey Miyake, which welcome different people to chase after it in waves, and the people in front are happy to show off, look, I bought it a long time ago.
In essence, plush toys are like cats and dogs. First of all, the healing feeling produced by the touch and feel responds to the needs of the times.
In the past, pajamas had to be luxurious silk, but now they are all furry. The core is to heal and comfort.
But this is not enough. In addition to healing, why Jellycat can stand out, there are two other reasons:
Expensive and varied.
This is the essence of pets and plush toys. The pursuit of cat breeds, from silver gradients to golden gradients to leopard cats to Devons... The functional needs of pets remain unchanged, but the price and emotional value change. Cats that do not shed hair, or are agile or delicate, but expensive ones seem to be more lovely.
If it is a cheap plush toy, will anyone pay for a simulation game? I think it is unlikely.
Why is Jellycat okay?
First of all, it is expensive.
There is room for performance and cost, which excludes the choice of cakes and plush toys;
Then there are many varieties.
The brand has continuously released different series. Zoo, fruit garden, vegetable garden. It is very much like a product line compiled with reference to people's bar games.
Such gameplay will be popular, but not necessarily for a long time, so it can only be a limited-time store, and then the city cycle ends.
IP is the same principle.
20 years ago, Line friends was very popular in China. We were not a minority of consumers. We also opened a popular theme store to sell well. In this area where LINE cannot be used until now, although it is no longer popular, we have also learned this trick.
For example, Chikawa, such as Loopy, there are more and more IPs shaped by WeChat emoticons, and they are getting more and more popular.
But in the final analysis, there is no new gameplay, but there are new images and channels.
In the past, IP incubation required cartoons, scenes and stories, but it was different from the fluffy Lingna Belle. People didn't need stories, just cuteness and anthropomorphism, and emoticons conveyed their inner feelings.
Coupled with the speed of communication in Internet communities and the mature response of the supply chain.
These IP operations can generate more and more values and ways, and they are becoming more and more explosive.
----02
Modern people's forbearance needs an outlet, and finding an outlet is a business opportunity.
Yes, the way to hype something is different now.
For example, emoticons have never been just a social tool for people, but a necessity for everyone to express their emotions.
Many times we will find that young people today are passionate online, with all kinds of words that make them cry and cry to death; offline real-world contacts are calm and numb, restrained and forbearing.
Emotionally rich, emotionally numb, afraid of being seen through, is a paranoia and disappointment syndrome.
How to reach a reconciliation? Find a "stand-in".
For example, in recent years, people have gradually become more active, taking dolls out, posing them with the desired pictures and actions, and expressing what they want to say. This is a stand-in.
Because compared to the real and complex self, these toys are so cute, sunny and innocent, always smiling and happy to face the world, and everything is powerless.
That's why there are POPMART, the little frog, Lingna Bell and his friends.
Of course, the biggest problem of stand-in literature is that it will cause aesthetic and emotional fatigue, and iteration can have sustained vitality.
Recently, POPMART has done something new - baking flash "bubble
cute grains". Isn't it the same drama route as Jelly Market?
The emotions of the simulated bakery are full. Since the blind box is not exciting enough, then let's gather the trend of "drama".
Behind this wave of ethylene-glued POPBEAN operations, it is no longer the logic of doing flash sales to test the waters, and then turning production to scale formal stores, but an increasingly market-oriented and marketing-oriented wave of gameplay.
It is the cost reduction and sales increase that make you want to buy a set and a can again.
Let’s take a look at the popular memes in the past two years: “What bad intentions can a kitten have?”, “The ancient Greek god in charge of relaxation”, “City is not City ......
Behind the scenes are still the helplessness of modern urbanites who dare to think but not to do, dare to complain but not to complain in person.
Everyone understands, but everyone endures.
To endure, you need an outlet, and isn’t the outlet a business opportunity?
The green bananas that were once unsellable are the business opportunities chosen by fate.
In 2024, it is still an inedible variety, but it can be sold out.
Why? Because everyone is anxious.
Especially the spontaneous social media expansion gameplay.
For example, everyone in the office claims a green banana and waits for it to get better slowly.
I don’t know what the green pepper sellers think, will they blame it if the green peppers are inedible.
Isn’t this compensatory consumption? Saying that you are anxious is negative energy, and buying a bunch of green bananas is cute.
So after the "green bananas" are over, new content will be hatched.
Essentially, trendy toys, memes, and emoticon IPs are the same, and they bring consumers the addictive behavior of "spending little money and having great fun".
----03
Secondary, trendy toys, and grocery stores are essentially a kind of play Method.
We can't really distinguish between the two-dimensional world, the millet store and the trendy toy store... because the gameplay is essentially the same, and even many brands are wandering among this group of people.
For example, TopToy has already had the products of Kayou;
For example, Weidian Park does not need such a vertical atmosphere.
In fact, the atmosphere of "vertical and non-vertical" can be divided into "aggregation effect" and "collateral effect".
Let's think about it, why are these products not released and sold online? Intuitively, the two-dimensional world and star chasers buy goods.
But in fact, these stores and brands sell not only goods offline, but also queues and appointments, the mutual infection of anxious emotions, and the secondary spread of passers-by watching.
Why are there so many people queuing in this store, "What are you selling? I always have to go take a look";
People in the queue watch the people in front of them come out, watch the promotional posts that are being updated, and look forward to "I must buy enough when I go in later, so that I can justify the two hours I have waited in line";
People who make reservations carefully plan their meals for the next week, count the days and consider what dishes to order that day, "see if there are any special reservations for me to take pictures."
Look, these brands that can obviously sell goods are selling feelings and experiences.
The essence of limited release is emotional tug-of-war, the thrill of a roller coaster slowly rising and then releasing, and the desire is maximized.
Fashion brands also play this way, as well as cakes, ice cream and coffee.
Looking back at cakes like KUMOKUMO, the sense of ritual with a jingle, steaming hot, no need to worry Stamping one by one without slowness.
Behind these processes are secretly expanding expectations and desire to buy. Consumers watch eagerly and want more.
In fact, this is not new.
In the era without Weibo, 20 years ago, there were already people queuing up in Taiwan's night markets waiting for grandpas to stamp their cakes. The sense of smell, vision, and taste finally raised the feeling.
The moment the cake arrived, it tasted much better than it actually was because of the expectation additive.
The story ends here to say that business is not new, and business methods will not be new. What is new is the image and channels that generations of consumers are more accepting.
From trendy two-dimensional toys to baking cakes, finally, let's go back to the category of large grocery stores and talk about it again.
In the traditional sense, grocery stores are based on the logic of selling goods and are centered on convenient services. Until MUJI's The emergence of MUJI is a breakthrough.
It is also selling daily necessities, but it uses design, on-site display and product selection to convey its own life philosophy that is higher than the products themselves.
It also started from MUJI that when we talk about groceries and daily groceries, we no longer talk about just-needed sales, but a purchase based on emotions and feelings.
Looking back at China, the evolution of rounds of learning, whether it is Eslite Life, OCE, KKV and other constantly iterating grocery stores, or beauty stores such as Colorist and WOWCOLOR, some are doing well, and some have fluctuating vitality.
In essence, they are all emotional grocery marketing combined with tools of the times.
What has changed is the Internet era, the ability of tools to empower the supply chain, and the speed at which they can support the response to changes in the C-end.
What remains unchanged is what we mentioned, the variety More.
Why don't you say that groceries are expensive? It's not because of consumption downgrade.
In essence, it's because of the great demand. The more stores are opened and the bigger they are, the less expensive they are.
