Recently, KFC and Bubble Mart's joint blind-box meal has attracted public opinion and regulatory attention for allegedly causing food waste.
There are also feedback from senior Bubble Mart players that this doll co-branded with KFC has a rough workmanship, far less than the level of craftsmanship of the Bubble Mart store, and it is not worth spending too much energy to follow suit.
IP co-branded gameplay has long been common in the retail industry.
"IP" can be understood as the collective term for all famous cultural and creative (literature, film and television, animation, museums, time-honored brands, etc.).
Co-branding with well-known IP has become a marketing method that many brands are keen on.
Why is IP co-branding so popular?
First, compared with advertising, IP has its own traffic, and the brand bundles IP, which can increase brand exposure at low cost; second, there is a huge fan base behind the IP, and binding IP is equivalent to harvesting the fan economy; , IP co-branded marketing can often generate high premiums, and cooperation with IP with a certain reputation can enhance the added value of brand culture and achieve multiplier effects with half the effort.
Previously, a hoodie from the Li-Ning brand quickly became popular because of a People's Daily press photo of Li Ning winning a gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Li Ning also took the lead in the rise of the national tide by virtue of this explosion.
The Meiying Hotel co-branded by Atour Hotel and Shanghai Meiying Factory has brought new life to old IPs such as Monkey King, Nezha, Sheriff Black Cat, Hulu Brothers, etc., and also allowed the Atour brand to achieve leapfrog development. The successful cases have opened up a broad imagination space for the famous IP to move towards commercialization.
However, although "IP co-branding" is good, if it is "abandoned" by a brand that is not doing its job properly, it will be self-defeating.
In the past two years, KFC's co-branding road seems to be getting wider and wider: it has carried out extensive cooperation with famous IPs such as the Forbidden City, Liushen Hualushui, and the domestic game "Yuan Shen", but from the effect, consumers do not seem to buy it. .
For example, KFC and Liushen Hualu Water once jointly launched a lime bubble iced coffee, which was complained by netizens: Does drinking it can repel mosquitoes?
There are also Ma Yinglong lipstick, Luzhou Laojiao ice cream... Such a variety of "lalang matching" not only embarrassing consumers, but also overdrawing the brand's feelings, and causing a waste of resources.
Culture is always the soul of IP.
Brand "marriage" should also pay attention to "matching the family", only the cultural fit can make the joint brands complement each other and achieve a win-win situation.
No matter how good an idea is, it can't stand endless duplication.
In order to get on the national tide train, many companies tried to co-brand with the Forbidden City. "Whoever gets the IP of the Forbidden City wins the world" was widely circulated in the cultural and creative circles.
However, in recent years, from clothing to beauty, from food to jewelry, the endless emergence of Forbidden City co-branded models has also caused consumers to experience aesthetic fatigue, leaving the public with the impression of excessive authorization and overdraft of brands.
The Forbidden City, which is more than 600 years old, is indeed a rich mine of IP, but the mining of traditional culture must be carefully and moderately. Only by understanding the cultural connotation behind IP can it give full play to the commercial value of IP and make cooperation produce 1+1>2 effect.
Co-branded explosions do not mean product explosions. No matter how the marketing methods change, brands should make a fuss about the core competitiveness of the product.
MINISO, a well-known retail company, holds many IP licenses, turning its products into a showcase for famous IPs.
But in the end, people still remember only those IPs, not a certain product of MINISO.
Brand competition wins in volume, but also in quality.
Big White Rabbit has done a great job in IP marketing in recent years, and has made cross-border co-branding fun, but the problem raised by consumers that "the milk candy becomes hard and the milk taste becomes weaker" does not seem to have been fundamentally resolved.
At any time, companies should put R&D and innovation in the most important position. Only by sinking their hearts and creating explosive products can they win the "long affection" company of consumers.
IP co-branding is not just a simple traffic conversion, but also the persistence and inheritance of culture.
How to IPize Chinese stories?
How to shape more IP with national cultural foundation?
How do IPs with different characteristics such as literature, animation, and film and television play their respective advantages to establish connections with different types of brands?
These issues need to be further explored and considered by the industry.