Text/Photo Yangcheng Evening News reporter Sun Qiman intern Yan Siyun
Recently, KFC launched Da Duck for "June 1st", which has been swiping the major social softwares one after another.
On May 21, KFC announced on the official WeChat account that if you purchase a designated Children's Day package from now on, you can get a random Pokémon oversized toy. There are 3 toys in total, which will be distributed randomly, while stocks last.
Among them, the Duck Duck Music Box, which danced in the "magic" music, stood out and became a "top stream".
At the beginning of the launch, a large number of secondary creation works made the "magic" Da Duck completely out of the circle.
After the explosion, the Ducks soon became "hard to find".
The reporter noticed that in recent years, many "cultural and creative + package" products jointly launched by fast food companies and popular IPs have been on the hot search, and the joint name seems to have become a "traffic password".
According to incomplete statistics from a reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News, since 2021, KFC and McDonald's have launched more than 20 co-branded toy packages, attracting the attention of many consumers, and many styles are in short supply.
Behind the boom, is it just corporate marketing?
What is the relationship between the same IP and the upsurge of today's consumption demand?
Which market psychological needs are being hit?
1 question
"One duck is hard to find" Who is buying it?
"It's too naive for elementary school students, but just right for college students." Recently, many netizens have ridiculed that those who madly grabbed the Duck are adult "big friends". The real children may not even know that KFC held the June 1 event.
The reporter browsed the nearby stores on the KFC ordering applet and found that the Children's Day package with Pokémon toys could not be found on the order page of most stores. From 10:30 in the morning, it is "sold out today".
On May 29, a reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News visited a number of KFC stores in Guangzhou.
When I was in the store in Baifu Plaza, as soon as I walked to the counter, the store staff skillfully took out two different Pikachu toys from the shelf behind the counter, and said, "There are no more ducks." The reporter saw that although KFC It is said that the three toys of this event are distributed randomly, but there are still a lot of stock of two Pikachu toys on the shelf behind the counter, and the space for Duck toys is empty.
In the remaining KFC stores, reporters were told that the Duck Duck set meal had been out of stock for several days, and that Duck Duck toys were sold out within a day or two after the official announcement.
The staff of the Yanhui Plaza store in Haizhu District told reporters that the three franchise stores in the whole area did not replenish the goods, "We have applied, but none of them have replenished us. There is no way to do it.”
During the interview, the reporter found that as a classic IP, “Da Da Duck” is the childhood memory of many young consumers. Most of the “begging duck” consumers are “post-90s” and “post-00s” consumers, the real “post-10s”. "Post-20s" children are not keen.
"Mom, don't look for ducks anymore, I want to eat!" "Post-90s" Xiaoma told reporters that she took her son to KFC to "beg for ducks". The kindergarten son didn't catch the "duck", but she Very interested in this.
Manager Yu, who has worked in the animation industry for more than ten years, told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that Pokémon, as a classic animation IP, is the memory of many "post-90s" and "post-00s" consumers. These consumers are the generation most affected by animation culture. Therefore, There is a sense of intimacy when seeing this cartoon character, which is why classic animation IP joint names often attract attention.
"This time, there are both accidents and reasons for the Duck fire." Manager Yu also said that in the past, IP co-branded toys often appeared as static decorations.
One of the major features of the Duck is that it has "magic" music, clumsy and cute movements, and at the same time, it has genes that can be re-created. Many consumers will hang their own voices and so on in the form of notes. up to the duck.
This has brought new vitality to IP. While awakening memories, it has also become a carrier for consumers to express their emotions and opinions, thus making it popular on social platforms.
2 questions
"Food + Classic IP + Toys" mode to capture big friends?
Consumer A Chu is also a member of the "seeking duck" public. When she saw the "duck dance" video of Da Duck displayed on the social platform, she was so greedy, she ran to the nearby KFC store early in the morning and was told that " The duck is gone."
Soon, she turned her attention to McDonald's "Children's Day Limited" - a "children's cartoon astronaut helmet" launched in cooperation with China's lunar exploration.
The national limit is 20,000, and the two-day reservation has allowed consumers to start another "toy battle".
The model of "food + classic IP + toys" has captured the hearts of many consumers.
In fact, the operation of fast food companies co-branding classic IP to send toys is nothing new.
According to incomplete statistics from a reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News, since 2021, KFC has launched more than 10 different classic IP co-branded fashion games at multiple festival time points, and it is not the first time to cooperate with Pokémon.
In January last year, KFC launched the Chinese New Year Pokemon package, and then launched a variety of trendy games with classic IP images such as Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Minions, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Bugs Bunny at Children's Day, Halloween and other time points. , and many of them have cooperated many times.
Since 2021, McDonald’s Happy Meal has also launched 15 toys, including classic IPs such as My Little Pony, Marvel Heroes, SpongeBob SquarePants, Toy Story, and Tom and Jerry.
A Yu, a senior student at Jinan University, told reporters that she bought the McDonald's Toy Story series of toys and found that there was a prompt to "collect all 10 models and make them into an RV", attracting consumers to collect the same series of toys, "I saw that it was not completed. A spliced toy, I instantly have some desire to collect it completely".
3 questions
Is it marketing or spiritual sustenance behind the boom?
Under the Duck craze, "second-hand" and "substitute food" made a comeback.
The reporter browsed a second-hand platform, and a large number of Duck Ducks marked with the words "KFC" and "genuine" were being sold, most of which were priced between 50 yuan and 200 yuan, and some merchants marked a Duck Duck music box for 1380 yuan. high price.
The reporter found in a WeChat group a group friend called "Add me to buy a group of ducks", who also bought directly from a supplier at a price of 75 yuan, and also said that "if you pull 10 people into the group, you can add an additional five." Yuan".
As the incident fermented, on May 25, KFC officially issued an official statement saying, "Recently, some consumers have reported that some KFC toys have been sold at a higher price, and the company will not support it! This behavior is purely personal behavior and has nothing to do with the company. The number of styles is limited, and due to supply, logistics and other reasons, it is being urgently deployed."
So popular, is there any suspicion of hunger marketing?
"The reaction of the market is often not within the prediction of the enterprise." The reporter learned from industry insiders that when fast food brands launch corresponding toy packages, they often make predictions and predictions based on the experience of the same node in previous years to determine the production volume of toys.
The corresponding IP toys require a certain response time from design to production and delivery.
Therefore, after a certain toy is introduced to the market, companies often cannot increase the supply quickly and respond to the market, which will lead to a situation in which the supply exceeds demand. , Some IPs are mediocre, which does not mean that the company is doing hunger marketing.”
In January last year, KFC launched the Chinese New Year Pokémon package. Compared with the previous ones, what is the reason behind this "one duck is hard to find"?
Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iiMedia Research, told a reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News that compared with the previous node IP, the launch of the node and the cute appearance of this toy on Children's Day is more attractive to young people and women.
Another reason is because it resonates in consumer social circles.
Zhang Yi also mentioned that everyone can use this toy to recreate and become a way of releasing people's high-pressure and nervous emotions.
Three Questions
Skip the fan economic bubble,
Use product power to make consumers say yes
The marketing method of "cultural creativity + food" has been around for a long time. So far, these matching "toys" have not only attracted children, but also captured the hearts of "big friends".
Whether it’s the popular KFC Duck, or the popular McDonald’s cat litter, this form of cultural and creative products sold together with gourmet food not only satisfies consumers’ appetite, but also satisfies the spiritual needs of diners—— Either being cured by the cute appearance, or awakening childhood memories in classic IP toys, this dual effect on consumers' minds makes many "post-90s" and "post-00s" consumers unable to stop.
Between buying and not buying, and eating or not eating, a flattering IP toy and an interesting cultural and creative product can make consumers' scales sink to the "say yes" end.
For catering companies, this is a major opportunity for companies to rejuvenate, and it is also a way for companies to expand their marketing paths to other potential consumers starting from target consumers.
Compared with ordinary advertisements, the form of IP co-branding often brings its own traffic. At the same time, the huge fan group behind the IP will also be attracted by it, and the company can also get a share of the fan economy by binding with the popular IP.
However, co-branded IP explosions are not the same as product explosions. At a time when marketing methods are emerging one after another, the core competitiveness of products is the key to the company's continuous combustion.
For enterprises, after the explosion brought by IP, the key to keeping consumers highly sticky is to concentrate on R&D and product promotion.
For consumers, it is also necessary to pay attention to rational consumption.