"Create the trend, pass on the beauty" is the brand slogan of POP MART, the first brother of Blind Box.

However, who would have thought that nearly 78% of the main users' portraits are concentrated in the crowd aged 65,438+08-35, and POP MART, which has 75% women, stood on the cusp of public opinion a few days ago because of a job advertisement.

"POP MART asks women to fill in whether there is a recent birth plan during the interview" and "applicants fill in truthfully, and if there is a false report, the company will immediately dismiss them without any financial compensation", which is suspected of discriminating against women. Once exposed on social platforms, it immediately caused heated discussion.

Although POP MART later apologized for the incident, saying that the above situation was caused by individual branches not adjusting according to the requirements of the head office, it still failed to eliminate the influence of negative public opinion.

However, the criticism is still in the ears, but here POP MART is once again controversial because of a brand-new joint hand.

It turns out that the novice office of POP MART has actually reached the level of 1,000 yuan compared with the price of tens or hundreds of yuan, and the most expensive one even approaches the 5,000 yuan mark!

According to the official statement, it aims to build China's "first collection for young people" and transform blind box toys into art collections.

However, this remark has not been recognized by netizens, and the accusation of "IQ tax" is still rampant, even once again arousing people's complaints about poor quality control and poor after-sales service of POP MART.

Faced with a series of controversies, this new species, which created the trend, now seems to be caught in an embarrassing situation of being swallowed up by the trend.

0 1

IP+ blind box, POP MART opens the runaway mode.

"We have created a category, an industry, an ecosystem of trendy toys, and let a generation of young people know what trendy play is, leaving a cultural imprint on trendy toys in this era." This is a remark made by Wang Ning, founder of POP MART, when he was listed in Hongkong last February.

In the spotlight, the post-80s generation and his huge blind box empire POP MART have received unprecedented attention.

Before this, the blind box was originally a small circle business, and many individual designers or brand service personnel have always been single-minded and very niche. Before 20 16, POP MART was also an unknown retail toy store.

Then, in just a few years, how did POP MART "fly to the phoenix on the branches"?

In fact, after POP MART was established in June 20 10, although its main business was fashion toys, it lost money for three years.

The real change took place in 20 16, and POP MART successfully launched the first series of "Molly Zodiac" blind boxes.

200 sets were snapped up in 4 seconds, and POP MART brought Molly a second life. Molly also let the brand POP MART and blind box form be swept away by the tornado.

Tik Tok up owners spend 1000 yuan to open blind boxes every day, and the hidden blind boxes in the second-hand trading market even sell for dozens of times the original price. The combination of classic IP and blind box has pushed POP MART into the fast lane of development.

Feedback to the profit level, from 20 17 to 20 19, the net profit of POP MART was1560,000 yuan, 99.52 million yuan and 45/kloc-0,000 yuan respectively, which was comparable to that of the printing press.

After eating the big cake given by the market bonus, POP MART also increased the development of IP. By June 30, 2020, it had operated 93 IPS and kept close contact with more than 350 artists.

It is precisely by grasping the dividend of the blind box market that POP MART has become the largest trend toy brand in China, and its revenue growth rate even exceeded 200% at one time. The data of Tmall White Paper also shows that the blind box market is 3 billion, and POP MART accounts for half of the country.

As Lei Jun said, pigs can fly when standing at the tuyere, and the key to brand success lies in following suit. POP MART's leap is just stepping on the dividend period when the blind box market broke out.

02

IQ tax? What blind box are young people playing with?

How crazy are young people about blind boxes?

"China Blind Box Industry Research Report" shows that among the most "burning money" hobbies after 1995, blind box handiwork ranks first.

Previously, Tmall's "Post-95 Players Picking Hands List" also showed that there are 200,000 hardcore players every year, spending more than 20,000 yuan on blind boxes a year. Some crazy consumers even spend millions a year.

Seeing these data, I can't help asking, why is the small box so magical that young people can empty their wallets?

In fact, behind the explosion of the blind box is the economic effect of the tide play circle, and each circle has its own unique circle consumption culture support.

Especially the blind box itself, in addition to appreciation value, Chaowan IP also has emotional value and social value, which coincides with the demands of young people in Chaowan circle.

In addition, the explosion of the blind box is not unrelated to the gambling addiction behind it. Because compared with ordinary toys, the biggest stimulus of blind box lies in its blindness. Consumers don't know what's inside until they open it.

POP MART's blind boxes are divided into ordinary models and hidden models. Take Molly as an example, there are 12 different conventional shapes for the common model, one box 12 boxes, and the winning rate is1144; The hidden model has only 1 shapes, and the winning rate is 1/720.

If you want to collect a set, you can either continue to buy it or buy it on other platforms at a high price. On idle fish, we can see many cases of reselling hidden funds at a premium of several times or even dozens of times and hundreds of times.

But even if you choose to keep buying, you won't get what you want. For example, on February 65438, 2020, many netizens said that the blind box of POP MART they bought was a "second sale".

Although POP MART officials later admitted and apologized for this matter, they still left the confusion behind them. In fact, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the blind box problem, and the wind of premium speculation is even worse.

Not only that, with the surge in sales of POP MART, quality control and after-sales can also obviously feel the decline. Vowing about these problems is more prevalent on social platforms such as Weibo.

What makes young people who like blind boxes feel pessimistic is the price increase of POP MART. Although POP MART claims that the price increase is due to rising costs, more people believe that its purpose is to boost the company's performance.

All these, although POP MART is still exploding, have caused more and more controversy.

03

Blind box marketing is out of control

Where is the next batch of Chinese chives?

The pursuit of novelty makes the blind box popular among young people, which also makes the marketing model pioneered by POP MART spread in all major consumer fields.

What lovely blind boxes for pets, air tickets, beautiful women and even archaeological blind boxes have appeared in the market, which has led to blind box competition in all walks of life, as if people feel that they have entered an era of being blind in everything!

However, while some people are crazy about the blind box, others show the opposite attitude.

2 1 the network tuning lab has launched a poll before, when more than 60% of netizens chose "no (bought a blind box), and at first glance it was an IQ tax".

The reasons are mainly concentrated in three points: first, some blind boxes are speculated at a high premium, which is suspected of a bubble; Second, the blind box is nothing more than a business routine, inducing consumption or pulling new things; Third, with the nature of gambling, uncertainty is easy to be "cut leeks."

Not long ago, the "pet blind box" selling cute pets caused the public to think about the future development of blind boxes.

It is also worth noting that when the blind box economy is rampant in the market, POP MART, which started blind box marketing, seems to be less dazzling than before.

An obvious change is that although POP MART has maintained rapid growth, its revenue growth rate has declined seriously.

According to the latest annual report, in 2020, the revenue of POP MART was RMB 2,565,438+billion, a year-on-year increase of 49.3%. In the past three years, the revenue growth of POP MART has been above 200%.

At the same time, although the total number of members of POP MART is also increasing substantially, each member's corresponding contribution to the company is less. In other words, the number of members has increased several times, but the contribution of sales has not increased much.

Faced with such embarrassment, not long ago, POP MART ushered in a wave of price increases. In addition to the price increase, we also made a bigger attempt-to tap a larger customer unit price.

Sure enough, not long ago, POP MART released 1000 yuan for novice office, and the most expensive one even approached the 5000 yuan mark, directly targeting high-end hipsters who are not short of money.

4999 yuan for a blind box, this price is really a big expense for young wage earners.

However, judging from the official statement of POP MART that "blind box toys will be transferred to the art collection level", there may not be only one product at this price, and there may even be blind boxes of 10,000 yuan in the future.

However, in the face of the blind box of rising prices, some people think that this is a bubble generated by marketing hype and is unsustainable. As soon as the heat passed, the bubble burst.

It remains to be seen whether the blind box of 4999 yuan or even 10 thousand yuan will become a new market with great potential or an "IQ tax"

But then again, as an ordinary consumer, will you buy a blind box of 4999 yuan or even 10 thousand yuan?