Lead
Since its establishment 16 years ago, Qingdao Aojieer has been focusing on the production and sales of genuine IP licensed plush toys, and has reached cooperation with Disney, Pokémon, Hello Kitty, Doraemon and other internationally renowned IPs, which are remarkable in product innovation and development, trend channel expansion and other aspects.
After the Pokémon plush dolls produced by Aojieer were launched, they quickly became the sales champion of multiple channels, with annual sales of more than 10 million yuan, and won the "Excellent Licensee Award" at the 2021 China Licensing Golden Star Award with outstanding performance.
What are the successful experiences of Ojel in IP cooperation and product development? What innovations have been made to attract the younger Generation Z? To this end, the editor of CTJPA All-Media Center interviewed Ms. Lv Xiaohui, General Manager of Qingdao Aojieer Cultural Industry Co., Ltd.
Ms. Lv Xiaohui, General Manager of Qingdao Aojieer Cultural Industry Co., Ltd
01
Long-term IP to ensure sales, short-term IP to do explosive models
Mr. Lu said that from the beginning of its establishment, Aojieer has insisted on taking the route of the development and production of genuine IP authorized toys, on the one hand, it is a sense of responsibility for the growth of children, pirated products are often shoddily made, seriously endangering children's safety; on the other hand, film and television animation and other IP have a wide range of fan groups, these IP carries the childhood of fans, IP authorized toys can become their playmates and objects of conversation, so it caters to the needs of children and is a good entry point for brands to open the market as soon as possible.
In the selection of authorized IP, Aojieer will comprehensively consider the IP marketing plan provided by the copyright owner with its own channels and consumer groups, and select the authorized IP with a high degree of compatibility with its own business development to cooperate.
Mr. Lu introduced that in the development process of more than ten years, the object of Aojieer's early cooperation is mainly based on children's IP, and as young people gradually become an important customer group of toys, Aojieer has gradually increased the proportion of partial trend IP.
At present, Aojieer adopts a strategy of long-term IP as the mainstay and short-term IP as a supplement in IP cooperation.
Long-term IP, such as: Disney series, Hello Kitty, Doraemon, etc., after years of development, has a wide range of fans of all ages from children to adults, can ensure the long-term stable sales of products, Aojiel and these IP cooperation years are about 10 years, and will continue to cooperate.
Short-term IP, mainly including newly released or unreleased movie IP, brings hot sales of movie IP plush toys with the help of the film's publicity and marketing popularity, so that it is more suitable for the creation of explosive models. At the same time, the launch of movie IP derivative toys has also promoted the promotion and publicity of movies, thus forming a "win-win" situation.
Mr. Lu said that Oger had launched a plush doll before the release of the movie "To Catch a Demon 2", and the product triggered hot sales as soon as it was launched, and the final sales of this product exceeded 1 million.
In the past two years, affected by the epidemic and the sluggish cinema line market, Aojieer has focused on seeking cooperation with some popular trend IP in terms of short-term IP to seize young users.
02
Opening up the young people's market, Aojieer's "three steps"
Mr. Lu introduced that Aojieer takes children and 18-35-year-old fashion consumer groups as the main target customers, and sells products to high-end supermarkets and fast fashion chain channels, and Disney's Strawberry Bear series, Hello Kitty, Big Ear Dog, Cool Rice, Wishing Rabbit, Pokémon and other IP series have good sales performance.
Compared with other brands, Aojieer's IP authorized plush toys focus on the degree of reduction and process, so that it can better restore the IP image with the help of plush toys and attract target consumers.
Talking about the 2021 China Licensing Gold Star Award "Excellent Licensee Award", Mr. Lu introduced: "We have been cooperating with Pokémon since 2020. Compared with the previous Pokémon plush products on the market, the version opened by the Augel edition master has a higher degree of restoration of the IP image, is more vivid and vivid, making the product more vivid and cute, while the texture and filling feel better, and the workmanship is more exquisite. Since its launch, the sales of the Pokémon series have exceeded 10 million yuan. ”
In order to effectively attract young people, Oger mainly carries out innovative development of trendy style products from the following three aspects.
1. The same IP, different products and new forms
Mr. Lu introduced that on the basis of the IP copyright owner's gallery, combined with the preferences of young people and current hot spots, Aojieer will innovate and develop more playable, interesting and cool plush toy products.
As the star image of Disney's animation "Toy Story", Strawberry Bear is deeply loved by fans. In the design of strawberry bear plush toys, Oger adopts soft velvet material to make it feel skin-friendly and delicate, restores the color and demeanor of the image in the animation, and combines the name of strawberry bear to add a bead design to make it emit a faint strawberry fragrance, which is more interesting.
2. Expand trend IP cooperation and develop warm healing products
Aojieer timely grasped the trend and hot topics of the Internet, reached cooperation with popular trend IP such as Pig Fart and Amufun, and launched related plush toy products to attract young users.
Among them, the trend IP Amufun originated from Japan, with the style of healing cute pets and other animals as the IP image, Oger developed Amuse ear rabbit, alpaca and other plush products, the IP cute soft cute style materialization, for the young group to bring spiritual relaxation and spiritual healing.
3. Start from the daily preferences of young people and broaden the derivative categories
Mr. Lu said that in order to make the plush closer to the trend life of the young group, bring people a better mood of the experience and bring out the happiness, playable and available, Aojieer from the practicality and functionality of the plush toys, the expansion of authorized IP derivative categories, the launch of small pendants, U-shaped pillows, satchels, cushions and other products, for the daily life of young people to add trend elements, maximize the value of IP.
In addition to the plush dolls, the award-winning Pokémon series has also developed derivatives such as small pendants, U-shaped pillows, cushions, throw pillows, air-conditioning blankets, etc., which have received good market responses.
03
With the help of trend IP, deeply cultivate the fast fashion chain
In order to better reach the target consumer group, Aojieer takes the fast fashion chain store as the focus of offline channel development. To this end, Aojieer has developed stores such as Bubble Mart, Mingchuang Premium, Cool Tide Play, X11, Anduki Miscellaneous Goods Company, etc., and deepened the contact and cooperation with the channel side through targeted development and original design.
1. Targeted development, push store limited products
The cooperation between Aojieer, Bubble Mart and Mingchuang Premium Adopts the model of jointly developing limited products in stores. The channel side puts forward its own needs according to the store style and the composition and tonality of the customer group, and Aojieer carries out product design and development accordingly, reflecting the uniqueness from the complexity, theme and style of the style to meet the needs of different consumer groups.
Mr. Lu introduced that although they are all fast fashion and trend channels, the positioning, style, and customer group composition of each brand are different, such as Mingchuang Excellent Products is a simple style, the target users are young people, Jiumu Miscellaneous Goods Club is based on various cultural and creative trends, the in-store style is dominated by fashion cultural and creative trends, and the user groups are mainly petty bourgeoisie and white-collar workers.
According to the style and user group of each store, Aojieer carries out product design, distinguishes in terms of shape, color, price system, etc., and launches exclusive limited products for different brand stores, so as to more effectively attract young user groups with different interests and consumption preferences.
2. Original design, quickly grasp the hot spots of consumption
Aojieer gives full play to the experience of IP derivatives development and launches original design IP, on the one hand, so that consumer groups have a more intuitive understanding of the brand, thereby enhancing brand awareness and loyalty; on the other hand, its own IP can keep up with consumer hotspots and quickly iterate out new ones. Aojieer's original design IP product, Xingluo Rabbit Plush Toys, through cool music tide play, Mingchuang premium products, and Qilu launch, quickly opened the market with the sweet and soft style that young consumers generally like.
Mr. Lu said that since the original series of Xingluo Rabbit was listed in September last year, it has sold more than 100,000 in the past six months. Next year is the Lunar Rabbit Year, and the sales of this series of products may rise sharply.
epilogue:
With the rise of the young consumer group of Generation Z, the plush toy industry has a broader space for development in TERMS cooperation and product innovation. Aojieer's approach helps to maximize the development of IP value and embark on a differentiated development path, which is worth learning and learning.
Note: The pictures in this article come from the brand's official website and official flagship store