Special interview
Written by: Kwong Yueting
2021-02-01 07:30
Last update date: 2021-02-01 07:30
Many people love to use cartoon stickers to express their mood when sending messages on their mobile phones. In fact, businesses design these stickers to not only make money from users, but also increase the popularity of cartoons and pave the way for the commercialization of cartoons in the future. , South Korea’s "national cartoon" Kakao Friends can be said to be good at this.
Dong Xiaochen, authorized deputy general manager of the company's Greater China, said in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" that stickers are a means of promotion on social media. Many people know Kakao Friends from the stickers of Kakao Talk, and the company can launch products. And open a physical store, then do product authorization, and then develop other businesses.
"Disney's cartoons come out through movies. Consumers will assign higher value to these cartoons. However, if it is an online cartoon, many people will think that the value is not high. After opening a physical store, you can increase the IP ( The value of intellectual property rights. When consumers like to buy our own products, they will buy licensed products with higher profits!"
Kakao Friends has 8 characters, among which Ryan and Apeach are more popular.
(Screenshot of official website)
The Korean instant messaging app giant KakaoTalk has been launched in March 2010 and has nearly 46 million users in South Korea. Based on the Korean population of 51.82 million, nearly 88% of South Koreans use the program, and Kakao Friends It is a series of cartoon characters designed by Kakao Company, which were listed on the KakaoTalk platform as stickers in 2012, and naturally became a popular cartoon in Korea.
Seeing the popularity of Kakao Friends, the company opened a physical store to sell peripheral products, launched licensed products with different brands, and also launched short videos, videos, comics, and set up theme parks to add value to IP.
Kakao Friends launches an average of 2,000 peripheral products a year, including daily necessities such as beds, clothing, home appliances, pet supplies, and stationery.
Dong Xiaochen revealed that the current global sales of Kakao Friends merchandise reached 500 million yuan (RMB. The same below) (about 600 million Hong Kong dollars), and the sales in Greater China are 45 million yuan, of which authorized product sales are about 30 million yuan. , The average unit price of stores and online stores are 300 yuan and 200 yuan respectively.
Click on the picture below to list Kakao Friends' merchandise:
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The majority of customers buying peripheral products are women, accounting for 75%, while male customers account for 25%. Most of the customers are born in the 80s and 90s.
In addition, the company has cooperated with many well-known brands to launch licensed products, such as Samsung, Vans, Nike, Midea, KFC and Estée Lauder.
"Kakao Friends participated in the LV Touring Exhibition in 2017. It is the only cartoon character in the world that has collaborated with LV. Our popular character Ryan represented South Korea Coach to participate in New York Fashion Week last September."
Introduce 500 new products every year, 2 ways to maintain fan popularity
Licensing popular cartoon characters has huge business opportunities, but maintaining the popularity of cartoons is king!
Dong Xiaochen said frankly that the secret is to constantly introduce new ones. The company’s peripheral products have 1,500 long-selling models each year, and 500 new ones. Designers draw more than 20 sets of galleries each year based on Korean fashion trends, colors, styles and patterns. Then choose suitable pictures and design new products.
In addition, the company will launch limited-edition products during festivals, and will partner with celebrities to launch joint products.
When asked why they did not collaborate with Korean stars to design cartoon characters like Line Friends, she said that the company’s cartoon characters are long-term development. If the cartoon is designed by a star, in case the star spreads negative news, retires, or even disbands. For groups, the company’s efforts to operate cartoons over the years have been quite in vain. Therefore, the company tends to adopt a short-term cooperation model of 3 to 6 months and cooperate with the most popular groups according to the changing trend.
Kakao Friends cooperated with South Korean girl group TWICE in August 2019 to launch a series of products designed by TWICE.
(Official Youtube screenshot)
Currently, Kakao Friends has opened more than 26 stores in South Korea, and opened one store in Shanghai and Tokyo. In Europe and America, sales are mainly on the Amazon platform.
Dong Xiaochen said that even though the epidemic has severely hit the retail industry, the company's sales in Greater China are on the rise due to the ideal sales of stores and authorized products.
"Regions with more severe epidemics, such as the European and American markets, have some impact. We originally planned to open stores in the UK last year, but now we have to suspend it, and Apeach Cafe in Tokyo will also be closed for more than a year due to the epidemic." They have stayed at home for a long time this year. If the epidemic gradually eases in the future, they will go out for consumption and entertainment. It is estimated that the market will rebound at the end of this year or early next year. Therefore, the company is planning to open theme stores in Hong Kong tourist areas from September to October this year. , And will continue to open stores in China to capture retaliatory consumer opportunities.
In addition, the company will also spend more than 100 million yuan to develop the Southeast Asian market.
Comment on Bubble Mart: Rely on IP to break through the industry chain and improve
Pop Mart (9992), a trendy toy company in the Mainland, is the leader in the "blind box" market with more than 90 IPs. In the economic downturn, revenue in the first half of last year increased by 50% year-on-year to 818 million yuan.
Kakao Friends has also cooperated with Bubble Mart in the past to launch "blind box" toys. Dong Xiaochen feels that Bubble Mart has a complete IP industry chain: First, the company will cooperate with famous artists to improve consumers' IP awareness through blind box. Knowing that when the sales of a certain IP's blind box declines after 2 to 3 years, the IP can be used as an authorized product, and stores can be opened to sell their own products to extend the life cycle of the IP.
"The Chinese trendy toy market has just started. Even the leader in the industry, Bubble Mart, has a market share of only 8.5% in the trendy toy market in China, which is much lower than the 25.5% of the Japanese industry leader. I believe the company's business is still good. Space for growth, and more AI (artificial intelligence) animation characters may emerge in the future market.”
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Kakao Friends