How does Tmall create anthropomorphic IP?

People say that the "New Year atmosphere" has faded. The reason may be that they don’t understand what the “New Year flavor” is.

The Chinese New Year is approaching, and the "festival-creating maniac" Tmall has launched the "Tmall New Year Goods Festival", using a well-made and heartfelt animation to tell everyone what the "New Year flavor" is.

Pushing open the quaint door with a folding fan and a paper-cut of a cat head, you enter a "New Year's town" filled with New Year's icons: lanterns and decorations, small shops selling New Year's goods, neighbors wearing red scarves and pasting couplets and hanging blessing characters, and lion dances...

What is the flavor of the New Year? Aren’t the flavor of the New Year these symbols and icons locked deep in our memories? Those who say that the New Year atmosphere has faded are mostly those who have grown up and left the "New Year town" in their memories.

Tmall's black cat with a horizontal head appears as the protagonist in the "New Year Town", restoring and reproducing the familiar objects in everyone's memory one by one. I have to say it’s quite tasty.

Those who don’t know would think that this year is not the Year of the Dog, but the Year of the Cat. This is probably the power of IP.

For Tmall, this mascot has become an extremely important brand asset accumulated in the process of Tmall 's brand IPization. Every time Tmall content is released, the black cat will appear as the main visual hammer. In addition to appearing as a logo and its extensions in various content materials, Tmall has also given it an all-round personalization based on the "mascot" gameplay.

So how did Tmall.com create its mascot Black Cat in the direction of an anthropomorphic IP?

(1) Cute appearance

Whether it is cute enough is the most important DNA factor for a successful mascot.

When analyzing Kumamon, the mascot IP that has become popular all over the world in recent years, someone put forward the following point of view: tubular body + short limbs + neutral facial expression + image design that gives people a soft touch = cute enough.

The appearance design of this black cat on Tmall is similar to that of Kumamon.

In addition, this image is also quite extensible. This allows Black Cat to easily adapt to a variety of materials and poses, thereby reaching users and generating interaction to the greatest extent possible.

(2) Anthropomorphic personality setting

This black cat with its head growing sideways can step into real scenes and perform the same movements as humans; it even has its own personality. It seems that at the beginning of the design, Tmall considered shaping the mascot based on a "real character".

In this way, the black cat, as a mascot, not only has to be active in the online two-dimensional space, but also has to run to the three-dimensional world from time to time to interact with users. For example, when attending Maserati events, he would act cool and flirt with car models; he would also transform into a foodie and happily have gay sex with other IPs.

Anthropomorphic appearance + personalized actions + personalized character + multi-dimensional three-dimensional processing... make the image of Black Cat more vivid and more real. This sense of reality eliminates the "doll feeling" and not only refreshes the presence and creates topics to the greatest extent, but also plays the role of a "spokesperson".

In fact, Tmall has been making every effort to promote this humanoid black cat. If you pay attention, you will find that Tmall rarely uses spokespersons, but this humanoid black cat is indispensable in various public relations and advertising activities. It can be said that it is Tmall’s biggest brand spokesperson.

( 3 ) Focus on network sense

In addition, as an Internet celebrity , Hei Miao also has a very good sense of the Internet. Take its Weibo account for example, the nicknames range from "My head is so heavy" to "What's so dark today" and then to "The very awesome Miaowuguan - Miao Xiaomiao". All we can say is that cats are the best at being cute.

However, its online sense goes beyond this. Basically, it covers everything that young people like to play, talk and do.

It will complain with fans on Weibo, calculate zodiac signs and talk about Mercury retrograde periods, and loves both hip-hop and awkward dancing. He even continues to update his emoticons . It also loves idols. When it finds its new celebrity colleague @王嘉尔 sitting opposite it, it will be so excited that it will post a Weibo to show off.

As the spokesperson for an Internet giant, the personified Black Cat must have a strong enough sense of the Internet so that he can do his job better and play happily with various friends on the Internet.

( 4 ) Content marketing in the form of points, lines and surfaces

After searching through Tmall’s Weibo and WeChat accounts, we found that spokespersons are rarely used in Tmall’s brand marketing strategies. In all the materials released, whether it is KV, TVC, viral video, event, or even the opening and ending credits of various videos, the cat head logo or the mascot Black Cat plays a more important role.

It’s indeed a very pleasing idea. On the one hand, the continuous exposure of various communication materials creates a cumulative effect, which continuously increases the exposure and popularity of the Black Cat IP and even the user's favorability.

On the other hand, through the dissemination of various materials over the years, and the continuous accumulation of various contents and stories in multiple dimensions of points, lines and surfaces (points - various planes; lines - various videos, surfaces - various public relations activities), Tmall has achieved three-dimensional shaping of the IP image.

( 5 ) Clinging to someone else to create a topic

With Alibaba 's powerful resources as a backing, Tmall has a lot of resources to rely on. These thighs can be the popular young hunks and goddesses. Can be the most popular sports star. It can be the most popular brand nowadays.

Of course, there are also various mature IPs with fans all over the world.

Victoria's Secret goddesses, Adidas spokesperson Arden, ofo, Scarab, Transformers... Each of them has its own traffic and topics, and is a strong IP under various subculture categories. Each has its own fans, and is naturally an excellent interactive connection point.

The cross-border and cooperation based on these IPs will naturally generate more topics and traffic than cooperation based solely on the brand and product level. Because, whether it is the sense of ritual, participation, or popularity, they must be stronger. From this perspective, IP is actually one of the most flexible "connectors" in the current Internet context.

( 6 ) Development of peripheral products

The development of peripheral derivative products is a routine action taken by many mature IPs. For example, big IPs such as Disney and Marvel will launch a series of derivative products. This is one of the important means of IP monetization. During this year’s Double 11, Tmall also developed derivative products based on its mascot IP.

Judging from Tmall’s operations, this wave of derivative product authorizations, in addition to monetization and sales, seems to also undertake the functions of public relations and topic creation, which is used to demonstrate the appeal of Tmall’s Double Eleven and the quality and tone of the Tmall platform.

On the surface, it seems to be a call for Double 11, but in fact it is not difficult to see that the IPization level of Tmall's mascot has not yet reached the level of "fans calling for derivatives", but Tmall still endorses its IPization in a deeper dimension through the launch of derivatives.

If you think about it carefully, almost all well-known companies in the Chinese Internet circle use animals as their brand names or mascots, but I think Tmall is the only one that continues to cultivate its IP through personalized IP.

From bad reviews to hot sellers, IP-based operations help Tmall grow its brand

The horizontal-headed cat's overwhelming sense of pure presence is not innate.

Do you remember that in 2012, when Tmall was just launched, someone conducted an online poll and the data showed that the name "Tmall" was not favored at all.

Not only were the voting results not optimistic, but netizens at the time also made very sharp comments on this hot event.

Of course, Tmall’s cat’s head didn’t grow horizontally from the beginning. It was not until March 29, 2012, two months after " Taobao Mall" was renamed "Tmall", that the brand logo was changed to the horizontal-headed cat that everyone is familiar with today.

The comments at that time were particularly unimpressive about the brand upgrade made by Taobao Mall, and were even more pessimistic: "Tmall" cannot be equated with quality and fashion. This upgrade was a marketing gimmick and a suicidal act.

Now what? "Tmall" has long completed its mission - to become the quality and reputation leader of Alibaba's e-commerce platform. Not only that, this black cat with a horizontal head has already penetrated into everyone's life. Even if you don't buy anything, it is difficult to guarantee that you will not see it. After all, world-famous brands that represent fashion and quality are becoming more and more adept and creative in playing with Tmall.

From 2012 to 2017, five years is not a very long time, but the status of the word "Tmall" has undergone earth-shaking changes. What strategies and methods did Tmall use to make the market obediently change the "bad reviews" at the beginning of its launch into "good reviews"?

"Is IP marketing a powerful tool for brands to break through?" In the article "IP Marketing", we sorted out the criteria for judging "IP Marketing":

• Whether it is an original content source with diversified development capabilities.
• Whether it has influence on a specific group of people ("How to Create a Super IP" Qin Yang, Qiu Ye).

From the above perspective, we believe that Tmall has already carried out "IP-based" operations and upgrades of its brand.

Generally speaking, Tmall continues to cooperate with major well-known brands around the origins of quality, fashion, technology, etc., and continues to accumulate diversified high-quality content in the form of a matrix of Tmall's big IP and numerous sub-IPs. It communicates and dialogues with target users in a basically fixed "cat" tone and style.

The author of this article @韩霏 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services Advertising platform Longyou Century