Blind box marketing is a double-edged sword!

In the past two years, the blind box economy has exploded again, especially with the rise and listing of Pop Mart, which is famous for its blind box IP gameplay, blind boxes have entered the public eye. Currently, blind boxes have broken through the category of trendy figures and toys and have begun to penetrate into various fields such as clothing, beauty, and catering, becoming an important means for major brands to leverage marketing trends.

However, blind box marketing is a double-edged sword. If used improperly, it will not only fail to boost product sales, but will also reduce users’ trust in the brand, which is not worth the loss!

What’s the logic behind the popularity of blind boxes? In a marketing environment where attention is extremely scarce, how will brands leverage blind boxes for marketing?

01. How did blind boxes become popular?

What exactly is a blind box? In simple terms, the box usually contains trendy products such as figures and toys. Merchants use blind draws and hidden models to insert surprises into every purchase, and users do not know what is in the box before purchasing.

To put it bluntly, the so-called blind box precisely targets the gambler mentality of consumers.

How popular are blind boxes? Miniso, which had just entered the blind box market, sold 100,000 units in the first week; Pop Mart relied on selling blind boxes to increase its net profit 300 times in three years and was successfully listed.

On WeChat, the popularity index of the keyword "blind box" surpassed the once popular "sneakers". On Weibo, the reading volume of the topic #blind box# reached 270 million.

On second-hand trading platforms, blind boxes have gone beyond the scope of trendy toys. Some hidden models of blind boxes have become hot-selling goods with prices far exceeding normal prices. A limited edition blind box that originally cost a few dozen yuan can even have a premium of thousands of yuan.

Why are blind boxes so popular?

1. Meet the consumption demands of young trendy play circles

The popularity of blind boxes is driven by the economic effects of the trendy toy circle. Behind each circle is a unique consumption culture to support it.

The trendy toy IP in the blind box generally has certain emotional value, and also has collection and social value attributes. The young people in the trendy toy circle have consumption demands such as companionship psychology, collection psychology and social psychology, and blind boxes just capture these demands accurately.

Moreover, in the context of consumption upgrading, young people's consumption concepts have changed. Young people are increasingly pursuing self-pleasure and are more willing to pay for the intrinsic emotional added value of products. Moreover, if the item you open happens to contain a hidden model, it can bring a strong sense of satisfaction. This kind of happiness or disappointment is exactly the fun of the shopping experience that young people pursue.

2. Create scarcity and addiction

The "hidden items" in blind boxes are generally difficult to purchase through regular channels, and are usually limited in quantity, creating a kind of hunger marketing. At the same time, it provides users with a treasure hunting experience. Coupled with the fact that the probability of winning is usually very low, it is easy for users to develop an addictive mechanism and stimulate users to make repeated purchases.

This lottery-like gameplay gives the blind box the label of "gambling", but its essence is still a "lucky game" which is very attractive to young people.

3. Strong driving force of social communication demand

Blind boxes have certain social attributes. Since the probability of drawing hidden or limited editions is relatively low, after users have completed their collection, they can be stimulated to forward on social networks and share the results of opening the blind boxes.

At the same time, if you draw an unwanted character in the blind box, or draw the same character repeatedly, you may also exchange the blind box with others through the Internet or other means.

On Bilibili, many bloggers will live broadcast the opening of blind boxes, and on Weibo there are also Vlogs of various bloggers drawing blind boxes online. In order to collect the entire series of dolls, players will spontaneously form communities such as WeChat and QQ. There are even people teaching people online how to judge the shape in the box. As a result, a lot of high-quality UGC content has been derived, triggering the blind box effect.

02. “Out of the circle”, everything can be a blind box

Young people's love and addiction, as well as the addictive mechanism of the gameplay itself, have made blind boxes a powerful trend. At the same time, driven by the hidden profits behind blind boxes, more and more brands and merchants have begun to leverage blind box gameplay for marketing, driving blind boxes to gradually move out of the trendy toy field.

As a result, blind boxes are no longer just a synonym for toys and figures. The emergence of new ways of playing has also allowed blind boxes to frequently cross over into different fields.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is an era where “everything can be a blind box”.

In July 2020, McDonald's, a fast food chain, launched 70 Minions blind boxes at one go, and adopted the strategy of "only giving away, not selling", which attracted a lot of users' attention. Of course, the giving away here is subject to consumption conditions; Shanghai Disney launched a series of special drink blind box cups for Dafei and Friends.

Retail brands such as IKEA and MINISO have also joined the ranks of homemade blind box products. It is reported that a blind box recently launched by MINISO also contains diamonds/crystals. The largest diamond is 1 carat. This is also the so-called "hidden version", which triggers the gambler mentality of consumers.

Beverage brands such as Nayuki and Starbucks have also launched blind boxes. When you walk into Starbucks, you will find that there are not only atmosphere groups, but also many young people shaking and pinching blind boxes everywhere. This year's "Christmas Season", Starbucks launched a Christmas blind box, which includes 7 self-designed bear toys, with a unit price of 108 yuan, and a Starbucks gift card is also included.

The emergence of any new thing will lead to a trend. Merchants continue to try the blind box format on various products, but in essence this is a marketing method. By borrowing the mystery and addictive mechanism of blind boxes, the products can attract consumers' attention in a special way and achieve the goal of maximizing sales through some channels.

03. How do brands master blind box marketing?

In the Internet environment, brand marketing methods are dazzling, while at the same time, the attention of consumer groups is extremely scarce. The conventional and single blind box gameplay has gradually failed to have a strong appeal to consumers. So, how should brands use blind box marketing to seize users’ mental resources?

1. Leverage the popularity of IP to promote joint products and expand brand awareness

Peeling away the superficial blind box gameplay, the essential core of the blind box is actually the IP content. The seemingly hot "blind box economy" is actually a battle for IP. Without IP, blind boxes will lose their competitiveness.

The reason why Pop Mart successfully went public with its small blind box was not just because it used the blind box gameplay, but because it used IP as a fulcrum to leverage the trendy play minds of Generation Z. The "Molly" IP image is its most successful IP.

Almost every quarter, Molly launches a series of new series, continuously providing heat for the brand IP and increasing the value of the IP. This is the value of blind box marketing.

Therefore, for brands, leveraging IP to launch co-branded products and empowering blind box marketing can enhance the mystery of the products and whet fans' appetite for buying. This will not only increase the sales of co-branded products, but will also greatly increase the voice of brand activities.

For example, Fanta once launched the Molly "Year of the Rat Big Band Series" co-branded model, hiding Molly in a Fanta can to provide consumers with the fun of a lottery and guessing game. Moreover, being able to drink the "Molly flavor" from a can of Fanta is definitely an unexpected and interesting experience!

This co-branded gift box was sold at Coca-Cola’s official flagship store on Tmall and was sold out in a very short time, which is enough to show how popular this cross-border collaboration is.

In addition, binding blind boxes with celebrity IPs is also a good gimmick, combining idol peripherals and brand peripherals. For example, the previous Joyoung Q version Deng Lun hand-made blind box, the Liu Haoran series blind box endorsed by Luckin Coffee, etc., not only implanted fun and novelty into the products, but also aroused the "idol" fan effect. Obviously, they can hit the minds of consumers more directly than simple blind boxes.

2. Inject emotion into blind boxes and increase product added value

With the prevalence of blind box marketing, it is difficult to attract users' attention by simply relying on addictive mechanisms or creating fun consumer experiences. Japan's KITKAT chocolate once added emotions to blind marketing, and the two-way empowerment of blind boxes + emotions achieved good marketing effects.

The brand has launched 15 new flavors and collaborated with popular illustrator "Tanaka Misaki" to launch new illustrated packaging. Each illustration represents each flavor, and it adopts a blind box sales method, hoping that consumers will perceive and guess the taste of the chocolate through the illustrations on the product packaging, and choose products that resonate with them emotionally for purchase.

Compared with simply letting consumers guess, this guided blind box gameplay gives users more freshness and can stimulate consumers' desire to participate.

In addition, grafting blind box marketing onto the product design is also a good way to play. For example, our national beverage Want Want makes its own products into blind boxes. It has launched the Want Want Milk national can and a total of 56 blind box designs, adding national trend value to the blind box products and presenting a surprising marketing effect.

04. Blind box marketing is a double-edged sword!

There is no doubt that with the help of trendy blind box marketing, the brand's influence among more mainstream young consumer groups can be greatly increased. After all, behind the blind box, there are a large number of young people who are keen on trendy toys.

However, any new marketing method has a double-edged effect. Brands leverage blind box gameplay to market their products, which can attract users' attention in the first place, and is also normal business logic, but the core of blind box marketing is actually to bring added value to the products.

Because young people are attracted to the blind box gameplay, they are actually paying for the added value of the products in the blind box. If the brand only pursues temporary marketing pleasure but ignores the more important product itself, it will produce the opposite communication effect.

Once the novelty of the blind box gameplay is lost, or in other words, once people are disappointed with the products in the blind box and feel that they have been cheated, their favorability and trust in the brand will decrease.

For a brand, the most important thing is to focus on content innovation of new gameplay and the quality control of the product itself, that is, to increase the marketing added value based on the product itself. On the one hand, it constantly provides consumers with fresh experiences and eliminates aesthetic fatigue, and on the other hand, it allows consumers to feel the brand's sincerity.

Therefore, the blind box effect cannot be a long-term solution for brand development. For brands, blind box marketing is just the icing on the cake; product and brand power are the brand’s basic foundation.

Author: Internet Brand Officer

Source: Internet Brand Official