A guide to co-branding marketing!

A short and fat yellow body, a flat mouth, and hands dancing alternately... Psyduck, one of the Pokémon monsters that was once popular all over the world, has become popular again after 26 years.

The price of the Psyduck toy that KFC gave away as a free gift in the children's meal was once hyped up to 3,000 yuan. Even CCTV and KFC officials issued statements to guide the public to consume rationally. This time, Psyduck has really become hard to find.

This Psyduck music box is actually one of the toys that KFC offers as part of its Children's Day meal. KFC's Children's Day meal packages, priced at 59 yuan, 69 yuan and 109 yuan, will come with a Pikachu music box, a Psyduck music box, a Pikachu picnic water bottle and other toys co-branded with Pokémon.

In KFC’s early promotions, Pikachu was the centerpiece, but soon after the set meal was released, Psyduck, which was originally “ignored”, became a hit and quickly became a hot topic on Weibo, triggering xx discussions and attention.

At this time, not only did professional purchasing packages appear on the Internet in order to get a "duck", but there were also people willing to spend several hundred to 3,000 yuan to buy a Psyduck toy.

Who exactly is Psyduck? Why did it suddenly become popular this time? What did KFC do right in this brand co-branding marketing ?

1. What is Psyduck? Why now?

Psyduck first appeared in the "Pokemon" series released by Nintendo in 1996. For many people born in the 1990s and 2000s, this anime can be regarded as an "idol drama" that occupied their youth.

From Pikachu to Squirtle to Bulbasaur and Psyduck... many of these elf images have left a deep impression on this generation.

However, since the birth of Pokémon, Pikachu has always been firmly in the C position, and brands always use Pikachu as the main publicity gimmick when cooperating with IPs. But why is Psyduck, which has been tepid for many years, suddenly popular in KFC children's meals?

The reason can be discussed from the combination of people, objects and places.

1. People: “Nostalgia” marketing becomes the new traffic code

The reason why KFC’s Psyduck toys can command such a high premium in a short period of time is inseparable from the group of consumers who like Psyduck. Most of these consumers are adults with a certain purchasing power. In essence, they are willing to spend a lot of money to buy Psyduck, which is actually a nostalgic behavior for past IPs.

From the "An Lingrong literature" reignited by the tenth anniversary of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" to the online concert co-organized by Lynk & Co and rock godfather "Cui Jian", to "Jay Chou 2013" or, as well as the hard-to-find Pikachu toys at KFC this time, the "nostalgia" marketing in recent months alone has pushed the brand's IP-based momentum to a climax.

Consumers' willingness to pay for "nostalgic" content is related to "pink nostalgia" and "emotional decay bias" from a psychological perspective.

The so-called pink reminiscence refers to the fact that when people are in a bad situation, they will seek comfort in their memories; while the "emotional decay bias" means that people are more inclined to forget sad things than happy things. In this way, the good memories brought to people by the past era when Jay Chou, Cui Jian and PsyDuck existed will often be mentioned.

Especially in the current situation of serious "involution" and greater work pressure, isn't people's "nostalgia" a kind of psychological comfort?

In addition, in cyberspace, people discuss the topic on social media and reminisce with others, which is also a way to shape "collective memory".

For example, people frequently post comments in Cui Jian's online concert to reminisce about the past, or post their own interesting DIY Psyduck on social media platforms. This kind of shared nostalgic behavior is more likely to strengthen the mark of the times and bring the nostalgic atmosphere to the extreme.

Therefore, this group of adults with purchasing power feel a strong sense of nostalgia, and it is natural for them to convert it into traffic or purchasing power.

2. Objects: Conducive to secondary creation and more controversial products

Compared to Pikachu, Psyduck has been lukewarm for many years. However, this time it has surpassed Pikachu and become the new favorite of Internet users. The reason has a lot to do with the product design of this toy from KFC.

Morketing observed that, as a music box, Psyduck's "dancing" movements are more "magical" and more malleable than Pikachu's.

Netizens can then put sticky notes on Psyduck's two "fat and yellow" hands for secondary creation, such as "I don't want to go to work", "Get up and take nucleic acid test" and so on, all of which use Psyduck's "silly and cute" image to express their own "voices".

In contrast, the design of Pikachu, with a whole Pikachu placed on the music box, is very ornamental, but leaves less room for users to perform secondary creation.

In addition, Pikachu's cute image has long been recognized by the public, while the audience has mixed opinions on Psyduck's image. Some people think that Psyduck's action of often tilting its neck to release energy in "Pokemon" is very "stupid and cute", but some people think that the "platypus" as the prototype of Psyduck is actually ugly.

Where there is controversy, there is gimmick. When many users expressed their love for Psyduck on social media, some people stood up to sing a different tune. The positive and negative voices quickly pushed the popularity of Psyduck to a peak.

3. Market: Epidemic prevention and yearning for childhood shape new consumption scenarios

As early as 2017, KFC jointly launched children's meals with Pokémon, but Psyduck has not been so popular in the past five years. Why can it break through in 2022? Why are today's consumers more willing to buy into "nostalgia" marketing?

This is inseparable from the current consumption scenario in a specific time and space. From a macro perspective, China is in the critical period of epidemic prevention and control. People are staying at home and entertainment activities have been greatly reduced. This has also fostered users' desire to re-create IP on the Internet.

In this relatively "depressing" prevention and control environment, some users' emotional catharsis can only be conveyed through the Internet. At this time, the brand follows the user's emotional outlet to provide topics to build momentum, and a default mutually beneficial model is reached between the two.

For example, in this case of Pikachu becoming popular, the place where group buying of Pikachu first broke out was also the place where the epidemic was relatively serious in the country at that time - Shanghai. This shows the enthusiasm of Shanghai people for a Pikachu.

Of course, in addition to the "closed" pressure that the epidemic prevention environment has caused to society, adults nowadays, under the pressure of "996" and "fast-paced" life, have also begun to yearn for the carefree life of childhood.

In an age where "adults eat children's meals", adults are trying to regain their childlike innocence and find comfort in their hearts by purchasing and participating in activities they did as children.

Not only Psyduck, but also Bing Dwen Dwen, which became popular during the winter vacation this year, has also become a hot topic of discussion during people's home isolation.

At that time, the price of a Bing Dwen Dwen was hyped up to thousands of yuan, and even "owning a Bing Dwen Dwen" had become a symbol of personal status.

This phenomenon is not accidental. We have to admit that in the current epidemic situation, a suitable IP is likely to stimulate double the brand effect compared to before.

But it is not so easy to create a successful brand co-branding marketing case. It requires the right time, right place and right people, or in other words, the three arrows of people, things and place, to get a ticket to success.

2. There are no two identical Pikachu ducks in the world, and no two identical KFC children's meals

Seeing that KFC’s children’s meal has once again become a hit on the entire Internet, the question that many brands want to ask most is probably: How to replicate the popularity of Pikachu?

In fact, the popularity of brand co-branding marketing has been popular in the marketing circle for many years.

Generally speaking, joint marketing can be divided into two main types. One is the joint branding between brands, such as the Coconut Cloud Latte launched by Luckin Coffee and Coco Tree Coconut Juice; the other is the joint branding between brands and IPs. This time, KFC’s Psyduck toy is a successful example of a joint branding with the Pokémon IP.

After seeing the popularity of co-branded marketing, many brands have begun to try it. However, not all brands can succeed even when working with the same IP.

This also indicates that when brands are doing joint marketing, especially IP marketing, if they blindly choose a currently popular IP, such as Lingna Bell, Pikachu, etc., it is very likely that they will not achieve the desired effect.

(Photo source: Moose New Consumption)

Perhaps some people attribute it to a low-probability event, but marketing often still requires human effort.

Judging from some successful cases, big brands have certain inherent advantages when doing joint marketing due to their own brand awareness. For example, Luckin Coffee, Starbucks, KFC, etc. have enough brand popularity in themselves.

So at this time, what the brand needs to think about is how to start from the consumer’s environment, conform to their emotional needs, and provide them with topics that are in line with the brand’s own tone and can mobilize user emotions.

However, for small brands, if they want to stand out, they also need the support of more popular IPs. For example, Arcfox may not have been well-known enough before, but after cooperating with the godfather of rock "Cui Jian", the company was able to get enough brand exposure when people watched online concerts.

Moreover, the vast majority of Cui Jian's fans are middle-aged and young people. This group of rock veterans is in line with the car brand's philosophy of "grandness" and "free and easy". From IP selection to marketing planning, it is undoubtedly worth learning for many brands.

However, although the success of Psyduck is difficult to replicate, there are countless possibilities for brand co-branding marketing.

From the recent popular joint marketing cases, we can see that when the COVID-19 pandemic puts society on hold, nostalgic marketing is undoubtedly a good idea if we want to survive in the new social environment.

In addition, when doing joint marketing, brands may wish to think more about how to choose IPs that match their own values ​​and how to provide users with the possibility of secondary creation.

Finally, I want to tell more brands trying to get into co-branded marketing: blindly copying is not advisable, but at least there are traces to follow.

By Sybil Ban

Source: Morketing