Industrial Application and Trends of IP in 2020

Under the sudden outbreak of the epidemic, many businesses panicked. The reason for the panic was the unfamiliarity with operations and the lack of cognition... This article starts from IP, runs through brand, product, and marketing, and provides an IP-based business thinking for reference by colleagues.

IP has been a hot word that has attracted much attention in recent years. All walks of life are actively exploring suitable IP strategies. However, IP is an emerging thing with various forms and different growth paths. Coupled with inflated hype, it is easy for people to "get lost in the flowers." Below, based on my research and practice on IP, I will talk about the application and trends of IP in the industry for reference by my colleagues.

This article outlines:

1. 3 key points to understand IP
2. The four core values ​​of IP
3. 3 ways to obtain IP
4. Three application layers of IP
5. Two major application trends of IP

1. Three key points of IP

How to understand "IP" effectively? Below I have distilled three key points of cognition.

1. IP is a personalized super symbol

The definition of IP is in a stage of flourishing, and there is still no universally accepted interpretation.

However, it is usually the brands that talk about "IP". Consumers don't really care about professional terms. What they care about are product functions, user experience, emotional resonance, value for money, etc. They pay for symbols that they identify with and trust.

[Example] For parent-child families, IPs such as Peppa Pig, Qiaohu, and Dora are super symbols that parents and children identify with and trust.

These IPs are no longer blunt commercial promotions, but rather they wrap commercial "bombs" in a layer of "sugar coating" in the form of content that consumers love and in a personalized way of interpretation, directly penetrating the "warning zone" of consumer psychology and ultimately achieving "business is content, content is business."

2. IP is an important business entry

In recent years, many professional organizations have put forward the same view: IP will become an important business entrance!

The reason is:

IP is a personalized super symbol, which carries the recognition and trust of the target audience. In today's and even future business world, "recognition and trust" is one of the scarcest and most valuable social resources.

Looking around, we can see that many IPs have become “important business portals” for certain niche categories or vertical fields.

[Example] Taking the education industry as an example, the following IP has become an important business entrance.

3. Why is a “mascot” called an “IP”?

After 2015, the concept of IP began to become popular, and businesses gradually called their corporate mascots "IPs." "Mascot" and "IP" are words that originally belong to different categories. Why do so many people swallow them whole?

The reason is:

• "Mascot" is a symbol of good fortune and luck for the company. It represents the company's wishes and the seller's perspective .
• "IP" is a symbol of consumer recognition and trust. It represents the consumer's wishes and the buyer's perspective .

The current market is mainly a "buyer's market", and calling a "mascot" an "IP" reflects the merchants' strong desire to build the mascot into an IP and get closer to users.

2. The four core values ​​of IP

What actual value can IP bring? The following is explained from four aspects.

1. Brand recognition

IP can greatly improve brand recognition and make the brand easier to recognize! Easier to remember!

[Example] Sesame Street English: Apply IP elements to outdoor billboards, campus exterior walls, classroom decorations, peripheral products, etc., to show strong brand recognition to the outside world, thereby greatly reducing consumers' awareness and memory costs of the brand.

For small and medium-sized enterprises, products and services are certainly the foundation. If they want to gain competitive advantages in these two aspects, they need to: 1. Make breakthroughs themselves, 2. Let users perceive them well. It can be seen that this requires time accumulation and is difficult.

However, by applying IP elements, making the brand more recognizable and memorable, thereby gaining a competitive advantage in market cost and user mind, is a cost-controllable and short-term effective thing, so why not do it!

Gaining the advantage of brand recognition does not affect breakthroughs in products and services. What often happens is that a small breakthrough is made in a product or service, and then the result is amplified through brand recognition, thereby gaining a competitive advantage.

2. Brand affinity

Brand affinity can effectively narrow the psychological distance between the brand and users. It is an important means to attract new users and retain old users. IP is an efficient means to improve brand affinity.

[Example] Distributing flyers: Although the Internet is very developed, distributing flyers is still an important offline way to acquire customers. Integrating IP into the distribution of flyers and utilizing the affinity characteristics of IP can increase the reception rate of flyers.

It is worth mentioning that users already have a certain understanding and favorable impression of your brand before reading the flyer.

If the brand is your face, making people remember you, then the mascot is your hands, allowing you to hold others tightly, create emotions and build relationships with them. In addition to offline applications, IP affinity is also widely used in the Internet field.

[Example] Aixuebanban: It is a teaching management software that uses the affinity of IP and gamification to gain favor from teachers and students.

3. Brand scalability

The mobile Internet era is changing rapidly. Users’ consumption concepts and behaviors are changing, and brand communication forms and media are also changing. It is difficult for brand LOGOs alone to meet today’s diversified cross-media communication needs.

The brand needs a brand symbol that is more extensible and applicable. IP mascots have the characteristics of wide scalability and strong applicability, and are an excellent choice for brands to carry out diversified cross-media communications.

[Example] Legua: It is an emerging lifestyle brand that focuses on sleep pillows. Based on user behavior data, it created the Pipi Alpaca IP and uses content with brand tone to influence consumers in multiple dimensions.

4. Build brand equity

A widely circulated story:

The legendary president of Coca-Cola once said: Even if all the factories were reduced to ashes overnight, as long as the brand is there, all major banks will compete to lend to Coca-Cola the next day.

It can be seen that brand is an important intangible asset of an enterprise and contains huge commercial value.

The most intuitive presentation of brand assets is the brand name and trademark. In addition, from classic cases such as Michelin, Haier, and m&n, we can see that IP mascots are also an important part of brand assets.

3. Three ways to obtain IP

If you recognize the value of IP, how do you obtain it? Here are three effective methods.

1. Obtain IP authorization

Merchants find an IP (usually a top IP) that matches their own brand tone and target audience, and obtain the right to use the IP in a specified category within a specified period of time in a paid manner (usually: a guaranteed fee + profit sharing).

[Example] Akaso obtained the IP authorization of "Boonie Bears" and "Boonie Bears Paradise" and launched children's English animation courses (as shown in the left picture below). Wandou Thinking launched the "Anime IP Student Edition", integrating the "Super Wings" animation story into the product (as shown in the right picture below).

Get the value of header IP authorization:

(1) Enhance the brand

For children, IP brings affinity to the authorized brand, so that they will have a high sense of familiarity and intimacy from the first contact. For parents, the top IP undoubtedly makes the authorized brand appear more credible and more secure. In other words, "brand favorability" and "brand trust", which originally required long-term accumulation and might not be possible to establish, can be efficiently achieved through the empowerment of top IPs.

(2) Improve conversion

As we all know, the customer acquisition chain must be linked together. However, "fierce competition" and "crisis of trust" caused serious losses in every link of the chain, and ultimately the cost of acquiring customers was overloaded. "Children like it + parents trust it" can effectively improve the conversion rate between links.

(3) Improve user experience

Top IPs usually have first-class world view settings. Children can immerse themselves in them, learn with their favorite cartoon stars, go on adventures together, fight monsters and level up together, gain knowledge, get surprises, and gain a sense of accomplishment... greatly improving the product experience.

2. Create independent IP

Merchants will turn their corporate/brand mascots with independent intellectual property rights into super symbols (IPs) that are recognized and trusted by the target audience.

[Example] 51Talk announced its brand upgrade in February 2018, launched a new VIS, and introduced an IP mascot. In April 2019, Baby Play English announced that it would be renamed "Growing Rabbit English" and launched a new IP mascot.

Advantages of building independent IP:

(1) Possessing independent intellectual property rights

IP is an important brand identification symbol and an important carrier of brand intangible assets. Having independent intellectual property rights in IP has important strategic value. It also means that it is not restricted by category or time, and you can use it however you want.

(2) Costs are relatively controllable

First of all, it saves hundreds of thousands of deposits. Second, businesses can flexibly control their investment according to their own development stage.

3. Combination play

From the description of the above two points, we can see that "obtaining IP authorization" and "building independent IP" each have their own strengths and weaknesses and do not conflict with each other. Therefore, a more efficient combination strategy is derived: independent building + obtaining authorization.

[Example] Coding Cat has integrated the IP concept since its inception, launched an IP mascot, adopted an IP-based brand name, and incorporated IP elements into its courses and marketing.

With the rapid development of the brand, its IP is no longer satisfied with just representing its own brand. It needs to occupy a higher strategic position, that is, to become a representative of the category.

How to achieve it? An efficient approach is: independent IP + popular IP support.

4. Three application levels of IP

How to effectively use IP as a marketing accelerator? Starting with cognition, I will divide it into three application levels.

1. [First-level application] Using IP to strengthen brand vision

Vision is the most intuitive sense for humans to understand things and has an important influence on establishing the first impression. Therefore, the saying "clothes make the man, and packaging makes the brand" is widely circulated in the industry.

The main tool for brand visual packaging is VIS (Visual Identity System), and its core element is the brand LOGO.

In the early days of VIS, mascots were just "passersby", but with the rapid development of mobile Internet, the way brands connect with users and gain their trust has changed dramatically. Mascots have gradually become an important part of the brand due to their high affinity, high recognition, and high ductility. They have been widely used in brand visual packaging and have become an important part of VIS.

The advantages of IP application based on brand visual packaging are: short, flat and fast! Low cost! With limited cost, you can quickly acquire a set of brand visual images that are friendly, recognizable and unified. It is widely used in brand packaging of start-up projects and brand upgrading of small and medium-sized enterprises.

[Example] Quxue: It is an emerging educational complex brand. It proactively applies IP to brand visual packaging. Through environmental creation, gifts and marketing materials, it directly presents the brand connotation and business philosophy of "Quxue Galaxy" to the outside world.

Application Tips:

• IP design should strive for affinity and recognition, and should be integrated into the VI system;
• Set up an interesting and extensible world view for the IP (such as "Fun Learning Galaxy")
• During use, give full play to the affinity of IP and narrow the psychological distance with users. Make full use of the recognition that IP brings to your brand, so that users can remember you, recognize you at a glance, and even think of you often.

2. [Second-level application] Using IP to realize brand IP

In recent years, "brand IPization" has been emphasized in many business scenarios. A brief explanation is given below.

For a long time, brands have mainly addressed the functional needs of consumers and established a value exchange relationship with consumers.

As living standards improve, people not only need functionality, but also seek spiritual experiences on an emotional level, which cannot be satisfied by “value exchange” alone. Brands are in urgent need of establishing emotional connections with consumers. How to achieve it? IP is a very effective approach!

The so-called " brand IPization " means that the brand focuses on the target audience group, shapes distinct personality traits in a targeted manner, and outputs tonal content around the personality setting, continuously influencing the audience, establishing a deep emotional connection with them, and winning recognition and trust.

For merchants, the characteristics of brand IPization are: merchants begin to think based on the personality settings of the IP, interact with the audience from the perspective and behavior of the IP, and continuously output a personalized brand image to the outside world. Common IP-based behaviors include: IP puppets interacting with users on site, using IP emoticons to interact with users online, using IP-based customer service scripts, etc.

[Example] The "Coding Cat" mentioned earlier is an educational brand with a high degree of brand IP, so I will not repeat it here.

Most educational businesses that own their own IP hope to use IP to realize brand IP, not only to build IP into a visual symbol, but also to build it into an emotional symbol with consumer attributes.

3. [Third layer application] Create independent IP

The above two application levels belong to the same business model. The core value chain of this model is built around "products/services". The role of IP is a "marketing accelerator" whose function is to improve the conversion between each link in the core value chain.

In contrast, [third-layer application] is another business model. The core value chain of this model is built around IP. All content output and commercial behavior are based on shaping IP. For example, Qiaohu, Pinkfong, Dora, etc. This type of IP is based on educational concepts and pan-educational content, and aims to become a super symbol of parent-child families.

Educational products are the basic peripheral products of this type of IP, but the commercialization of this type of IP is not limited to the educational category, but can radiate to other needs of the target population, such as toys, children's clothing, children's toiletries, etc.

5. Two major application trends of IP

Xiao IP Lab discovered some cross-border opportunities during its research and practice, and extracted two points for detailed description for readers' reference.

1. Online: Building Private Domain Vertical IP

(1) Private domain

"Private domain" refers to the online private domain traffic pool.

The Internet is called the "public domain", like a boundless ocean. Acquiring customers is like fishing. Whether it is fishing or netting fish, the competition is fierce, the cost is high, and sometimes you even have to "depend on the weather for your livelihood."

In order to reduce customer acquisition costs and improve controllability, businesses have built their own "fish ponds" and used "bait" to lure fish into the "fish ponds" to raise them, forming private traffic pools and deeply cultivating users.

Compared with the "public domain", the core value of the "private domain" lies in:

• Low user reach cost;
• The timing and frequency of user reach are more controllable;
• It has a deeper impact on users and a greater chance of establishing trust as an agent;

The carriers of private traffic pools are diverse, such as WeChat, Douyin, App, etc., each has its own advantages. Many businesses have also built private traffic pools with comprehensive applications of multiple carriers. However, for small and medium-sized institutions, the WeChat ecosystem is still the best choice.

It is worth mentioning that the “fish” raised in the private traffic pool are not absolutely “private”. A user may exist in the private domains of multiple similar merchants at the same time. From the marketing perspective, which merchant’s bowl the “fish” ends up in depends on two main points:

• Reach: including the timing of reach, form of reach, frequency of reach, cost of reach, etc.;
• Trust: How much users trust you.

Regarding “private domain”, I will not go into details here, and let’s get back to the topic of IP.

As mentioned earlier: IP is a personalized super symbol.

If Peppa Pig, Qiaohu, Dora and others are super symbols of the entire network, then most offline merchants only need to focus on turning their own mascots into super symbols (IPs) of their own private traffic pools.

(2) Vertical

"Vertical" refers to vertical categories.

If the IP created by Disney can cover all categories, then the IP we create only needs to target the education vertical category, or a more vertical sub-category within the education category.

For small and medium-sized enterprises, the two key words "private domain" and "vertical" have made "building IP" go from "out of reach" to "within reach if you tiptoe." Even if your private domain has only 5,000 users, you can generate good commercial value through IP-based management, targeted shaping of personality and functional characteristics, and clear marketing paths.

[Example] 91 Education: It is a private traffic pool based on the WeChat ecosystem, serving millions of student and parent users. We adopt an IP-based and branded business approach, making IP and brand LOGO a trusted agent for users, effectively accumulating brand assets, and greatly improving conversion effects.

2. Offline: Building regional vertical IP

There are also two key words here: "regional" and "vertical".

(1) Region

“Region” means a geographic area.

If the IP created by Disney has a global impact, then the offline IP we create only needs to affect an area within a few kilometers radius of the store.

(2) Vertical

(Same as above, no repetition).

It can be seen that offline IP does not need to "conquer the world" or "be suitable for all ages and genders". It only needs to influence the audience within a radius of several kilometers from the store and become a super symbol of a certain sub-category in this area.

Let's talk about the cost issue:

To make the IP influence an area with a radius of several kilometers, one way is to integrate the IP into regular ground promotion activities, such as using IP puppets to dispatch orders; the other way is to integrate community public resources, such as becoming a community environmental ambassador and promoting garbage classification with the street office (there are many underestimated public resources in the community, please keep your eyes open). I dare not say that these practices do not require additional costs, but the cost-effectiveness is very high.

[Example] 1088 Plaza: It adopts an IP-based and themed business model, cooperates deeply with local street communities, social service organizations, schools, etc., organizes a variety of activities, and becomes a gathering place for education and parent-child life in Shanghai's Lujiazui area.

VI. Conclusion

IP thinking, brand thinking and gamification thinking are essential thinking tools for entrepreneurs in this era. This article makes "building IP" go from "out of reach" to "within reach if you tiptoe".

However, when “building IP” you must not blindly follow the trend. You must fully consider your own situation, plan clear business goals and marketing paths in advance, and it is wise to choose the most suitable method.

Author: Xiao IP Lab

Source: Xiao IP Lab