Five major schools of brand IPization!

IP, which stands for Intellectual Property, originally means "intellectual property".

In fact, in countries with strong IP culture such as the United States, Japan, and Europe, IP is not emphasized on a large scale. Instead, it is used as a business model for monetization and life extension of the entertainment industry: such as Disney, Marvel Universe, One Piece, Conan, etc.

In China, IP has been given unprecedented vitality and a broader space for imagination after being combined with pan-entertainment industries such as music, animation, film and television, variety shows, games, and tourism, as well as mobile Internet, culture, and commerce.

Since 2018, cultural confidence - the return of national trends, the revival of animation, and the rise of online literature, wave after wave of China's own entertainment IPs have risen strongly: "Creation Camp 2020", "Creation 101", "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves", "This is Street Dance", "National Treasure Archives", "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", "The Wandering Earth", "Nezha", "Jiang Ziya", etc.

In the past year, Bilibili, Douyin, Kuaishou, knowledge payment, live streaming, etc. have spawned many top individual/institutional IPs facing Generation Z: [Juzhang], [Luo Xiang], [Banfo Teacher], [Yichan Little Monk], etc., and with the empowerment of Toutiao's "Xuelang Plan" and Kuaishou's "Education Ecosystem Partner Plan", they have grown rapidly in an organized manner.

As Wu Sheng said in "Super IP": "From the pan-entertainment expression of film, television, games, and animation, to the expansion into the advancement and components of new business models, and even becoming a connection method based on the Internet for different industries, IP has grown at a unique Chinese speed and has become rampant before it even began. This is a popular keyword full of ambiguity."

In the new consumption era, digital world and cognitive upgrade, the grouping of people, fragmentation of communication, emotional consumption and rejuvenation of brands have made traditional marketing rapidly ineffective.

Not only content companies are working on IP, Chinese brands are also seeking ways to innovate, creating "brand IP" or "brand IPization", which have become original in the world brand community: Forbidden City Cultural and Creative, Jiang Xiaobai, Three Squirrels, Taobao Maker Festival, Double 11, Haier Brothers, etc.

However, only a minority of people have successfully created IPs. Most brand IPs look beautiful, but in fact they are of little value:

• Some brands, as the originators of Chinese brand IPization, have both content and soul, but they are always hovering at the door, just missing the finishing touch, such as Jiang Xiaobai, Li Ning, Yaduo, and Diao Pai;
• Some brands, though struggling and innovating continuously, have never grasped the soul of brand IP, such as Herborist, Want Want, Wufangzhai, White Rabbit...;
• More brands develop one or two IP cartoons, and after a brief trial, they don’t know how to develop them further.

Because most companies understand that brand IPization is very simple, it is nothing more than personalization, cartoonization, storytelling, and emotional expression.

Because most companies believe that it is easy to create a brand IP. First, they design cartoon characters, do self-media, and create content; then they take advantage of a hot topic and cross-border, and the brand IP will naturally emerge.

Brand Ape believes that the following four points must be understood before a brand can be IP-ized:

• Brand IP and content company IP are different. Although some underlying logics are the same, the needs and goals are inconsistent, so their construction methods are very different.
• The IPization of a brand is closely related to the brand’s genes. Although in theory all brands can be IPized, the reality is that most companies are not suitable for brand IPization (after all, it is only one of the brand innovation methods, not the ultimate one).
• Brand IPization and brand IP creation are two different things. The former is to become the brand development goal and the company strategy, while the latter regards IP as one of the methods of brand activation and innovation.
• There are thousands of ways to turn a brand into an IP. Only by finding the path that suits you best according to your needs can you achieve twice the result with half the effort. Simple copying and imitation are unlikely to succeed, just as most of the small wines after Jiang Xiaobai failed.

To turn a brand into an IP, start by understanding the five major schools.

1. Symbolism: Brand IP is a concrete image, symbol and carrier of a brand

The earliest brand IP can be traced back to 1898, when the Michelin Tire Man appeared on advertising posters as a brand spokesperson. Until now, he is still a classic example of a brand IP that we are familiar with.

Of course, the clown at McDonald’s and the grandfather at KFC are the originators of this school.

In fact, these early cartoons abroad were not called "IP", they were called super ICON, that is, super symbols.

In China, brands are also actively building this type of IP: from the early Haier Brothers, Li Ning, Want Want, White Rabbit..., to Alibaba's Zoo and JD's Dog; in essence, they are no different from celebrity endorsements, they are for better identification, except that the ownership of such super symbols is their own.

When the symbolic IP is disseminated, it begins to integrate and convey brand value, and continues to be interpreted, finally forming a real genre.

The clown + happiness, Johnnie Walker + continuous progress, and Chu Orange + inspirational spirit are all representatives of the symbol school.

2. Personalization School-Brand IP is brand personalization

"Brand personification" is a marketing concept with a history of nearly 80 years. It has developed with the rise of "brand image theory". Today, brand personification has become one of the most important methods of brand building. It can even be said that not every brand can create an IP, but most successful brands must have their own unique brand personality.

Nike’s hero (Just do it-a hero who dares to take on responsibilities), Pepsi’s youth, Apple’s rebellion (early days), Chanel’s lover, Harley’s desperado, etc.

Brand personification refers to the continuous humanized interpretation (creation) of the brand, giving it an independent personality and timeless charm.

Therefore, there are few successful examples of brand personification in China, all because most brands are short-sighted and will change their personality or even their strategy if they see no gains in the short term.

Especially when the Internet and technology are changing at a rapid pace, in an era of scarce attention, its limitations are more obvious, and brand IP personalization comes into being.

"In my opinion, brand IP is brand personification." - Ding Ding

“IP-based operations improve consumer awareness and communication efficiency”

“The brand image should be as vivid, specific, and lively as possible, and as close to personification as possible; because such a brand is easier to remember, easier to enter the minds of consumers, and more likely to resonate with consumers emotionally.”

“The essence of IP is content and personality!” - Wu Sheng

Personalized IP helps brands and products build a trusting relationship with users.

Some even believe that brands are a product of the last century and that their main function is to reduce consumers' choice costs during the purchasing process.

IP is the core of business in this era, and it is the way for consumers to realize themselves.

They believe that with the upgrading of consumption, people's demand for the functional level of goods is no longer the first priority, and commodity consumption has transformed from pure functional consumption to inner needs and spiritual experience; creating the personality charm of private brand IP and enhancing the emotional distance between consumers will definitely become the trend of the times.

These are the two most successful cases of brand IP personalization, bar none.

M&M's Dolls: In 1954, the M&M's Dolls first appeared in a US television commercial and were immediately popular; subsequently, the characters were updated as M&M's chocolate beans were constantly introduced in new colors until today.

Fido Dido, the 7-up boy of 7-up, is not only a brand image, it is a truly independent IP with its own comic books, small animations, derivative products, and participation in various art activities. With his eternally youthful image, free and uninhibited personality, and unique outlook on life, he has formed his own IP culture - It's cool to be you, Normal is boring, Dare to be different.

Simply put, the core of brand IP personalization: brand IP + IP soul + personality charm

Many companies have designed brand IP cartoons, but they are often just image shells without giving the brand IP enough spiritual core and soul, let alone personal charm. They are not fully personified; and there is little time to bless them, so most IP personifications fail.

Brands with relatively successful IP personification in China include Jiang Xiaobai, Three Squirrels, and Zhang Junya; but if compared with M&M and 7-Up, you can see why they are just one step away from success, because they have not yet formed their own personality charm.

3. Interactive Method School - Brand Internet Communication Methods/Brand Rejuvenation Methods/Tools to Connect Users and Brands

Now, many brands are facing the problem of brand rejuvenation or brand activation:

• In the new consumption context, how do we communicate with digital natives born after 1995, 2000 and even the future 2010s?
• In the context of universal entertainment and content-based circle creation, how can we attract the attention and retain young users?
• In the new business ecosystem, how to connect with young people and build lasting and stable relationships?

No matter how many NB IPs there are, when grafted onto the brand marketing level, its purpose is clear, which is to make the brand vivid, specific, fresh, and connected with users.

This group includes the early Jiang Xiaobai and Three Squirrels, which communicate and connect with young people by telling content and stories. Finally, after years of development, they began to successfully create and realize IP personalization.

This group is now synonymous with IP cross-border. From combining with entertainment and cultural IPs, crossing with social hot spots, to crossing with platform IPs and IPs crossing with each other, they have created marketing hotspots time and time again.

Its representatives include: Atour, Palace Museum Cultural and Creative, Durex, NetEase Cloud Music, Lao Gan Ma, Wufangzhai, Pechoin, White Rabbit, Want Want, RIO, etc.

From the perspective of marketing and communication, the effect is undoubtedly very good. A simple cross-border IP combination can achieve low-cost and effective communication, and to a certain extent expand user boundaries and break scene boundaries.

However, in terms of brand building, most of them are short-lived. They look lively and have good reviews, but they cannot generate effective traffic and sales, let alone form brand assets, because they do not create new value to connect.

Using IP to achieve cross-border brand interaction must be based on systematic and comprehensive interaction, including the youthful value innovation of products and brand connotations. Otherwise, it will be a model of being good-looking but useless.

This is also why the cross-border cooperation of Durex, Coca-Cola, NetEase Cloud Music and Nongfu Spring is more valuable, because their cross-border cooperation is in line with their own brand spirit and is supported by value innovation such as spirit and products.

However, despite numerous cross-border attempts, Want Want and others have still failed to gain recognition. Of course their efforts are worthy of praise, at least in terms of change and exploration.

4. Cultural Symbol School - IP first has cultural value and touching emotional value, and then commercial value and derived product value.

“Any IP must first have cultural value, that is, it must have emotional value that touches people’s hearts, and then it is worth exploring its commercial value.” - Chen Gelei

The representative of this group is Chen Ge Li (creator of Zhang Xiao He), whose IP Fried Rice Official Account is a relatively comprehensive, systematic and in-depth official account in China that conducts research on IP.

• Successful IP = Strong Cultural Symbol
• IP is just a cultural work, while super IP is a high-value-added cultural symbol that can cross industries and cultures.
• IP is not equal to super IP.
• Content is not actually IP, it is just the alchemy furnace of IP.

His theoretical system is also gradually taking shape. "9 Story Archetypes of Super IP"/"World View Design of Super IP"/"16 IP Complex Positioning"/"4 Unconventional IP Marketing"... are all good articles worth reading.

This coincides with Hua's view that to build a brand, one must first find the "cultural matrix" and "super symbol".

This school of thought is the correct approach to realizing brand IP, but the reality is that for most brands, if they only want to build brand IP, the cultural symbol school is too complicated and requires high brand building and operation capabilities. Just imagine, if a brand has not found its own cultural matrix, world view, and personality, how can it create culture for its IP?

Most of the successful cases in this group are brand IPs with certain cultural heritage. They have enough time and content to perfect their cultural symbols: Forbidden City Cultural and Creative Industry, China Li Ning, etc.

5. Business Model School - Potential New Category: Content Renaissance, Personalized Business Connecting Currency

Wu Sheng (founder of Scene Lab): His masterpiece "Super IP - Methodology of New Internet Species" is very good and systematic. I have read it many times; however, it would be even more perfect if we understand Super IP as the next stage of brand personification.

"Mobile Internet has created this accelerated era, with information overabundance and attention scarcity, which has led to the IP (intellectual property) expression and made IP a new connection symbol and discourse system."

"The definition of a super IP is a charismatic personality with strong content and self-traffic. IP awakens respect for the group, and super content co-constructs personality and crowdfunding attitude." - Wu Sheng

The keywords of super IP are as follows: content, originality, personality, traffic, and commercialization.

Specifically, the content can ferment actively, is original but can be derived and re-created, has a sufficiently differentiated personality, an expected subscription mechanism, traffic that is close to transactions and has the ability to be monetized, and social currency represented by credit value, and rises on specific platforms and transcends a single platform.

"Super IP - Methodology of New Internet Species"

Wu Sheng believes that "brand IPization can attract communities with considerable numbers of people and common labels, and has a strong sense of audience identification and participation, which can transform community emotions into consumption or commercial profits."

Zhang Zhao, the former CEO of LeTV, once gave a similar term for IP: IP stands for Intellectual Property, I – Intellectual, the wisdom created by the interaction between authors and users; P – Property, the number of users gathered by the wisdom.

IP means: intelligent content created by authors and users, and how many users this intelligent content attracts.

This group has elevated IP to a new height and introduced the three most valuable concepts for future business: connection, users, and community.

The successful cases of this group are all new species of the Internet: various variety show IPs, IP e-commerce, new Internet celebrities and various innovative brands; therefore, the author believes that this group is essentially an innovative methodology for brands in the new consumption era.

The essence is to use IP thinking to redefine products, channels, design, brand, traffic, and users.

This is an era of courage to explore and try, and a business competition that opens up a lot of minds. There is no right or wrong in the five major schools of brand IPization, only whether it is suitable for you and whether you are willing to change?

Author: Brand Ape

Source: Brand Ape