After a hot collaboration, Miniso has a hard time keeping up with the huge traffic?

The author of this article talks about the brand trend of MINISO after its collaboration with Chiikawa. Interested readers can take a look.

Recently, MINISO opened pop-up stores in three shopping malls in Shanghai and Beijing, collaborating with the popular Japanese anime IP Chiikawa, triggering a buying spree.

In fact, collaborating with well-known IPs has become commonplace for MINISO. From Sanrio to Barbie to Chiikawa, every collaboration of MINISO can bring surprises to users, which also invisibly strengthens the brand's influence among young users.

Currently, MINISO has stores all over the world and is moving towards the goal of becoming a "super brand". How did MINISO get rid of the label of a "10-yuan store"? And how did it do a good job in IP business?

1. Chiikawa joint venture is a big hit, is Miniso the winner?

The IP Chiikawa originated from the comics of Japanese cartoonist Nagano. The comics began serialization in 2020, and the comic book released a year later had an annual sales volume of 1.1 million copies. In 2022, Chiikawa was adapted into an animation, and the main characters of the animation are Chiikawa, Hachiware, and Usagi.

Although Chiikawa's style of painting looks cute, the plot is actually a tragic one. In the animation, their lives are full of challenges and hardships, but the "three little ones" encourage each other to keep each other warm and solve problems again and again. They also establish sincere friendships with each other and gain pure and precious emotions in a turbulent world.

The story content of Chiikawa is quite similar to the real life of working people, which has aroused strong emotional resonance among young people . Chiikawa has been popular in Japan and South Korea long before, and its peripheral products are very popular.

Chiikawa's popularity in China started with emoticons. Under the dual pressure of life and work, young people are surrounded by emotions such as lying down, anxiety, and going crazy, but everyone has limited channels to vent. The Chiikawa emoticon package provides young people with a kind of spiritual value recognition, and thus quickly became popular.

Image source network

On March 29, the first MINISO x Chiikawa themed pop-up store in China was launched in Shanghai Jing'an Joy City. At 3 a.m., hundreds of people were already queuing at the door, but even so, they might not be able to get the limited edition pajamas and dolls. On the first day of the Shanghai pop-up store's opening, sales reached 2.68 million in just 10 hours, breaking the store's record.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

On April 1, the same series of flash events were held in Beijing Chaoyang Joy City and Shanghai Wujiaochang Shengshenghui, which also triggered long queues for purchases. According to the rules at the entrance of the Beijing flash store, consumers need to make an appointment for admission through the mall mini program at 8 pm the night before, and queue up on the same day to enter the venue. The flow is limited to 60 people each time, and the purchase time is limited to 10-15 minutes. There are staff on site who have been counting down the purchase time with a loudspeaker, urging consumers to buy as soon as possible. In three days, Chiikawa co-branded products achieved sales of 8 million, becoming another phenomenal case in the industry.

It is understood that this series of co-branded products will be launched in stores across the country within a few days. Some netizens said that some products are only sold in limited quantities in pop-up stores. For example, the two larger dolls priced at 299 yuan and 520 yuan have limited sales quantities. Many netizens shared their "trophies" on social platforms.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

In fact, the collaboration between Chiikawa and MINISO has been full of twists and turns. First, when MINISO's official Douyin account released a pre-launch video, it used the nickname "retarded crybaby" to describe the character Ji, which caused dissatisfaction among many fans. Later, due to the political stance of Japanese cartoonist Nagano, Chiikawa was caught in a "collapse" storm on the social platform, which sparked a lot of discussion.

2. Relying on IP to “upgrade”, MINISO tears off the label of “10-yuan store”

In order to improve its brand tone and get rid of the label of "10-yuan store", MINISO has made many efforts, and emphasized that IP design is an important measure of MINISO. In February last year, MINISO upgraded its brand positioning to "a collection store of good life products featuring IP design" to enhance its brand competitiveness through IP design products.

In fact, since 2017, MINISO has been continuously cooperating with globally renowned IPs, including Japan's Sanrio, Thailand's Colorful Heart Bears, Universal Studios' Minions Tim Bear, major Disney IPs, Mofy the Cotton Bunny, In the Garden Babies, The Little Prince, Pokémon... At present, the number of IP cooperations of MINISO has reached nearly one hundred.

Cooperation with well-known IPs brings multiple benefits to MINISO. With the high visibility and good reputation of IPs, it is conducive to improving the brand tone, while also creating a trendy brand image, which is more likely to attract young consumers who pursue fashion and individuality. In addition, IP co-branded products are scarce and unique, which can not only enrich MINISO's product line, but also meet consumers' demand for novel and special products, and enhance the brand's market competitiveness.

In the past two years, MINISO has continued to make efforts in IP cooperation. Not only has the frequency increased, the IPs have become more and more abundant, and the product design has become more and more in-depth. From the previous sticker model to the current in-depth product design, IP products have undergone a great upgrade.

In terms of IP co-operation strategy, MINISO combines "movement and stillness" and first maintains the basic base of super IPs such as Disney and Sanrio, and then responds quickly to some new hot IPs such as Loopy and Barbie.

For example, in the summer of 2023, the movie "Barbie" was a big hit, and MINISO quickly launched more than 120 SKUs of Barbie co-branded products, including bags, mirrors, lunch boxes, water cups, fascia guns, cat beds, etc. In addition, MINISO has also opened limited theme stores in many cities across the country. The popular content brought a large number of customers to the stores, and the products were in short supply, and eventually sold 100 million.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

In the past few years, MINISO has achieved great success in IP co-branding. Data shows that MINISO has cooperated with more than 80 top IPs and over 300 IP categories of products, with a cumulative sales volume of over 700 million pieces; the number of customers who have bought MINISO IP co-branded products has reached hundreds of millions; the per capita contribution of users who have purchased IP products is 263% higher than that of ordinary users, and the average customer spending is 176% higher.

In order to further amplify the IP co-branding effect, MINISO has built several super stores. In the fourth quarter of last year, MINISO built a flagship store in Hangzhou around the beaver "Zanmang Loopy" and a flagship store in Shanghai based on Disney's classic IP "Strawberry Bear", creating an immersive shopping experience for consumers. According to statistics, the Shanghai flagship store achieved sales of 225,000 yuan on the first day of opening and 270,000 yuan on the second day, setting a new record for the opening performance of a single store in China.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

The price of IP co-branded products is relatively high, which can increase the average unit price of MINISO. According to Times Finance, in the second half of 2023, the transaction volume of MINISO's domestic stores was 183 million, with an average selling price of 14.2 yuan. The average unit price in the same period of 2021 and 2022 was 11.8 yuan and 12.8 yuan respectively, and the average unit price gradually increased.

However, the other side of the high popularity brought to MINISO by IP co-branding is the continuous increase in sales and distribution expenses. The financial report shows that in the second half of 2023, MINISO's sales and distribution expenses were 1.363 billion yuan, compared with 798 million yuan in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 70.80%. One of the reasons is the increase in IP licensing fees.

3. Expanding overseas, MINISO seeks new growth points

MINISO is one of the earliest consumer companies in China to enter overseas markets. As early as 2015, MINISO began to explore overseas markets, and in 2016, it expanded into the Southeast Asian market and opened its first store in Mexico at the end of the year. In early 2018, MINISO founder Ye Guofu proposed the goal of "hundreds of countries and tens of millions of stores", and MINISO entered a stage of rapid overseas expansion.

High profit margins are one of the main reasons why MINISO entered the overseas market. Ye Guofu previously stated in a financial report conference call that the ASP (average selling price) in the Chinese market is 35 yuan, which is twice or even higher in overseas markets. In European countries and the United States, this figure is three times or even higher.

In May 2023, MINISO opened a 400-square-meter store in Times Square, the United States, becoming the first Chinese brand to enter Times Square. On the first day of the store opening, MINISO's single-day sales exceeded RMB 550,000, setting a global store single-day sales record at the time.

Image source network

By the end of 2023, MINISO will have 6,413 stores worldwide, 2,487 of which are overseas stores, with a net increase of 372 stores in 2023. Currently, the number of overseas stores has reached 38.8% of the total number of stores worldwide. In 2023, MINISO's overseas market revenue will reach 4.824 billion yuan, accounting for 35% of the total revenue.

The core advantage of MINISO in going global is the efficient and differentiated integration and utilization of the Chinese supply chain. "Pricing by quantity, buyout customization, no pressure on payment" is the widely circulated supply chain methodology of MINISO in the industry , and it is also the core advantage that allows it to quickly open up the market at home and abroad with rich and cost-effective products.

By the end of 2023, MINISO will launch an average of approximately 930 SKUs per month through various channels, covering 11 categories including home furnishings, small electronic products, textiles, bag accessories, and beauty tools, covering all aspects of life.

In general, through a series of IP collaborations, MINISO has further opened up the young user market and strengthened its trendy and fashionable brand image. The continuous expansion of overseas markets has enabled MINISO to move step by step towards its goal of becoming a "super brand."

Author: Aries; Source public account: Clour (ID: 1093227)