Ugly things have become a "hot business" for small and medium-sized businesses

Why do young people have a special liking for ugly things, and how do ugly and cute toys quickly gain popularity? Let's read the article together and see the author's interpretation!

"So ugly! I like it so much! I can buy it to lose weight. I can't even eat a bite of rice. Every bite feels like I'm kissing a frog."

Two months ago, a porcelain spoon with a emerald green frog body, wide-open eyes and a bloody mouth became popular on social platforms such as Xiaohongshu. It was called the "magic spoon for weight loss" because of its extremely ugly appearance, especially the picture of it lying in red bean porridge, which was circulated wildly among young people.

The attention brought by an ugly product instantly radiated the entire store. Thanks to the traffic of this spoon, its creator Chen Ergou jumped from a "difficult to make a living" to a "Taobao brand manager" with a monthly income of 100,000 yuan.

He told Doujiao that in addition to daily-use bowls, plates and porcelain, various cute porcelain gadgets in Jingdezhen account for about 95% of the local market. "When I realized that the cute market seemed to be a bit inward-looking, making unique ugly things was nothing more than another kind of aesthetic innovation."

Feilian Umbrella Factory also pays attention to the aesthetic of ugliness. Consumption can easily unlock the traffic password. Feilian Umbrella Factory is a veteran umbrella factory in the umbrella industry belt of Shaoxing, Zhejiang. How can its products stand out? The big brother of this industry belt targets young people. A group of people born in the 1980s and 1990s surf the Internet at the speed of the post-00s every day. They pay attention to the hot topics and comments of young people, and shuttle through the vast amount of information every day to find inspiration for umbrella production. They find that the "aesthetic of ugliness" culture has become a new personalized consumption concept for young people. However, the standard of ugliness is actually difficult to define. For brands, "ugly and cute marketing" is innovation and also an adventure.

Zhang Jianbin, an employee born in the 1990s, pays attention to the "Taobao Ugly Things Contest" held every year to predict the latest ugliness trends among young people.

Recently, they created an unprecedented umbrella called "The Emperor's Umbrella", which became popular on social platforms as soon as it was launched. Zhang Jianbin told Doujiao: "The people who buy this Emperor's Umbrella are mainly young people, basically between 15 and 30 years old. They mainly use it for scene needs, and not for daily use. They use it in comic exhibitions, stage plays, performances, and even for confession." "Prop umbrellas" have entered the vision of young people in more and more scenes, and have even become a manifestation of personality and taste.

At the same time, the popularity of the Emperor Umbrella has also led young people to recognize the Feilian Umbrella Factory. Not only has it become a well-known UP host at Bilibili, but the sales of other umbrellas in its Taobao store have also increased significantly. It has also accelerated the introduction of new products. Fun and practical daily umbrellas such as the "Double Umbrella" and the "Cabbage Umbrella" have directly enabled this old umbrella factory to quickly become "younger".

1. “Ugly and cute personality” controls commercial traffic and “rebounds” from the crisis of traditional aesthetics

Chen Ergou, born in 1999, majored in ceramic production in college. After graduation, he came to Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of China, alone and became a "Jingdiao". Due to the deviation from his family's plan for him, he could only get 1,000 yuan a month for living expenses.

"After graduation, my family members asked me to take the civil service exam, which would be a relatively stable career. But if I studied for four years just to get a diploma as a stepping stone to get a job, then wouldn't it be a waste of my time learning (ceramics)?" Chen Ergou said. At that time, 1,000 yuan was only enough to pay the rent, and the rest of the food and clothing expenses could only be paid by his own hands.

In the Jingdezhen market, most daily ceramics are in a "cute" style, made with cute animals such as kittens, puppies, and piglets. Chen Ergou goes the other way and makes personalized porcelain that young people like.

At the beginning, Chen Ergou made a series of porcelain products called "childhood memories" for those born after 1995, such as the 12 zodiac talismans in "The Adventures of Jackie Chan". However, the products were "well received but not popular". Although they received many likes on social media platforms, sales were mediocre.

In March 2022, during the epidemic, Xiao Chen used his meager savings to buy some cheap clay and made some small frog ornaments to set up an offline stall in Jingdezhen.

"I was just trying my luck at the time, but I didn't expect that they were all sold out." Moved by this, Chen Ergou began to use frogs as creative inspiration to make various products such as cold water kettles, water cups, tea trays, etc. He revealed that since the frog spoon broke the circle in October, his income has exceeded 200,000 yuan in two months.

Since this type of ornaments cannot be mass-produced and need to be fired one by one by hand, young consumers who can't get the batches have been urging for more, and Chen Ergou has accumulated a group of extremely sticky fans. And the graduate who was once misunderstood by his parents now designs, produces, operates stores, and sets up a studio by himself, becoming a real "brand manager."

The "Umbrella of the Emperor", the ugliest hit product, directly broke the dilemma of sales being restricted by channels. In 2014, the export of umbrellas was in its bonus period, and as long as an umbrella factory was established, there was no need to worry about business. Lei Penglin founded the "Feilian Umbrella Factory" in Shaoxing, and by supplying foreign trade and small businesses, he could produce thousands of umbrellas a day. However, in this red ocean market, peers poured in, and homogeneous competition intensified. After making a quick buck, Lei Penglin's daily shipments dropped sharply from 4,000 to 1,000.

"We previously produced umbrellas from the perspective of practicality and functionality, and rarely considered what users like." When Feilian Umbrella Factory went online, they realized that in the tide of the Internet, umbrellas have changed from daily necessities to decorative items and social products for young people to express themselves. Especially on Taobao, countless young people asked customer service if they could customize umbrellas.

The original inspiration for the popular product "The Emperor's Umbrella" came from an accidental customization. "A college student had a role requirement for a radio drama. He played an emperor and needed an umbrella prop. We got the inspiration at that time and combined the emperor's crown, pearl necklace, and noble gold into an everyday parasol. It took us half a month to create the Emperor's Umbrella. When you gently open the umbrella, the emperor's noble aura and the practical attribute of sheltering from wind and rain are perfectly integrated. One person can also walk out of the pomp of a guard of honor." Zhang Jianbin said that when he was creating it, he felt that it would be a play among young people.

Later, Feilian Umbrella Factory became known as the "human-shaped wishing pool" by netizens. They could make any umbrella they could think of. They became the first to make umbrellas with flashlights, six-flower Lolita princess umbrellas, and highly sought-after fishing umbrellas, which were snapped up by fishing enthusiasts for nearly 10,000 pieces. This not only solved the unsalable crisis faced by the umbrella factory, but also made the boss a celebrity in the umbrella industry. The "ruthless man" who doesn't talk much and displays personalized umbrellas in 9 seconds has also won the hearts of young consumers.

2. Emotional decompression and social topics

The consumption driven by the "ugly culture" is not a change in the aesthetic direction of young people, but because the products have a special tone and high social attributes, and at the same time they are in line with the consumption habits of Generation Z consumers. That is, these "ugly things" with a unit price of tens or less than a hundred yuan allow young people to satisfy the desire to show their individuality at a very low cost.

Merchants who can create "ugly" popular products often have products that are talked about and provide excellent emotional value, and young people's sense of interaction and participation is definitely maximized.

Talking about the frog spoon that became famous overnight, Chen Ergou was forced by netizens to enter the top 40 of Taobao's ugly things competition because it was so ugly. He was helpless at first and even issued a store announcement requesting to withdraw the entry immediately. Then he added "beautiful things", "cool things" and "cute things" in front of all his product names.

Some people also found that when the word "ugly" was mentioned, the customer service staff pretended to be absent with various reasons, but once the word "ugly" was not mentioned, the customer service staff immediately appeared. Chen Ergou's unintentional move aroused the rebellious hearts of netizens and triggered the Pandora effect. More and more netizens thought that "if something is ugly, I have to see how ugly it is and whether it can be ugly to me." This new and strange stimulation made netizens directly evaluate it as "abstract ugliness."

Chen Ergou responded that this frog is actually a realist. When he was creating it, he searched the Internet for a real picture of a frog jumping up and opening its mouth to catch food. He thought it was very lifelike, so he made the first frog spoon.

In the many exchanges back and forth, the young netizens went from facing the ugliness, to discussing the ugliness, to understanding the creator's creative intention, and then purchasing the ugliness after resonating with it, and finally sent Frog Spoon into the top five.

It is not accidental that Feilian Umbrella Factory broke through the circle. This brand pays great attention to social media marketing, especially Douyin and Bilibili. They have attracted a large number of fans' attention and participation by actively interacting with users, publishing content regularly, and choosing to publish content during the time when users are active online. In particular, the number of videos on the evaluation of various exotic umbrellas and even taking photos with beautiful women at comic exhibitions has remained high. These practices of keeping up with hot topics have ensured that Feilian Umbrella Factory's products have always maintained a high level of attention and purchase desire.

It is not difficult to see that this is the way to make money by making popular ugly things, completing the closed loop of merchant display, netizen discussion, viewer curiosity and purchase on Taobao in the online scene.

3. Taobao: A potential new commercial highland

Taobao's "Annual Ugly Things Contest" has directly become a window reflecting young people's consumption trends of "ugly things."

Doujiao learned that in the past year, the number of people searching for "ugly things" on Taobao has increased by 900%. When searching for "ugly things of 2024", strange small commodities such as "good luck and fortune clothes", "diamond briefs", and "penguin doll with a head full of black lines" will appear, ranging from kitchen utensils to accessories, ornaments to pendants.

In 2020, Taobao and Douban's "Ugly Things Protection Association" group held the first Taobao Ugly Things Awards Ceremony, which was viewed over a million times on Bilibili. The competition has always emphasized the following principles: we don't want ugly things that are sensational, or ugly things that are vulgar and eye-catching. Ugliness has its own personality, even though it may be too avant-garde and special; ugliness demonstrates an attitude: free and unrestrained; ugliness brings certain enlightenment, even if it's just a laugh.

"From the four competitions, we also discovered a pattern in the top five votes from young people, which must be strongly related to current hot topics and the mood of the times." Hu Yu, the person in charge of Taobao's ugly things, gave an example. For example, this year's Silent Bodhisattva became popular in Jingdezhen because it perfectly fits the mental state of today's working people, and made more young people pay attention to ceramics. Similarly, the frog spoon has the uniqueness of a creative ceramic product.

Douban's "Ugly Things Protection Association" group adheres to the concept of "things also want to be loved, and to find the bright spots in the darkness" , advocates "ugly things gather together, be happy and joyful, and don't care about other people's eyes", and is committed to discovering ugly things in life and giving them understanding and tolerance, which coincides with Taobao's ugly things selection concept. Douban's "Ugly Things Protection Association" group has gathered more than 240,000 ugly things lovers.

The reason why the ugly contest jointly launched by Taobao and Douban can continue to drive the topic is largely due to the accurate insight into the needs of the target audience. The establishment of the "Ugly Things Protection Association" and the participation of Xiaohongshu this year have further enhanced the user's sense of participation, promoted users to spontaneously produce content, accelerated the spread of topics, and turned the "lonely joy" of the niche into a "shared joy" brand marketing feast.

You know, behind "ugliness" is not only discussion and social topics, but also a more obvious and broad commercial value. Zhang Jianbin told Doujiao that he has been paying attention to the Taobao Ugly Things Contest since 2020, especially because he found that the popular products this time have low costs, high profits, and can be sold in large quantities.

The head cover of the green-headed fish left a deep impression on him. According to Doujiao's observation, there are many merchants selling green-headed fish head covers on Taobao, with prices ranging from 18 to 30 yuan, and some even selling for more than 60 yuan.

It can be seen that when the general trend is to pursue "beauty", Taobao provides another marketing path for brands and small and medium-sized businesses through the ugly things competition, which is to pursue "ugliness" to create contrast and stand out. With the continuous iteration of the competition, it can also be said that the marketing innovation of merchants has re-popularized the "personality economy" and "ugly and cute economy", satisfying young consumers who pursue individuality, and finally realizing the "freedom of ugliness" through repeated cycles.

Author: 24, WeChat public account: Spicy