Convenience stores are collaborating, even if Ultraman comes, it won’t work

The IP convenience store cooperative operation model has been a hot trend in recent years. The success of Lawson has also attracted more convenience stores to participate. What difficulties are hidden under the cooperative trend? What new creative ideas will new and old brands come up with in cooperation? The author of this article will discuss this.

“Behind the small IP linkage, there are more and more operational details involved.”

While on a business trip to Chongqing, I saw a store on a downtown street that was both familiar and unfamiliar—a teddy bear-themed Lawson convenience store.

I say it is familiar because I have worked and lived in Shanghai for many years, and the Lawson with its blue and white storefront has almost monopolized my brunch; and I say it is unfamiliar because I haven’t seen an IP-co-branded Lawson theme store in Shanghai for more than 10 years.

I vaguely remember that around 2012, a Conan-themed Lawson convenience store opened near my company. At that time, I excitedly went there to check in and bought a bunch of small items with Conan's portrait printed on them.

This Teddy Bear theme store in Chongqing is covered with fresh and cute wallpapers. The rest area is filled with Teddy Bear models for people to take photos and check in, as well as tree stump-like tables and chairs. A large area on the shelves displays various Teddy Bear-related products, such as dolls, pendants, co-branded biscuits, etc. Retail Jun bought a Teddy Bear keychain in the store and planned to give it to his girlfriend.

Lawson Teddy Bear theme store on the streets of Chongqing, photo by New Retail Business Review

Seeing a themed convenience store again in Chongqing, a new first-tier city, my curiosity was immediately aroused. At a time when the convenience store industry has undergone several reshuffles and changes, will the IP cooperation model once again become a winning magic weapon?

01 Foreign monks can chant sutras

When it comes to the exploration and layout of IP cooperation, Lawson can be said to be a pioneer in the convenience store industry. After all, Lawson, which has Japanese genes, is quite good at “chanting” about how to use IP to attract and harvest consumers.

As early as 2011, Lawson put the "retail + IP" issue on the agenda, put it into practice in 2012, and by 2015, it had basically developed a relatively mature IP cooperation system and methodology. During that period, relevant persons in charge of Lawson were often seen sharing theoretical and practical experiences at major retail forums, lectures, and summits.

The cooperation with Teddy Bear may be the most successful one among Lawson's series of theme stores. In 2017, Lawson opened a Teddy Bear theme store in Nanjing Xinjiekou, which not only attracted a lot of attention at the time, but also achieved a single-day sales record of 200,000 yuan. Generally speaking, a convenience store can break even if its turnover reaches 5,000 yuan.

Since then, the cooperation between Lawson and Teddy Bear has been smooth, and many Teddy Bear theme stores have been opened. In this process, Lawson gradually mastered the location of theme stores, such as opening a B station theme store downstairs of the video website Bilibili, and opening theme stores in bustling tourist attractions that meet local characteristics.

It is undeniable that opening an IP co-branded theme store also has risks, and the pitfalls can only be overcome step by step.

In 2012, Lawson's first theme concept store in Shanghai closed after only six months of operation. The IP used by this store was "Ultraman", which has fascinated primary school students. The store was located in the prosperous Zhongshan Park business district.

Lawson Ultraman theme store, picture source: Lawson Shanghai Weibo

The IP has enough fans and popularity, and the location is in a busy downtown area with a large flow of people. Why did this theme store with "all the elements" suffer such a bad fate? At that time, industry insiders said that the operating cost of such a theme concept store is five times that of an ordinary store - IP licensing fees, special store decoration costs, and high rents were the main reasons for the collapse of this theme store.

Lawson opened a Conan-themed store in the same business district and at the same time. According to reports at the time, in addition to shelves and scene designs with related IP elements, consumers could also participate in "detective" Q&A and other activities to win gifts. However, this store also closed after operating for a while.

Born at the wrong time may be the best description for these two theme convenience stores. In the current era of focusing on participation, experience, and being keen on checking in with internet celebrities, these two stores may really create some good results.

02 Flowers bloom, each with its own beauty

In addition to Lawson, convenience stores also want to taste the benefits of IP linkage.

Soon, 7-11, Bianlifeng, FamilyMart and other convenience store chains followed suit, and perfected the "retail + IP" strategy. In addition to spending a lot of money to open unique theme stores, they also "unlocked" many low-cost ways to play.

For example, Convenience Bee once collaborated with Tsinghua Art Museum to launch the "Masters' Sayings" series of coffee cup sleeves, incorporating manuscript elements of masters such as Hu Shi and Zhu Ziqing; in the Year of the Rabbit, 7-11 cooperated with "Miffy Rabbit" to launch the "Miffy Rabbit" co-branded Shoutao brand XO sauce cart noodles, as well as the "Life-like Bubu Cake" (its own brand of carrot bread) printed with Miffy patterns.

Another low-cost attempt is to use IP posters and other elements to decorate the store. Consumers can interact with the store staff in a themed way, or redeem limited-edition posters, stickers and other small items that are not expensive but can bring satisfaction after purchasing related products. This is the form recently adopted by Lawson's "Suzou Journey" theme store.

Lawson's "Sweet Bud Journey" theme store, source: Lawson's Weibo

Compared with IP cooperation, which requires a certain amount of licensing fees, cultivating one's own IP is a different approach. The now-retired All-Time convenience store launched its own IP, "Quanlimao", in 2017.

At that time, Jia Yan, deputy general manager of Quanshi Convenience Store, believed that the image of Quanshi Cat represented Quanshi Convenience Store’s attitude and value proposition towards consumers - full-scale innovation and service, and this lively image could increase consumer stickiness.

Unfortunately, the full-force cat’s sprint came to an abrupt end in 2020.

Two years later, in 2019, FamilyMart opened a "Biang!Biang!喵" theme store (hereinafter referred to as "BB喵") in Shanghai and Chengdu, also with cats as the main image. The difference is that FamilyMart did not "go down one path to the end". While cultivating its own IP, it also cooperated with IPs such as Tongdao Dashu and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds".

FamilyMart Biang!Biang!Meow theme store, photo source: FamilyMart Weibo

03 From capital support to thankless task

It is not difficult to find that most of the IP joint cooperation of convenience stores took place around 2017. The bigger background is the capital boost to the convenience store industry - this may have invisibly accelerated the development of IP joint cooperation, which was still a new thing at the time.

The year 2017 was the investment boom period for convenience stores and unmanned retail. At that time, nearly 10 billion yuan of capital poured into the industry, and many chain brands such as Convenience Bee, Xing Convenience, Good Neighbor, and Everyday emerged. Old convenience store brands such as FamilyMart, Lawson, 7-11, and Quanshi are also accelerating their layout to avoid "rowing against the current."

Today, capital has completely retreated, and the convenience store industry has also undergone earth-shaking changes - All-Time convenience stores have become a thing of the past, Beeline's territory is gradually shrinking, FamilyMart remains the same and dominates the East China market, while 7-11 and Lawson are bucking the trend and rising, with Lawson even breaking through the 5,000-store mark.

Data source: China Chain Store & Franchise Association, Zhaimen Canyan

It is difficult to quantify how much benefit the IP collaboration has brought to Lawson, but at least through IP cooperation, Lawson has indeed seized the opportunity and successfully attracted young consumer groups.

During the May Day holiday this year, the CP29 Animation Exhibition held in Shanghai set up a total of 15,000 booths and welcomed as many as 220,000 visitors in a single day. Thousands of IPs competed with each other for attention, and everyone could always see cosplays of several IP characters they were familiar with. This shows that the "two-dimensional" is no longer a niche, and behind it is a huge young consumer group.

However, IP collaboration is not as simple and crude as printing the IP image on the product packaging or launching a few limited edition products . For consumers, they must see the company's "sincerity", that is, to show the background behind these IPs.

In addition to the special decorations in the store, IP collaboration actually tests the store staff's familiarity with the IP characters. In some scenes, it is even necessary to cooperate with the IP's unique personality, story, lines, etc. to satisfy the immersive experience of fans entering the store.

In this regard, some catering and retail stores have already had relatively mature examples in IP linkage. For example, Pizza Hut and KFC have linked with multiple game IPs. From the moment they enter the store, the store staff will guide consumers to shout out slogans in the game and encourage them to participate in interactive mini-games. In addition, the store staff will also wear IP-related clothing and props. Although these designs have been criticized by consumers as "socially dead", the communication effect and experience are actually added points.

Pizza Hut's Genshin Impact theme store, photo by New Retail Business Review

In addition, companies also need to carefully consider the design of experience, sales, gifts, etc. , because unreasonable mechanism design will greatly reduce consumers' impression points and eventually become a "store avoidance post" on Xiaohongshu and Bilibili.

Previously, Lawson and the game "Genshin Impact" were linked, requiring consumers to buy 24 rice balls in a short period of time to collect 4 souvenirs. This triggered complaints from consumers who have an "obsessive-compulsive disorder" to collect all the souvenirs: "Are we going to eat rice balls for every meal for the next few days?"

What is more important to note is that in addition to attracting fans of the IP, in the daily operation of convenience stores, the main service is still ordinary consumers. This means that the stores still have to proceed step by step in terms of supply chain and refined operations, and must not be perfunctory.

Nowadays, some convenience store chains are applying new technologies such as AR and VR to enhance consumers’ shopping experience in IP co-branded cooperation. For example, Lawson and Tencent’s QQ Speed ​​cooperated and used LBS technology, which allows players to compete within 1,000 meters around Lawson stores.

In addition, IP co-branding has also affected the membership system of convenience store chains. Many IP co-branded products are deeply tied to the membership system of Lawson and FamilyMart. Consumers need to accumulate points or reach a certain membership level before they are eligible to redeem limited products, thereby increasing consumer stickiness...

Obviously, behind a small IP linkage, there are more and more operational details involved.

What is more serious is that when IP, product and brand collaboration becomes the norm, Lawson, 7-11, FamilyMart and Convenience Bee are now facing a new challenge - if everyone is engaging in IP collaboration, how can they stand out?

Author: Qian Luoying

Source: WeChat public account "New Retail Business Review (ID: xinlingshou1001)"