为何「春日限定」出不了爆款？

In order to create a hit product or a big buzz in the seasonal marketing strategy, brands need to avoid homogeneity, improve product strength, pay attention to local emotions, and appropriately increase the "new romantic" measures such as creative marketing, folk marketing, localized marketing and social interactive marketing. The author of this article analyzes the logical essence of "Spring Limited Edition" and lists reference cases. Let's take a look.

Spring is not only beautiful, but also a great time for marketing.

The trend of "spring limited edition" is bringing in more and more products.

From Starbucks' cherry blossom cat scratching cup to Zhou Hei Ya's cherry blossom flavored popping candy duck neck, Dove's cherry blossom oolong tea flavored dark chocolate, to Seesaw Coffee's apricot honey latte, and Luxi River's "Human True Ai Tuan" green rice dumpling, even the beauty and care track has emerged with key new products with spring colors and flowers as the theme, such as LUSH's cherry blossom-themed limited body care product Spring Collection, JOOCYEE's "Spring Crush" limited series...

Cherry blossoms, peach blossoms, and green rice dumplings, packaging, flavors, shapes, and colors, the business of selling spring to consumers has never been absent.

There is no doubt that the pink color that catches the eye and the "romance" of the cherry blossoms that bring a bright visual impact still occupy half of the "Spring Limited Edition".

It seems that today’s spring marketing cannot be called the limited romance of spring without the touch of pink and cherry blossoms.

But as spring comes and goes, season after season, the romantic atmosphere associated with spring continues, but the “spring limited edition” products have never become a hit. Is it that spring is not romantic enough, or is it that the consumer market has become allergic to romantic plots and finds them “vulgar”?

01 Behind the flood of cherry blossoms, the three major dilemmas of "Spring Limited Edition"

When it comes to cherry blossoms as a spring-limited marketing specialty, the one that most consumers love and hate is probably the combination of various teas and coffees with cherry blossoms.

This is not the first year that Luckin Coffee has launched limited edition spring cherry blossom drinks. This year's Sakura Teppanyaki, Luojia Sakura Latte, and Pink Sakura Lily Daifuku all use "sakura" and "pink" in their names, the pink syrup and cherry blossom shape in the drink design, and the cherry blossom elements injected into the outer packaging in the form of illustrations and hand-painted designs, along with two bright flower-shaped cup sleeves and a limited edition pink paper bag, all repeating a spring story about "pink" and "sakura".

Starbucks prefers the extension of limited peripherals, and it must release a cherry blossom-themed coffee cup every year. The 2023 Starbucks Sakura Cup is themed "The SAKURA Beauty shining in the light", with romantic tones and elements such as shimmering gradient halos to create a sense of spring romance.

In addition to using the cup as an accessory to coffee culture and creating IP products that evoke brand memory, we also launched items with strong seasonal attributes such as Yunying Light Cheese Latte, Yunying Chuzhan Frappuccino, and Yunying Chuzhan Iced Espresso.

Starbucks "Spring Limited Edition" Coffee

Yuanqi Forest also takes advantage of the marketing opportunity. Every spring, it returns to the limited-time cherry blossom and white grape flavored sparkling water. At the same time, it is equipped with a beverage bottle that will show cherry blossoms on the bottle as the temperature drops, using visual details to create spring romance. In social scenes, the cherry blossom and white grape flavored sparkling water jointly launched three special American sodas with the bistro Double Win. Whether it is a cherry blossom bottle or a joint special blend, Yuanqi Forest’s spring marketing rules cannot avoid the "cherry blossom" element...

In addition, there are sakura-flavored cola, sakura-flavored potato chips, pink-themed makeup palettes, pink sakura-element clothing...all walks of life are keen on using cherry blossoms and the color pink to "sell spring."

This also directly exposes an important reason why "Spring Limited Edition" is difficult to become a hit, that is, the homogeneity is too serious.

That’s right, among the current “Spring Limited” product concepts, two-thirds of them can be said to be directly linked to cherry blossoms and the color pink, and even in terms of appearance design, most of them can be compared.

There is no doubt that the combination of cherry blossoms and pink can indeed greatly enhance the attractiveness of the appearance packaging to customers. This can be seen from the fact that every year there are netizens on Xiaohongshu asking for purchasing Japanese cherry blossom cups on their behalf.

Screenshot of Xiaohongshu

However, whether it is Luckin Coffee, Starbucks, Yuanqi Forest and other brands, they have all chosen homogeneous marketing methods in the unified way of taking advantage of spring marketing, such as the same pink visual color, cherry blossom design, or incorporating cherry blossom elements into products, packaging, etc. Homogeneous marketing methods will only bring excessive visual fatigue to consumers and reduce their sense of participation in the era of fierce competition. This will be reflected in the brand itself, and the differentiated brand power will also become more blurred.

The most important thing is to return to the product itself. Quality is the foundation, and product strength is not a similar packaging design.

Under the homogenized marketing method, products that simply bear the seasonal label do not essentially possess any innovative research and development or improvement in their core. Private label products that are just a change of name but the same substance have no intrinsic product strength. The so-called spring marketing will easily become a superficial "renewal". For example, the so-called cherry blossom-flavored products do not actually contain any cherry blossom ingredients. The so-called cherry blossom flavor is just a flavor additive to satisfy the taste imagination. There are no "cherry blossom, white grape" related ingredients in Yuanqi Forest's cherry blossom and white grape flavored sparkling water.

The disagreement over sakura flavor in the food industry is also discouraging a large number of consumers . Most sakura flavors have been rated as unpalatable and disappointing by bloggers and netizens on multiple social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin.

Furthermore, the selected cherry blossom elements do not have the intrinsic meaning that is in line with the national conditions, and how to arouse deep resonance among more consumers.

Initially, the spread of cherry blossom elements to the world was inseparable from the popularity of Japanese literary and artistic works around the world. Whether it is animation, film and television works or food, cherry blossoms are loved. In Japanese culture, it represents "flowers are cherry blossoms, people are samurai", which means that when you are alive, you should be as brilliant as cherry blossoms, and even when you die, you should leave decisively.

Cherry blossom viewing is also Japan's "world signature" in spring.

However, spring is not limited to this in the Chinese consumer market. The elements of spring that are local to the country also include willow trees, outings, folk customs and other Chinese national characteristics. The brand marketing inspiration of the cherry blossom element is based on imported culture and cannot be combined with the national cultural connotation. Simply opening brand marketing based on consumers' perception and "imagination" is doomed to fail to establish a deep emotional resonance with consumers.

Under the combined influence, neither the externally similar product power nor the relatively "superficial" value significance can form a long-tail effect in which the consumer market feeds back to increase brand loyalty. Naturally, consumers will not pay for it, and there will be no talk of spring-limited big single products or big hits.

02 What marketing strategies are needed to support the everlasting seasonal romance?

The logical essence of the "Spring Limited Edition" marketing lies in first labeling the products with scarcity and restriction labels such as "seasonal limited", "no waiting after expiration", and "once in a lifetime", and then playing hard to get by limiting the purchase time to amplify the hunger effect, create scarcity that needs to be snapped up during a limited period to highlight the uniqueness of the product and brand, and achieve the limited-time business of seasonal limitation.

Secondly, the brand is quickly linked to the non-concrete spring, and then spring elements are added to product packaging and the product itself to allow the consumer market to feel the arrival of spring, creating a spring atmosphere. The essence is to meet the growing emotional needs of the consumer market under the new consumption upgrade, which focuses more on self-emotion, to emotionally link spring with romance, to open up a beautiful fantasy space for perception, and to let consumers pay for the emotional premium.

However, the changing of seasons and the passing of years have endowed spring with romance and beauty, but spring marketing has still not produced a big hit.

In order to create a hit product or generate a lot of buzz in a seasonal marketing strategy, in addition to the above-mentioned requirements for brands to avoid homogeneity, enhance product strength, and pay attention to local emotions, "new romantic" initiatives such as creative marketing, folk marketing, localized marketing, and social interactive marketing also need to be appropriately increased.

Several cases of this year's "Spring Limited Edition" trend can be used as reference.

Although M&M beans still borrowed the elements of cherry blossom powder, they were more creative in marketing. By launching a blind box draw game that could open M&M beans with 5% cherry blossom powder packaging, the interactive attribute between the link product and consumers was enhanced, and consumers were able to experience the romance of "spring" in person under the high playability. At the same time, M&M beans launched the #Find Sakura Pink Lucky Beans# topic contest on Weibo to attract consumers to buy and use, and then convert them into secondary dissemination, which once set a new highlight in the spring marketing industry.

Creative marketing not only uses scarce elements to create "fun", but also leverages consumers' interactive experience in the communication chain to move away from traditional one-way marketing. On the other hand, folk marketing should pay more attention to the value connotation of content output. It is worth thinking about how to connect and integrate traditional culture with the brand.

For example, Guliduo's 2022 spring blockbuster, "Good Things Happen in Spring", revolves around its flagship product "Extra Concentrated Peanut Milk". By presenting the spring splendor of the spring blessing ceremony of children of all ethnic groups during the folk festival "March 3" in spring, it gives the brand the blessing of good wishes for good things to happen, and also incorporates the taste of spring into the warm atmosphere of fireworks and expectations. With the help of spring marketing, the homophonic puns are played with great connotation and high-end feeling.

Guliduo "Good Things Come to Peanuts in Spring" short film

In localized marketing, spring scenes can also be used to break through conventional limitations. The sense of contrast can not only attract consumers to stop, but also differentiate themselves according to local characteristics and local conditions.

Amul is no longer limited to the taste of spring being equivalent to cherry blossoms. It focuses on the regional differences of vast land and resources, uses localized spring marketing to cross-border linkage, and leverages the power of circles to amplify marketing volume. When Amul's new AMX blueberry flavor was launched, it joined hands with Ele.me and China Post to launch a creative collaboration of "giving you the taste of spring". The coexistence of white snow and tender green sprouts presents a spring scene in Changbai Mountain that is different from other places. The event received more than 250 million total exposures and successfully drove millions of sales conversions.

In fact, spring elements are not limited to green leaves and flower buds. The "romantic" revival of spring, which is the quintessence of Chinese culture, can better reflect the strong national attributes of domestic brands.

Guyu Skin Care takes advantage of the Guyu solar term of the same name and promotes the gentle skin care concept of "effective skin care according to the season and order". It launches a series of products named with Chinese characteristics and containing Chinese herbal ingredients, such as the Glabridin series, the Wild Ginseng series, the Baiqian Truffle series, etc. By exploring the connotation of traditional Chinese culture, the brand is deeply bound with traditional culture, and with the help of historical and cultural heritage, it achieves differentiated product strategies. While spreading traditional culture such as Chinese medicine and solar terms, it successfully creates a national exclusive skin care brand image.

Oreo also designed its packaging to include a social currency function that allows people to write greetings based on its social interaction attributes; McDonald’s and Ele.me joined forces to launch a joint event called “Send Spring Now”, which used comics’ more concrete visual impact to make spring marketing more romantic.

McDonald's "Send Spring Now" Joint Event

Judging from the entry point and creative fission of marketing methods, spring marketing still has multiple intrinsic values ​​that can be deeply explored. The romantic business of spring can still be a long-lasting seasonal romance.

A year's plan begins with spring. After the romance of spring, there will be the colorful summer with blooming flowers, the rustling autumn with falling leaves, and the warmth of snowy winter. The rings of time will also turn round after round. In the increasingly homogenized marketing methods, the consumers' threshold for surprise has been greatly increased, but what remains unchanged is the changing of seasons. What can always be explored and changed is the understanding of spring, the perception of seasons, as well as the changes in consumer insights at the brand marketing level, and the in-depth exploration and grasp of creative gameplay.

The romance of spring is always worth looking forward to.

Author: Irene.Lin

Source public account: YIFAN (ID: finance_yifan), business and life of the younger generation.