Mixue Ice City Globalization: The Snow King Sings and Dances His Way Around the World

Many brands have their own brand spokespersons or IP images, and I believe many people have an impression of the "Snow King" of Mixue Ice City. Now, this cute and somewhat "social bull" image has entered the overseas market with the expansion of the Mixue Ice City brand, and the character of the "Snow King" has become more widely known through a series of marketing actions.

On February 12, in Sydney CBD, consumers lined up to try Mixue Ice City on its first day of trial operation. Local Chinese are very familiar with this tea brand, while other consumers may have been attracted by promotional activities. It is reported that the first 100 customers can drink a free glass of lemonade.

Before entering the Australian market, Mixue Ice City had already "conquered" the Southeast Asian market and South Korea, which are closer to China. No matter where its stores are opened, the same as in China is that the shadow of Snow King can be seen in the store interiors and exteriors and product packaging details.

Many articles have been written about the supply chain, localization, and market positioning of this tea brand. This article would like to briefly discuss the "Community Cow" image of Mixue Bingcheng from the perspective of the IP "Snow King".

1. The cute Snow King, the brand's lifelong spokesperson

Young and handsome men will become old and bastard one day. The other side of the strong exposure of top stars is the risk of failure. When the technology of virtual human matures, various brands will compete to use this technology to launch their own spokespersons. Before this wave came, Mixue Ice City had an understanding of the "leading version" and used its moves earlier than other players.

In 2018, Mixue Bingcheng launched a new brand image, and the famous Snow King was launched at this time.

The snow king with a crown on his head and a snowman-like appearance not only appears in store decoration and product packaging, but also in Mixue Ice City's offline marketing activities. In the 2021 "100 Snow Kings, 100 Days Tour" event, a full 100 Snow Kings in different roles appeared in the square, and the scene was quite spectacular.

"I only love ice cream and tea in my life" - the chubby Snow King has a distinct personality. His birthday is November 22. He is cute and focused. He is the chief quality control officer and lifelong spokesperson of Mixue Ice City. He shows his tongue not only to be cute but also because he saw his favorite milk tea shop.

• Name | Snow King
• Birthday | November 22
• Personality | Cute and focused
• Position | Chief Quality Control Officer of Mixue Ice City and Lifetime Spokesperson of the Brand
• Catchphrase | You love me, I love you, Mixue Ice City is sweet
• Hobbies | Singing and dancing, researching new ways to eat ice cream and tea, and licking my lips when I see my favorite milk tea shop
• Self-introduction | I am the Snow King holding an ice cream scepter. I only love ice cream and tea in my life.

The Snow King's catchphrase is the lyrics of the theme song of "Michelle Ice City". This cute and silly snowman is also the protagonist of the theme song MV. The official Michelle Ice City first launched the Chinese and English versions, and then launched the Korean version when entering the Korean market.

The lyrics of this theme song are very simple, with only two lines repeated over and over again: "You love me, I love you, Mixue Ice City is sweet". The English version translates "Mixues Ice City is sweet" into "MIXUE Ice cream & Tea", which is an emphasis on its main categories of ice cream and tea. The main melody is simple and familiar, and comes from the American country folk song "Oh, Susanna", and the simple notation is: 123556531233212 123556531233221.

Once the theme song was released, netizens were full of imagination and created versions in multiple languages, including Russian, French, and Japanese. Some creators also created a secondary theme song MV and uploaded it to major video platforms.

Searching for "Mixue Bingcheng" on Google shows it as "musician"

As the MV derivative video spread widely, a ridiculous thing happened. When you type "Mixue Bingcheng" into Google search, you will get a prompt that this is a musician. Perhaps there are too many music-related videos on YouTube related to Mixue Bingcheng, so this tea brand was marked as a musician.

Mixue Ice City may not be related to musicians, but it has a great relationship with music festivals. The Snow King has appeared at many music festivals. For example, in May 2019, in Zhengzhou, Mixue Ice City exclusively sponsored the three-day Ice Cream Music Festival. In June 2022, Mixue Ice City held a small ice cream music festival in Zhengzhou.

In China, Snow King's awkward dance is too common on the streets and social media platforms, and Mixue Ice City is always associated with the impression of being "rustic". Judging from the title sponsorship of the Ice Cream Music Festival and the marketing in overseas markets, perhaps "extremely rustic is trendy". Singing and dancing, Snow King accompanies Mixue Ice City into one overseas market after another.

2. Snow King’s symbols and words: affordable and loving

Over the past five years, the brand has expanded from China to Southeast Asia and East Asia, and eventually out of Asia and into Australia:

In 2018, the first Mixue Ice City store in Vietnam opened in Hanoi, sounding the whistle for the global market. Since then, Mixue Ice City has stores in Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. In November 2022, Mixue Ice City opened a store in Seoul, South Korea. In December of the same year, Mixue Ice City announced that its first store in Japan would open in Omotesando, Tokyo, and later announced that the second store would be located in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Both stores started social media marketing early before they opened. In February this year, Mixue Ice City opened its first store in Sydney.

The brand's business mission is "to allow everyone in the world to enjoy high-quality and affordable delicious food." In both the domestic and overseas markets, Mixue Bingcheng is positioned as an affordable tea beverage brand, with prices that are the same as or lower than the average price of local tea beverage brands.

Image source: Twitter @Thread Shopee

Whether in a third-tier small city in China, Sydney, Seoul, or a Southeast Asian country, you can buy lemonade and ice cream at a Mixue Ice City store. In the Southeast Asian market, consumers compare Mixue Ice City's ice cream with McDonald's McFlurry. To them, there is no essential difference between Mixue Ice City and McDonald's, both of which are chain restaurants with desserts on the menu.

Due to differences in raw materials and supply chains, the materials and flavors of products sold in different markets will be different. In China, the brand has stabilized its prices by relying on its own supply chain and has continued to attract customers by relying on "super products". Overseas, the supply chain will be the biggest challenge for Mixue Bingcheng to maintain its price advantage.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the chain tea brand "Mixue Ice City", Mixue Ice City Co., Ltd. also owns the freshly made ice cream chain brand "Jilatu" and the freshly ground coffee chain brand "Lucky Coffee". It seems that the company has different plans for the three product lines of tea, coffee and ice cream.

When doing offline marketing, Mixue Ice City continued its domestic "Let's Dance" strategy overseas. Snow King sang and danced on the streets to cooperate with marketing activities. There was no need to create too many topics, Snow King itself was the topic, and the market was gradually opened up.

Active in the streets and downtown areas, Snow King is happy to be photographed by onlookers, and this is exactly what the brand wants - to be photographed and uploaded to the Internet, so that Snow King/Mixue Ice City can get more exposure. A series of Snow King peripherals follow a similar logic, and have successively launched red envelopes, suitcases, tea bags, cups, plush dolls, figurines, and coasters. The types of peripherals of the Snow King IP may be more than you think.

Letting the Snow King sing and dance is a brand marketing routine of Mixue Ice City. Sending out the "community bull" Snow King to get closer to consumers, and then brainwashing them with the ballad "You love me, I love you, Mixue Ice City is sweet". At present, it is effective at least in the Southeast Asian market. Memes about the Snow King emerge in an endless stream, and local consumers also love to watch the "Snow King's awkward dance" videos transferred from Douyin.

"My Neighbor Snow King" Image source: Twitter @Rixclouds

The Snow King's love of singing and dancing is a carefully designed character. Although the songs he sings are simple and brainwashing, the lyrics "You love me, I love you" are easy to understand no matter what language they are translated into. Mixue Ice City wrote on its official website: "It is catchy and easy to spread, making everyone feel that Mixue Ice City is a loving brand and a loving company!"

Mixue Ice City has many marketing ideas that are not presented in this article, but Snow King's "singing and dancing marketing" is definitely the most popular one. Snow King's setting is too simple, making it difficult for this marketing method to cross the red line. But it is also because of its simplicity that the message it conveys stays in the safe zone of "you love me, I love you".

The brand has grown into one of the largest chain brands in China. As its globalization pace accelerates, Mixue Ice City may add more background to the Snow King. One day, this cute and silly snowman may become a common memory of global consumers like "Uncle McDonald".

The overseas store signs of this Chinese tea brand are all in English. The Snow King is not a real human being. He has no hair and wears only a red cape. It is also impossible to tell where he is from. Although it has no Chinese characteristics, Mixue Ice City does not pretend to be a Japanese brand, which can be said to be a progress in the globalization of Chinese brands.

Author: zhifang

Source: Pingwan Global (ID: pinglobal), telling the Chinese story of technological innovation and the Chinese company's globalization story.