Gifts / Sports & Toys

The commercial spillover effect brought about by cultural self-confidence is expanding. Recently, a reporter from "Securities Daily" at the BEJING DREAMFAIR 2021 Beijing International Original Art and Designer Collection Toy Fair hosted by 52TOYS found that many products with unique cultural attributes have been sought after by consumers, such as those with Sanxingdui culture as the core. Blind box products are out of stock. “You need to book in advance and you can buy them on our official website after 10 days. They are out of stock on the spot.” The staff at the exhibition told a reporter from the Securities Daily.

In this regard, 52TOYS co-founder and president Huang Jin said in an interview, “Gen Z’s cultural self-confidence is fully established, paying attention to local brands in various fields, and toys have a full opportunity to win consumers.”

IiMedia Consulting CEO Zhang Yi told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the improvement of the toy manufacturing supply chain and the increasing recognition of the national tide by young consumer groups. Under the background of cultural self-confidence, domestic brands in the toy industry will usher in a new development opportunity .

Cultural self-confidence is the internal cause of development

A research report previously released by iiMedia Consulting shows that in 2020, the size of China's tide play economy market will reach 29.48 billion yuan. Affected by factors such as the surprise economy and social and emotional demand, the popularity of China's trendy games has continued to rise. It is expected that this market will maintain an expansion trend and will increase to 38.43 billion yuan in 2021 at a growth rate of 30.4%.

Public information shows that toys can be divided into four categories: hand-made models, blind box dolls, BJD toys, and art toys. From the perspective of the categories purchased, consumers prefer blind boxes, followed by hand-made and model, which accounted for 62.95%, 52.33% and 52.07% respectively.

According to Zhang Yi’s analysis, there are two reasons for the rise of domestic toy IP. “First of all, the level of toys produced in China is very high. In fact, most of the mainstream toys in the world come from China. For this field, the country has already formed a complete range from design to production and sales. In the past, high-end toys were mainly exported, but the epidemic has caused a turning point in the industry and forced everyone to build better IP in the country to make the channels operate. It can also be understood that the upgrading of the manufacturing industry forces companies to take their own IP Speed up the development; secondly, the consumption power and consumption level of domestic players have reached a very high level. With the cooperation of these two factors, the current young consumer groups' recognition of the national tide is increasing. This is the role of culture and the times. The common result."

Huang Jin remembers that in a questionnaire survey launched not long ago, the first question consumers cared about was “whether the product is genuine? It shows that consumers’ respect for intellectual property rights has been significantly improved. It provides the internal driving force for the development of domestic original brands."

Companies must be long-termists

However, although the market is in a stage of rapid development, the toy industry as a whole is still in the primary market. "With the increase of national income, cultural demand will become greater and greater, and the design and cultural attributes of toys will also be recognized by more consumers. In this process, companies must adhere to the "long-termism" and can persist for 10 years. , 20 years or even longer to insist on IP building, don’t be short-sighted.” Huang Jin said.

"Overall, some domestic IPs are still fighting alone. This is actually incompatible with consumption upgrades. The current development of collectible toys in China is very fast, and players have high loyalty to IP, which is conducive to the industry's products. Do it deeper." Zhang Yi said.

Judging from the market forecasts for the next two years, the growth rate is slowing down compared to the past, because the base number is getting larger, and it is already very good to be able to maintain a double-digit growth rate. "The market growth rate is actually very optimistic. In the past, the development of toys in China was based on a foundry model, which helped to process overseas materials. However, current toys have cultural attributes. In the future, such products will be based on culture and supplemented by toys. Product attributes." Zhang Yi said that from this perspective, the national trend of the toy industry has just begun, and the industry will continue to maintain relatively good growth in the future. Analysis shows that the market is very large, and in the process of development, the creation of front-end IP and cultural penetration and creation will be an important part of determining success or failure."

Leading companies are actively taking up the banner of creating their own IP. According to Huang Jin, the current product development of 52TOYS adheres to the 721 rule, "70% of the categories are market trending categories, 20% of the categories are market-forward-looking products, and the other 10% are more forward-looking product research and development. Investment, this product echelon structure can ensure that the company always has a steady supply of innovative products."

In addition to its own research and development of IP, 52TOYS also cooperates with many foreign brands. However, these cooperations are not simply "used", but include secondary creation. "After getting the authorization from the other party, we will add our own design and finally form a brand-new three-dimensional IP." Huang Jin remembers that it is this insistence on creation that impressed many holders of large foreign IPs. Achieve cooperation, "When we participated in some foreign exhibitions, foreign colleagues recognized our creative ideas and were willing to authorize cooperation."