Gifts / Sports & Toys

On August 16, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice on the public solicitation of opinions on the "Guidelines for the Standardization of Blind Box Business Activities (Trial) (Draft for Comment)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines for Specifications"). The "Guidelines" clarifies that blind box operators shall not sell blind boxes to minors under the age of 8, and that the sale of blind box products to minors over the age of 8 should obtain the consent of the guardian. In addition, it also includes that blind box operators are not allowed to change the extraction results through background manipulation, arbitrarily adjust the extraction probability, etc. to induce consumption in disguised form. It is not allowed to refuse or deliberately delay the distribution of blind boxes by means of discount, repurchase, exchange, etc. Empty boxes etc. must not be set.

Wang Dongwei, chairman of Zhongtai Capital Investment Management Co., Ltd., said that the development trend of the blind box industry must be based on the needs of young groups, with surprise economy, loneliness economy, social economy, etc. as the starting point to accelerate the iteration speed of products and models. The attractiveness of the blind box, in addition to the uncertainty of stimulation and becoming a hot topic in user social communication, also requires product differentiation and the creation of an IP moat. Because the blind box also has the attributes of spiritual comfort and collection, it is this diversified attribute that makes it beyond the category of leisure toys, and the age range of the audience can continue to expand in the future.

"The refurbished design and hunger marketing methods take advantage of the psychology of consumers' gambling, and the blind box economy can easily go to extremes. Blind box products have a natural affinity with some classic IP or self-created IP, and in the future, they can also be used with movies, themes With the combination of entertainment modes such as amusement parks, its development prospects are still promising. However, blind box producers should not be short-sighted, such as the Ultraman card popular among elementary school students, whether the production company has obtained the authorization of the Ultraman copyright Fang Yuangu Production Co., Ltd. ? These are all unknowns." Wang Dongwei said.

Banned for sale to young children

In the past two years, with the rise of the blind box economy, chaos has occurred frequently in the industry, such as card games sold in the form of blind boxes. Different from the social nature of normal card-collecting games, this kind of game cards sold in the form of "blind boxes" captures the curiosity of consumers, especially young consumers, and makes many minors addicted to buying cards. .

Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and a researcher at the Intelligent Social Governance Research Center of Renmin University of China, said that the blind box conforms to the curiosity of young people today. However, if the price is too high, or if it attracts minors to buy it, the essential meaning of the blind box will be lost. It is not a luxury product or a product with a clear rigid payment. When blind box producers continue to launch new products, the game properties of blind boxes are amplified, and even the catering industry has begun to engage in blind boxes. "

The "Guidelines" not only states that blind boxes should not be sold to minors under the age of 8, but also requires blind box operators to reasonably determine the price of blind boxes based on production and operation costs and market supply and demand conditions. Blind box operators shall clearly mark the price of the goods or services they provide, and shall not sell the goods at a price in addition to the marked price, and shall not carry out illegal acts such as not clearly marking the price according to the regulations, price gouging, and price fraud. Catering service operators shall not induce or mislead consumers to overorder.

Kuang Yuqing, founder of Lens Company Research, said: "Blind box economy is a relatively niche innovation economy, and transparency and openness of rules are prerequisites to ensure its healthy development. Blind box operators should abide by the relevant regulations of the industry authorities. , do a good job in operation management, and standardize business behavior. Just like a claw machine, consumers enjoy the happiness in the grasping process, but if this is a claw machine that will never catch a doll, consumers will Abandon it."

Wang Dongwei believes that the proposal of the "Guidelines" is intended to limit the "blind box" to the scope of normal marketing methods in commodity sales, to prevent it from mutating into a tool that infringes on consumers' rights and interests, or even a gambling platform.

The blind box economy must grasp the IP strategy

The unknownness of the blind box has captured the hearts of many consumers, making the market develop rapidly, and various products emerge in an endless stream, but they are also annoyed by the opaque probability.

The "Guidelines for Specifications" clearly point out that blind box operators should publicize key information such as commodity names, commodity types, commodity styles, extraction rules, commodity distribution, commodity placement quantity, hidden money extraction probability, commodity value range and other key information in a conspicuous way to ensure that Consumers know before buying.

At the same time, the "Guidelines for Specifications" also proposes that blind box operators should establish and improve a product production and operation record system, keep a complete record of the extraction probability setting and result extraction, and use this as a basis for actual market launch and distribution to consumers. Blind box. For online sales, blind box operators should establish a tracking record system to ensure that the goods drawn by consumers are distributed in place and consciously accept supervision. Relevant records are generally retained for not less than 3 years.

Wu Daiqi, CEO of Shenzhen Siqisheng Company, told reporters that the reason why Blind Box is popular with young consumers is not only because of his gaming game style, but also because the popular IP image of many Blind Box products is very popular among consumers. Judging from the "Guidelines for Specifications", although a series of regulations have been made on the operation and sales of blind boxes, there are no restrictions on the IP manufacturing and dissemination of blind boxes.

Wu Daiqi said, "Blind box is only a marketing method. More importantly, blind box manufacturers need to establish their own classic IP cultural circle to make their products unique and unique, so that they can have core competitiveness. Blind box companies lack the continuous output of this kind of content. Although some companies have begun to pay attention to the creation of related IPs, they still lack corresponding cultural support. They rely on design and marketing, as well as certain gaming psychology of consumers, and lack the real value of an IP. and content. Therefore, the future growth of the blind box economy still needs to see whether the blind box companies have the strength to build IP.”

However, Wang Dongwei believes, "The current "Guidelines" are only a draft for comments, and some guidelines also have certain difficulties at the practical level. For example, taking the restriction of the sale of blind boxes to minors as an example, how to confirm that the purchaser has sought the consent of the guardian, And how merchants keep complete records of extraction probability setting and result extraction, and how much it will affect transaction costs and efficiency, these need to be improved."