Looking At The Brand Positioning Of Chinese Toys From Bobbi'S Retirement

Bobbi, China bank, encountered embarrassment

Bobbi's dilemma lies in the face of a brand new China.

Customer (customer): Bobbi's sales are not satisfactory, not because of the lack of consumption power in the Chinese market. On the contrary, the consumption and potential of toys in China are huge.

According to a series of surveys conducted in 2010 by the China Social Survey Office (SSIC) on the urban and rural toy markets (including Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing and other 23 cities and surrounding suburbs and farms), 380 million of the existing 1 billion 200 million people in China are under 14 years old, including 80 million children in urban areas and 300 million children in rural areas.

However, the average annual consumption of urban children's toys is only 35 yuan, while the annual consumption of children's toys in rural areas is less than 10 yuan, far lower than that of Asian children's annual consumption of toys per capita of 13 dollars and the world's children's consumption of toys per capita per year 34 U. S. dollars.

With the improvement of national income level, the increasing number of single children and the importance of children's education, there is a huge growth space for children's toy consumption demand.

If China's toy consumption reaches the average level in Asia, the market size is expected to exceed 30 billion yuan.

It is estimated that China's toys are growing at a rate of 30% to 40% per year, and their consumption preferences are related to fitness and intelligence.

People choose toys for children mainly in terms of practicality, economy, safety, hygiene and so on.

The mainstream toys in China are mainly divided into three categories: electric toys, plastic toys and plush toys. There are also other classes, such as enlightenment teaching and DIY, but the three most closely related to the derivatives of animation.

Cost (price): from the average level of toy consumption of consumers, it can be seen that toys with low and medium price can get broad market share, and the share of high-end toy market is not large.

Communication (promotion): the demand for children's toys is mainly due to the demand for animated cartoons. The success of the animation market is directly related to the sales situation of toys.

Therefore, the sale of children's toys in China does not depend on the product itself and marketing activities, but on whether the form and content of the corresponding cartoon animation conform to the needs of children.

It is the toy company's main choice to promote product image through TV animation.

Convenience (convenience): the domestic toy sales market mainly consists of four channels: traditional distribution, horizontal distribution, vertical distribution and multi-channel distribution.

Traditional distribution channels are scattered and unstable, which are suitable for small enterprises. Vertical distribution includes contract type, resident management type and subsidiary type. It is composed of producers, wholesalers and retailers. Horizontal distribution is a symbiotic channel; multi-channel distribution is the combination of two modes.

Vertical marketing is easy to succeed in China, such as Audi, Xing Yue, and anti city.

The image of Kitty is more suitable for Chinese children's psychological preferences. At the same time, Bobbi doesn't have or does not convey their own cultural characteristics. In terms of cost, Bobbi's brand is quite well-known, its price is very high, and the price of hundreds of dollars is not accepted by consumers. In terms of communication, there is no interest in children's consumers in the design and dissemination of cartoons, especially nowadays, the market competition of cartoon is very fierce. It is often a cartoon that has not been finished and new cartoons have been launched. The general toy brands are hard to continue, not to mention the Bobbi cartoon without consumer loyalty. For Bobbi, in terms of customers, its shape is mature and cute.

Mattel Inc has adopted the mode of foreign direct selling based on brand protection. Flagship store marketing is also a way of product separation and authorization, which directly leads to the higher cost of products which are originally expensive, and has proved that this way is not in line with the domestic market characteristics.

The Chinese toy market is brilliant.

Many toys in the market are full of money, such as foreign brands, Disney, Kitty, tinkling cats and domestic brands.

Although they have their own advantages in marketing mode, their cartoon cartoons are undoubtedly the favorite programs of Chinese children and consumers.

This cartoon image has strong, preference and special brand associations in the hearts of Chinese consumers. Brand loyalty is very high, which is conducive to the extension and marketing of brand products, showing strong market power and competitiveness.

In general, the above brands use the following marketing modes (see Table 1), which conform to the characteristics of toy marketing and are in good agreement with the needs of the Chinese market.

Through the experiential marketing (Scenic marketing and happy Marketing), Disney enables consumers in the target market to participate in the pmission and interaction process of brand culture and connotation in person, forming a vivid, three-dimensional, direct and omnidirectional perception and experience, conforming to the sensory needs and psychological demands of consumers, especially children. Through integrated marketing, brand communication is timely, accurate and high-quality, which helps to continuously enhance the brand perception and association of the target consumer group; enhances the protection of brand assets through franchising, and reduces the image loss caused by brand abuse.

Sanrio Co with Kitty ownership has authorized more than 500 companies in Japan and hundreds of overseas companies.

Kitty's unique image has appeared on about 22 thousand different products and sells well in more than 40 countries.

Its diversified marketing is based on unique product design: a kitten without mouth can sell well because it sells not kittens itself but "cute". Anyone can join their imagination from the image of kittens and feel their innocence. This kind of lovely culture marketing is suitable for everyone's psychology, making up for the lack of support for animation works.

Tinkling cats have established a wide range of sales channels through chain monopolization, strengthened the control ability of terminals, and protected and strengthened the overall image of the brand.

What is more important is to improve the brand awareness and win the market by providing consumers with cost-effective clothes, advocating green environmental protection, paying attention to the healthy growth of young people, and so on.

Through the experience of Disney's experience marketing (pleasant goat theme amusement park, the use of winter movie schedule, etc.) and the integrated marketing mode, pleasant goat has raised its brand awareness in a relatively short period of time.

At the same time, the use of deep marketing (for the needs of the Pearl River Delta market, TVB stars to animate Cantonese dubbing) and word of mouth marketing (with the help of CCTV news coverage, promoting the northern market marketing activities) and other ways, pleasant goat has become a rising star, and has become the first animation brand in the short term.

There are also many brands that can be commendable, such as Altman, blue cat, teddy bear and so on. Their brand success has more or less adopted one or more of the above marketing modes.

For Bobbi, we can innovate on the basis of integration of the marketing modes of the above brands.

Bobbi and Kitty's brand association have similarities. Bobbi shows people's pursuit and desire for beauty. They can consider cultural marketing, such as "Oriental beauty" culture; learn from Disney's happy marketing and experience marketing to enhance interaction with target consumer groups, such as marketing experience activities related to "eastern beauty"; use tinkling cat's relationship marketing mode to express the love and care for Oriental women; learn from the in-depth marketing of pleasant goat, and subdivide marketing in depth according to the diversification and level of Chinese market.

Chinese toy brand positioning

From the analysis of the marketing strategies of other international brands, we can find that all of them have carried out strategic adjustment and marketing mode innovation in accordance with the habits, preferences and behaviors of Chinese consumers.

Especially for the old brand, the accumulation and accumulation of brand culture and assets will not necessarily be an advantage, but may become a stumbling block restricting the promotion of enterprises in the new market.

So for Bobbi, the key problem is to find a way to spread the brand culture and precipitation, which must be combined with the consumption characteristics and brand advantages of the target market.

First of all, in the brand positioning, we should maintain the characteristic culture of the brand toys and meet the needs of the target consumer market.

For Bobbi, it is very important to find the conjunction between Bobbi and Chinese children's consumption characteristics.

If we change the image of Bobbi in China, reduce the sexy elements and increase the characteristics of cartoons, or convey some ideas through the Bobbi doll, such as advocating the protection of our health from childhood, enhancing women's self-confidence and the correct cognition and pursuit of beauty, such as the dissemination of educational, public welfare culture and ideas.

Market orientation and the selection process of marketing mode are the process of interaction and integration between brand culture and target market.

Secondly, the global brand marketing based on customer value must start from the target segmentation market, take the needs of the target customers as the center, and make specific choices according to the brand positioning and marketing objectives.

Generally speaking, integrated marketing is a more effective way of marketing. Under the premise of fully understanding and meeting the needs of target customers, the efficiency, effect and scope of marketing can be maximized, but the cost is relatively high.

For Bobbi, the Chinese consumer market oriented marketing mode must be based on the full analysis and research of the target market, and take customer value as the center to answer a series of questions: what is the customer value of the target market? For example, what the target consumers need is happiness, happiness, beauty or self-confidence.

How to create this kind of customer value? For example, what products, services or experiences provided by enterprises can create value.

Through what way or way to pass the customer value? For example, according to the characteristics of the target customers, choose what channel, media, mode and so on.

How to make use of customer evaluation to enhance brand marketing ability? For example, the teddy bear regards distributors as a target customer group and carries out corresponding channel innovation. This is a good example.

Teddy bears adopt the "business sharing mode", which is communicated by a large number of toy manufacturers and distributors through a common business platform. It has launched a toy supermarket with "love pushes the door" to provide one-stop shopping service for toy shopkeepers.

At the same time, the platform is classified according to the function, price, category, material, brand and so on. On the website, each product is introduced in detail, so that the purchaser can find the goods quickly. The customer system can carry out online communication, customer service personnel help shopkeepers choose commodities, provide reference and suggestions, and even help customers make shop planning and carry out chain franchise services.

This new mode is very suitable for the geographical characteristics of China's toy market: the two or three line cities are too far away from the wholesale market in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, and can not understand the new product dynamics and the higher cost of goods purchase.

Therefore, the positioning of many toy brands can refer to innovative marketing such as teddy bear and other brands, especially in terms of channel changes.

Today's channel strategy results in too high price, too low brand loyalty, and the fact that physical channels and virtual network channels can not cooperate well.

Through repositioning and locking up the subdivision market, the innovation of the price strategy, product strategy and channel strategy according to the characteristics of the subdivision market can effectively establish brand positioning and promote the spread of brand culture.