The explosive rise of the three giants in new consumption reveals hidden business opportunities behind it.
Created on 07.21
In the current consumer market, Labubu, Laopu Gold, and Mixue Ice City form the new three giants of consumption, which can be said to be unmatched. They seem "useless" yet are making a fortune; behind this lies a wealth of diverse business opportunities that are worth exploring and contemplating for many practitioners.
Commercial opportunities derived from emotional value
1) New Expansion of Blind Box Economy
The explosive popularity of Labubu blind boxes reveals the enormous potential of emotional value in the blind box economy. Based on this, business opportunities can be explored in the following directions:
- Diverse Innovation in Themes
Develop various novel themed blind boxes, such as those combining niche cultures (like vaporwave culture, elements of mysticism, etc.), and deep collaborations with popular films and games (creating exclusive blind box series for "Game of Thrones," "The Legend of Zelda," etc.), accurately attracting consumers from different interest groups and expanding the audience boundaries for blind boxes.
- Blind Box + X Cross-Border Integration
Crossing over with the catering industry, launching a limited edition blind box giveaway with the purchase of specific meal sets, like the collaboration between KFC and Pop Mart, stimulating catering consumption while increasing blind box exposure; collaborating with beauty brands, hiding beauty samples in blind boxes, enhancing the fun of beauty product sales, creating new consumption hotspots.
2) High-end cultural product creation
Old shop gold combines traditional craftsmanship with high-end positioning, inspiring us to create high-end products with profound cultural connotations:
- Revival of Traditional Crafts
Deeply explore traditional crafts such as Shu embroidery, paper-cutting, and mortise and tenon, integrating them into daily categories like home decor, stationery, and clothing, enhancing product added value with exquisite craftsmanship, targeting mid-to-high-end consumer groups that pursue cultural connotation.
- High-end customization service
For high-net-worth clients, we provide a full-process high-end customization service from design to material selection. For example, we customize unique calligraphy and painting works for clients, incorporating their stories or family elements to meet their personalized and exclusive needs.
3) Affordable entertainment experience upgrade
Mixue Ice City’s low-price strategy and unique gameplay meet the public's demand for low-cost entertainment, bringing opportunities to related fields:
- Low-cost entertainment space creation
Create entertainment venues such as low-cost board game bars and self-service KTV to attract students and young office workers with affordable prices, offering hourly billing, unlimited drinks, and other discount packages to create a relaxed social entertainment atmosphere.
- Creative retail gameplay
In the retail sector, creative retail areas such as "10 Yuan Zone" and "20 Yuan Choose Any" have been launched, selling creative small accessories, stationery, snacks, etc., to meet consumers' dual psychological needs for cost-effectiveness and novelty.
The business value of supply chain and scalability
1) Supply Chain Integration Optimization
Mixue Ice City achieves extreme cost-effectiveness through a powerful supply chain, providing a reference for supply chain-related industries:
- Vertical Integration Supply Chain
In industries such as agricultural products and fast-moving consumer goods, companies can learn from the Mixue Ice City model, expanding upstream by establishing their own raw material planting or production bases, controlling the supply of core raw materials, reducing costs while ensuring stable quality. For example, juice companies can establish their own orchards to ensure the freshness of fruits and cost advantages.
- Digital Upgrade of Supply Chain
Utilizing big data, Internet of Things, and other technologies to monitor and optimize each link of the supply chain in real time. For example, in the logistics link, through an intelligent scheduling system, the delivery routes are adjusted in real time based on traffic conditions and order distribution, improving delivery efficiency and reducing logistics costs.
2) Scalable Operation Strategy
The large-scale store layout of Mixue Ice City achieves economies of scale, providing ideas for chain operations:
- Lower-tier market chain expansion
In industries such as catering, retail, and life services, focus on third-tier cities and below, towns, and other sinking markets, rapidly expanding chain stores with standardized, low-cost operating models. For example, budget barbershops, small supermarkets, etc., meet the demand of sinking markets for high cost-performance products and services.
- International market scale replication
Companies with mature business models can refer to the overseas experience of Mixue Ice City and replicate the successful model in emerging markets. For example, Chinese fast food companies can expand into regions such as Southeast Asia and Africa, where the acceptance of Chinese cuisine is gradually increasing, by opening stores on a large scale to enhance brand international influence and market share.
Consumer Psychological Insights and Marketing Opportunities
1) Circle marketing deeply integrates Labubu, becoming a symbol of recognition in the social circles of young people, prompting enterprises to pay attention to circle marketing:
- Precise audience segmentation
Companies need to conduct in-depth research on the target market, segmenting different circles based on interests and purchasing power. Sports brands launch exclusive product lines and marketing activities aimed at different sports circles, such as running enthusiasts and basketball fans, to increase brand penetration in specific circles.
- Community Interaction Marketing
Hold offline activities within the community, such as themed exhibitions in the trendy toy circle and fan creation competitions in the anime circle; online, conduct topic discussions and interactive games through social media and a dedicated app to enhance community members' sense of belonging and loyalty to the brand.
2) Catering to Consumer Psychology
The old gold shop utilizes consumers' pursuit of luxury attributes, while Mixue Ice City caters to consumers' value-for-money psychology, providing inspiration for marketing:
- New Strategies for Luxury Goods Marketing
For high-end brands, in addition to emphasizing product quality and craftsmanship, new media platforms can be utilized to tell brand stories, inherit history, hold private high-end tasting events, invite celebrities and opinion leaders to participate, and create a sense of brand scarcity and prestige.
- Cost-effective marketing innovation
Affordable brands can create an image of "value for money benchmark" by launching "price challenge" activities, allowing consumers to compare prices of similar products and highlighting their own advantages in value for money; they can also introduce "affordable combo packages" to satisfy consumers' desire for low prices.
The success of the three giants in new consumption is by no means accidental. From the excavation of emotional value, supply chain optimization to grasping consumer psychology, each link hides a wealth of business opportunities. If enterprises can keenly observe and accurately grasp these opportunities, they will surely carve out their own successful path in the fiercely competitive market.
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