Source | Kong Shou

Kong Shou believes that brands that fail to understand the commercial value of Labubu may already be abandoned by this era; those who question Labubu's value may also be behind the times in their thinking. Its explosive popularity shows that the underlying logic of business has changed, and the consumer market and consumption concepts have undergone dramatic changes. Accordingly, our understanding of brands and how we build them should also be refreshed in time. When I posted this "radical statement" on my Moments, I received many doubts: some think it's ugly, has no practical value, is a product of capital speculation, and is destined to be a flash in the pan... In fact, every generation of consumers has its own "guzi" (collectible merchandise) and its own "cultural nostalgia" (as Teacher Cao Hu puts it). Why can Moutai, LV bags, and Rolex watches sell so expensively, but not trendy toys? "Digital Moutai" is also Moutai; the value they provide to consumers is not essentially different (among the three core values of a brand, emotional and social value are increasingly more important than functional value). Moreover, Labubu did not become popular overnight; it is already 10 years old this year. Since the launch of its first vinyl plush toy in 2022, it has gradually become a new favorite among young people. Labubu is also a typical "reverse cultural transmission" phenomenon: it first became popular in the Southeast Asian market, then swept through Europe and the US, and finally fed back to China, driving domestic consumers to follow and imitate. Labubu's growth trajectory can be said to provide a new observation model for the growth of new-generation brands and for Chinese brands going global. It reveals two important trends in the future consumer market: First, the 00s narrative – how to win the favor of young people and break out of the circle is crucial; Second, global operations (Labubu's operations in the Thai market are particularly commendable, as analyzed later). Going overseas not only brings new growth points but also greatly feeds back and supports the domestic market at the cultural level. These two points may be the new dividends for Chinese brands in the coming years. Today's new voice is tomorrow's mainstream Nearly five years have passed. If the 00s mainly influenced the capital market back then, today the 00s have a significant impact on the entire consumer market, social culture, and mentality. As we all know, China is entering a deeply aging society, with more and more elderly people. The silver economy is widely touted as a trend, so why are so many brands still making unremitting efforts to achieve "brand rejuvenation"? This is first because the consumption views, values, and lifestyles of young people have a radiating effect on the entire society, driving attention and imitation across the board. Labubu is a clear proof, and music is another example. Summer is the season of music, and this time of year is when music variety shows compete most fiercely. Recently, I noticed a major trend and online topic in the music circle called #00s Rectifying Music Variety Shows#. For example, "New Rap 2025" launched on June 7, with iQIYI content heat breaking 9500 within 24 hours, and the main Weibo topic reading volume reaching 1.3 billion; it received Yunhe S+ certification after only 13 days of return, ranking TOP1 on the Yunhe all-public-opinion heat list. This year's theme for "New Rap 2025" is called "Rap Circle Reshuffle", fully embracing the musical aesthetics of the new generation, helping 00s rap newcomers rise and reshuffling the Chinese rap circle. Another example is another music variety show, where the biggest online topic is currently Shan Yichun. Her magical cover of "Li Bai" has caused controversy but is championed by young people, conveying the current social mentality of the 00s and their voice of using music to fight against life. Also, iQIYI's new music variety show "Asia New Voice" has invited many 00s musicians. The six singers representing China in the first episode are all aged between 18 and 25. Moreover, the format of this show is very new. I think two trending hashtags best represent its characteristics— One is called #Hardest Music Variety Show in Domestic Entertainment History#. The show moves the stage to a cruise ship, traveling across five competition zones along the Maritime Silk Road. Contestants from nine Asian countries and regions need to compete at sea to vie for the title of Asia New Voice King. The "cross-border singers + sea competition" model is a first in music variety history. Contestants must overcome the effects of waves and sea breeze before they can sing well. Another is called #Music Variety Trash-Talk Segment More Explosive Than Rap#. Many young people said after watching "Asia New Voice" that they were shocked by the intensity of the trash-talk between contestants, which was very addictive and directly pushed the show to a climax. In fact, 00s musicians not only have unique performance styles but also the attitude and personality unique to young people, which is why the show can better attract younger audiences. Since "Asia New Voice" launched on May 23, I checked its Douyin index. The largest audience group is aged 24-30, accounting for 31%; the highest TGI is for the 24-30 and 18-23 age groups. The TGI index means that among all age groups on the internet, people aged 18-30 have the highest preference for this show and the strongest willingness to watch, making them the high-potential consumer group. Moreover, this group pays more attention to fashion, food, travel, sports, etc. The show also has a slogan called "The Back Waves Surge, and the New Voice Is Formidable". Looking back at the first half of 2025, after seeing a series of social hotspots such as Nezha, DeepSeek, American 00s influencer IShowSpeed's China trip, and Labubu, this sentence is also my summary and biggest sentiment for the first half of the year. The new voice is indeed formidable because they will eventually become the strongest voice of society. The popularity of any new thing is actually a product of social culture and the spirit of the times, a concentrated reflection of social emotions and mentality. We must realize that the value satisfaction consumers seek today has changed, and emotional needs are becoming unprecedentedly important. Moreover, the spread of new things, technologies, and concepts does not capture the masses overnight but goes through a process of rising from niche circles and gradually spreading to the mass market, which is called the "Innovation Diffusion Curve". The biggest driving force for diffusion comes from the interests and preferences of the new generation of young people, and their emotional resonance is the key to brand breakout. Labubu is an example where the preferences and influence of young people have spread to the whole society. (Innovation Diffusion Curve) For brand marketing, only by continuously paying attention to the interests and preferences of young people can we grasp the pulse of the entire society and cultural trends; only by seizing the trend of new voices can we embrace tomorrow's mainstream. Free scholar Wang Dongyue once said that the edge will eventually replace the mainstream; today's edge is tomorrow's mainstream. Indeed, as the saying goes. iQIYI has always been known for its innovative content and bold use of new talents. Although innovation may seem niche at first and often underestimated, in the end, it always leads trends and becomes mainstream. The mainstream is always made by new voices. Whoever can seize the new voice now can embrace the mainstream ahead of time and ultimately reap the greatest rewards. The exclusive title sponsor of "Asia New Voice" is JDB. JDB is known as the "Bole of the music variety world". Since successfully sponsoring a music program in 2015, it has been known for its keen insight into the music market. This time, JDB returns to the music variety track after a decade, and its first move is to invest in a program focusing on cross-border cultural exchange among Gen Z singers. To create a hot and spicy atmosphere of summer with music and food, JDB not only launched a co-branded product "JDB Asia New Voice Can" but also carried out a City New Voice King activity, tailoring an exclusive music arena for Gen Z. Similarly, the exclusive title sponsor of "New Rap 2025" is Uni-President Ice Black Tea. Like JDB, both are mass beverage brands with high visibility and wide user coverage, and this year happens to be the 30th anniversary of Uni-President Ice Black Tea's listing. But even two national-level brands are making unremitting efforts to rejuvenate. In the show, Uni-President Ice Black Tea deeply penetrated the program scenes as "Youth Homie", combined with rap culture to shoot brand short films, conveyed brand concepts, and created topics like #Youth Without Limits Rap So Cool#. In addition to this program, in the past two years, Uni-President Ice Black Tea's major marketing moves have also included sponsoring the Forever 22 Graduation Concert, co-branding with the classic online literature IP "The King's Avatar", and the ongoing national comic culture tour activity "Uni-President Ice Black Tea Comic Campus Season". This is a very typical rejuvenation strategy. Why do JDB and Uni-President Ice Black Tea both value the 00s and youthful explosive content IPs so much? This is because the value of young people is not only their purchasing value but also their consumption-leading value and brand-shaping value. They may not be the largest purchasing group in society, but their existence can give brands vitality and life, help brands stay young forever, and keep brands at the forefront of social pop culture. For brand marketing, target audience selection is undoubtedly the premise and first step of marketing. In traditional audience concepts, we often divide audiences based on different consumers' contribution to brand sales and scale, calling the group with the largest purchase volume and highest purchase frequency heavy customers, and then further dividing into medium and light customers (general customers), marginal customers, potential customers, etc. This sets the customer structure based on purchase value, leading to two marketing thoughts: one emphasizes heavy customer management based on the 20/80 rule, such as many companies implementing membership systems and setting up key account departments. The other emphasizes increasing exposure to light customers to achieve growth, which is the HBG big penetration theory. But there are two other audience concepts that are equally important, helping us understand customer structure from another perspective. One is to divide consumer groups according to the order in which the brand acquires users (also based on the innovation diffusion curve), dividing brand users into origin group, high-potential group, mainstream group, and spillover group. The origin group is the brand's first batch of customers, angel customers, who help the brand survive. This group influences the high-potential group, and the high-potential group can spread the brand's reputation through their influence and demonstration effect, helping the brand enter the mainstream group. When the brand successfully becomes mainstream, the remaining groups do not need special communication and education; the brand's popularity effect and the herd mentality of the group can radiate to them, resulting in a spillover effect (Labubu has now formed a spillover). Another way is to divide brand audiences into benchmark group, target group, and actual purchasing group based on their importance to the brand. The target group for brand communication is usually not equal to the actual purchasing group but is a subset of the purchasing group. For example, many brands advertise to new white-collar workers, but the main purchasers may be small-town youth. The benchmark group is a subset of the target group, representing the typical user profile of the brand, deeply influencing the brand image and persona. It is the brand's muse, and the brand's core value, claims, concepts, connotations, and values are usually set for this group. For brand marketing, understanding the customer structure is essential to understand the brand's value, the path of brand communication, growth, and breakout diffusion, and to truly do well in customer management; understanding the customer structure helps us understand the brand strategies and IP choices of JDB and Uni-President Ice Black Tea mentioned earlier, the value of content IPs like "Asia New Voice", and the explosive popularity of Labubu. For the entire society, the new generation of young people means the high-potential group and benchmark group for brands, and the initiators and source of social pop culture. Overseas Cultural Trends Feed Back into the Chinese Market Labubu became a global darling, with its source in Thailand. Thai top celebrity Lisa posted unboxing videos, and the Thai princess spontaneously promoted it, leading to explosive growth in its popularity. Moreover, Pop Mart implemented a localization strategy, cooperating with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, letting Labubu wear traditional Thai costumes, check in at Bangkok landmarks, and become the officially certified "Amazing Thailand Experience Officer". It also launched the Lucky Elephant blind box in combination with local culture, winning national recognition. The offline store construction and inventory management system also fully matched the Thai market conditions. (Image source: Thai Headlines News) This is a "from near to far" expansion strategy, starting from culturally similar East Asian and Southeast Asian markets, then gradually attacking Europe and the US through social media. When celebrities like Rihanna and Beckham started showing off Labubu, Pop Mart's globalization strategy became logical. Now Pop Mart's overseas revenue reaches 1.066 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 40%. This strategy is very worth learning for domestic brands. The global market is increasingly integrated. For Chinese brands, the overseas market not only means new growth points, but the achievements, attention, and topic discussions generated overseas often feed back into the domestic market, helping domestic brand building. For example, BYD and Huawei are using their overseas achievements and endorsements to drive domestic sales. In particular, foreign consumer markets are more fragmented and culturally diverse, with higher acceptance of innovative products and niche cultures. If a brand can become popular abroad, it is more likely to lead to imitation and follow-up by domestic young people, thereby driving the domestic market. Nowadays, many electronic products, lifestyle products, and cultural products first become popular abroad and then become popular domestically, such as sports cameras, stringless guitars, electric balance scooters, and smart rings. For example, Anker, known as the "3C P&G", and RingConn, a domestic smart ring brand (the world's second largest), both proved their product appeal in overseas markets before starting to deeply cultivate the domestic market. Also, many popular songs on Douyin now come from Thailand, Vietnam, and other places. Since the beginning of this year, I have increasingly felt the synergy and integration of the global market, with three reasons as evidence— First, Chinese enterprises have truly reached the time when they need to go global with their brands, not just do cross-border e-commerce. Second, the export capability of Chinese cultural IPs is getting stronger, from Nezha 2's box office success overseas to Labubu. Third, there is an increasing linkage between domestic and overseas markets; overseas cultural content and consumption trends can influence domestic markets. Labubu is a typical example of blooming outside the wall and being fragrant inside. Another example is the US million-follower influencer IShowSpeed's China trip in March this year, which became one of the biggest social hotspots in the first half of the year and indirectly drove the tourism boom in Rongchang District, Chongqing during the May Day holiday; the world's number one influencer "MrBeast" is also coming to China soon. JDB is also now embarking on its brand globalization journey, hoping to carry the mission of "building a world-class beverage brand and promoting traditional Chinese health culture", not only meeting overseas consumers' demand for healthy drinks but also winning their recognition of the "prevent heatiness" health concept and Chinese health culture. This means JDB is not just exporting products but also culture and resonance. Therefore, JDB's food promotion activities not only integrate the "Spicy Fragrant Food Map" online with the Southeast Asian cuisine in "Asia New Voice" but also will create hot and spicy food events at landmarks in ten cities across the country, bringing users a true "Drink JDB, Sing Asia New Voice" experience. For example, in the Singapore and Vietnam stops, they combine local specialties like curry fish head and chili crab, Vietnamese stir-fried snails, and Vietnamese hotpot to create a perfect blend of Chinese health wisdom and Southeast Asian customs. As going overseas becomes the mainstream narrative for more and more enterprises, many brands try to "make waves" in the vast and complex overseas market but cannot find good content anchors and landing carriers. At this time, brands need content IPs that can integrate into overseas multicultural landscapes, reflect local cultural characteristics, and especially understand the needs of Chinese brands. Long-form variety shows are actually a very good carrier to connect with overseas culture and local markets, helping Chinese brands go global and making the brand's overseas story "soft-land". As the first truly "pan-Asian music variety show", "Asia New Voice" features music from multiple countries, including Thai divine songs, Japanese anime golden songs, and Vietnamese folk songs; it also has many foreign singers joining, such as Zhang Liangying, Jessie J, Kudo Shizuka, and You Zhangjing, with professional musicians from various countries supporting, making it a veritable atlas of Asian customs and music styles. In Singapore, Tanya Chua recommended Singaporean specialties to Zhang Liangying, and the two encountered a street singer while shopping, leading to an impromptu street battle, which not only brought new highlights and topics to the show but also led the audience to deeply appreciate the local cultural atmosphere. In the Malaysia stop, You Zhangjing performed his representative song "Are You the Adult You Want to Become" in front of his hometown, becoming the adult he wanted to become in front of his fellow townspeople, which resonated strongly online. The hashtag #You Zhangjing Became the Adult He Wanted to Become# sparked widespread resonance, and the show was praised and warmly greeted by Malaysian Ambassador to China Norman Muhamad. It is foreseeable that long-form variety shows with concepts like "music knows no borders" and "diverse integration" will become more and more common, and will be increasingly welcomed by Chinese brands, leading the pace of Chinese brands going global. Today's consumers are constantly changing, and the entire society's mentality, emotions, pop culture, and aesthetic preferences are also constantly evolving. From these "formidable new voices" content IPs and cultural hotspots in the first half of the year, we can feel that there are two highlands leading social cultural trends today: one is rejuvenation, looking at the consumption concepts of the 00s; the other is globalization, looking at overseas cultural trends. For enterprise marketing, brands must seize these two highlands of youth culture and overseas markets, keep up with new consumption voices and overseas trends, to gain a competitive advantage in the future and seize the engine of growth.