Click to read the original article for details. Author: Liang Jiangjun Source: Liang Jiangjun (ID: liangjiangjunisme)
When I first entered the industry, I saw a question on Baidu: "Why are the logos of Chinese travel websites all animals?" I checked and found that Chinese travel websites are basically a Zootopia.
Later, as I encountered more, I found that not only travel websites, but many Chinese internet companies are natives of Zootopia, and the population of the animal city has been growing in recent years.
Tech brands are inherently cold; finding a cute animal can soften a brand's hardness, but more importantly, it has strong semiotic significance. Since ancient times, humans have used animal totems to represent a spirit. Take the example of "Game of Thrones," which you love: the family crests of the major houses are animals.
Each animal's nature represents a spiritual belief. For example, the wolf represents perseverance and unity, with an indomitable spirit. When a company chooses an animal, it hopes that the animal's inherent impression will be projected onto the brand. Just as a man with a tiger tattooed on his back and a man with a Bugs Bunny tattoo are definitely not of the same temperament.
But in recent years, the brand images of all Chinese companies have expanded from animals to dolls, not only as corporate logos and mascots but also as the starting point of corporate IP strategies.
Representative brands include:
For many brands' IP attacks, I don't think they are successful, or more precisely, their existing success masks their failure in IP operations.
For example:
Jiangxiaobai is a failed IP design JD.com's brand IP creation is more difficult than Tmall's Three Squirrels' IP industry is a false proposition
To explain my views clearly, we need to clarify several basic principles of IP:
- Why do people want to replace brands with IPs?
- How to create a successful IP?
- What are the obstacles to brand IP transformation?
Why do people want to replace brands with IPs?
The most natural reason for companies suddenly wanting to replace brands with IPs is that "brand theory" is not as effective as before. So where is "brand theory" outdated? And where is "IP thinking" advanced?
First, we must understand that the fundamental reason for the birth of "brand" is the overproduction of value in human society. When you can't fill your stomach, any milk is good; no one is picky. But when the same thing is available at both the east and west stores, we need to consider which one to go to. At this time, stores with "brands" like "Wang Mazi Scissors" and "Sun Widow Tofu" will outperform the unmarked stall at the alley entrance.
So, the biggest function of a "brand" is to reduce people's choice costs. In other words: a brand is a trust agent that helps consumers choose good things faster and also helps good things sell faster.
Since "brand" is so good, why is it suddenly not popular? Because the output value of human society is not just surplus now, but crowded! When all products on a street can be called "brands," and not only are they of good quality but also have their own characteristics, the meaning of brand existence is dissolved.
Previously, brand = good quality Later, brand = good quality + low price Later still, brand = good quality + personality + high appearance + identity + social talk...
In the current environment, creating a successful brand is as difficult as finding a girlfriend who doesn't like shopping. In this situation, the species IP appeared.
IP = Intellectual Property.
This is only the initial definition of IP. Later, in just a few years, the term IP evolved into a species that no one dares to claim to fully understand. It can be comics, TV dramas, variety shows, novels, games, or refer to a person, a character, a golden phrase, or a business model, a way of thinking...
Although we cannot accurately define IP, IP has several distinct advantages that make "brand theory" look inferior.
1. Brand VS IP = Licking Dog VS Goddess
Brands have always been in a posture of licking when facing consumers. To connect with consumers, they need to continuously acquire traffic, whether it's buying a title sponsorship for "The Rap of China," CBD building ads, or launching a Douyin challenge. Brands need external traffic to support their sales.
IP, on the other hand, comes with its own traffic. If something is called an IP, it must be supported by a group of people. IP faces users with a "being pursued" posture. What IP needs to do is not to pull in more external traffic, but to attract more external traffic through its growth, thereby entering its own traffic pool.
So, the brand is the licking dog; it needs to constantly pull in users and please them. IP is the goddess; she needs to constantly create content and radiate charm to attract more fans.
We often call the brand side the "money bag" because brands often pay, and IP is called the "gold mine" because IP is the mine that attracts the "money bags."
When the "money bag" begins to feel like a "sucker," he starts to ponder a possibility: Can I also become an IP, pursued by others, rather than chasing after others?
I use "licking dog" and "goddess" to describe the survival state of brands and IPs, to clarify the first difference between brands and IPs: passive user connection VS active user connection.
Brand = passive user connection IP = active user connection
This characteristic not only determines the connection cost but also determines the user relationship between the two.
2. Brand VS IP = Friend Relationship VS Religious Ritual
I mentioned earlier that a brand is essentially a trust agent, existing to reduce our choice costs. In fact, IP is also a trust agent; it can also reduce our choice costs. But the paths to achieve this goal are completely different.
If a brand wants to win trust and become a trusted institution, its core task is service, accumulating its reputation through good service. The more such positive interactions occur, the greater the brand assets; when negative events occur, brand assets are damaged.
The relationship between a brand and consumers is more like a friendship. Between friends, there is not only interest but also emotion. But whether it's interest exchange or emotional communication, the most important thing between friends is "integrity." A brand must fulfill its promises to gain deep friendship.
The relationship between IP and users is different; IP is more like a religion, and users are a group of believers. Religion solves not people's life needs but spiritual needs. When users consume an IP, they are seeking a sense of belonging, actively sinking into an emotional vortex.
Under such religious worship, users' pursuit of IP is irrational. They won't criticize it for high prices or uneven quality; instead, they will actively defend IP's mistakes to the public. Because users see IP as their psychological projection, they subconsciously deny its imperfections and actively repair their own spiritual defects.
I use "friend relationship" and "religious ritual" to describe brands and IPs, to convey the second difference: Brand trust is obtained through fair exchange, while IP trust exists through spiritual attachment.
Brand = fair exchange IP = spiritual attachment
Using this inference, we can easily see which brands in the market have IP value. Apple in the Jobs era, supreme—these "needed" brands have IP attributes.
3. Brand VS IP = Personality VS Persona
Think about how a brand is built. First, a company chooses a market track and decides what product to make to meet demand. After the product is formed, it finds a consulting or advertising company to do brand positioning, brand visual, brand slogan, find a spokesperson, and seek media channels for promotion.
During this period, the brand also outputs a lot of content, such as crossovers with the Forbidden City or making its own brand film, but no matter what content is produced, it grows out of the existing product form.
Even if you have a cartoon character and name as a label, these contents can only give the brand a unique personality, but it's hard to form a true persona. Because once you define an item with a persona, it means that the item, from inside to outside, from birth to death, will be branded with strong values and beliefs.
Let's look at a typical IP brand, like Yeezy, which has been popular on the streets in recent years. This shoe was created by Kanye West first, and the co-branding party created the trendy brand based on Kanye's own style and taste. So, people who buy these shoes are buying Kanye's trendy aesthetics and values; these shoes are a product brought out by Kanye's IP.
Looking back at Apple phones, when Jobs was alive, the concept of IP wasn't yet popular, but Jobs' way of creating products was IP thinking. Why does Apple only allow one button? Why only one model? Because Jobs believed in minimalism all his life, as seen from his unchanging black turtleneck and his sparsely furnished home. Why is the iPhone an IP product? Because it was born from Jobs' life philosophy, not market research.
Brand = product first, content later IP = content first, product later
Between brand and IP, one is product-oriented, the other content-oriented. The former derives content from products, the latter incubates products from content, which determines whether they can produce a true persona.
4. Brand VS IP = Bounded VS Unbounded
In recent years, crossover has become a trend in the brand world. Initially, it was crossovers between brands and cultural IPs, such as the Forbidden City's collaborations with a series of brands; later, it was crossovers between brands, such as Hero Ink and RIO.
Both brands and IPs can crossover; what's the difference? Brand crossovers are limited in scope; if you take too big a step, you'll hurt yourself, while IP can crossover infinitely.
For example, RIO can collaborate with Hero Ink, but if RIO collaborates with Xinxiangyin tissue, RIO with Nongfu Spring, RIO with BMW... these brand crossovers don't seem to find a connection point easily.
But if you replace RIO with Brown Bear, Brown Bear & Xinxiangyin, Brown Bear & Nongfu Spring, Brown Bear & BMW... their crossover products seem to appear immediately.
Why is there such a difference? Because essentially, a brand carries a product, while IP carries information. Information is a virtual product; like water, it can change shape and adapt to everything.
Brand = carries products IP = carries information
In summary, I compared brands and IPs from four angles: connection cost, user relationship, production method, and operation scope.
How to create a successful IP?
We've said a lot of good things about IP, seemingly making brands look like historical antiques. But transforming from a brand to an IP is not easy, at least not as many people think. If a brand wants to turn itself into an IP, we first need to see how a true super IP is created.
Our reference is naturally the world's most successful IP manufacturer—Marvel and Disney. Their secret to making IPs has appeared in various reports. Simply put, creating a super IP has only three steps: character, story, and values. It sounds no different from making a movie or writing a novel, but when it comes to the operational level, there are many techniques.
1. Character—The True Asset of IP
If we must rank the three steps of creating an IP, then character > story > values. I introduced this in the article "Say Goodbye to Decision-Making by Patting Your Head: How to Choose a Top IP?" Think back to the classic films and TV shows we've watched, like "My Fair Princess," "The Return of the Condor Heroes," and "Slam Dunk." We've long forgotten the plots, but we won't forget Xiao Yanzi, Xiaolongnü, and Hanamichi Sakuragi.
In the long river of time, the only sediment of an IP is the character; the character is the asset! The indicators for measuring a successful character are divided into external and internal parts:
External refers to the IP's "recognition," that is, whether the IP can make you fall in love at first sight; Internal refers to the IP's "spiritual projection," that is, whether the IP character can make you feel like you've known it before.
How do we understand recognition? Look at a set of classic IP images:
These are the most classic and money-making IP characters, and they all have a very obvious common point: "they are but not like."
Peppa Pig is a pig but not like a pig; Hello Kitty is a cat but not like a cat; Donald Duck is a duck but not like a duck; Brown Bear is a bear but not like a bear.
"Being but not like" makes them stand out and be remembered at a glance. Moreover, although these characters are not like animals, they are more like "people," so they have stronger emotional factors and higher emotional saturation. Let's look at the IP characters of those brands:
Among these IP characters, the strongest recognition is Tmall, and the weakest is Jiangxiaobai. The brand side must want to make Jiangxiaobai a "friend around you," but this friend is too "ordinary." From the perspective of IP recognition, Jiangxiaobai's IP image can only be an extra, not a protagonist.
Three Squirrels is similar to Jiangxiaobai; the recognition of the IP character also has problems. The IP images of the three squirrel characters, Shu Xiaojian, Shu Xiaomei, and Shu Xiaoku, stay at the level of domestic children's animations, far behind Hollywood and Japanese anime. Let's look at the gap between Three Squirrels and these IP characters, both being rodents.
A good character must make users "fall in love at first sight." If the IP recognition itself has problems, then the IP's persona positioning, story, and values are all out of the question.
Let's talk about the external feature of IP characters—spiritual projection.
A good IP not only makes people fall in love at first sight but also makes them feel like they've known it before. Why "feel like they've known it before"? Because all great IP characters are projections of some desire deep in the human heart. For example, Baymax is the human desire for unconditional care; Superman is the human desire for supernatural power; Crayon Shin-chan is our wish to be carefree in childhood...
These "desires" include some of humanity's original sins, such as "gluttony," "greed," "laziness," "jealousy," "pride," "lust," "anger," and some are human beauties, such as "happiness," "joy," "companionship," "dreams"...
The character is the origin of IP. Around the IP character, we can create stories and derive business behaviors.
2. Story—Is Story Really Important?
If the first step of IP is to establish a character, then the story is the world where the character lives. An IP with a story can break the boundaries of dimensions. In recent years, many brands trying to incubate IPs have begun to spend heavily on constructing anime stories for their IPs, such as JD.com's JOY.
(JD IP animation: JOY and the Koi)
But on the other hand, we see that many successful IPs have no story system at all. For example, Brown Bear, Rubber Duck, Kumamon, Chu Orange... these IPs have succeeded through various means.
Brown Bear, emoticons on Line Rubber Duck, cross-city performance art Kumamon, topic event maker
So, is story important? Story is certainly important! But we have two misunderstandings about story:
1) Story is not equal to making a film. For example, the IP brand Chu Orange is entirely backed by Chu Shijian's personal experience. As soon as you see a photo of old man Chu Shijian, the story naturally flows;
2) Story is the carrier of the character, but story is also the booster of IP. When your story cannot break through the circle and enter the public eye, then the story cannot play the role of a booster.
Marvel is considered the most successful IP manufacturer internationally in recent years, but Marvel once wanted to sell the company cheaply. What saved Marvel was the independently produced movie "Iron Man," which swept $580 million globally, and only then did Marvel begin its big layout of the Marvel Universe.
Is Marvel's success due to its story? No! Marvel's comic stories have always been there, but the comic market was cold, and these former heroes could no longer win the hearts of young people. Marvel adapted the comics into blockbuster movies, changing the story carrier. So, Marvel's success is because Marvel created a blockbuster story, not just a good story.
Domestic companies that want to "brand IP-ize" mostly underestimate the threshold of the content industry. Alibaba, with tens of billions of funds, hasn't figured out the big entertainment industry, let alone a brand owner? At the story level, IP needs a story with traffic and box office, not a self-entertaining story.
3. Values—The Dividing Line from IP to Super IP
People need values; why do IPs also need values?
In 2012, a young Jewish scholar named Yuval Noah Harari wrote a history book that swept the world, called "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind." The book has a core viewpoint: human ancestors were divided into six groups, and a group called "Homo sapiens" defeated the other five and became our ancestors. The reason "Homo sapiens" dominated the world is that they had the ability to create fictional language.
So, humans today are creatures living in a fictional world. "Struggle," "dreams," "love," "food," "jealousy"—everything we desperately pursue, aren't they all our own fictions? And these illusions we desperately pursue can all be called "values."
Whether it's the story or the character of an IP, values are needed to infect every fan. "The Avengers" needs the dream of saving the world; "Produce 101" needs the slogan of turning the tables against the wind and thriving in the sun; Wo Huang needs a cool temperament; Egg King needs a lazy posture.
But when an IP wants to capture more audiences at the commercial level and cross from IP to super IP, it must have "universal values." The so-called "universal values" are emotions that resonate with all humanity and are not blocked by culture, race, or country.
China's super IPs are the Four Great Classical Novels. Why do countries around the world have a special liking for "Journey to the West" but show a cold face to "Dream of the Red Chamber," which has a higher literary status? "Journey to the West" not only has vivid characters and a stronger storyline, but more importantly, Sun Wukong's rebellion, Zhu Bajie's laziness, and Sha Seng's loyalty represent the common values of human groups. Lin Daiyu's self-pity over burying flowers and Jia Baoyu's teenage glass heart will only confuse the Western world.
What are the obstacles to brand IP transformation?
After the above groundwork, we can finally get to the point. If a company wants to use IP thinking to transform its brand, what should it do? Due to the various differences between the brand system and the IP system, the process of "brand IP-ization" will encounter some conflicts. Let's explain this issue from IP investment, IP promotion, IP monetization, and IP operation:
1. IP Investment—The Mind Conflict Between Brand and IP
Some brands are naturally IPs, while others are not.
Naturally IP brands: Wangwang, Xiaoming Classmate, Michelin, M&M's, Tmall Naturally not IP brands: JD.com, Suning.com, Zhihu, 7UP
Did everyone notice the difference? For the brands above, the brand name = the IP character's name; for the brands below, the brand name and IP name are two different titles.
JD's IP image is a puppy named JOY; Suning.com's IP image is a lion named Sulanning; Zhihu's IP image is an Arctic fox named Liu Kanshan; 7UP's IP image is a person named Fido Dido.
Don't underestimate this difference. Whether brand or IP, it's a long-term investment in the consumer's brain, but brands focus on consumer mind, while IP focuses more on user emotions.
Every company's budget is limited. When we focus on the brand name, we weaken the IP character; when we emphasize IP, the brand name and functional attributes take a back seat.
So, when Tmall and JD.com do IP promotion together, Tmall will get twice the result with half the effort, while JD.com will get half the result with twice the effort. And when a company is not as wealthy as JD.com, you need to weigh whether your wallet is enough to open two battlefields at the same time.
Startups, if they want to use IP thinking to create products, must unify the brand and IP symbol system from the beginning; mature companies, if they want to transform into IP, must be prepared for a protracted war.
2. IP Promotion—Not Selling but Making Waves
We used a metaphor to describe the difference between brand and IP: brand is the licking dog, IP is the goddess. This metaphor is to illustrate a truth: IP must be a pursued role, not a piece of meat sent to the consumer's mouth. This characteristic determines that IP and brand have completely different promotion methods.
Brand promotion is about selling yourself; it's used to introducing yourself to consumers, why you're good, and why they need you. IP, on the other hand, must create content and social currency to make users feel you're cool and create an impulse to own you!
This is the IP promotion of Tmall and Suning.com. They exposed their IP characters and shaped IP personas through placements in "Go Fighting!" and "The Game of the Trap." This is typical brand thinking applied to IP promotion; this method can only deepen user memory but cannot drive users to chase the IP.
Let's take Kumamon as an example to see how real IP promotion is done.
Kumamoto Prefecture was originally a small county in Kyushu, Japan. To develop the travel economy, Kumamoto Prefecture came up with a bold idea to use a virtual IP to revitalize the tourism economy. They created the cute cartoon bear "Kumamon." In promotion, they didn't expose "Kumamon" as a cartoon doll on TV; instead, they treated "Kumamon" as a real star, doing artist management and topic marketing.
For example, they would have Kumamon transform into a civil servant, hand out business cards on the streets of Osaka, then announce that Kumamon was missing, and hold a formal press conference, calling on people who saw Kumamon to tweet to the prefectural government. As a result, Osaka citizens responded in kind, and once they photographed Kumamon, they tweeted @Kumamoto Prefectural Government.
If you have a good IP, don't try to sell it; the harder you sell, the lower the IP's life value. IP promotion should make waves, creating explosive news and hot content to sweep users into the IP's wave.
3. IP Monetization—The Premise of Crossover is Boundaries
Many domestic companies want to use IP to transform their brands, but behind this is a big ambition: crossover growth. The entrepreneur's idea is this: when I invest heavily in building an IP empire, and when users irrationally chase my products because of the IP, I can extend my reach to other fields, break industry barriers, break growth bottlenecks, and grow across boundaries.
For example, after the success of nuts, Three Squirrels has extended its perspective to trendy clothing and anime industries, and even invested 300 million to build "Squirrel Town," hoping to become the Chinese version of Disneyland...
People with this idea are completely confused by IP crossover. The premise of IP crossover is boundaries; only with sufficiently strong content assets can you avoid hurting yourself in continuous crossover.
Disney is the world's largest IP empire. They just announced their Q2 2019 financial report, with quarterly revenue of $14.922 billion and net profit of $5.452 billion. Such amazing revenue is attributed to Disney's unique profit model—the "round income model."
First, Disney makes fans around the world scream with super IPs like "Zootopia"; Then, Disney uses its secret media channels to promote the IP extensively and obtain copyright revenue and user subscription fees. (For example, Disney's ABC International TV Group can cover 96% of U.S. households) Then, through theme parks, IP interacts with users, allowing offline experiences of the virtual fairy tale world, triggering a series of consumption behaviors such as dining, accommodation, and shopping. Finally, use brand licensing and peripheral derivatives to harvest IP's die-hard fans.
It must be emphasized that Disney's "round income model" has a sequence: there must first be blockbuster content, with super content as the engine, before the subsequent three monetization behaviors. That is, as we mentioned earlier, IP has content first, then industry.
Three Squirrels' IP business path is the opposite, intending to use the content industry to feed the brand. Three Squirrels launched its own animations "Three Squirrels" and "Three Squirrels: Squirrel Town" in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Frankly, the quality is excellent, but the broadcast volume and topic degree are far from enough to trigger an IP craze.
In the IP industry, blockbuster content is 1, and commercial monetization is 0. Without a solid content foundation, all content industries will be castles in the air.
4. IP Operation—The Ship of Friendship Can Still Capsize
We said that IP is a projection of the human heart, and its relationship with users is more like religion, while the relationship between brand and users is more like friends, relying on integrity.
Based on this characteristic, many brands attempt IP with the original intention of giving the brand more emotional factors so that users can irrationally choose the brand. IP can indeed do this, but brands can never expect users to be unconditionally infatuated as with IP.
If a derivative of an IP has quality issues and is criticized by society, IP fans will defend and support the IP; but if an IP brand has quality issues and is exposed by society, no one will stand up for it. Why is there such a contrast?
Because IP derivatives are just accessories for users to consume the IP; the significance of this product is to satisfy users' spiritual sustenance, and incidentally meet life needs; while products produced by brands must first meet users' rigid needs, and only then fill emotional gaps as cultural objects.
This primary-secondary relationship determines that even if a commercial brand establishes a strong IP culture, it must still be cautious and tread on thin ice in front of users.
IP cannot become a brand's amulet; at best, it becomes the brand's spiritual totem.
Summary:
We have explained why most brands cannot become IPs from three angles: the advantages of IP, the steps to create an IP, and the obstacles to brand IP transformation.
For many companies, "brand IP-ization" is more like a spring dream of a single dog. After waking up, not only must they continue to face the messy reality, but they also have to suppress the excess hormones from last night.
Source: Liang Jiangjun (ID: liangjiangjunisme)