At ten o'clock in the evening on February 10, the international creative studio LINE FRIENDS Chengdu's Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li store closed. This also means that after Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other places, LINE FRIENDS's last offline store in the mainland Chinese market has closed.
LINE FRIENDS Chengdu Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li store has closed
It is understood that LINE FRIENDS was founded in 2011 and originated from the emoticon pack of the mobile communication software "LINE". It was first born in South Korea as sticker characters, including BROWN and Coni Rabbit. It consists of 11 members including CONY and SALLY. Among them, the most famous is the Brown Bear.
So, why did the once popular LINE FRIENDS close down? How can IP culture achieve long-lasting effects? What kind of trend will "Korean Wave" usher in? With questions, Red Star News reporters conducted an interview and investigation.
Chasing reason:
Consumers: Peripheral updates are slow, prices are expensive, and IP appeal is declining
Data show that since LINE FRIENDS entered the Chinese market in 2015, it has successively opened on Huaihai Road in Shanghai, Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li in Chengdu, , and Hangzhou Lakeside Yintai. Open stores in popular business districts such as in77. According to statistics, the brand has 12 stores operated by in China.
However, in the past two years, the popularity of this brand has begun to decline. At the beginning of 2020, LINE FRIENDS in Hubin Yintai, Hangzhou, closed its store; in May last year, LINE FRIENDS on Huaihai Road in Shanghai ceased operations; in November last year, LINE FRIENDS in Nanjing closed its doors... On February 28, reporters came to LINE FRIENDS ( Chengdu Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li store), I found that the Brown Bear and Coni Rabbit that used to be placed at the door have also been moved.
LINE FRIENDS Chengdu Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li store has been closed
Faced with the trend of LINE FRIENDS closing stores, how do consumers think about it? The reporter contacted some netizens on Weibo’s super chat #LINE FRIENDS#. "Things in offline stores are really too expensive, small pendants cost 49 yuan. In fact, I still like Brown Bear, but I won't buy any more peripherals." A design aesthetics blogger told reporters. "Moreover, the update speed of peripheral products is slow, and the creativity of new products is not strong. It feels like just adding a pattern and changing the appearance is difficult to attract consumers." Another netizen said.
In addition to high product prices and slow updates, LINE FRIENDS’s IP image also faces the problem of “breaking the circle”. "When I was in high school, I was following Korean groups and they were all using Line. I followed suit and downloaded the software and used its emoticons. I especially liked Sally Chicken and thought it was very cute." A person who once studied in South Korea the girl said. However, as there are more and more domestic IPs, “there are too many soft and cute images like Sally Chicken, and gradually I don’t like them that much. Nowadays, the little blue man and little duck duck emoticons are also very cute.”
However, the competitive pressure faced by LINE FRIENDS is not only the rise of the domestic market. "I prefer another Korean IP, kakao friends. His peripheral designs are better-looking than Line's, and compared to Line, kakao's IP is also more popular. I saw kakao's offline stores when I was in Korea before. There are so many people,” said another girl who had studied in South Korea.
adjustment:
In the future, online retail will be the main focus, and offline stores will prefer interactive experiences.
Faced with these problems, what changes will be made to the business model of LINE FRIENDS in the future? The reporter noticed that although offline stores are no longer open, flagship stores on Taobao, , Tmall, and other platforms are still operating normally.
Product screenshots of LINE FRIENDS flagship store on Taobao
When asked about the reason for closing the store, Taobao store customer service said, "Due to the needs of LINE FRIENDS's overall strategic layout, LINE FRIENDS will comprehensively carry out digital strategic layout in the future and develop content-centered Digital assets. " the customer service added that the offline experience model will no longer focus on offline stores, but will instead develop into the theme space authorization and pop-up store models in cooperation with commercial real estate. will continue to explore , innovation, and developed various forms of offline interactive experiences to present more surprises to fans.
Taobao customer service screenshot
As for when offline experience stores will be put into use, will they be available in Chengdu? The customer service representative stated that they had not received the notification yet. “But we will continue to launch some new products online, and the recent mini series is very popular."According to him, the consumer group of this product is mainly mothers, and the sales volume has exceeded thousands.
It is understood that the future focus of LINE FRIENDS will also involve the maternal and infant market. "LINE FRIENDS and Uniqlo co-branded The short-sleeved ones are very good, priced at 79 yuan each. I also bought two parent-child sets at that time. If there are new products in the future, I will consider buying them. "Bao's mother, Ms. Huang, told reporters.
Interpretation:
The "coldness" of the Korean Wave is closely related to changes in the consumer culture ecology.
LINE FRIENDS have all closed their stores in the Chinese mainland market. Is this a sign that the Korean Wave is gradually fading? As early as before, other Korean wave Fashion brands have also closed stores. According to reports, as of now, the stores of Korean cosmetics brand and Innisfree have shrunk by nearly 80%, from more than 800 at the peak to about 140. Etude House, another beauty brand under Amorepacific Group, completely closed all offline stores in the Chinese market in March 2021. In response to this phenomenon, the Korean Department of Beijing Foreign Studies University. Lecturer Ren Xiang believes that is closely related to the changes in the domestic consumer culture ecology.
LINE FRIENDS, which has "out of the circle" with emoticons, has difficulty catching up with trendy culture. "First of all, the speed of the evolution of trendy culture itself. Too fast, especially for 'trendy terms' like emoticons, which have a short life cycle and are easily replaced. Secondly, the IP image of LINE FRIENDS cannot achieve emotional resonance with domestic consumer groups for a long time. "
In this regard, Ren Xiang explained, "It is difficult to control the direction of culture. The cute culture launched by LINE FRIENDS can later evolve into images such as silly, sad, silly and cute. In these domestic IP designs, we have also seen many similar competing products. " He emphasized that in this competition process, if Korean companies cannot keenly capture the current fashion elements, consumers' choices may be more inclined to the national trend.
In addition, in his view, "actively breaking the circle" is also Hallyu fashion brands seek another path for development: “This requires developers to focus more on product iteration. In other words, we must not only pay attention to changes in cultural trends, but also have the courage to launch new designs.
Zhou Xiaolei, associate professor of the Korean Department of Beijing Foreign Studies University, added that the popular trend of Korean culture is actually difficult to predict, "But according to data from the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) Beijing Trade Center, is expected to be within this year for food, Beauty and other related products will become the mainstream in the consumer field. ”
Red Star News reporter Zheng Ran Huang Panpan Photography report
Editor Tan Wangyu
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