"I can't buy it if I queue for a few hours." "I sell it so much, and I don't have to worry about orders, but I can't keep up with production."... Beijing Winter Olympics makes the toy " Bingdun " the biggest winner. People line up to buy and cannot keep up with productivity, which makes it difficult to find a pier.
As one of China's earliest textile industry bases, Qingdao has won the reputation of "Going the Sky" together with Shanghai and Tianjin, and has also been good at dancing in the field of toy production and processing. 15 years ago, Qingdao, which has experienced many years of development, once became one of the largest toy production and export distribution centers in China. Qingdao Toys started from a family workshop to handle the processing of incoming materials for Hong Kong, Macao, foreign and other customers. The industry has gathered in groups and the supporting system is complete.
However, with the loss of traditional industries, the doubled labor costs, and the impact of the new crown epidemic, our city's toy manufacturing industry has encountered a chain reaction. The industry said that the number of toy production enterprises in our city had more than 2,000 at its peak, and has dropped to less than 50 so far.
reporters' investigation into the toy industry in the island city found that many manufacturers are exploring the development of domestic trade markets. Under new trends such as the rise of cross-border e-commerce and the "home economy" home toys, powerful factories are actively investing in automation equipment, transforming to the direction of precision manufacturing of toy products, and enhancing brand value.
In recent years, our city has also guided more traditional manufacturing companies to leap to the high level of the value chain. Digital creative companies related to toys such as animation, online games, mobile games, IP, and intelligent robots are emerging continuously, and intellectual property rights, technological content, etc. have become the "must-have skills" for toy manufacturers to move to the high-end market.
"Bingdundun" is unexpectedly popular
Island City toy companies did not grab this "Dun"
In the Yulin Shangpin Toy Factory located on Tianfeng North Road, Xiazhuang Street, Chengyang District, several large express vehicles are loading goods sent to various places. There are many exquisite toys in the exhibition hall of the factory, including some well-known cartoon characters at home and abroad, such as Big Head Son Xiaotou Dad, Japanese Anime One Piece, etc. There are also some toys designed independently with national trend elements.
factory general manager Ji Ruishi pointed to the toys placed in the exhibition hall and said that all of these toys are toys authorized by domestic and foreign manufacturers and toys of independent brands. In addition, toy factories have also hired toy designers with high salaries to improve the quality of toys and develop independent brand toys.
In the production workshop, workers in work clothes skillfully pressed the face of the toy doll under the machine, and quickly filled the toys with fillers. The filled toy lips pouted to make the whole face lively. On the other hand, the parts of the completed products that failed after inspection were pasted were stickers, indicating that the products were not up to standard and needed to be "returned to the furnace and rebuilt".
The different production lines from the first floor to the second floor can be seen clearly at a glance how a trendy toy is produced.
The popularity of the Beijing Winter Olympic mascot "Bingdundun" was something Ji Ruishi did not expect. "We didn't expect Bingdundun's popularity. Before, there was no such popularity in the mascot on the Winter Olympics such as Sochi, Russia and Pyeongchang, South Korea. The chances of such sports brand IPs becoming popular are not high. This can only show people's love for the Beijing Winter Olympics and the outstanding strength of our country." Ji Ruishi said that no toy factory in Qingdao produces Bingdundun products and its surrounding products. "The production of Bingdundun requires IP authorization."
Regarding the recent phenomenon of "dun" in the market, Ji Ruishi believes that this is because the peak demand period is catching up with the Spring Festival and the production capacity cannot keep up. "Toy production belongs to the labor-intensive industry , and some production steps are difficult to achieve ' machine replacement '." Ji Ruishi said that there are many types of toys, and it is difficult to achieve standardized production of different templates, which leads to high production costs. In the factory's production workshop, the reporter saw that most of the toys were manually operated when filling cotton wool and packaging.
Ji Ruishi witnessed the birth and growth of Qingdao's plush toy industry. He said that in the 1980s, the plush toy industry, which had just started in the country, was still at a low-end level, and many manufacturers used poor fabric quality, and even used straw, straw, etc. as fillers.However, Qingdao had a good textile industry foundation at that time and was more sophisticated in materials and workmanship. Therefore, Qingdao's plush toy industry developed rapidly at that time, and its products involved cloth toys, plastic toys, etc., and were sold to European and American, Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, , Middle East, and other markets, and accumulated rich industry development experience.
was once unlimited
Cost + epidemic plagued the development of the industry
In Ji Ruishi's view, the island city toy industry has gone through a complete business cycle.
Since 2003, the advantages of Island City toy industry have begun to be highlighted. Thanks to the bonus , which had low labor costs at that time, many toy companies started their business with OEMs and undertake the processing of incoming materials for merchants such as Hong Kong, Macao and abroad. The dividends of OEM continued until 2007. As the market competitiveness of products increases, some OEM companies have begun to test the waters to convert from export to domestic sales. From 2012 to 2015, the toy industry in the island city ushered in a golden period. Orders from abroad have soared, and domestic sales of products have been smooth sailing. The number of toy manufacturers in our city has increased rapidly - once soaring to more than 2,000. "There are a large number of toy factories in Jiaozhou , Pingdu , Laixi , Jimo and other places." Ji Ruishi recalled that at that time, it was normal for a factory to have tens of thousands of square meters, and the annual profit of was also very objective.
Since 2016, plastics and chemical fibers, as the main raw materials for toy production, have risen sharply, and the prices of auxiliary materials such as copper wire and cardboard have also risen to varying degrees. The increase in raw material costs reached about 50%, which led to an increase in the final product costs by about 60%, greatly reducing the profit margin of the manufacturer.
Changes in the external investment environment have also caused the operating costs of toy manufacturers to gradually increase. Toy production is a labor-intensive industry, and in recent years, Qingdao has implemented a series of measures to promote industrial transformation, and has tilted towards the high-tech industry in terms of land use, tax incentives, and supply of means of production, gradually reducing preferential policies for labor-intensive industries. The sudden outbreak of
and the new crown epidemic that has lasted for more than two years has added huge operating pressure to toy manufacturers in the island city, which mainly focuses on foreign trade. "In 2021, the shipping prices have soared, and it is difficult to find a cabinet. Factors such as congestion in ports and shortage of land drivers have greatly delayed the delivery time." Wang Xiaohua, the relevant person in charge of Qingdao Hug Baby Toys Company, said that for a while, cross-border freight rates have increased by 5-10 times, which has brought great pressure to the company.
The increase in the minimum monthly salary of workers, the shortage of electricity and the shortage of migrant workers have also troubled toy manufacturers. Many companies visited by the reporter have different degrees of difficulty in recruiting workers. Some companies even reduce the number of orders due to insufficient workers to avoid the compensation risk caused by inability to deliver goods on time.
The superposition of various adverse factors has brought huge impact on Qingdao's toy production industry. Many companies have to turn or close due to operational difficulties. At present, there are less than 50 toy manufacturers in the island city.
A toy can become famous overnight
, but OEMs find it difficult to make the industry bigger and stronger
In the production end of product , Qingdao toy industry has its own unique "playing style".
"Qingdao's toy production industry has been constantly changing from the earliest OEM model to building its own IP, and then focusing on the toy industry chain." Wang Xiaohua said that the opportunity to strengthen Qingdao toy manufacturers and the rise of Qingdao's local toy industry comes from OEMs. When the industry was most prosperous, 70% of the orders came from abroad. However, as time goes by, this OEM development model has gradually emerged: low profits of OEM products and complex types; weak comprehensive management capabilities of OEM factories are prominent. After encountering the international financial crisis and tightening of technical trade restrictions in Europe and the United States, Qingdao's toys' export advantages have been greatly reduced.
"For a while, toy manufacturers in Qingdao have transformed and began to try to build their own IPs, or extend them to more other industrial chains." Wang Xiaohua said that this has promoted the survival of the fittest among toy manufacturers and has positive significance for the transformation of Qingdao's toy industry.
In the Qingdao toy industry circle, there is a saying that "the model is different from the rich and the poor", which means that in the early stage of entrepreneurship, you can get rich by getting a unique IP. To this day, a toy can still make a company famous overnight.
However, the imitation of the product comes very quickly. It won’t take long after a new toy appears, and similar imitations will appear on the market. Initially, after Qingdao toy manufacturers obtained domestic and foreign authorized brands, due to their lack of independent innovation capabilities, many products will be quickly imitated by illegal vendors shortly after they are launched. "In some northern regions, there are some small workshops with toy industry chains, which are unauthorized and have low prices, forming malicious competition with us." Ji Ruishi said that due to the frequent occurrence of imitation, some domestic and foreign toy exhibitions have prohibited the introduction of cameras to prevent the products exhibited by the company from being imitated by peers. Imitation of
is not a long-term solution after all. Without a flagship product that represents its own level, it is difficult to stand out in the fiercely competitive toy market and gain a place. Qingdao toy manufacturers with independent brands have begun to create their own brands through continuous exploration, starting from improving their independent creative design and technical development capabilities.
diversified marketing and intelligent manufacturing
expect more high-quality animations in China IP
In the interview, many toy manufacturers believed that there were too few domestic animation IPs and the product licensing costs were high. "Most of them are given to animation IPs abroad, such as One Piece and Pleasant Goat. The country has to pay a few million yuan in IP fees to foreign countries every year, and there are very few IPs in China." Ji Ruishi said that they are looking forward to more and more high-quality animation IPs in China.
"The creation of an animation IP takes time. For example, Japan and the United States, their IP operation teams can last for 20 or 30 years, and there are few such long-lasting teams in China." Mr. Xu, the head of of Qingdao Haoweida Toys Co., Ltd., said that when creating IP abroad, it can charge other countries with high authorization fees of hundreds of millions of yuan, and this area in China is still a shortcoming.
On the sales side, many manufacturers have begun to test new marketing models such as e-commerce and live broadcasts, and many companies have started the training of live broadcast teams to expand domestic and foreign markets.
A entrepreneur in Qingdao who has switched from the toy manufacturing industry to the home furnishing industry Sun Wei told reporters that risks and opportunities in the toy industry coexist, and not every new attempt will be successful. It is not easy for the toy industry to adjust its business and develop the domestic demand market. Changes must be made in terms of design style, production lines, sales channels, etc. Due to cost and risk considerations, many manufacturers "dare not to try". "I have also tried a major transformation, but it is too difficult. Qingdao's toy production industry still needs to 'hang out to keep warm'."
"The market changes are not regional, but global, which requires adapting to the needs of the times and actively seeking changes in pain." Relevant staff from the Municipal Bureau of Commerce said that the global toy industry market changes accelerate, especially in terms of categories. In the past, when it was sold for B-end foreign trade, enterprises of all sizes won by volume, and the "price war" continued. Entering the e-commerce era, manufacturers are directly pushed to C-end customers, and "hot products", "traffic", "surprising victory" and "IP brands" have more potential to sell goods.
"Qingdao's toy industry is facing great crisis, but there are many opportunities. For example, seeking the promotion of popular culture, increasing capital market intervention, and commercial operations drive 'traffic', and IP operations can generate value to be sought after by the market." Qin Yi, professor of the Department of Marketing of Ocean University of China, said that in the face of various changes in the internal and external environment, Qingdao's toy industry needs to work hard to increase the added value of the industry. He believes that toy manufacturers can establish "industry-university-research" cooperative relationships with universities and explore the path of transformation to "animation IP + mobile games + network + pan-entertainment".
"The low-cost and labor-based way of making money in the toy industry has gradually gone far away from us." Qin Yi said that Qingdao's toy manufacturing and development speed is fast, and its cost-effectiveness is an advantage, but many companies lack long-term planning and have a long way to go in terms of IP creation, animation design, emphasis on R&D, and intellectual property protection to increase product added value.(Guanhai News/Qingdao Evening News reporter Xue Fei)
