Small “diary”, big business.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “New Retail Business Review” (ID: xinlingshou1001), author : Qian Luoying.
For a wide range of cultural and creative products such as tapes, stickers, and sticky notes, many people wonder what they are useful for besides wrapping lipstick and making decorations, but in fact they were originally used to make pocketbooks. .
Handbook (also written as “handbook”) is a paper category imported from Japan. It is used to record to-do items, schedules, daily experience, etc. This Japanese national product currently has less than one million core users in China, but its derivatives have deeply affected the development of the entire domestic stationery industry in recent years.
Tmall Stationery Industry Director Guanzhao told the retailer that, on the one hand, the mobile account trend has made young stationery users’ demand for paper and pen stationery from “easy to use” to “easy to use, beautiful and fun”;
On the other hand, led by the IP cultural and creative trend, paper tapes, stickers, sticky notes, pens, color inks, seals and other hand-written by-products have successfully “out of the circle”, and more and more new categories have emerged. The patterns and patterns on brands and products are becoming more and more refined and dazzling.
However, regardless of whether it is the account book or the stationery industry, although the entire industry has maintained a good growth rate, it is under the influence of external factors such as highly customized but not top-notch production technology, low gross profit margin, and paperless trend. , This is still not a good business
The overseas stationery brand franchise store on the Tmall platform “Lianxin Office” (hereinafter referred to as Lianxin ), in addition to the role of channels and agents, as a bridge between Japanese manufacturers and the Chinese market, Japanese manufacturers must always be urged to adapt to the changing Chinese market through more attempts;
The mature domestic stationery brand “Three-year Class Two” is maintaining its competitiveness by creating its own IP and constantly introducing new ones;
The new domestic mobile account brand “YouthWill has the so-called youth” (hereinafter referred to as YouthWill) has been in operation for 2 years, and the sales volume of Double 11 this year has increased by 2Fan, just passed the break-even point and passed the dangerous period of brand start-up;
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This is a hot topic that requires many practitioners.Love to go to maintain the industry, but in addition to love , Have they also tapped new opportunities?
Hand account becomes a new way of life
Every year from December to December, there is a festive atmosphere of “New Year’s Day in advance” in the account circle. Because the handbook for the second year is usually available in December.
Slowly flip through the previous notebook, carefully review the big and small things that I have experienced in the past year, and ask if I have improved, and then put the old notebook that has been with me for a year and carries deep memories in the bookcase. …… This is the unique annual resignation and welcome ceremony of the “hand accounter”-for them, the new account represents a new beginning.
Nowadays, more and more young people regard writing as a way of life.
The handbook is a Japanese workplace person or allMom A kind of time management and efficiency of mom Management aids, most traditional Japanese-style accounts include annual plans, annual calendars, monthly calendars, weekly plans, Japanese subway map, address book, birthday records and personal relationship records, etc., which are very practical inner page designs. A notebook that is close to recording work is somewhat “boring” at first glance.
Nowadays, the Japanese mobile account brand “Hobonichi” (hereinafter referred to as Hobo), which is the most Internet celebrity in China, is quite good at tricks. In addition to the inner page design full of innovative details, its newly customizedBook clothing and peripheral products will always arouse a lot of discussion in the account circle.
Hobo’s new book clothing this year
In China, the functionality of hand account time management seems to be weakened as it spreads. Beautiful and cute stickers, tapes, and magnificent color ink and watercolor hand-painted take the lead in occupying the attention of consumers. As a result, the peripheral products of the mobile account smoothly went out of the circle, and even became a representative category of new cultural and creative industries, but the mobile account itself failed to be popularized by the people.
Although there are more patterns, but the essential needs of recording life have always been there. It used to be called diary, weekly diary and drink Posting, to-do, and drafting things, now after some decoration, can be called a handbook.
Several interviewees confessed to the retailer that in recent years, the domestic mobile account culture is changing from a closed nicheCircle In addition to the core fan groups, the concept of the account circle is gradually diminishing.
“After studying at home during the epidemic this year, it is obvious that consumers have improved their aesthetic and quality requirements for stationery-the handbook is actually the advanced demand for this book.” Guanzhao said.
“Record life, hotLove life“, this is the stationery circle top blogger “not bored “Always adhere to the attitude of life. She believes that sharing the account is actually sharing the bits and pieces of her life. “The reason why young people like to share accounts and write accounts is because they find this way of life interesting and they want to live like this,” she said.
From 2016 to the present, she who likes to play with stationery has always insisted on sharing the stationery and pocketbook products she used, and also contributed her own pocketbook ideas to fans. This has also made her a “sweet rice cake” in the eyes of Japanese stationery manufacturers-they know that to open up the Chinese market, you need a KOL like “not bored”.
In recent years, under the matchmaking of Lianxin, “It’s not boring” began to cooperate with Japanese manufacturers Design together Their own stationery products cover various categories such as colored gel pens, tape, sticky notes, pencil cases, and drawing books, and they are often sold out by fans at the beginning of the pre-sale. As a result, many overseas stationery manufacturers seek cooperation with her through Lianxin every year.
“From a user of stationery to a designer, controlling the details of different products is a process for me to get out of my comfort zone.” “Not bored” said.
“Not Stuffed” Designed Dragonfly Pen to help watercolor pen and this year’s Double 11 set
Although it is well-known in the stationery circle, compared with the beauty bloggers who have millions of fans, the “not bored” station B has 456,000 fans, Weibo pales in comparison-it can be seen that stationery lovers are still a minority group.
“Among most stationery bloggers, I am particularly lucky to be seen by Lianxin and Japanese manufacturers.” “Not bored” told the retailer that her main source of income is currently being a blogger “Chafan” ( That is, content paid promotion) and selling stationery products of their own design. But she does not rely on such income to make a living, nor does she want to quickly realize cash through frequent promotion.
In fact, it’s difficult to “just eat” by focusing on stationery content. Most stationery bloggers on Weibo and Station B still rely on the promotion of beauty, skin care and daily necessities in addition to stationery to generate income.
This is because the money of stationery manufacturers has to be spent on a knife-informed person told the retailer that the overall net profit of stationery brands may be less than 10%. Under the balance, the effect of platform advertising in a short period of time is obviously better than that of asking bloggers to promote.
“We are a bridge”
As an overseas stationery store on the Tmall platform, Lianxin is very willing to try to cooperate with bloggers. This is because the host Daxiong agrees with trends and likes innovation.
However, for the cooperative stationery, Nobita vaccinates with the brand: Don’t expect to make money from these cooperative models. This is more like a way of promoting and marketing brands and products, and it is also a kind of feedback to the fan group.
For Lianxin, such cooperation is not only not profitable, but also very tiringPeople-The development cycle of a new product usually takes 3 to 6 months, and the Lianxin team will follow up the whole process. In addition to polishing the product details for “not boring” time and time again, they also customized the time management handbook for the blogger “Xiaoxiaoma”, and hand-checked thousands of books overnight.
The ability of Lianxin Development to have such a scale is closely related to Nobita’s pursuit of perfection. He told the retailer that when the first Taobao store to start a business achieved the level of four crowns, there was only one bad review. Once the shipment was accidentally missed, and the user had to rush to the examination room the next day, they took the green leather train overnight to deliver the goods before 5 o’clock.
Kokuyo, Zebra, Jin Palace, Dragonfly, Plush… these familiar Japanese stationery brands may have seen the service spirit of Lianxin in the cooperation and recognized them, and now the whole Lianxin The current status of all stationery brands and products in the store.
At the same time, Lianxin also operated Tmall flagship stores of Japanese stationery brands such as KOKUYO and Jin Gong, and used nearly 10 years of operating experience and data to let Japanese brands understand the Chinese market better.
Nobita believes that Lianxin is actually a bridge between these Japanese brands and the Chinese stationery market. In recent years, with the continuous expansion of the Chinese market, this role of Lianxin is becoming more and more important.
But the bridge job is not so easy to do.
Take the account category as an example. For periodic products like this, you need to book with Japanese manufacturers in advance, and the booking cycle is still very long. For the account of the second year, orders will be placed in January of the previous year.
However, when there are more choices, the attribute of “loving the new and disgusting the old” is also very obvious in the account consumers, which also brings challenges to Lianxin’s ordering: “Last year, a certain brand of a certain brand sold It’s very good. We will order more in January this year, but when we start the pre-sale in June, the sales volume has come down, and the number of reservations can’t be changed. And the other booklet that was under-ordered suddenly became popular. Additional orders. This leads to consumers not being able to grab what they want and can only buy through other channels.”
Nobita said that Lianxin is trying to persuade Japanese manufacturers to adapt according to market demand, but for the Japanese side, “the uncertainty that needs to be adapted is equal to danger”, and they usually refuse to change if they are unwilling to take risks.
In this regard, Lianxin can only use its own countermeasures, such as significantly reducing the number of reservations to force Japanese manufacturers to pay attention to the supply problem; or cutting off the matter first and then telling the other party after the matter is done, using facts to make them accept The concept of “can also”.
In general, Nobita clearly feels that Japanese manufacturers are paying more and more attention to the Chinese market.
The Japanese stationery brand represented by KOKUYO will study the needs of the Chinese market and accelerate the speed of product development and new launches. Not only does it cooperate with Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room, but the boss also personally comes on stage to bring the goods; Hobo launched the Chinese version of the pocketbook Page, this year also launched a Tmall limited calendar in the Tmall flagship store, triggering a trend of reverse overseas shopping by overseas users…
Difficulties of domestic brands
The domestic brands are also striving to seize the market.
Yuan Chenhao founded YouthWill, on the one hand, based on his nearly 11 years of experience in pocketbook hobbies, on the other hand, after analyzing the market, he found gaps in the mid-to-high-end pocketbook and stationery categories in the Chinese market.
Large traditional domestic stationery brandMultiple Jiao’s mid-to-low-end market is just in demand. Nevertheless, the top brand It only accounts for 20% of the market share. At the same time, there is no mid-to-high-end brand of a large stationery company like Midori or a small and beautiful stationery brand like Kanmido.
For a long time, Chinese mid-to-high-end mobile account users have used Japanese mobile accounts. The Japanese local festivals and Japanese railroad maps printed on them, various formats and usage scenarios are preset and the needs of Chinese users are not complete. Adaptation: “In fact, every point seems to be a detail, but for domestic brands, it is an opportunity and a breakthrough.” Yuan Chenhao said.
But at the same time, he also knows that it is really difficult to make domestic mid-to-high-end brands, otherwise, the seniors would not leave such opportunities for now.
Yuan Chenhao revealed that the research and development cycle of each notebook of YouthWill is about half a year. What kind of craft, what paper, and how many grams of paper are all very troublesome.
YouthWill 2021 One Day One Page Dogwood Powder Style
Take the paper selected for the handbook as an example. Some of YouthWill’s books use the same Bachuan paper as Hobo (produced by Japan’s Bachuan PaperManufacturing), but it caused some user distress: users who have not been in contact with Bachuan paper will question why the paper is so thin and transparent and so expensive; while users who often use Bachuan paper will question that YouthWill uses “true” Bachuan paper?
In this regard, Yuan Chenhao said that it is really not easy to build user trust. In order to solve the above-mentioned trust problem in Bachuan Paper, he visited the Tokyo headquarters of Bachuan Paper in Japan twice to repeatedly discuss and communicate the Chinese market situation. Discussed brand authorization issues with Bachuan, and became the first mobile account brand in China to obtain Bachuan official brand authorization.
Not only users, but many investors Yuan Chenhao met can’t understand this industry. For venture capital, the small crowd in the mobile account circle Slow heat, which can’t quickly bring a considerable return on investment , The business logic is not “sexy” enough. Therefore, in the early days of its establishment, YouthWill relied on the private investment of Yuan Chenhao’s friends to maintain its operation.
Now in the second year of operation, even though double 11 revenue has doubled this year, it just passed the dangerous period and barely achieved break-even. “There is no need to worry about funding problems every day, and the frequency is reduced to monthly wages. I had a headache before.” Yuan Chenhao would still work part-time delivery as long as he had time: “I should be the fastest in the team to deliver the express delivery. Double 11 I was responsible for nearly a thousand express delivery.”
Yuan Chenhao also revealed that in addition to selling mobile accounts on the C-side, YouthWill has also developed cultural and creative products and gift customization services for the B-side. The current business accounts for one-third of the total revenue.
Small brands that focus on pocketbooks are struggling to survive online. Although stores like Lianxin focus on pocketbook products, they also know that the core user group of stationery is still students and their parents, ordinary paper And pens are the main business. Therefore, Lianxin still prefers “products suitable for students” in the selection of products.
The self-developed products of the domestic stationery brand “Class Two in Three Years” have gradually changed from the paper-based category of the main handbook to innovatively designed student stationery. However, the competition in this category is undoubtedly more intense. In this regard, the second class of the third year has made a differentiation strategy-research and development and operation of its own IP products.
Jiang Hui, the co-founder of Class 3 and Class 2, told the retailer that starting from 2017, the private IP of Class 3 and Class 2 “”Maqiu” peripheral products have been launched one after another. Up to now, nearly 10 series of products have been launched. From market feedback, the products are very popular among students, especially fans born after 00. One of the blind box booster pens It has become a hot product and has been released to the 3.0 series.
“Ma Ball” booster pen 3.0 series
At the same time, the second class of the third year has also expanded its content around its own IP, starting from Douyin, Xiaohongshu’s short video planting grass, and the anchors bring goods and actively operate the post-00 fan group, all hoping to break the circle through brand content.
In addition to product research and development, the second class of the third year also attaches great importance to content sowing and reaching the fan base through multiple channels. Xiaohongshu graphic and text, DouyinQuick hands short videos, live broadcasts on various platforms, KOL goods… this young Of domestic brands are delivering the value of products and content in a way that post-00s like
Like the “stationery + IP” gameplay in Class 2 of the third year, Chinese and foreign stationery manufacturers are already familiar with it. Zebra, Baile are well-known manufacturers of gel pen refills. The domestic brands Kinbor and Note For also often cooperate with mature IP development. paragraph.
But Nobita told the retailer that there are risks in cooperating with existing IP because “the audience data behind the IP is not available.” Therefore, creating an IP in the second class of the third year and seeking cooperation between Lianxin and KOL are both safer and more accommodating Easy accumulation accumulates user loyalty.
Where will the stationery market go?
For domestic stationery brands, in order to survive, apart from the expansion of products and channels, the technological improvement of manufacturers is also a difficulty that needs to be overcome.
Current stationery presents a production design trend of small batches and high customization. Jiang Hui told the retailer that for many special-shaped stationery products, the second shift of the third year will look for capable and familiar manufacturers to jointly develop and produce.
When the “Ma Ball” booster pen was first produced, “It can drive the manufacturer crazy. Except for the irregular shape, the high requirements of the material, and the richness of colors, they far exceed the previous products. I can’t accept it.”
The second class of the third class can still work together with manufacturers to break through the craftsmanship, but more small brands of handbooks and stationery are not yet qualified.
Yuan Chenhao said that although most Japanese stationery brands set up factories in China, they basically do not do OEMs, and their mature technology and design are not spread.
The long-term lack of mid-to-high-end stationery brands in China has led to a certain gap in the quality of stationery products between China and Japan, and it is difficult for the emerging small brands to change the factory:”If they do not reach a certain production volume, they will not Listen to you. Therefore, the scale must be enlarged to be qualified to require the factory to make technological innovations in order to achieve the product quality we expected. “
Next year, YouthWill will open the Tmall flagship store, hoping to use the platform to gain more brand influence, so as to expand its production scale and achieve the “standard line“.
Guanzhao, Director of Tmall Stationery, also said that Tmall platform will spend a lot of energy every year to incubate elite brands and innovative tracks.
The first is to use sophisticated big data capabilities to help brands accurately locate user groups and assist product development; the second is to use “short video + live broadcast” content marketing capabilities to create better brands for brands, Product display.
“Domestic stationery and pocketbook brands can quickly insight into user needs and make updates and iterations. This is currently difficult for Japanese manufacturers to achieve. This is also an opportunity for domestic brands.” Nobita said. He also believes that Japanese brands still have advantages in terms of production technology and overall product design ideas. But this is where domestic brands can’t be anxious.
Nobita also found that under the paperless trend and the increasingly fierce changes in the Chinese market, in addition to the rigid needs of students and office workers, there are actually more life-oriented, routine, and interesting scenarios in the use of stationery. Expanding space-The success of Lamy pens in China represents the huge potential of the gift market, and the booster pen of Class 2 of the third year also has the additional “effect” of decompression for young people.
So whether it is with the bloggerCooperating to design products, or cooperating with KOKUYO to organize offline bazaar activities, the purpose of Lianxin is to open up a broader market and application scenarios.
Nowadays, many Japanese stationery manufacturers have gradually changed their concepts, designing stationery products that are more beautiful, fashionable and closer to life, and even further broadened their product lines to get involved in decorative desktop products, while satisfying users’ use, storage, aesthetics and even Social needs for photo sharing.
YouthWilll is also doing the same experiment, next year there will be storage boxes, bags and other products.
In this year’s hot retail consumer market, stationery is still a slowly developing industry, and this rather traditional market is gradually being replaced by electronic products.
For consumers, the sense of writing is an unclear feeling. The nib, ink, and paper are all influencing factors, and many people don’t care at all.
But for stationery practitioners, this is the obsession with paper selection, the entanglement of the touch of each stroke, and the “driving” manufacturers must also make the determination to meet their own wishes…The spirit of craftsmanship lies in They are vividly reflected in them.
When they talk about stationery, their eyes are shining and their tone is full of excitement and happiness. They know that they don’t ask the way forward, full of love, and constant exploration and innovation are the future of stationery.