"The right small" by David Horvath
I have a little secret. I’ll share 2% of it here. This applies to lifestyle character brands.
If you have a boutique hardware store opening this weekend, a movie set for next year, or if you’re going to release a toy line to compete with Squishmallows… then absolutely ignore the following.
If I first find you on social media and learn you have a high and growing follower count, while I may like what I see and even make a purchase or collect you, I also know I am being sold.
This fuels what leads to the difference between being a short-term trend (even one that appears to be successful) and living forever like Sanrio, Snoopy, and their competitors. In the realm of lifestyle character brands... especially if growing from zero... you must avoid being associated with the pursuit of attention. We have to find you on our own, through discovery, in places that are already meaningful to us, so that feeling may be assigned to your brand.
And we must never "collect" your products, but draw your brand inwards into our lives to become part of our every day... and it has to be our doing.
Our subconscious can’t feel sold to... and the challenge is: great marketing works very well... we’ll make the purchase, but you'll live in our minds and not our hearts. This has to be a relationship, not a transaction… nurtured over decades.
Many look to Pop Mart and what they are doing today, right now, with LABUBU... and drum up articles (which sound really convincing in some cases) about how they utilized the celebrity of LISA from BLACKPINK or “nailed it on TIKTOK”...
But Pop Mart... much like Sanrio and Snoopy’s competitors... will never discuss or even hint at what they actually did for the 10 years leading up to such supplemental maneuvers.
And social media, collabs, and celebrity connections must always be supplemental for you to survive. From day one, Pop Mart utilized the same ecosystem Snoopy and Sanrio’s competitors use to grow and to nurture their existing relationships and become one with culture before ever broadcasting outward towards it... We know, because we were there, in person, every step of the way.
Before the venture capital, Shanghai and Beijing shows, or retail expansion… was a tiny little shelf at one single location in Ginza, three shelves below brands you’ve likely never heard of.
The collective locations of Walmart and Lotte Mart, or the influence of the biggest K-pop stars currently on trend, will never hold a candle to the potential of that single tiny shelf. From UAMOU to dozens of other lifestyle character brands, which seemed to “come out of nowhere” but emerged through a moment of discovery… there is a secret ecosystem which has never been put on paper even once.
It is quite literally the magic formula and the greatest secret Sanrio’s competitors will never disclose in Vanity Fair or the Wall Street Journal…
Part of that formula involves:
• Knowing which very specific trade shows to exhibit at or not to bother with across Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the rest of Asia, and which two shows in the US support such
• Knowing how to activate Japan properly, not just to reach the locals, but to enchant tourism from certain regions in a very specific way, focused on distinct groups
• Knowing how to inhabit certain culture touch points across specialty retail and other physical places, understanding why and how they resonate around the globe.
• Collaborating with those in creator character culture you’ve never heard of, but who resonate deeply with those first critical few who will propel your early stages… T9G x Labubu being a great example.
Social media... and what many refer to as "celebrity endorsements"... can be a wonderful supplement. But they must be a late stage supplement to the larger program... or you risk becoming a collectible... or worse, a trend.
New lifestyle character brands must avoid tinkering with the hazards of the trend bubble without first deploying the maneuvers which make you part of culture around the world... especially now.
This secret path, once revealed, often frighten away the tiny few fortunate enough to encounter it. It feels too small or too quiet to accomplish anything, especially in the eyes of those raised to believe in what many call the “attention economy”.
But it’s real. While we all read about “no mouth” or “kawaii” or “being everywhere”… those who deploy their take on this path are propelled straight towards what is the greatest opportunity in the history of IP driven brands since Star Wars in 1977, via the backdrop of Miniso, Uniqlo, and Pop Mart retail expansion changing how buyers function and consumer behavior grows.
We have all been given a once-in-a-generation gift:
Where being discovered in a tiny shop window in the corner of a small neighborhood in South Korea influences a bookstore buyer in Nakameguro, which, once activated, appeals to the consumers who also find you at a certain trade show in Taipei, watched very closely by Woot Bear in San Francisco, which is the admiration of the buyers from Urban Outfitters, copy traded by Barnes & Noble, and Miniso’s 7000 global locations…
…while a steadily growing percentage of the world makes you part of their lives, creating the potential to live for generations.
The true expense is time. But this is no slow steady road. And there’s nothing tiny about it. The right small is huge.
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