Heytea City Refrigerator Magnets have become “social currency”, how much potential does the local cultural business have?

Recently, everyone has heard about the popularity of Zibo barbecue, which has now become a "city IP". Similarly, the "city refrigerator magnet" recently launched by Heytea has also become popular due to the city's humanities. How popular are the brand businesses related to city humanities? And, will it always work to promote a brand or IP in this way?

In just over a month, Zibo barbecue has become the hottest "city IP".

The explosion of Zibo barbecue is not accidental. Initially, Zibo barbecue became popular because of young workers from surrounding factories. The workers earned a lot of money, and after get off work they would go to different barbecue stalls to chat with friends, becoming the group that supported the first batch of barbecue vendors. Later, due to urban development and transformation, many factories closed down, workers lost their jobs and moved away, and the barbecue craze subsided.

To some extent, Zibo barbecue has witnessed the rise and fall of this industrial city from the 1990s to the present day, and it is part of Zibo's urban culture. When it is once again being paid attention to today, the urban humanity conveyed by Zibo barbecue is the more attractive part behind it.

Recently, the city fridge magnets launched by Heytea have also become popular due to their urban humanities. The predecessor of Heytea was first launched in Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province, a city where morning tea culture is prevalent. In the development process in recent years, as a new tea brand, despite fierce competition, Heytea has gained good public recognition in terms of communication because of its many attempts to integrate urban humanities or traditional tea culture into its products.

This makes people wonder, how popular are the brand businesses related to urban humanities? And, will it always work to promote a brand or IP in this way?

01 Heytea refrigerator magnets become "social currency", localized marketing has already shown signs

Netizen A never thought that he would spend so much energy to collect refrigerator magnets. Since Heytea launched the city refrigerator magnets in July last year, A has collected more than 100 refrigerator magnets. Most of them were purchased from second-hand platforms. The most expensive one was a city refrigerator magnet from Longyan, which cost 108 yuan.

Initially, city refrigerator magnets were only given as a gift with drinks in new HEYTEA stores, and were officially launched with the opening of HEYTEA's first store in Changchun. The image of each refrigerator magnet is based on the cultural and geographical characteristics of different cities. Through the understanding of the city's humanities, a concrete design is extracted and finally reflected in the finished refrigerator magnet. For example, the refrigerator magnet of Clivia, the city flower of Changchun, and the refrigerator magnet of Sanxingdui bronze mask of Deyang, nearly 200 styles have been launched so far.

A person related to Heytea revealed to iBrandi that initially the team considered fans and other forms of implementation that are more Chinese in character, but starting from daily life scenarios, they found that refrigerator magnets would be less restricted by seasons and crowds, so they chose this carrier.

The unique refrigerator magnets quickly became popular on social media platforms, and discussions about refrigerator magnets include but are not limited to collection, popular science, learning knowledge, design, etc. Some netizens said that it was because of the Heytea refrigerator magnets that they learned that Wu Chengen, the author of "Journey to the West", was from Huai'an, that Lishui is rich in the "Queen of Fungi" long-skirted bamboo fungus, and that Zhumadian is the birthplace of the legend of "Pangu creating the world".

Fridge magnet enthusiasts in local cities will queue up at offline stores, and the waiting time is usually measured in hours. If they want to collect refrigerator magnets in surrounding cities, netizens will usually ask someone to buy them for them and have them shipped back, or they will directly make an appointment with friends with the same needs to travel across cities together, just to get their favorite refrigerator magnets.

It is more common to buy or exchange them on second-hand platforms or related posts. The purchase price usually ranges from 10 to 100 yuan, and those out-of-print refrigerator magnets that are difficult to obtain through store channels will cost even more. It is understood that the cheapest Nanjing refrigerator magnet currently costs 150 yuan.

In the process of collecting refrigerator magnets, people who enjoyed it made friends with similar interests, and the refrigerator magnets also fulfilled their dual mission of cultural and brand communication.

With the arrival of the first short holiday after the epidemic, Heytea found the right time and reached cooperation with 11 city culture and tourism bureaus including Guangzhou, Jiangmen, and Luoyang, and launched 11 "City Culture and Tourism" limited series refrigerator magnets. During the May Day holiday, you can get this series of refrigerator magnets by checking in at designated local Heytea stores and cultural and tourism attractions.

The special thing about the limited edition series is that the designs are mostly based on cultural and tourism-related elements such as local food and beverage, historical buildings, and traditional skills, which are highly relevant to the holiday. At present, many netizens have said that they have already formulated a route strategy for collecting refrigerator magnets during the May Day holiday.

In fact, in addition to the city refrigerator magnets, Heytea has always done a good job in marketing in the city's humanities. Regarding this kind of action, a person related to Heytea told iBrandi: "Heytea pursues the combination of brand spirit and must be based on products."

In 2021, Heytea launched the "Let Inspiration Speak Locally" project, launching 18 limited products related to the taste of the city in 14 cities. The "inspiration" originated from a variety of food memories such as Xi'an Zenggao, Shanghai Shengjian, Changsha Xiaobozi Sweet Wine, and finally landed in local stores in each city.

In addition to integrating with the product itself, some of Heytea's local stores are also designed with reference to the architectural features of the city. For example, the Wuxi Changnan Street store, located on the bank of the ancient canal, uses the window eaves design with the characteristics of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions to bring light into the room. Between light and shadow, the beauty of oriental architecture and the modern tea-drinking atmosphere are integrated.

HEYTEA’s dual “locality” in both physical and cultural senses allows everyone to participate in the “nearby”. Stories and memories related to urban humanities are disseminated, communicated and exchanged in the circulation of products. The brand is both a leader and a beneficiary.

02 What do the “fridge magnet craze” and the former “national trend craze” have in common?

What is the reason behind this?

In 2019, anthropologist Xiang Biao proposed the idea that "nearby is disappearing", aiming to remind people to pay attention to "nearby" in the spatial sense, so as to reconstruct the meaning of life. And "seeing" is a way to face the disappearance of "nearby".

For a brand, helping consumers see themselves, the people around them, and the local culture is the best practice of this view.

In fact, the rise of the "national tide" as early as 2018 has well illustrated this point. That year, Li Ning brought the "Enlightenment" series to the New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter show. The new products that integrated Chinese elements caused a lot of discussion as soon as they were unveiled, and at the same time, they really set off the "national tide fever".

Since China joined the WTO in 2001, trade has become more convenient. The globalization wave that has penetrated the local market has quickly opened up the eyes of the Chinese people, and young people have begun to accept all kinds of well-known foreign brands. However, after the huge wave gradually receded, what was left was more aesthetic fatigue. Therefore, in recent years, the vision of young people of Generation Z has gradually turned inward and become more rational.

They emphasize self and actively seek recognition. The exploration and appreciation of local culture behind the "national tide" coincides with this trend. In the pursuit of the "national tide", consumers can better construct their own identity and maintain cultural identity.

In the once-hot cosmetics market, the Chinese brand Huaxizi also stood out with its brand concept of "Oriental cosmetics, using flowers to nourish makeup". From product ingredients, packaging design to spokespersons, everything is inseparable from local culture.

For example, it incorporates Chinese herbal medicines into skin care products, launches the Forbidden City carved lipstick series, and invites Du Juan, who has an oriental look, to be its spokesperson. As a brand born by the West Lake, Huaxizi's "Oriental Beauty" narrative has firmly grasped its local advantages in the competition with a number of international brands.

Another example is the perfume industry, which has always been difficult to compete with international brands. The most important thing about the successful transformation of Smell Library from a perfume agent to a well-known domestic fragrance brand is that it pursues the smell memory of the Chinese people in its research and development and packaging.

The brand's founder, Lou Xiaozhi, once said, "The smell itself has no meaning, the meaning comes from the story behind the smell." In 2018, the Smell Library created the "Boiled Water" perfume based on the scene of boiling water in aluminum kettles in the 1980s and 1990s. The annual sales exceeded one million bottles, and it is still a hot-selling series.

Consumers are willing to pay for "meaning" and "added value", and what brands put into products or marketing will eventually be felt. Therefore, the popularity of Heytea refrigerator magnets is not just a temporary impulse of collectors, but more of a brand that makes full use of the city's history and cultural memory that can be integrated with the product. Similarly, the popularity of Zibo barbecue has continued to this day, not only because of the barbecue itself, but also because of the local customs and culture that tourists can experience firsthand.

03 Conclusion

"Local" is a buzzword relative to "nearby". If you want to pay attention to "nearby", you must be "local".

In recent years, there has been more and more discussion about brand localization. The cases mentioned above are enough to illustrate that narratives based on local culture are a plus for both the product itself and the marketing level. Compared with world-class brands with local chains in the era of globalization, consumers are more willing to focus on their own cultural field.

In general, drawing inspiration from local culture is a potential trend in current product development or marketing.

However, integration that is not in tune with the brand or product itself, such as some behaviors that only create hype but fail to return product value, may attract similar customer groups, but will ultimately only push the distance between itself and consumers further.

Written by Becca

Source: WeChat public account "iBrandi Pinchuang"