Research on Blind Boxes Consumers---Taking Pop Mart as an Example

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Research on Blind Boxes Consumers---Taking Pop
Mart as an Example
Xiaolin Chen1,*
1Harbin No.3 High School, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
*Corresponding author. Email: 1831489715@qq.com
ABSTRACT
Blind boxes are nowadays new toys both native and abroad. People do not know what is inside before opening it.
Recently, there are too many people who would like to spend money on them. In some first-tier cities like Shanghai,
Guangzhou, almost every shopping mall has at least one blind boxes department. This paper will analyze the reasons
why people would like to spend money on it and customer psychology behind them taking the pop mart as an
example. It can be concluded that blind boxes have satisfied consumers’ psychology of curiosity, pursuing beauty,
nostalgia mood, and the desire of companion
Keywords: Blind boxes, consumer psychology, public value of consuming.
1. INTRODUCTION
Blind boxes came from Japan firstly, which was
derived from some cartoon characters in Japan. The
same series of blind box has the same appearance;
customers cannot tell which type they buy before
opening it. In the native, some blind box brands such as
pop mart are much popular among people. Some
automatic machines aiming to sell blind boxes appear
more on each floor of every shopping mall. As a result,
research surveys for approximately 170 people by
random to survey the reasons for the psychology of
people buying blind boxesand the reasons with the
research methodology: questionnaires. After finishing
the research, people can have a deep understanding of
customers’ psychology about buying products
2. EXPERIMENT
To research the reasons for attracting customers
buying blind boxes, this study chooses 200 people of
different ages group as research subjects by random
(buying and non-buying).
2.1. Gender
Among these people, only 85 people purchase blind
boxes. Bu calculating, 62% are women, and the rest of
38% of people are men (as is shown in Figure 1). As a
result, girls prefer buying blind boxes to boys.
Figure 1 The percentage of customers buying blind boxes
Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 182
Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Economic Development and
Business Culture (ICEDBC 2021)
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press International B.V.
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2.2. Age
Besides, Figure 2 shows the percentage of people
purchasing blind boxes in different ages group(10-20/
21-40/41-60). Obviously, blind box toys are loved by
most of the young between 10-20, accounting for 85%.
However, there are still 12% of customers in the age
group of 21-40. Only 3% of old people(41-60)choose to
buy blind boxes. According to the data above, girls
between 10-20 years old usually like to buy blind boxes.
Figure 2 The percentage of ages of customers
2.3. Reasons for people buying Blind boxes
Moreover, to have a better understanding of the
reasons for people buying blind boxes. This study have
made 100 questionnaires to survey, as is presented in
Figure 3.
Figure3 Reasons for buying blind boxes
It is really apparent that most people love buying
blind boxes because they are lovely and interesting.
Nowadays, like some blind boxes brands such as pop
mart, which is well-known to the young people.
According to the official website, the manager shows
different types of blind boxes, such as MOLLY, which
is the first member of the whole blind boxes’ characters.
By surfing the website of MOLLY, people can see
many related characters, such as Journey to the
West(which is one of the famous fiction in traditional
China), beautiful princesses. MOLLY’s designer, Kenny
Wang, points out that the characters of MOLLY are
from a little young girl wearing a beret hat, which has
the same features as MOLLY(big eyes, pouting mouth).
After meeting her, Kenny made the first MOLLY in the
world. Besides MOLLY, there are also many other
characters in the pop mart brand, such as THE
MONSTERS, PUCKY, DIMOO and SATYR RORY(all
of these toys can be found on the official website).
Besides these lovely toys, [2]the gambling feature
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attracts customers. To appeal to people who continue to
buy blind boxes, the manager also designs styles
of“special edition and hiding edition”. Special edition
means that this kind of style is scarce of the whole set
(less than 1%). Some people take the advantage of it to
sell the special one at a high price. For example, the
original price of a blind box is 59 yuan, but the special
edition can achieve 900yuan. The hiding editions
(which do not show on the appearance of the box) have
the same theory. When people are provided such toys,
some of them will be happy because of choosing their
favorite style; others will be sad because they seem
upset. Such its gambling behaviors mixing mystery and
the feeling of surprise, people will purchase them again
and again until choosing their favorite style, leading to
the sales volume increase, which also represents in
Figure 3(accounting to 18% called the value of
collecting). Cooperative brands with blind boxes are
also the key to having good sales. Such as pop mart
cooperates with different types of brands, like line
friends, hello kitty, and gudetama and so on. (23%
showing in the figure). Blind boxes are also popular as a
gift sending to people. Nowadays, some young girls,
especially 10-20 years old, choose to send blind boxes to
their friends as birthday gifts. An interview aims to a boy,
who is at Grade 10 said that, ‘ I have sent a blind box to
my girlfriend. I will feel happy when she feels great.
Some classmates will also exchange blind boxes to gain
what they want in the whole set. The last reason,
moderate price. For current toys such as LEGO or soft
toys, the single price even reaches 100+. Compared with
these toys, blind boxes have a low price. A single box
sells at 59-69 yuan. It can not only satisfy the
relationship between consumers and characters, but also
make the burden on buying them. However, some
customers do not buy only one, they will collect all
styles in one certain set. Taking PUCKY HOROSCOPE
BABIES SERIES as an example, the whole set includes
12 styles and 1 hidden one, which cost 118 dollars in the
official shop. Among them, people cannot guarantee
every box has different characters inside, so they will
buy one set many times, which may spend a lot of
money on it totally.
Figure 4 The expense spending on blind boxes)
2.4. Expenses on buying blind boxes
Figure 4 above shows the percentage of the expense
on buying blind boxes totally. Data shows that 54% of
people spend money on blind boxes between 100-500,
which accounts for most people. 22% of people spend
500-1000 yuan on buying blind boxes. All of the figure
presents that some customers cannot control themselves
from buying blind boxes toys. When they buy a single
one, they cannot help themselves buying another style
by curiosity. During these years, blind box company
like pop mart has won much profit. In 2017, retained
profit has reached 7935.3 thousand yuan. Then in 2018,
the total operating income has arrived at 161 million
yuan, and its retained profit increased to 21098.5
thousand yuan, rising 1405.29% compared with 2017. In
2020, pop mart became a listed company.
3. CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS
THAT BLIND BOXES CAN MEET
Due to the fact that, lots of people begin to buy blind
boxes for different reasons, there is a new trend formed
by blind boxes, which is called ‘blind boxes economic’.
The consuming psychology behind the blind box needs
to be paid attention to.
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3.1. Pursuing Beauty of everyone
According to the figure shows above, 60% of people
choose to buy blind boxes because of their lovely and
cute appearance without any purpose or any intention.
So scientists called this psychology pursuing beauty.
[1]Human beings all have an aesthetic value to tell
whether the products’ appearances are appealing. At the
same time, people are full of curiosity about many
wonderful people or goods. Such these attracting goods
may stimulate customers to buy, however, some of these
things are probably useless. According to the mass
culture, blind boxes begin to be popular at the beginning
of 2018, blind boxes utilize social media and
advertisements to announce their products on other
social platforms like RED and TikTok[1]. Once people
buy certain a kind of blind box and share, more people
start to pay attention to such these cute ‘babies’. As time
goes on, blind boxes gradually are accepted by the
public, and these brands can attain more sales. The more
sales volume they acquire, the more economic profit
they may get. This is also the reason why the blind
boxes brand would like to cooperate with different
designers to make colorful toys and other similar
products, such as pens, bottles and excellent earphones
sleeve.
3.2. Curiosity of Consumers
Secondly, blind boxes take advantage of people’s
curiosity to develop their economy. In fact, the feature
of the ‘blind’. Before opening the box, customers cannot
recognize which kind of toy they choose. After buying
and opening, customers can realize which style they
purchase, common one or hidden one. The pioneers of
blind boxes make the usage of the psychology of
curiosity and announce by internet, attracting more
people to know these toys. People want to learn about
new things and situations they have never seen before.
For people who never buy blind boxes, they want to
know what is inside the small boxes, however for those
who are addicted to blind boxes, they might purchase a
series of blind boxes, the experience the surprise that
choosing their favorite and the sadness when choosing
their disliked one force them continuing buying.
3.3. The nostalgia mood in everyone's heart
Thirdly, people’s nostalgic psychology can help
blind box toys to increase their economy. Nostalgic
psychology actually represents an experience of
emotion, not only being sad or blue when recalling
something. Such this psychology come from people’s
personal experience including watched movies or TV
plays before, listened to songs or favorite celebrities.
Using pop mart as an example, nowadays the designers
of pop mart not only make their own characters of blind
boxes such as MOLLY, they but also try to cooperate
with their brands from different countries. For example,
they design a series of blind boxes about KUNGFU
Panda or LINE FRIENDS, BT21 from Korea(such as
these familiar brands). People once notice their favorite
film characters cooperated with blind boxes; people
can’t help buying such products. [6]Currently, a famous
Chinese film called Detective Chinatown vol.3 is shown
all over China. Many young people are fond of these
main ‘detectives’ in this film. As a result, one brand of
the blind box designs similar characters to use in their
toys. Therefore, people buy this kind of blind boxes
because of their favor of film characters.
3.4. The desire of companion of people
According to the theory of customers’ psychology, it
means a phenomenon that consumers modify and control
their consuming behaviors under the social environment.
With the development of society, people are busier than
before. 24-7 routine of working and much competition
pressure make them stressed. Gradually, people become
lonely and incommunicative. Therefore, they purchase
all kind of toys as subjects to help them relieve their
pressure and be a friend with these toys. When
purchasing and enjoying sharing the toys people get,
they will gain a circle of ‘blind boxes’, which is gathered
with like-minded people who have the same hobbies as
them. For instance, they can hang out with each other
and purchase then sharing them with those friends.
According to the theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels, they point out social communication is formed
by people’s connection, communication and exchange
under the environment of production and other social
activities. That is how a blind box social community
forms.
4. OTHER INFLUENCE ON OTHER
ECONOMY (WE-MEDIA AND TOYS
MARKET)
4.1. Effects on We-media
Buying blind boxes, not only can promote the
development of the brands of the blind boxes, but also it
can also increase the income of other We-media
companies. [6]It is really common to notice that there is
an increase in the trend of We-media platforms such as
RED and TikTok. People edit films and photos, sharing
them on their private accounts. Such these people consist
of a company and make money with the increasing
number amount of playing. Recently, people follow the
fashion, recording their vlog of purchasing, opening it.
Even, there are people who buy a series of blind box to
introduce and attract people coming to see. For example,
there ‘Youtuber’ create topics, sharing their skills of
buying hidden or special ones to gain a number of fans.
As a result, this is a kind of way to stimulate the chain of
products to blind boxes.
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4.2. Future economy developing in the toys
market
In the future, in about five years, blind boxes will
last be an important tool to promote the increase of the
economy. According to the figure of the proportion and
forecast of the market size of China’s toy industry in the
global toy industry market from 2017 to 2023. It is clear
that, in 2023, the proportion of people buying toys will
have reached 23.03%. China toys’ industry forces the
development of blind boxes. Analyzing the scale of the
Chinese toys industry, in 2023, the scale of the industry
will increase to 57.46 billion. Among these, there are
9.3 billion involving blind boxes toys. With the
developing number of the young especially in the
advanced cities, blind boxes will gradually become more
popular among people. However, there are also
appearing some black market managers who take the
advantage of blind boxes to earn money. For example,
they will buy lots of series of blind boxes to have hidden
or special ones and sell them at a high price on some
second-hand platforms. Terribly, some merchants forge
the same appearance as some special blind boxes and
sell them to earn inappropriate money. If the government
wants to keep increasing the sales of blind boxes, they
should guarantee the rights of these toys, at the same
time, they have to supervise and manage these traders.
For the customers, they should purchase blind boxes
within their property limits and control the impulse of
buying them without addiction.
Figure5 The developing potential in China’s blind boxes market
Figure6 The driving force of toys’ market: blind boxes
5. CONCLUSION
In a fast-paced life, the emerging of the blind boxes
completely unexpected. For these consumers of buying
blind boxes, most of the girls buy them because of their
cute appearance. Cooperating with other famous is still
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the feature of blind boxes. In the future, blind boxes are
not only supposed to design different kinds of toys, but
also some brands should design more digital facilities,
such as earphones with PUCKY, or pencil boxes with
MOLLY. Even managers can come up with other kinds
of blind boxes besides toys in them. In addition, the
department of blind boxes cannot be limited in big cities.
To drive the development of the economy in the whole
of China, it is better to set up more multiple shops in
some small cities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to
my teachers and professors in my high school, who have
provided me with valuable guidance in every stage of
the writing of this thesis. Further, I would like to thank
all my friends and roommates for their encouragement
and support. Without all their enlightening instruction
and impressive kindness, I could not have completed my
thesis.
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