Speaking of the hottest “female star” this month, it is none other than Shanghai Disney’s latest IP “Ling Na Belle”.
The name “Ling Na Belle” may be unfamiliar to many people. This is an IP image launched by Disney, which is a little pink fox. On December 12, Ling Na Belle’s peripheral products were on sale, because the fans were too enthusiastic, the official website once collapsed, and there were related products on the second-hand platform, the price was speculated to tens of thousands of yuan, and appeared on Weibo hot search.
Why is Ling Na Belle so popular? And how long can it be hot?
Scalpers continue to inflate second-hand prices
“I started robbing my mobile phone at 8 p.m. on December 12, but when the time came, I clicked in and went blank, and I felt that I was ‘lonely’ grabbing.” Xiao Liu, a post-00s college student in Wuhan, told reporters.
There are many people who feel the same way.
At 8 p.m. on December 12, after the official appointment channel opened, a large number of consumers found that the reservation page could not be brushed out of the purchase page. But what really causes consumer dissatisfaction is that in addition to the poor official appointment channels, there are also rampant scalpers.
“As a fan, but also a normal consumer, you can’t buy it through official channels, but the second-hand e-commerce platform is full of scalpers selling at high prices, this is not the first time, it really hurts fans.” Xiao Liu said angrily.
Extreme News reporters searched on the second-hand platform and found that the price of Ling Na Belle’s Christmas series generally reached more than 3,000 yuan, and the highest even reached 10,000 yuan. The reporter consulted an idle fish seller as a buyer, who told the reporter that these peripheral products are not in stock for the time being, but accept reservations, “confirm that there is no rush to shoot again”, but the specific replenishment time is “TBD”.
Not only that, some consumers who made successful reservations even hung up the auction directly, and the sale price reached 3,000 yuan.
Although the official has not yet announced the actual selling price of Ling Na Belle series derivatives, according to scalpers engaged in Disney peripheral purchasing, the original price should be around 500 yuan. In other words, the market premium of Ling Na Belle derivatives has reached 20 times.
Shanghai Disney denies hunger marketing
If so many consumers love it, why not restock? Is it hunger marketing?
In response to the doubts of some netizens, Shanghai Disney responded that it would not create any “hunger marketing”. Before the first replenishment on December 12, it communicated with relevant government departments to carefully formulate and optimize the sales plan, aiming to comply with the guidelines of epidemic prevention and control, and follow the principles of fairness and prudence to provide tourists with purchasing opportunities.
The reporter also called Shanghai Disney about the high price of Ling Na Belle’s second-hand market, and the other party said that there was no way.
As of 6 p.m. on December 14, Ling Na Belle’s related topics have been read more than 600 million on Weibo and discussed 3.942 million.
Lingna Belle-related topics have been read more than 600 million on Weibo
Why did Ling Na Belle explode?
It is understood that this is a new IP that appeared at Disney Resort on September 29, because of the cute image, lively and flexible personality, soon detonated the Internet, the official warm-up stage, there are a number of stars have posted photos of themselves and Ling Na Belle. At Shanghai Disneyland, her popularity crushed a number of well-known IPs before, and some fans even queued for seven hours to buy a Ling Na Belle doll.
Industry insiders analyzed that Disney has always been a good hand in building IP. Its successful creation of classic cartoon IPs such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Pooh the Pooh has spread these animated characters around the world through vivid and humorous cartoons and movies. In contrast, Ling Na Belle does not have a coherent backstory. It’s just that on social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat, with the release of GIFs related to Ling Na Belle, let a cute and heart-warming image attract fans in fragmented information.
You should stay calm while chasing stars
The reporter interviewed several post-90s and post-00s Wuhan citizens, who are also fans of Ling Na Belle. According to him, most of them met Ling Na Belle through WeChat chat memes. “I think that Ling Na Belle is so popular, on the one hand, because young people like to collect tides to play, and at the same time, Disney’s marketing is also relatively successful. For us, it doesn’t matter if there is a story or not, as long as it pokes your aesthetic, you will like her. Some citizens said.
However, such an IP may not be able to catch fire for a long time.
The reporter combed and found that the IP star Delu, which was also sold by Disney, had previously triggered a wave of rush to buy, and then the limelight was overshadowed by Ling Na Belle.
A professor at the School of Economics and Management of a university in Wuhan said that from a certain perspective, Ling Na Belle’s popularity and the cultivation of “traffic stars” are similar. When fans invest more and more money, time and affection in idols, the higher the loyalty, the greater the commercial value, and the easier it is for the operator to “cut the leek”. “However, idols that rely on traffic and personality maintenance are also easy to overturn, and if negative news such as scalper hype continues to appear, making fans who invest in personal feelings dissatisfied, for IP, it will naturally not last long.”
The controversy caused by Ling Na Belle is also reminding netizens that whether it is a real star or a virtual idol, you should also stay calm while chasing stars.
Source: Extreme News reporter Zhou Dan
