How to create a hit product? "Shanghai Gifts" continues to innovate
On September 23, the 35th Shanghai Tourism Festival "Lao Feng Xiang Cup" Shanghai Gift Design Competition came to an end, and 12 new "Shanghai Gifts" were unveiled. These special "Shanghai Gifts" include the City of Light character-shaped blind boxes and Shanghai retro refrigerator magnets, "Prosperous Shanghai" Lulutong silver bars, "Shanghai · Story" new book list - "Sea Scenery" series, Pudong Art Museum art building atmosphere lights and three-dimensional refrigerator magnets, Bund style whiskey glasses, etc., which integrate Shanghai's architectural, cultural and trendy elements and have their own characteristics.
The endless stream of new "Shanghai gifts" has also caused people to think: What kind of "Shanghai gifts" do people prefer? How to create a hit?
"Shanghai Gifts" has a constant stream of new products and many challenges
During this year's Shanghai Tourism Festival, the Shanghai Federation of Commerce and the Shanghai Tourism Association jointly carried out the 2024 "Shanghai Gift" brand selection and recognition, and finally confirmed 421 products as shortlisted.
As a strong support for the "Shanghai Gift" brand, the "Lao Feng Xiang Cup" Shanghai Gift Design Competition continues to innovate and amplify the symbolic significance of Shanghai's high-quality tourism products in the city's spirit and image. The 12 new products selected for the "Shanghai Gift" design competition are both beautiful, artistic and practical, and fully demonstrate Shanghai's urban characteristics and cultural heritage. For example, the Care Gold Bracelet launched by the Shanghai Institute of Arts and Crafts and the Dunhuang Gold Culture Gold Brand has auspicious elements such as "Dunhuang Nine-Colored Deer" and "Shanghai City Flower White Magnolia"; the art building atmosphere lights and three-dimensional refrigerator magnets launched by the Pudong Art Museum allow users to further feel the charm of Shanghai's international metropolis while enjoying the Pumei art atmosphere.
So far, the "Shanghai Gift" design competition has been held for 19 sessions, and each competition will select outstanding works with outstanding design sense and commercial value. But when these works enter the market, not all products can become "explosive products." Tang Mingze, marketing director of Jiushi Culture Communication Co., Ltd., who has participated in the "Shanghai Gift" design competition many times, admitted that a "Bund Style" silk scarf that the company had previously participated in and won the award not only sold well in its own channels, but also entered the cultural and creative souvenir shop of the Shanghai Museum, and was very popular with tourists. But another pair of black crystal cufflinks, which were based on the two Baroque-style windows at the entrance of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on the Bund, had very average sales.
"We are also constantly summarizing and reviewing. 'Shanghai gifts' should have both city characteristics and be practical and down-to-earth." Tang Mingze gave an example. In this "Shanghai Gift" design competition, the company's "Bund Style" whiskey cup inspired by the classic Bund architecture entered the top 12. The market price of this whiskey cup made of natural crystal is expected to be 300 to 400 yuan. Based on previous competition and marketization experience, this cup will mainly consider providing customization and co-branding services for some financial companies and wine companies, and will also be distributed in the 7 Bund buildings operated by Jiushi.
A survey data shared by Pan Yueling, director of the Cultural and Creative Development Department of Pudong Art Museum, revealed tourists' preference for "Shanghai gifts". Pan Yueling said that recently, the proportion of online non-local visitors to Pudong Art Museum exceeded 58%, of which female visitors accounted for about 69%. When asked about their expectations for cultural and creative products, everyone believed that the following points should be met: regional characteristics; both aesthetic and creative, and practical for daily use, and reasonably priced. Others also suggested that the museum could develop some Shanghai-style foods as souvenirs, such as Pudong Art Museum-themed butterfly cakes.
In the opinion of Zhang Xiuping, deputy general manager of the Oriental Pearl Radio and Television Tower, Yunnan's flower cakes and Beijing's Daoxiangcun pastries are souvenirs that are well-known to many tourists, while the range of "Shanghai gifts" is relatively broad, with many brands and products, but no single product can stand out, giving people the impression that "Shanghai lacks specialty products."
"In fact, Shanghai has many specialties, including the butterfly cakes from the International Hotel, Shao Wansheng's yellow mud snails and salted crabs, and White Rabbit milk candy. In recent years, many companies have also continuously launched various new designs such as lamps, clothing, and cultural and creative products. However, the reach of these 'Shanghai gifts' is far from enough." Zhang Xiuping said.
"There are many people and many companies making products related to Shanghai, but there are problems of information asymmetry and insufficient resource integration among practitioners. Shanghai's time-honored products also lack a platform that can truly connect with young people. 'Shanghai Gifts' need to better focus on or even hype marketing to make everyone pay more attention to good products." More than one cultural and creative practitioner mentioned that the development of cultural and creative products requires huge investment. Once product sales are limited, costs will soar. To increase sales, it means requiring wider distribution channels and online traffic. Scattered resources and platforms have become an obstacle to this.
Fortunately, Shanghai has realized this and is constantly increasing its overall marketing efforts for "Shanghai Gifts". In addition to holding the "Shanghai Gifts" design competition and conducting multi-channel online promotions, many physical stores in cultural and tourism landmarks such as Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street, Yu Garden, Oriental Pearl Tower, and Shanghai Tower also sell their own unique gifts.
It is worth mentioning that in May this year, the first "Shanghai Gift" collection store, which brings together classic Shanghai elements, officially debuted in the zero-meter hall of the Oriental Pearl Tower. From the 462 "Shanghai Gifts", nearly 100 items from four major series of "National Trend Intangible Cultural Heritage", "Shanghai Cuisine", "Parent-Child Toys" and "Daily Necessities" were selected to enter the store, covering various categories such as food, daily necessities, cultural and creative products, fragrances, jewelry and jade, which are rich and diverse, fully showing the Shanghai style.
Deep Light: City of Light - A retro cultural creation with a plot.
Among these "Shanghai gifts", there are many tourism products that have been rated as "Chinese gifts" by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, such as the "Meiliyuan Butterfly" series of Lao Fengxiang Enamel Art Company, the renowned International Hotel Butterfly Pastry Souvenirs, the afternoon tea snack series and the "Talking about Shanghai" series of tourism products specially launched by No. 1 Food, and the cultural and creative refrigerator magnets with the theme of "Ala Shanghai" that represent the characteristic architecture of Shanghai and the styles of famous snacks in Shanghai. Among them, the "Meiliyuan Butterfly" series also won the gold medal in the China Tourism Product Competition last year. Cultural and creative products with classic cartoon IP images that are well-known in Shanghai, such as Black Cat Sheriff, Monkey King, Calabash Brothers, etc., are especially popular among children.
In September this year, the second "Shanghai Gift" offline store also started trial operation in the East Hall of the Shanghai Museum. While realizing the linkage between culture, commerce, tourism and exhibition with the city's new cultural landmark, it will also allow more tourists at home and abroad to easily access the complete and diverse "Shanghai Gifts".
