What do you look for when you buy something? There might be various criteria for comparing products, such as performance, price, and reviews of the product. But the strongest first impression of the product depends on its “image,” such as the company’s reputation and the product design. This is why many companies allocate a large portion of their budget to the marketing. With technological advancements leading to increasingly competitive markets, traditional dominance by a single product is no longer the case. Companies are gradually shifting their focus from product differentiation to innovative marketing strategies.
In this context, one of the most traditional marketing methods is celebrity endorsement. Particularly in industries like fashion, brands nominate celebrity “ambassadors” to enhance their image and promote their products. However, for industries such as food and beauty, this approach is proving to be less effective. The celebrity often tends to overshadow the product itself, and the intended marketing message is easily distorted from the promotion of the product itself to another fashion catalog featuring the celebrity. As a result, companies have begun looking for an alternative strategy.
The emerging solution to this problem is collaboration with well-known characters. The change in perspective towards spending on character goods and the rise of the kidult (kid+adult) industry is strongly influencing the marketing strategies of many industries as Gen Z becomes the main consumers generation. Character intellectual property (IP) offers significant advantages. Unlike celebrities, characters gain broad, multi-generational appeal. This allows products marketed through character collaborations to reach a wider scope of consumer with equal or even reduced marketing budgets. Furthermore, character marketing avoids potential problems associated with a celebrity’s scandals, providing a more stable and reliable marketing strategy.
The intellectual property (IP) industry in Korea is expected to increase continuously, from 13.6 trillion KRW in 2020 to 16.2 trillion KRW in 2025. Many industries are aggressively adopting character collaboration to their products, such as the case of Issac Toast’s collaboration with Pokémon where they offer random Pokémon badges when you buy the Pokémon set. The strategy proved its effect by exhausting the prepared stock within only three days. The food industry was not the only beneficiary of this strategy. Character collaboration is even proving to be effective in sports team marketing. Baseball team Doosan Bears selected Mangomee, a beloved bear character in Korea as their collaboration target and launched limited edition collaboration goods. This went viral on SNS, leading to the purchase of the team’s fans as well as general consumers.
In conclusion, character collaboration represents a paradigm shift in product marketing. Brands can overcome traditional marketing limitations and create campaigns that reach a wider scope of consumers. Character collaboration strategy offers endless possibilities for companies aiming to stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape.
