Reasons for MINISO to Stimulate Consumption: Take the

Co-Branding with Chiikawa IP for Example

Siqi Lu

College of Film and TV Art, Hebei Institute of Communications, 051430 Hebei, China

Keywords: MINISO, Chiikawa, IP.

Abstract: In the context of Age Z, with the constant proliferation of information on the Internet, various pop-up IPs

have become social topics for people in their lives. Chiikawa Japanese animated films and the constant

discussion about Chiikawa content and characters on social media, Chikawa's fan base is gradually increasing.

Demand for Chiikawa's derivative products is also expanding. In this article, we will dig into the factors that

stimulate the consumption of MINISO from the example of ChiikawaIP and MINISO co-branding. This paper

uses case studies and questionnaires. The questionnaire investigated the purchasing factors of consumers of

Chiikawa products, the results of the questionnaire show that the consumer group is mostly female, mostly

18-25 years of age, the reason why Chiikawa and MINISO stimulate consumption is not only due to the high

popularity of the Chiikawa IP itself, but also due to the emotional value of the IP content, which creates a

strong sense of empathy for those who watch it. The reason for stimulating consumption is also related to

Miniso's marketing model, the atmosphere of the shops, the KOC platform to attract sales, and the reduction

of production costs.

1 INTRODUCTION

This study looks at the increasing levels of global

consumption, people's shopping needs are gradually

growing. MINISO, the world's number one private

label general retailer, the brand has co-branded with

Japan's current national hit, ChiikawaIP, and opened

flash shops in China to reach high popularity sales.

This research has far-reaching implications for how

well crossover brands should co-brand. This study

focuses specifically on the collective action aspect

and uses literature analysis to locate and read relevant

information and literature. The advantage of this

approach is that it provides a good analysis of

consumer attitudes and reasons for purchasing

MINISO, which facilitates the research. The ultimate

research objective of this study is what successful

models of brand co-branding collaborations in

different fields are worthy of posterity, conducted

case studies, and questionnaires.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

An article in the China Business Network examines

Japanese IP Chiikawa's network of partnerships and

co-branding with over 40 brands, and Chiikawa's

commercialization of a range of retail strategies for

licensing Spiralcute Inc (China Business Network,

2024). How to do a good flash mob, Spiralcute

Corporation contributed to this study by developing

new products with clear thematic stories, creating

special programs, and developing local marketing

tools. However, not much has been said about

analyzing the current sales situation of the MINISO

and Chiikawa co-branding. It lacks research on co-

branded flash mobs in the Chinese market.

Viviolita Nur Febriani, and Rini Kuswati in ‘the

influence of recreational shopper identify and

servicescape on impulsive buying through hedonic

value as a mediation variable’ examine MINISO's

focus on consumer ‘experience value’. Contributed to

this study in the areas of shop ambiance, product

offers, designing cute products, impulse shopping,

etc. (Febriani, 2024). However, there is a lack of

research on MINISO's co-branding with various IP

brands. The current research gap is the experiences

and attitudes that MINISO and its partner IP brands

bring to consumers.

Lu Yue and Wang Qishen in the article ‘MINISO

Co-branding with Chiikawa Draws Controversy’

examined the sales figures of the first MINISO and

Chiikawa-themed flash mob event, as well as the

Lu, S.

Reasons for MINISO to Stimulate Consumption: Take the Co-Branding with Chiikawa IP for Example.

DOI: 10.5220/0014146300004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 573-577

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

573

online booking mechanism of the flash mob and

MINISO's mismanagement of the flash mob's

consumer welfare rules, there were problems with

arbitrary changes (Lu & Wang, 2024). Contributed to

this study in terms of the timeliness of MINISO and

Chiikawa's joint product prices, flash market data,

and on-site phenomena. However, there was a lack of

guidance from MINISO on how to resolve the

dilemma of the joint name with Chiikawa in the

future.

Based on the current state of research above, in

this paper, through the use of art worlds theory,

starting with the collective action perspective aspect

in conjunction with the results of the questionnaire,

looking at Chiikawa as a product of the art world,

analyzing the collaborative networks behind them,

examining the behavioral factors of consumers in

purchasing co-branded products.

3 QUESTIONNAIRE

This paper analyses the content of existing

information and finds that the consumer psychology

of users can directly affect product sales. To explore

the user's psychology and to further define an

effective marketing and co-branding strategy, a total

of 60 questionnaires were distributed in this study and

53 were returned with 52 valid data. The consumers

of the questionnaire were all students who purchased

MINISO Chiikawa products. Among them, 81.13

percent are female consumers who are the main

purchasers of products, they are concentrated in the

18-25 age group.

It is known in the questionnaire that 58.49 percent

of consumers learned about Chiikawa through new

media platforms such as social media (Weibo, bilibili,

Shake). This shows that ChiikawaIP can get good

publicity when it is posted and discussed on new

media platforms. In terms of Chiikawa's

content,83.02% of consumers were exposed to

Chiikawa's content through the use of emojis, and

71.7 percent of consumers watched anime/manga to

learn about Chiikawa. This shows that social has a

definite advantage in distributing IP content at the

moment. The content of Chiikawa itself attracts a

portion of users to spontaneously search for Chiikawa

through emoticons.83.02% of consumers were

attracted to Chiikawa by its cute design. The

simplicity of the art style, the charisma of the

characters, the storyline, and the worldview are some

of the qualities that attracted them to Chiikawa.52.83

percent of consumers believe that Chiikawa is useful

for stress relief and relaxation. This shows that

Chiikawa IP can not only provide consumers with

their social topics but also show their love for the IP

as a kind of personality. It also provides a certain

emotional value to the consumer, which is one of the

reasons why consumers are willing to buy the

product. In terms of consumers' main motivation for

supporting Chiikawa, 83.02% of consumers love the

characters and are willing to pay for their favorite

characters. This means that the IP itself must have

quality content and character design so that it can

better promote its IP derivatives. In terms of

Chiikawa's popularity reflects contemporary youth in

terms of their cultural consumption attitudes and

psychological needs,77.36 percent of consumers

believe that they can find emotional support and

psychological comfort.71.7 percent are looking for a

cute, healing culture.

The results of the questionnaire show that in

today's fast-paced social life, people are eager to find

products that can serve as spiritual support. In

addition to the freedom of the product itself, goods

with IP content that provide emotional value are more

popular. Purchasing such IP-licensed products can

satisfy the psychological needs of consumers, and

make them feel the pleasure and joy of shopping from

the bottom of their hearts.

4 DELIBERATIONS

4.1 Chiikawa's Co-Operation Network

Becker's use of the term ‘Artworld’ builds on Danto's

1964 essay ‘Artworld’, which was published in 1964.

Danto's 1964 essay defines an Artworld as ‘to see

something as art requires something invisible to the

eye - an atmosphere of art theory, a knowledge of art

history: an artworld’. Exploring the relevance of this

theoretical approach to Becker's ‘Art world’ from an

interactionist perspective. Gilmore Samuel's 1990

article ‘Artworlds: Developing the Interactionist

Approach to Social Organisation’, A survey of Beck's

‘Art World’ in terms of social organizations, art

institutions, artists, and relations of production.

Clarification of the applicability of the interactionist

approach to all artistic endeavors, relationality of

social structures-Social relations at both the micro

and macro levels are established through interactive

exchanges, the interactionist approach, by focusing

on the concept of ‘boundaries’, establishes a

framework that integrates the macro and micro levels

to explain social structures. Artists are integrated into

the social environment through participation in

support networks, and collaborative activities include

APMM 2025 - International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management

574

them in meaningful networks of relationships (Fu,

2022).

Using this theory, it is intuitively clear that

ChiikawaIP is shaped by a complete and tightly knit

network of cooperation. It consists of Japanese

creator Nagano, Chiikawa's Japanese

commercialization licensee Spiralcute, Chiikawa's

manga rights Kodansha, Chiikawa's animation

production Tokyo-based animation company Anime

Kobo, and Chiikawa's commercialization and

animation network in China. Jie Wai Animation, the

exclusive distributor of Chiikawa in China, MINISO,

a grocery chain, and social media platforms such as

Twitter, Jittery, and Weibo are forming a cooperation

network to jointly build a Chiikawa IP network.

Author Wenjie Wan examines the phenomenon that

caused the explosion of Chikawa in ‘IP Research That

Is Currently Exploding in Popularity - Taking

Chikawa as an Example’, the symbolic properties of

Chiikawa are described and analyzed, ‘Moe culture is

very popular in Japan, with a certain sense of contrast,

the story behind the cute characters is an anti-utopian

plot. The three main characters help each other,

optimistic life also continues to heal the hearts of the

audience (Wan, 2024). In June 2022, Chiikawa was

awarded the ‘Japan Image Award’. The author of

Chiikawa has an annual revenue of 5.2 billion yuan,

of which 5 billion yuan is generated from Chiikawa

peripheral products. On social media platforms, The

Nagano author currently has 3,679,000 user followers

on Twitter, Official fans of Chiikawa anime on

China's Bilibili platform are 1.303 million, and the

topic of Chiikawa on Weibo reached 800 million

readers. This shows the popularity of Chiikawa with

subcultural audiences. Consumers will be willing to

pay for the brand if they love and recognise the brand.

This is what stimulated consumers to buy after

MINISO co-branded with ChiikawaIP (Sander &

Japutra, 2021).

4.2 Chiikawa Co-Branding

In the past two years, Chiikawa has spread widely on

Chinese social media platforms. The IP has

accumulated a large number of fans and user base,

and its Japanese peripheral products are gradually

flowing into the Chinese market. Its peripheral

derivatives are very popular. This demonstrates

Chiikawa's potential for cultural dissemination and

commercial profitability. It is also clear that Chinese

consumers lack purchasing channels and are in dire

need of local peripheral goods. The reason for

MINISO's association with Chiikawa has a great deal

to do with the buzz around Chiikawa itself, as well as

the fact that it is the most popular brand in the world.

As early as 2023, MINISO has co-branded with many

big IPs, such as Sanrio, Barbie, Marvel, and

Pokémon, which have collaborated with MINISO,

MINISO has achieved good sales results and IP

influence and has been highly praised by users around

the world. MINISO's IP co-branding also enhances

consumer awareness of the brand and gives more

people an impression of MINISO.MINISO's strategy

is to “insist on price/performance ratio, globalization,

and product innovation” (Xu, 2021). With the vision

of “becoming the world's No. 1 IP design retail

group,” (Lu & Wang, 2024). MINISO has officially

opened a flash mob with Chiikawa, a company that

lacks the opportunity to sell peripheral products in

mainland China. In 2024, MINISO officially opened

a flash mob in association with Chiikawa, which lacks

the opportunity to sell peripheral products in

mainland China. Simultaneously landed in many

cities across the country, and united with the United

States Mission, the official small program, Jitterbug

Hour to open the whole network of trafficking,

support a variety of stores a variety of delivery

methods, and the fastest 30-minute delivery

(Febriani, 2024). This offline e-commerce marketing

model quickly covers the whole network, greatly

expanding the consumer's purchase channels and

methods. MINISO and Chiikawa theme flash store in

Shanghai Jing'an Joy City, the day 10 hours wild sales

of 2.68 million yuan. Opening three days

performance of more than 8 million yuan, customer

unit price of more than 1,000 yuan (Lu & Wang,

2024). In addition to the strong fan base of Chiikawa's

IPs, MINISO has attracted many Chiikawa fans and

anime enthusiasts by increasing the appeal of

purchasing through various marketing methods.

The reasons for MINISO and Chiikawa's

stimulation of consumption are related to MINISO's

reduction of production costs and discounts on

derivatives, thus increasing purchasing power. Even

before MINISO joined hands with ChiikawaIP,

MINISO implemented a unique franchise model for

its franchise shops. Franchisees only need to provide

the franchise fee, the rest of the links are by the Group

responsible. This greatly reduces the complexity of

the intermediate links in the supply chain. This

enables MINISO to reduce production costs and

lower the price of its products more effectively.

Literature from China's first financial magazine

shows that Spiralcute Japan took Chiikawa from idea

to product by first using a flash mob to test the market.

China MINISO and Chiikawa co-branded a three-

bomb flash mob, from the standing doll to the flower

fairy doll to the pajama doll. Each bullet is packaged

Reasons for MINISO to Stimulate Consumption: Take the Co-Branding with Chiikawa IP for Example

575

to promote a new product for a limited period. Brand

image has a significant impact on consumer

repurchase (Kumalasari et al., 2021). Low-priced

goods tend to lead consumers to make impulse

purchases, MINISO promotes its products under the

slogan of ‘Ultimate Cost-Effective’, implanting the

brand image of high quality and low price into the

minds of consumers (Nafsi & Prabowo, 2024).

MINISO and Chiikawa's co-branded products range

in price from Yuan 599 for a seated pajama figure to

Yuan 15.90 for a blind-boxed doll, with most of the

items priced between Yuan 19.90 and 69.90. It can be

seen that, when consumers compare the prices of

Japanese Chiikawa peripheral products and MINISO

co-branded products, they can find that MINISO's

peripheral products are good value for money. This

shows that MINISO keeps digging deeper into the

supply chain to make co-branded items cheaper,

promoting the purchase of Chiikawa products by

more consumers. It fought the price war of Chiikawa

IP peripheral products. Furthermore, MINISO has a

wide range of co-branded products. Examples include

blind boxes, desktop storage, dolls, make-up mirrors,

house slippers, handbags and much more. This is a

great way to satisfy the needs of consumers in

multiple categories. MINISO's association with

Chiikawa extends the IP image into the realm of

physical merchandise, catering to the collecting

hobby of many Chiikawa fans and the demand for IP

merchandising.

MINISO has trained 50,000 KOC users offline.

KOC, the full name is ‘Key Opinion Consumer’, Key

Opinion Consumers (KOCs), corresponds to KOLs

(Key Opinion Leaders). Generally refers to

consumers who can influence their friends and

followers to generate consumer behaviour. These

KOC users have been virally marketing MINISO and

Chiikawa co-branded products by posting content on

social media platforms. According to Prisnawati

(2019), viral marketing is an understanding of

communication and distribution that is customer-

oriented and aims to send information about a product

that is marketed using digital media to potential

customers in their social circles through electronic or

internet messages and to influence potential

customers to send similar information about the

product (Febriani, 2024). This shows that MINISO is

constantly stimulating impulse purchases through

lower production costs, brand licensing cooperation,

and viral marketing (Kasim et al., 2024).

5 CONCLUSION

The findings of this study are that the reasons why

MINISO and Chiikawa co-branding stimulate

consumer purchases are the product of a combination

of factors. In terms of product design, MINISO first

researched Chiikawa's popularity and purchasing

power beforehand. Secondly, from the creative

design of the IP itself to the conversion of the

merchandise. MINISO then reduces the price of its

products by lowering production costs and reducing

the number of intermediaries. Then it launched a flash

mob for a limited period with a constant stream of

new co-branded peripherals. Finalise commercial

operations. MINISO promotes its products to KOC

users through Jittery Voice, Weibo, Bilibili, and other

platforms, as well as live streaming its products

online. Multi-platform support for home delivery

expands consumer purchasing channels. The present

study provides many valuable references for future

research in this direction. It primarily affects how IP

intellectual property should be shaped and how

retailers can work better with IP co-branding. How to

stimulate consumers to buy products, what can other

companies learn from MINISO's marketing model?

The number of respondents in this study was

relatively small in terms of questionnaire distribution.

The occupations of survey respondents are relatively

homogeneous, and the regions of survey consumers

are relatively homogeneous. Thus leading to

imprecise data findings. Subsequent scholars

conducting similar surveys could increase the number

of respondents and broaden the breadth of

occupations and regional restrictions. Future research

should focus more on what new marketing strategies

MINISO can use to stimulate consumption, in

addition to IP co-branding, lowering prices, and

expanding publicity to increase consumer purchasing

power.

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Through Hedonic Value as A Mediation Variable.

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