Marketing Background
What is a Cotton Doll?
A plush doll made of artificial cotton, typically 5-40cm tall, with 20cm being the most common. Its facial embroidery is intricate and rich, allowing for the recognition of facial expressions and states.
History of the Cotton Doll's Popularity
Origin
In 2015, EXO fans created custom cotton dolls based on their idols and brought them to concerts to show their support. Their cute and comforting image became popular in the fan community, prompting fans to create their own cotton dolls of their idols.
Category Expansion
In 2018, it became a specialized trendy toy category, with the emergence of "attributeless cotton dolls" not based on any celebrity or fictional character.
Rapid Popularity
In 2019, the "Cotton Beauty Doll" super topic was established, currently boasting 1.55 million followers and ranking among the top trendy toy-related super topics.
Comprehensive Insights
In recent years, trendy toys in various forms, such as playing cards, grains, and dolls, have become a new favorite among young consumers, demonstrating strong resilience amidst overall consumer pressure.
Trendy Toy Market Insights
The scale of China's trendy toy market is projected to reach 76.4 billion yuan in 2024 and 110.1 billion yuan in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 20% from 2024 to 2026.
With the development of China's pan-entertainment market and the rise of the internet and social media, trendy toys are gradually breaking out of niche markets and entering the mainstream.
Trend Insights
Young people's consumer needs are shifting from functional to emotional.
Young consumers tend to seek comfort and support in every aspect of life. The shift has shifted from "buying a product that pleases oneself" to "finding inner joy through purchasing products."
Acceptance, happiness, satisfaction, meaning, intimacy... these high-energy emotions are gradually becoming states of pursuit and aspiration, influencing not only consumer choices and behaviors but also evolving into consumer goods.
Trendy toy categories driven by interactivity are becoming increasingly popular.
Categories with a high level of interactivity and playability, such as playing cards, plush toys, and BJD/cotton dolls, are becoming increasingly popular. Young people connect with toys through card battles, toy manipulation, and dress-up, generating positive emotional feedback. Consumer
Psychology Insights
Collective Desire: The addictive nature of trendy toys and the stamp-collecting mentality have deeply engaged consumers, leading to dependent purchasing behavior;
Pleasure-seeking: Generation Z prioritizes the emotional experience of consumption and self-gratification, creating a wave of self-pleasing consumption;
Social Needs: Generation Z "loves to share," and this desire to share in turn reinforces purchasing enthusiasm and increases exposure.
Why are the younger generation so captivated by cotton dolls?
Youth's Spiritual Utopia
Cotton dolls are a "two-way love"
Many mothers dress up their soft dolls, take them on trips, and celebrate their dolls' birthdays. At this point, cotton dolls are no longer just cotton dolls; they become emotional carriers nurtured with love and care by each mother.
Temporarily relieve negative stress and recharge.
The emergence of cotton dolls provides spiritual sustenance for young people. They use them to regulate their emotions, relax their minds amidst their busy and tiring lives, and wander into the world of the second dimension, escaping the chaos of the third dimension.
Experience the joy of parenting in a virtual world.
Cotton dolls offer a hassle-free parenting experience, freeing young people from the hassles of caring for their children and the multiple responsibilities of raising them. They offer a more hassle-free parenting experience.
Cotton dolls' unwavering loyalty and everlasting love allow young people to experience the joy of motherhood.
Buy for companionship, share for social interaction.
Project special emotions onto favorite IPs/characters.
Cotton dolls embody consumers' emotional attachment to specific IPs/characters/celebrity figures. Through consumer behavior, consumers project their love for these figures onto cotton dolls, finding a sense of belonging within a specific community.
Social currency in niche communities.
Customizing and matching dolls' appearance and clothing allows users to express their preferences and style. Cotton dolls are social, allowing enthusiasts to share their dolls on social media and connect with like-minded individuals.
Inanimate objects are becoming increasingly popular as emotional supports.
Most young people are choosing to live alone, and various inanimate toys are beginning to serve as companions. The explosive popularity of cotton dolls stems from young people beginning to imagine "inanimate" objects as living, imbuing them with life and expressing their emotions. They dress up their dolls, groom them, take them on trips, and find a sense of pure happiness and psychological comfort in various interactive activities.
The popularity of inanimate pets reflects young people's need for emotional support, personalized expression, and social interaction.
Young people spend for their emotions and their interests.
Young people spend for what they enjoy, not insisting on functionality but allowing for "uselessness." This is emotional consumption for self-pleasure and self-entertainment.
Cotton dolls: a sense of companionship.
The popularity of cotton dolls reflects the comprehensive emphasis young people place on emotional value, social needs, and identity construction.
The shift to a "cultivation" experience—this deeply engaging and emotionally invested form—makes cotton dolls continue to appeal to young people.
Grain - IP Entertainment Experience
Buying grain is more than just "recharging love"; it's a crucial part of the entire IP entertainment experience: buying, displaying, collecting, sharing, circulating, and transforming—all together, they create the joy of eating grain. Cards.
IP cards bring together people with similar interests. They understand, accompany, comfort, and support each other, sharing the same pure joy. Young people find a long-lost sense of belonging here.
Post time: Sep-04-2025