Zippo Monopoly: Lighting Business Opportunities With Avant-Garde Creativity

"We do not sell matches, we sell fashion elements, nostalgia, matches are just a carrier we are looking for."

Yang Huacheng's statement is: in this new era of material abundance, variety of choices and information explosion, nostalgia and retro has also become a business opportunity.

Shen Zikai, "the age of innocence", Shen Zikai, founder of the brand art match, said: "when lighters are flying everywhere and everyone is using ZIPPO, the original personality and fashion become mediocre and boring.

When people are playing, this thing is often no longer fun.

Yes, when you have a ZIPPO, you will become a trend with matches.

Shen Zikai, a big boy in Hangzhou who sells matches, is a 80 year old boy. He is busy selling matches recently. His title is the marketing director of Hangzhou Ghibli art creation society.

Before selling matches, Shen Zikai owns an advertising agency.

Further, he was a student of art design. He dreamed of "using creative and design means to turn ordinary things into interesting and playful products", like "Muji", "violent bear" and "IKEA".

The advertising company is doing a good job. Shen Zikai has been living for two years.

In 2007, a creative friend sent Shen Zikai a box of matches to make him choose to change.

The black outer box is pressed with UV technology, and the matches are long and thick. They match the matches that are usually seen at two times.

Friends say this is called "giving money". Shen Zikai, who is beautiful and beware of gifts, is very happy. When he is bored, he often plays with this box of matches. He reminds of his creative product plan.

After some reflection and market research, he left the advertising company founded by him and registered the company named "Hangzhou Ghibli art creation society", focusing on developing art matches.

In July 2007, Shen Zikai officially registered the trademark of the "genuine age art match", which began selling three months later and began to join the chain in April this year.

With the opening of the first store, more than 10 franchised stores in Xitang, Mount Huangshan, Shanghai, Suzhou, Yangshuo and Beijing opened one after another, and their own outlets opened in July in Shaoxing's hometown of Lu Xun.

At present, nearly 100 dealers in the "innocence era" have spread in most parts of China except Tibet and Xinjiang.

The spread of the network of franchisees and distributors has brought more business to Shen Zikai.

Many customers who accidentally enter the art match stores or buy products in boutiques turn into new franchisees.

Recently, a Taiwan businessman who was discussing cooperation with Shen Zikai came to see her products in the "pure age" store in Xitang, hoping to sell this interesting little product to Taiwan.

In fact, Shen Zikai is not a lonely case of selling matches in pition.

Yang Huacheng, who was in Chongqing after 70, did not know each other with Shen Zi Kai, but their situation was very similar: Yang originally ran his own advertising company. Now he also sells matches, but Yang Huacheng sells matches earlier than Shen Zi Kai. In 2006, Yang Huacheng, who sold the printing and packaging industry for more than 10 years, sold his advertising and printing company, while resting to find new projects.

During the Spring Festival of 2007, Yang Huacheng saw a box of art matches in his friend's home. He was instantly reluctant to part with it and relied on his familiarity with the field of printing and packaging. He was acutely aware of the market prospect of the project.

With the resources accumulated over the years, Yang Huacheng and his friends quickly set up the "Chongqing miracle Culture Communication Company", and registered the brand of "flame myth" to start selling matches.

Shen Zikai and Yang Huacheng sell bright coloured art matches.

This fashionable and beautiful match has been popular in recent years. It has sprung up countless stores in many shopping malls and big city stores in China. Shen Zikai's "pure age" and Yang Huacheng's "fire myths" are among the most active brands.

Today, the art matches worn by "new clothes" have long been far removed from the original functions of matches. They are no longer a cheap ignition tool. The history of the old products and new markets has been more than 180 years. Since 1887, the British invented safety matches, until the early 1990s, matches were all necessities for people's daily life.

But the popularity of cheap lighters has made matches slowly out of sight.

Now, in the cities or the countryside, the matches that have once been prosperous have almost disappeared.

With the traditional match characters retreating, and the match factories of various loco sized factories, they are still in production or shutting down. The survival of the traditional matches is less than 50. The annual sales volume is less than 50 million. The annual sales volume is about 50 million yuan, and the profit of one (1000 boxes) is 0.7 yuan. The average price per box is only a few cents, with an average profit of only 2.6%. Compared with the high profitability of modern enterprises, the traditional match industry is basically a small profit or no profit.

However, the traditional matches have disappeared and created the possibility of artistic matches.

As Shen Zikai said, "when a lighter is flying everywhere and everyone is using ZIPPO, the original personality and fashion become mediocre and boring.

When people are playing, this thing is often no longer fun.

Nowadays, the art matches worn by "new clothes" have long been far removed from the original functions of matches, and are no longer a cheap ignition tool.

The material and technology of art matches are also different from traditional ones.

For example, traditional matches use cheap and low-grade oil paper, while art matches are white card and other high-grade paper, and also use outer box, peritoneum and other packaging technology.

Match materials, art matches are 2mm - 2mm northeast selected small white ocean, match head is also larger than the traditional, and the length of different specifications, very personality.

As a collection of stamps only in the world, the niche market of traditional matches (stickers on matchboxes) gives great inspiration to art matches.

For the younger generation born in the 70-80 century, matches that contain childhood memories can be repackaged or even stripped of their practical functions, and only become a collection.

The concept of "giving money" also allows such a moderate price product to be located in small gifts, and has a wide sales market in tourist attractions and comprehensive commercial areas.

"We are not selling matches, we sell fashion elements, nostalgia, matches are just a carrier we are looking for."

Yang Huacheng's statement is very representative.

Nowadays, people who sell art matches like to sell them as "creative products".

The greatest feature of art matches is to integrate culture, art and other elements into the design.

At present, most sets of art matches are sold in various specifications, such as rectangles, squares, triangles and so on. The contents are from ancient emperors, World War II famous generals, ten marshals and other historical figures to fashionable cars, city graffiti, movie posters and other fashion themes.

However, the "book style" binding book like "handsome boy certificate" or "Bachelor card" is especially characteristic.

It is not just matches that are catching people's eyes, but also the decorative layout of the theme shops inside and outside the theme.

"I am not a casual man, please understand," "be a man wandering between cattle A and ox C". "No frowning"? Many people paste photos of their own BLOG travel notes in the art matches store in Yangshuo, Lijiang, Xitang and other places, and delight in these strange slogans and matches.

Despite the fact that Shen Zikai admits that this is a non mainstream small market, it seems to him that a nationwide market gap is a sign of optimism in the future.

Due to the labelling of "art" and "creativity", there is no technical threshold in production, and the profits of art matches far exceed that of traditional matches.

According to Shen's reckoning, the annual sales volume of this market is 50 million yuan. According to the average profit margin of 50%, it has a profit of nearly 25 million yuan, which is hundreds of times that of the traditional match industry.

If we break the market again, such as gift market, Collectible market, business cooperation and export, the market volume will be more than that.

Shen Zikai even optimistically estimated that the market for art matches will reach 80 million yuan in two years.

Due to the lack of independent third party survey data, the proportion of the domestic market share of art matches is not even accurate by the manufacturers themselves.

Judging from the number and exposure of franchised stores, dealers, the most influential brands in the market are "match heaven", "fire hall", "flame myth" and "pure age".

The "match heaven" as the first brand to enter the field occupied the largest market. Its head even claimed that its franchised store's "eleven" golden week has a daily sales volume of several hundred thousand, and the annual sales volume of the company is much higher than that of the 50 million market capacity estimated by Shen Zikai.

However, the soft side of artistic matches is also obvious. The first is the problem of piracy.

The popular products such as "Guevara" on the market are all doing what they do for each other.

Yang Huacheng has already begun to develop new products, such as the limited edition of Peking Opera mask matches produced by special technology, each has its own numbered, Facebook pattern, text, and decorative border polished, and the design is exquisite and three-dimensional, and it is difficult to counterfeit.

In addition to piracy, the attribution of "matches" to matches is also a headache for manufacturers and distributors.

During the Olympic Games, Shen Zikai lost a lot of business. Many shops at tourist spots also affected their performance because they couldn't bring them to the plane after they bought their products.

More troublesome is that as a "flammable" art match is regarded as a safety hazard, the landing in the busy area, especially in the large comprehensive commercial area, is also subject to many constraints.

In fact, not everyone is optimistic about the market prospect of art matches.

Ding Bangqing, creative director of Guangdong advertising company, believes that matches have been in recession. No matter how innovative the packaging is, there is no market or market is small. It is impossible to support the operation cost.

"Do you buy coal balls, even if they are made of various colors? When the value is not available, the added value can only extend the recession period and not become a factor that supports product development alone."

Because of the maturing technology of mats, even though the cost of art matches is much higher than that of traditional matches, there is no high threshold in technology, which leads to many followers.

Shen Zikai's "age of innocence" entered the market at the latest, but it was most vigorous in the promotion.

In addition to setting up a direct store on Taobao, Shen Zikai also participates in the search engine's competitive bidding. 90% of his clients now come from the Internet and communicate through the Internet.

In his view, internet promotion is the most economical way of advertising for startups, while the offline activities such as creative market and cool sell Street are auxiliary.

Chongqing's "flame myths" started six months earlier than the "innocence age". Dealers are over 100.

The founders Yang Huacheng and Chen Wei have their own match factories, producing "flame myths" series products, but also receiving orders. Cadillac, Roewe motor, general Chongqing, Shanghai Zhongkai real estate and Shenzhen six thousand pavilion have all become their custom customers.

Despite its own website and Alibaba and Taobao outlets, Yang Huacheng is still inclined to promote offline marketing.

In April 2007, when they took advantage of Jay Chou's Chongqing concert, they invited more than 100 college students to promote the "flame myths" art match.

After the taste, the marketing of star concerts and Taobao creative street has become the most important way for them to run outside the direct market.

Compared to these aggressive pursuers, the first entry brands such as match heaven and Han fire hall appear to be low-key.

If you do not directly enter the brand name, you can not easily search the two businesses on the Internet.

However, as an old brand with the advantage of first mover advantage, the well laid channels have brought huge profits to them.

The low price strategy of these entrant also brings great pressure to the sales people who are far behind their own followers. Mr. Zhong, general manager of the match heaven, does not hide the heroic spirit of the boss: "if BMW sells a price with Xiali, which will you buy? We have large production costs, low cost, low wholesale price than others, and they have no profit margin in price war!"

"Spark Program" is his name for the "innocence era" joining plan. Like the same products, he adopts "franchised store + regional agent + general distributor" mode in sales, and takes wholesale and franchise as the main.