No one remains young forever, but there are always those who are young at heart.

Who could have imagined that this generation of young people would go crazy for the plush toy Jellycat?

On September 21st, a Jellycat coffee-themed pop-up experience store opened at the Kerry Centre in Jing'an, Shanghai. Despite the price range from a few hundred to thousands of yuan per toy, the store has been exceptionally popular since it started operating.

Many young people are willing to wait in line for one to two hours to purchase their desired Jellycat plush dolls. Additionally, every day there are large groups of scalpers gathered outside the Jellycat store, doubling the price of reservation codes and selling them at a premium, forcing the police to intervene and manage the situation.

Why are people so obsessed with what is essentially just a regular toy?

Ultimately, it's because the mental state of many young people today relies on the healing power of Jellycat plush toys.

Compared to brands like LEGO and Mattel, Jellycat, which was founded in 1999, is a very young brand, yet it has a history of 25 years.

Initially, Jellycat was positioned as a "soothing toy for infants and young children," but unexpectedly, the emotional value it provides is also very much needed by adults. Just as everyone assumes that only children enjoy fairy tales, they don't realize that adults also yearn for the comfort of fairy tales.

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In fact, looking at the price alone, Jellycat is not cheap. In the Taobao flagship store, there are more than 900 Jellycat products for sale, with the lowest price for plush products being 129 yuan and the highest reaching 7999 yuan, with most priced above 200 yuan, firmly placing it in the category of high-end toys.

It's worth mentioning that not only are Jellycat products expensive, but they also frequently increase in price. For instance, the price of the lively eggplant has risen from over 300 yuan to over 600 yuan, and the hamburger has already seen three price increases within a few months.Even so, Jellycat is not short of an audience; instead, it is in high demand.

In the Taobao flagship store, a Barcelona Bear priced at 459 yuan has accumulated sales of over 80,000 units, with monthly sales exceeding 3,000; and the Bunny priced at 999 yuan has also had more than 20,000 people make payments.

During the Olympics, Jellycat launched a series of "Fun Sports" products, many of which sold out. For example, the table tennis racket plush toy endorsed by Fan Zhendong, priced at 299 yuan, was taken off the shelves after selling 7,000 units; the badminton plush toy, priced at 259 yuan, was also easily sold out, with sales reaching 5,000 units; and a coffee travel cup priced at 275 yuan had tens of thousands of people purchasing it.

Tmall data shows that whether it was the "Double 11" in 2023 or this year's "618 Promotion," Jellycat has already surpassed the official flagship store of Disney, firmly holding the throne of the highest sales in the trendy plush toy category.

In the past five years, Jellycat's performance has been on a roll. Jellycat's financial data shows that the revenue for 2022 was 146 million pounds (about 1.33 billion yuan), with a gross profit as high as 61%, amounting to 88.7 million pounds (about 800 million yuan). In May of this year, the online website Jellycat.com reported revenue of 8.74 million US dollars, far exceeding the median of its peers.

Due to Jellycat's popularity, many out-of-print toys have been resold at "sky-high prices" on Xianyu. For example, the out-of-print small pencil is priced as high as 2,000 yuan, and the small dinosaur and small fox pencil case are sold together for 1,488 yuan...

Previously, the soft dog, which was priced at 229 yuan when released, was once resold for 3,200 yuan each after becoming out of print; the "Sad Boiled Egg," which is less than 20 centimeters and originally priced at 139 yuan, has also been offered a thousand yuan for purchase.

Behind the continued hot sales of Jellycat, many young people no longer regard Jellycat as just an ordinary plush toy, but as a solace for their mental anxiety.

In psychology, adults who have a preference for children's toys are called Kidults. Data from the NPD Group shows that Kidult consumers (aged 18 and above) are gradually increasing their share in toy sales, especially in the fields of collectibles, building toys, and art toys. Therefore, even with prices reaching hundreds of yuan, there are always consumers eager to pay for them.

In daily life, plush toys are not rare, but there are not many brands that truly drive people crazy. Apart from Disney, the next is Jellycat.As the saying goes, when you're out and about, your identity is something you give to yourself. For brands, brand value also stems from their own positioning.

Jellycat's popularity remains high,深受广大年轻人喜欢, and has even become a kind of "social currency," which is inseparable from its "unique soul."

Founder William once said: We are not manufacturing toys, but creating works that can resonate emotionally.

At that time, most plush animal toys on the market were very similar, resembling "specimens." So founders William and Thomas, the two brothers, boldly designed and used high-quality luxury fabrics to create "vivid" dolls.

These may not be so delicate, and even some are ugly, but each one is cute, and even makes people feel that each doll has its own "personality": playful little fox, cute puffy penguin, shy bunny rabbit...

It is precisely because of the uniqueness of the products that Jellycat is no longer content to be just a plush toy company. In 2014, after reorganizing its brand positioning, Jellycat began to transform, changing its business direction to a high-end gift brand for all ages.

Jellycat's development in China dates back to 2006, when it first set up a counter in China, entered the Chinese e-commerce platform in 2015, and began to become popular in China around 2021. This change in business strategy directly expanded Jellycat's target consumer group and also gave its products more room for higher premiums.

As a result, although Jellycat keeps raising prices, it is still very popular, and there is a trend of "the more it raises prices, the better it sells, and the better it sells, the more it raises prices."

However, Jellycat has been able to become popular for many years and become a top stream, also because it is a very good "marketing master." In particular, Jellycat is very good at hunger marketing, easily grasping consumers' desire to buy.

It is reported that Jellycat launches a new series of dolls on its official website every January and July, with more than 200 styles, and also customizes background stories and personalities for each doll, finally attaching an adoption card.In this way, plush toys seem no longer to be just plush toys, but rather living entities with their own unique souls and stories, attracting more consumers to purchase them.

Moreover, to enhance their gift attributes, Jellycat releases new products during holidays such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, and anniversaries, making the products more ceremonial.

Although Jellycat introduces new products quickly, its frequency of discontinuing products is equally astonishing. Jellycat innovatively introduces the "retirement system" for dolls, where every year the official website will announce a list of over a hundred retired dolls.

Such a high frequency of product updates and iterations can create a sense of "scarcity" and "limited edition" for users. It not only maintains the brand's freshness and uniqueness, allowing the consumer group to recognize the brand's high value, enhancing brand image, expanding brand influence and visibility, but also continuously activates repeat purchases from old customers, strengthening their sense of belonging and loyalty to the brand.

It is worth noting that Jellycat's products are usually launched in series, accurately grasping the user's addictive psychology, leading more and more users to develop a small hobby of collecting.

Clearly, a doll is not cheap, but players are willing to spend a lot of money to collect them, and even users who get started late will buy them at high prices through the second-hand market or trading platforms. In fact, it is all driven by the charm of Jellycat's excellent marketing strategy.

In this fast-paced society, don't look at many adults who look bright and beautiful on the outside, but in fact, they are all overbearing pressures. Therefore, compared to children, they may be the group that truly needs care and comfort.

As the internal consumption and anxiety in society urgently need an outlet, more and more people are willing to invest in their mental health, which has also promoted the rise and development of the "healing economy."

Data from the Global Wellness Institute shows that the global healing economy is currently growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10%, and it is expected that by 2025, the market size of the healing economy will reach 70 trillion US dollars.

Jellycat is seizing this market trend, selling emotional value, and winning the love and attention of more and more young consumers.Jellycat not only provides emotional value through its products but also offers consumers an immersive experience in its physical stores. Initially, Jellycat's store in New York introduced a selling space called JellycatDiner. Inside the store, staff members role-played as waiters, using Jellycat plush toys to simulate the process of making, packaging, and serving "food."

Unexpectedly, many consumers were captivated by this "pretend play" experience, and videos of it went viral online. Following this success, the brand added this pop-up space to its flagship stores in London and Paris, both of which were well-received.

Recently, a pop-up store in Shanghai introduced a "Coffee City" themed space. The entire store, from staff attire to store decoration and checkout packaging, completely simulates a real coffee shop. The plush toys, themed around coffee and cakes, including limited-edition toys modeled after cup cakes, lattes, and teapots and cups, are placed inside "ovens" waiting for customers. When customers go to the counter to check out, the staff not only present the selected toys but also provide an immersive packaging experience.

For example, when packaging a "taro cake," the staff member might seriously ask the customer, "How many layers of cream would you like?" They will then squeeze "whipped cream" onto the plush toy with a cake decorator, as requested, before "serving" it to the customer.

In addition to offering this strong experiential "pretend play" interaction, Jellycat has also launched special collaborations in different cities to highlight regional characteristics. Jellycat has introduced similar packaging services in Gansu, Suzhou, Shaanxi, Fuzhou, and other places, turning local specialties such as Tianshui spicy hot pot, Suzhou hairy crabs, Shaanxi Roujiamo, and Fuzhou Buddha Jumps Over the Wall into plush toys, and demonstrating how to "pretend play" in making a big meal in front of tourists.

Although the staff are performing without actual food, their gentle inquiries and enthusiastic sales efforts still provide enough emotional value for many young people, making them willing to pay for this interactive experience.Undoubtedly, for an increasing number of consumers, plush toys, once a common childhood companion, have long transcended the category of "toys" and have been upgraded to a more fan-oriented "play" concept, showcasing their new charm and market positioning.

According to data from Chanmofang, the post-2000s generation is the largest consumer group for plush toys, accounting for as much as 43%, with the post-1990s generation following closely behind at 36%.

The explosive popularity of Jellycat is, in fact, due to its grasp of market demand and its scarcity.

In this era where everything is abundant, uniqueness is especially precious. Although many have tried to imitate Jellycat, no one has succeeded so far.

Many people say that Jellycat is the "Emperor's New Clothes." However, for businesses, as long as there are consumers willing to play along with their act, there is no need to worry about the market.

In fact, consumers are well aware that many are just cashing in, but in their view, as long as they can obtain the emotional value they desire, a higher cost is not a concern.