Behind the birth of "Metal blind box" is actually a shift of traditional manufacturing enterprises to new consumption.
Metal Blind Box, a startup project in the blind box field, recently announced the completion of CNY 30 million Series A financing from SMiG, and the proceedings will be mainly used for product development, equipment automation upgrade and marketing. Metal blind box implants the sustainable concept and production side advantages into the blind box track.
Regarding the reasons for expanding the blind box business, Rich Power's general manager talked about two points: First, as the existing business has problems of homogenization and lack of brand value, it needs to extend the packaging advantages to the downstream link with higher added value. Secondly, the existing blind box material is mainly ceramic, resin, plastic, etc. In the future, under the continuous strengthening of the concept of environmental protection and recyclability, the natural Metal packaging advantages of Metal blind boxes will be more in line with the values of the times.
From an objective point of view, more and more players have entered the blind box market in recent years, and the fervor of "everything can be blind box" seems to be fading, but Metal team is still optimistic about the market. Young people's pursuit of blind boxes has declined, which is mainly caused by the consumption contraction, but people's curiosity about new things will not vanish. Metal's products are based on cultural creation, and the proportion of art toys is very low, so the market space is also wider. Specifically, the advantages of Metal in entering the blind box track are mainly reflected in the following two aspects.
First, the ability to control costs, that is, the advantages of production, supply and marketing integration model advantages extended from the production advantages.
Second, the differentiation of products, which is reflected in the sustainable concept of packaging, the addition of cultural connotation and the diversification of categories. Metal's blind box content, in addition to the main product, will also present the corresponding prototype image and background story, etc., in order to strengthen the intrinsic value. In addition, Metal's user profile is more diversified than most blind box brands, covering children, young students, office workers and other groups, so its product categories are not limited to art toys, but also include snacks, games and film merch, cultural ornaments.
Currently, Metal blind box has about 24 SKUs under research and development, and the new can type of outer packaging has been completed and is expected to be launched in the market at the end of 2022.