Oct. 22 (NBD) – Cross-industry cooperation has increasingly become a trend for time-honored Chinese brands to attract young people. 

Chinese food firm Want Want recently cooperated with Shanghai-based fashion brand Tyakasha to launch a variety of clothing items including hats, T-shirts, hoodies, sweaters and socks. All products were snapped up the moment they were available for pre-orders online. 

Prior to their collaboration, the market has witnessed cross-industry partnerships of a number of Chinese brands. 

Cheese tea maker HEYTEA announced on October 11 this year its partnership with Shanghai's traditional skin care brand Pechoin and the launch of HEYTEA x Phechoin special designs such as cup sleeves, gift packages and member cards. 

Also part of their cooperation, the tea brand held a pop-up exhibition in Shanghai on October 13-14, exhibiting a repainted bus loaded with vinyl records, a gramophone and other old stuff frequently used in Shanghai in 1930s when Phechoin was set up. 

Photo/Twitter account of HEYTEA

It is noteworthy that such collaboration first became a heated topic on the social network in June 2018 when pre-mixed cocktail maker Rio began selling its new summer drink jointly introduced with Liushen, a well-established brand famous for its mosquito repellent products.

The limited supply of 5,000 bottles of Liushen Florida Water-flavored cocktail were sold out within 17 seconds on e-commerce platform Tmall.

Following the special-flavored drink, a lip balm from cosmetics brand Maxam captured the attention of consumers in September. 

The lip balm features the flavor of Shanghai Guan Sheng Yuan Food's White Rabbit, a well-known milk candy with the signature red, white, and blue wrapper. The first available batch of 920 lip balm tubes with the price of 78 yuan (11.3 U.S. dollars) a pair also received warm responses on Tmall. 

Photo/Maxam's store on Tmall 

Besides, hoodies with portraits of Tao Huabi, the 71-year-old founder of iconic chili sauce manufacturer Lao Gan Ma, were sold at a pop-up store during New York Fashion Week's China Day event held in September 2018. 

As for how to create hit products through cross-industry partnerships, marketing expert Tu Zhuo pointed out that first of all, brands seeking cross-industry partnership must have built strong brand appeal among consumers. In this respect, local food companies enjoy an obvious edge.

Second, brands' respective development plans and innovative thoughts should be taken into account during the cooperation, Tu said. 

Photo/Lao Gan Ma's store on Tmall

NBD also noticed that some other domestic companies are seeking to attract young consumers by launching self-developed creative products.

For example, Luzhou Laojiao Co Ltd, one of China's oldest distilleries, introduced a limited-edition perfume. The perfume went available in August 2017, but remained low-profile until it suddenly received mass attention in February this year. 

Priced at 139 yuan (20.1 U.S. dollars), the 30-milliliter bottles quickly ran out of stock. The price for the perfume in the second-hand market has even surged to 999 yuan (144.3 U.S. dollars).

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn