For high-growth operators looking to protect margin, fuel retention, and build a brand that survives platform shifts, this breakdown is your shortcut. The frameworks behind Pop Mart’s success aren’t just for toy collectors—they’re exactly the kind of moves your next wave of growth will demand. If you want more context on how top brands put community and retention at the core, check out the power of community-first ecommerce models for deeper strategies.
IP-First Strategy: The Bedrock of Brand Value
When you look at how Pop Mart rewrote the rules for modern consumer brands, everything starts with IP. Not just any IP, but original, ownable characters that become the backbone of margin, community, and long-term growth. This isn’t theory—it’s the practical answer to one of the biggest scaling headaches: margin and moat. Pop Mart’s decision to prioritize proprietary intellectual property put them in control of both pricing power and brand narrative. For anyone tired of platform tax, discount cycles, and fighting over commoditized SKUs, here’s how an IP-first mindset separates durable brands from short-term hype.
Why Owning Your Characters Is a Non-Negotiable Advantage
Pop Mart never played it safe by licensing household names. Instead, they invested in developing their own stable of characters like Molly, Labubu, Skullpanda, and Crybaby. The payoff? By 2024, these in-house creations generated over 85% of company revenue and each surpassed RMB 1 billion individually. Building characters from scratch lets you:
Set your own price, instead of negotiating with licensors
Own every touchpoint of the brand experience
Collect richer customer data
Command higher margins without middlemen
It isn’t just about money—it’s about becoming irreplaceable. When buyers chase your unique creations, nobody can undercut you to win on price alone.
From Blank Page to Billion-Dollar Asset: The Discipline Behind IP
Launching hit characters wasn’t luck—it was process and repeatable discipline. Pop Mart went from scraping by on variety-store sales to investing years into artist partnerships (like Kenny Wong’s Molly and Kasing Lung’s Labubu) and rigorous testing with early adopters. They didn’t expect a toy to go viral by accident. They seeded audience interest, analyzed early sales, and iterated fast.
Here’s the play-by-play approach that works—even if you don’t sell toys:
Identify a concept that’s fresh but rooted in real emotion or story. See how Crybaby tapped into emotional vulnerability for instant resonance.
Partner with creators who can build IP, not just design product. Think co-creation, not outsourcing.
Protect your assets obsessively with trademarks and patents the moment you find traction.
Watch early data like a hawk and double down on what collectors can’t wait to share—or hunt for in blind boxes.
If you’re looking to bring new products to market using this approach, consider exploring step-by-step frameworks like the Guide to Product Development Process to nail each critical phase.
Protecting the Moat: Brand Integrity at Global Scale
With big brand value comes big risk—counterfeiters and knockoffs will chase your success. Pop Mart responded with airtight legal systems and sophisticated anti-counterfeiting measures like QR codes, UV-reactive details, and global trademark defense. Their approach makes it difficult for copycats to fool serious collectors or erode brand trust.
If you’re scaling fast, the trade-off is that you’ll need to commit real resources to legal and digital protections. But the upside is simple: sustained brand authority and premium positioning that’s hard for copycats to steal.
Action Steps for Shopify-First Brands
Chasing IP for its own sake won’t build equity. Brands that win:
Focus relentlessly on customer obsession and storytelling first—the character or concept must matter to your audience, not just to your creative team.
Back every hit with an infrastructure for authentication, scarcity, and social sharing.
See IP as a flywheel: every product line, event, or digital collectible reinforces your control over the narrative and the economics.
Want concrete steps on testing new IP ideas or iterating your early launch? Check out tips in our Steps to Create a Winning Product resource.
Pop Mart’s IP-first model is a blueprint: own the asset, own the story, own the margin. If you’re ready to stop renting someone else’s brand equity, this is where you start.