刘晓彬需要叶国富的“永辉调改”吗？

This article outlines MINISO's recent public opinion crisis and the core problems exposed during its brand upgrade, with key takeaways as follows:

1. In July 2026, a promotional video posted by a MINISO-collaborated influencer contained content that sexualized and voyeurized women, triggering outrage and boycotts among female consumers. Although MINISO issued an apology and promised reforms, consumers remained unsatisfied, and the brand’s long history of problematic marketing campaigns was subsequently dug up.

2. A recap of MINISO’s marketing missteps in recent years: In 2022, it labeled a Mulan character in a cheongsam a "Japanese geisha"; in 2024, it gave an IP character an insulting nickname; it has also repeatedly collaborated with competing otome games to harvest traffic. The brand has issued an apology every time, but has never fixed the root of the problem.

3. MINISO has poured more than 2.3 billion yuan into brand upgrading over 6 years, aiming to transform from a "ten-yuan store" into a super brand that sells emotional value. However, it still sticks to the old traffic-driven logic of generating buzz for exposure, disrespects the emotions of its target users, and has not adjusted its core marketing system for a long time.

Using MINISO’s failed transformation as a case study, this article offers key takeaways for brands currently undergoing brand upgrading, as outlined below:

1. We have now entered the era of emotional consumption, where consumers are willing to pay a premium for IP alignment and emotional value. While the direction of brand upgrading is clear, brands cannot simply reposition themselves without changing their underlying operating logic—doing so will only erode consumer trust.

2. Key lessons from MINISO’s experience: MINISO has spent more than 2.3 billion yuan on marketing over 6 years, and its promotion and advertising expenses rose 73.7% year-over-year in Q1 2026. It has poured money into IP collaborations and celebrity endorsements to capture the female consumer market, but still retains the traffic-first marketing logic from its "ten-yuan store" era. It has repeatedly offended its core target users, turning its brand into a negative asset.

3. Core notes for IP collaborations and content marketing: Brands must respect the emotional connections users have with IP, uphold value boundaries for target groups. Faster crisis response does not equal qualified marketing capability; brands need to make root-and-branch changes to their marketing systems and content review mechanisms, rather than just issuing apologies after the fact.

Using MINISO’s transformation as a case study, this article provides opportunity insights, risk warnings and experience references for sellers entering the retail sector, as follows:

1. Clear growth opportunities exist in the current market: emotional consumption, IP toys, and female-focused consumption are high-growth segments. Successful brand upgrading can effectively boost gross margins. MINISO’s 43.3% gross margin in Q1 2026, alongside 25.8% year-over-year gross profit growth, confirms the growth potential of this direction.

2. Core risk warning: When entering new segments, brands should not just copy surface-level tactics while retaining old traffic-driven marketing logic. Failing to respect the emotional needs and value bottom lines of target users, and repeating missteps will continuously erode user trust and ultimately hinder brand growth.

3. Practical experience reference: Timely apologies to limit damage after a public opinion crisis are necessary, but reforms should not stop at the surface. Brands need to adjust content review processes, marketing logic, and team management to fundamentally prevent similar issues from recurring.

Through MINISO’s brand upgrading case, this article outlines changing demand and development insights for factories that supply retail brands and those developing their own private labels, as follows:

1. Consumer product demand has shifted: From only focusing on low prices and functionality, consumers now prioritize emotional value and brand identity. Core consumer groups such as young women have increasingly high requirements for emotional respect and cultural identity. Factories need to adapt their product design and manufacturing to this changing demand, rather than only focusing on cost control.

2. Existing commercial opportunities: A large number of traditional retail brands are transitioning toward IP toys and emotional consumption, creating strong demand for product offerings that fit new consumer needs. Factories can adjust their product lines to meet the new demands of brands undergoing upgrading, and win more orders as a result.

3. Transformation insights: Whether doing OEM manufacturing or building their own brands, factories need to build content review and value judgment systems adapted to new consumer demands, and understand the emotional needs of end consumers. They cannot focus solely on manufacturing to avoid running into compliance issues.

This article reveals industry trends and core pain points in the transition of traditional retail brands to emotional consumption, and provides directional references for marketing and branding service providers, as follows:

1. Industry trend: More and more traditional retail brands are transforming from low-price channel operators to emotional value brands, and are willing to invest large marketing budgets to complete brand upgrading. MINISO alone has spent more than 2.3 billion yuan on marketing over the past six years, indicating that the overall market size of the industry is continuing to expand.

2. Core client pain points: Most traditional brands only stay at the surface level of spending money to reposition during transformation, and still retain the traffic-driven marketing logic from the low-price retail era. They lack understanding of target users' emotional needs and do not have a complete content value review mechanism, making them prone to repeated missteps that damage the brand. This is the core pain point that service providers can solve.

3. Business direction reference: Service providers can help traditional brands build a complete marketing system adapted to emotional consumption, establish content review mechanisms, and train teams to understand the emotional needs of target users, helping brands upgrade their underlying marketing logic, instead of only providing services to buy traffic and create buzz.

Centered on MINISO's repeated marketing missteps, this article provides operational and risk mitigation references for the operation and management of all types of content and retail platforms, as follows:

1. Content operation: Currently, brands generally carry out influencer marketing on content platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, with most promotions targeting core groups such as women and IP enthusiasts. Platforms need to improve pre-publication content review mechanisms, and focus on the value compliance of content to prevent inappropriate content from triggering large-scale public opinion crises.

2. Business recruitment: Brands transforming into emotional consumption and IP retail invest heavily in marketing, which can bring more advertising revenue and GMV growth to platforms. Platforms can target this group of brands for recruitment, while strengthening daily management of brand content compliance.

3. Risk mitigation: Platforms need to pay close attention to the value output of settled brands, and supervise and control brands that repeatedly cross lines and offend users. For platforms with a high proportion of female users, it is especially important to uphold content bottom lines, to avoid bad content damaging the platform's own reputation among users.

This article sorts out new trends and problems in the transformation of traditional low-price retail brands to emotional consumption brands, and provides high reference value for retail industry research, as follows:

1. New industry trends: China's retail industry is currently shifting from price-based competition to brand value competition. A large number of traditional channel brands are attempting to transform, upgrade to IP-driven and cultural creative brands, and explore the high-margin emotional consumption business model. MINISO is a typical representative, and its founder has clearly stated the goal of transforming from a retail company to a cultural creative enterprise.

2. New problems exposed in transformation: Most traditional brands only stay at the surface level of spending on marketing and changing external positioning during transformation, and have not adjusted their underlying organizational structure and marketing logic accordingly. Core marketing positions have remained unchanged for a long time, and management logic has not been adapted to transformation needs, leaving brands trapped in a "apology-misstep-new apology" vicious circle and unable to gain the trust of target users.

3. Research insights: The transformation of traditional brands to emotional consumption is essentially a shift in user operation logic, from selling products to managing user emotions and identity recognition. Brands need to make in-depth adjustments to their marketing systems at the organizational level and replace old management logic to achieve a truly successful transformation.