Retain Core Genes and Adapt to Regional Contexts

The starting point of the Snow King IP’s globalization lies in its inherent cross-cultural communication advantages — core elements such as the round snowman shape, red scarf logo, and sweet temperament can convey affability without language translation. However, to truly gain a foothold, targeted localized adaptations are still required.

In the Southeast Asian market, Snow King continues its “social butterfly” persona. Marketing initiatives like street dance performances and interactive photo sessions have quickly narrowed the distance with young consumers, and locally created Snow King memes have gone viral on social platforms. When entering the South Korean market, a Korean version of the theme song was launched. The simple lyrics “Ni ai wo, wo ai ni” (You love me, I love you) are adapted to Korean pronunciation habits, maintaining the song’s catchy and viral appeal.

More enlightening is the adaptation logic demonstrated by its “Ancient Coffee Shop” project: while retaining core identifiers such as the white figure and red scarf, the red scarf is transformed into a silk fabric with Western Region patterns, and the item in its hand is replaced with a gilded small bronze pot. This approach not only preserves the IP’s recognizability but also fits local cultural scenarios.

New York stores have adapted to local consumption habits through Chinese-English self-service ordering screens and multiple payment channels. The Snow King image remains consistent on store signs and product packaging, while also allowing consumers to interpret it as cute local figures like “polar bears”, lowering the threshold of cultural acceptance. This “core unchanged, details fine-tuned” strategy enables Snow King to maintain brand recognition while integrating into different cultural contexts.

Build Global Consensus with Simple Narratives

The core competitiveness of the Snow King IP’s globalization lies in constructing a symbolic system that transcends language. The theme song Mixue Ice Cream & Tea Sweetie adopts the classic melody of the American folk song Oh! Susanna. Its simple and repetitive lyrics are easy for consumers from various countries to adapt and cover, spawning multilingual versions in Russian, French, Japanese, and other languages. It even led Google Search to label Mixue Ice Cream & Tea as a “musician”.

This “music + simple emotion” narrative model avoids the high interpretation cost of complex cultural backgrounds, and the core propositions of “sweetness” and “affection” have become a global lingua franca.

Meanwhile, Snow King’s “affordable price” symbol is highly aligned with global consumption trends. The signature ice cream priced at $1.19 and lemonade at $1.99 in New York stores are far cheaper than similar local products, continuing the “high quality at low price” gene and attracting price-sensitive local consumers. In the Southeast Asian market, its ice cream is compared with McDonald’s McFlurry, becoming an iconic choice for mass consumption scenarios.

The image of Snow King holding an ice cream scepter directly conveys product attributes, and combined with the persona of “loving only ice cream and tea for a lifetime”, it deeply binds the brand’s core business with the IP image, forming a global perception that “seeing Snow King means associating with cost-effective drinks”.

From Consumption Touchpoints to Life Companion

The globalization of the Snow King IP is not limited to in-store scenarios, but has become a companion symbol in consumers’ lives through diversified scene penetration.

Offline, Snow King is active in core business districts such as Sydney CBD and New York Broadway. Opening promotions like free drink giveaways and street singing and dancing create check-in hotspots. On the opening day of the two New York stores, there was a half-hour queue, with 80% of Asian customers driving local consumers to participate. Sustained efforts in music festival scenarios are also crucial. From the Zhengzhou Ice Cream Music Festival to collaborations with entertainment scenes in overseas markets, Snow King’s “love to sing and dance” persona has been continuously strengthened, attracting young consumer groups.

Online, the construction of a UGC (User-Generated Content) ecosystem has enabled Snow King to break through geographical restrictions. Mixue Ice Cream & Tea encourages consumers to create secondary content, and “Snow King’s Embarrassing Dance” videos on Douyin have been reposted on overseas social platforms, triggering widespread imitations. Animations such as The Adventures of Snow King and cross-border collaborations with IPs like Eggy Party have further increased the frequency of Snow King’s appearances in various scenarios.

More importantly, Snow King has strengthened emotional connections through public welfare initiatives, such as donating money for flood relief and donating children’s books. These actions have added a sense of social responsibility to its “funny guy” image, upgrading it from a commercial IP to a warm cultural symbol. This sense of emotional companionship has become an important link in cross-cultural communication.

From IP Output to Model Replication

The ultimate goal of the Snow King IP’s globalization is to build a complete “IP + product + supply chain” ecosystem. Relying on its mature domestic supply chain system, Mixue Ice Cream & Tea combines large-scale production of core raw materials with overseas localized adaptation. Even with the addition of cross-ocean transportation costs, it can still maintain its price advantage, providing support for the global expansion of the Snow King IP.

New York stores adjust products according to local preferences, offering 8 levels of sweetness and healthy ingredients such as oats and chia seeds, reflecting the flexible strategy of “IP unchanged, products adapted”.

The global layout of the IP derivative ecosystem is also crucial. Snow King has launched a variety of peripheral products including red envelopes, suitcases, plush dolls, and figurines. These products are not limited by the beverage consumption scenario and have become carriers of cultural communication. Drawing on the innovative idea of the ancient-themed “Snow King Tea & Coffee House”, themed stores and limited-edition peripherals can be developed in combination with different regional cultures in the future, such as desert-style Snow King peripherals for the Middle Eastern market and classic-style co-branded products for the European market.

At the same time, by replicating store operation experience through the “chain store brand” model, the consistency of IP image and service standards across global stores is maintained, allowing the influence of the Snow King IP to continue to expand with the growth of store numbers.

The Essence of IP Globalization is the Construction of Cultural Consensus

The globalization journey of the Snow King IP has confirmed that the IP core of “simplicity, sincerity, and warmth” possesses cross-cultural power. Instead of deliberately emphasizing “Chinese elements”, it takes the universally cute snowman image as the carrier, connecting global consumers with universal values such as “sweetness”, “affordability”, and “companionship”. Through image adaptation, symbol breaking, scene penetration, and ecosystem construction, it has gradually grown from a Chinese tea beverage brand IP to a global consumer culture symbol.

In the future, with the deepening of supply chain localization and the improvement of cultural adaptation capabilities, Snow King is expected to become a global shared memory across generations, just like Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse, providing a replicable practical model for the globalization of Chinese brand IPs.