Analysis of the Profit Model of the Designer Toy Industry under the Harvard Analytical Framework: A Case Study of Pop Mart

Abstract

Based on the Harvard Analytical Framework, this paper takes Pop Mart, a leading enterprise in the designer toy industry, as the research sample. Combined with the latest financial data from 2023 to 2025 and relevant industry literature, this study systematically analyzes the company’s profit model from four dimensions: strategy, accounting, finance, and prospects. The study concludes that Pop Mart has achieved explosive growth in revenue and profit through its “IP + blind box” business model and globalization strategy, while its profitability efficiency and cash flow quality both exceed the industry average. However, this paper does not avoid several structural contradictions underlying its profit model. Specifically, the company’s IP operations rely excessively on the head-effect strategy while lacking underlying narrative content; its highly concentrated supply chain weakens its risk resistance capability; and the blind box mechanism has also led to problems such as innovation inertia and insufficient market regulation. Therefore, this paper proposes a five-dimensional optimization path, including building a sustainable IP ecosystem, promoting product and business-model innovation, optimizing the global supply chain layout, and improving industry regulatory standards. These measures not only directly respond to the existing problems, but also provide significant theoretical value and practical implications for addressing the sustainability dilemma of profitability in the designer toy industry and promoting the transformation of China’s designer toy industry from scale expansion to high-quality development.