Milk tea coffee frequently launches "co-branded" products
Why are new consumer brands keen on cross-border co-branding?
On September 9th, the new sauce latte jointly launched by Luckin and Moutai was launched in Luckin's stores nationwide. According to Luckin's official show, the sauce fragrant latte uses baijiu-flavored thick milk containing 4% vol Moutai wine, and the alcohol content of the drink is less than 53.0% vol. Although the official price is 5 yuan, the discount is only 38 yuan at this stage. Xiao Wang, who is engaged in media work, found that some people in the circle of friends have successively posted a Luckin coffee bag and sauce coffee with a very high Maotai content, and by noon, the office was full of such bags.
At that time, Xiao Wang did not realize that this coffee and bag had become the "top stream" of the day. Consumer enthusiasm is transmitted quickly, and the market response is also very enthusiastic. Only 4 hours after its launch, "Sauce Latte" ranked ninth in the hot search. On the morning of September 9, Luckin also announced the results of this cross-border "hand-in-hand" on Weibo: the "sauce latte" jointly launched with Moutai, the sales of single products exceeded 5.542 million cups on the first day, and the sales of single products exceeded 1 million yuan on the first day.
In recent years, new consumer brands have become more and more enthusiastic about cross-border co-branded "play IP", and cooperative brands cover films, animation, games, trendy games, luxury goods and other fields. More and more merchants are developing "co-branded" products, driving consumer enthusiasm, what is the reason behind its growing popularity? Is it a way to develop the brand?
Cross-border cooperation to achieve mutual drainage
According to the "2023 Cross-border Co-branded Marketing Trend Report" released by third-party data agency SocialBeta in the first half of the year, Luckin Coffee was selected as one of the "TOP10 Brands Keen to Choose Cross-border Co-branded Marketing", ranking 6th after KFC, Naixue's tea, Heytea, Holilai and Ele.me. From the famous artist Han Meilin to the band Gojo and stand-up comedian He Guangzhi, from the animated film Doraemon: Nobita and the Sky's Ideal Hometown to the animation "Dartman", Luckin has co-branded many brands and novelties. New consumer brands have set off a cross-border co-branding boom, covering movies, animation, games, trendy games, luxury goods and other fields, and their intention is clear: they hope to tap the preferences of young consumers, seize the market of young consumer groups, and achieve mutual drainage.
For example, as a "veteran" in the baking industry to engage in co-branding, Holly has been crowned as a "co-branded maniac" in recent years. According to incomplete statistics, from 2019 to the end of 2022, Holly has co-branded a total of 33 times, and last year launched a total of 5 Harry Potter co-branded products including Hagrid's cake and Hogwarts castle, and many young people went to the store to line up to buy, and under the blessing of the joint explosive products, they also handed over good results.
The relevant person in charge of Heytea said that thanks to the continuous birth of explosive products and the rise of brand potential, the overall sales showed continuous explosive growth - the sales growth rate of stores on holidays such as Spring Festival and May Day was as high as more than 500%, and Heytea on the day of "520" also created the highest single-day sales record since the establishment of the brand; On a monthly basis, in the first half of the year, Heytea stores achieved continuous growth for 6 months year-on-year and month-on-month.
Brand co-branding, linking the circle layer, and linking the brand tonality, which requires the cooperation between the two to be not only "unexpected", but also "reasonable". "Co-branding is not an end, but a means to enhance brand potential." In the view of the above-mentioned Heytea related person in charge, successful co-branding has brand or product consistency, such as the early Heytea and "Menghualu" co-branded "Shiso Pink Peach Drink" and "Menghua Tea Xi Dian Cha" all imply the tea ordering culture of the Song Dynasty and have become successful joint marketing models.
Mining demand and turning traffic into "retention"
At present, new tea drinks are gradually becoming a window for young people to contact tea culture, and national style marketing has become an important trend for new consumer brands to cooperate with each other. Since the beginning of this year, Nai Xue's tea has co-branded the classic works of Chinese comics "Hulu Brothers", "Chinese Qitan" and Dong Ejiao, making these products full of oriental charm more vivid and feeling.
Taking the national style as the starting point, in the 2022 Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, Bawang Chaji joined hands with the treasure orchestra "Three Stars with the Moon" to debut "There is a drama in the Year of the Tiger|CHGEE Tea Ji ×National Treasure Sanxingdui Band" theme TVC, with the Spring Festival family celebration as the background, the brand IP "Cha Ji" invited Sanxingdui band members to present Spring Festival song and dance blessings to tea friends, completing a festival linkage between Chinese style tea drinks and anthropomorphic national treasures, and Bawang Tea Ji also innovatively launched the New Year theme song through joint cooperation, renewing and spreading traditional culture.
In fact, the key to winning the joint brand is not only in precision marketing, but also in the long-term vision. "In terms of brand co-branding, we have always been relatively restrained, especially when choosing joint partners, we attach importance to the proximity of both parties in terms of brand tonality, cultural attributes, user groups, etc." The relevant person in charge of Bawang Chaji said that for brands, the value of co-branding lies in breaking the circle and cultural communication, "A good co-branding can be converted into higher sales and online discussion in a short period of time, but brand building is the result of long-term cultivation, and it is necessary to dig deep into consumer demand and turn 'traffic' into 'retention'." ”
Ms. Zhang, who once ordered a takeaway from the Dunhuang Museum with her colleagues, said, "The cups of the three Dunhuang murals are very beautiful, and it also makes us yearn for Dunhuang culture. "After the co-branding, how to effectively undertake traffic has become the focus of the brand's sustainable development. When asked if she has repurchased later, Ms. Zhang said, "For consumers, the use of joint names can certainly stimulate a certain degree of interest consumption, and it is indeed an effective means to attract attention." But the co-branding itself will not make me pay more attention to the brand, and I will repurchase interesting and delicious products. ”
Chengdu Daily Jinguan News Reporter Meng Hao Intern Reporter Wu Qian According to the interviewee