Unconsciously, the way of selling coffee has changed.
Someone created a personal IP and earned more than 1 million coffee sales on Tiktok a year;
Someone becomes the owner of the coffee head UP on station B, and a single advertisement charges tens of thousands;
Some brands have become one of the top coffee e-commerce companies through cross-industry joint names.
AFPAK’s “New Coffee Era” topic, let’s talk about today: How do you play the new coffee marketing?
1
Promote yourself as an internet Influencer, sell coffee and earn millions
Nowadays, what is the popular way to sell coffee in the market?
Kan Ouli, the founder of Lubit Coffee, sells coffee in his main business and is a Tiktok internet influencer/Bilibili UPer /Zhihu Dashen as his sideline. He has 700,000 vertical coffee fans on the whole network.
Last year, Babit’s entire network sales were 12 million. Among them, Douyin’s sales conversions were more than 1 million, accounting for almost one-tenth of the share (other platforms are unable to place Taobao links). Sales cannot be accurately counted).
Since the first video was released on Douyin at the end of 2019, it has now been recorded in batches, and short videos have been produced around coffee culture science popularization, shop exploration, and evaluation. Now Kan Ouli has been on the whole network (Tiktok, Bilibili, Wechat video, WEIBO, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, etc.), accumulating nearly 100 million views, and many of them have a single play volume of more than 2 million.
In Kan Ouli’s view, there is a lot of room for “popularizing” oneself. “Any mature industry will have the rise of personal IP. You can refer to the bartending, chef, and decoration industries. There are big IPs with millions of fans.”
“Current coffee consumption in China is largely affected by cultural and popular factors. Few people have a clear understanding of which origin and which beans they want to choose for the drink. The trend of coffee consumption is leading, and IP can play a role in it. .”
At present, Babit is already incubating other coffee accounts. In fact, apart from Babit, new forms of coffee marketing, from big brands to independent cafes, based on IP manufacturing, have begun to blossom everywhere.
The coffee marketing channels are undergoing changes.
2
Sell coffee in 4 postures, which is a new turning point in coffee marketing
Today, like Kan Ouli, there are many stories in the industry about selling coffee through IP innovation.
1. I am in a small town on the 18th tier, but the coffee beans are sold all over the country
Sophia, a Tiktok coffee influencer (ID: Sofia and Lumos), an “introductory mentor” for many people in the industry, runs a coffee + simple cafe in Linxia: Lumo Coffee.
“Debut” in the second half of 2018, published his own coffee long video on Douyin, focusing on “coffee knowledge + store opening experience + product testing”, and publish 2 8-minute video sharing every week.
Now two years later, Sophia has released more than 200 long videos on the entire network (Tik Tok, Station B, Xiaohongshu), and has accumulated nearly 300,000 fans. The coffee market is also rewarding these bosses who silently do content.
In Sophia’s coffee shop, about 10% of the customers every day watch the video and stop by to check-in.
Last year Sophia opened a Taobao shop, selling coffee beans and a small number of surroundings. This shop only relies on video diversion. Sophia, who is in the “18th line” small town, supplies beans to more than 30 cafes across the country.
2. Sell coffee with “Shaxian Spirit” and earn 4 million yuan per year
In Shaxian Coffee, Hangzhou, few people know the name of the boss, and they all greet the “county chief” when they come. The logo in the store is the word “County” written horizontally.
They have a set of “Shaxian spirit”: good coffee should not be high above, but like Shaxian snacks, spread all over the streets and alleys, delicious and cheap.
Relying on the unique IP cultural connotation and the small shop model, the cup volume of Shaxian Coffee Sunrise is about 400 cups. Plus the sales of retail peripheral products in the store, the annual revenue can exceed 4 million.
3. 400+ cross-industry joint names, achieving e-commerce brand
Many people remember Yongpu Coffee because it has always been a little lion. This little lion is named “Shi Duanzheng” and is the IP of Yongpu Coffee.
Yongpu Coffee has created IP Shi Duanzheng through more than 400 cross-border joint names and has formed CP with well-known IP brands such as “Pancake Man”, Qihua Talk, NetEase Cloud Music, New Weekly, Xiaohongshu, and Japanese Food. It has become one of the representative brands of e-commerce coffee.
4. Luckin coffee video screen, Bilibili hot search
A recent hot sale of new coffee marketing is an advertisement taken by Liluxiu for Luckin coffee. It has 100w views at station B and 100 million+ topic readings on Weibo, which have been carried by Tiktok and Xiaohongshu many times.
These 4 stories respectively represent 4 new postures for selling coffee: creating personal IP, creating brand IP, creating cartoon image IP, and using celebrity IP.
In the coffee business field a few years ago, the channel was king.
Cafes rely on store channels, and retail products rely on distribution channels. Later, when online channels rise, whoever has a Tmall store has an advantage.
In the past two years, rent and labor costs have become higher and higher, competition has become fierce, and consumers’ demand for brands and products has continued to increase.
A new turning point in coffee marketing appears: channels are no longer the only advantage. Many brands rely on content and IP to attract their own consumer groups.
And this means that this industry is about to enter a more mature stage.
3
The new “bladder battle” has started
More consumers start with the product and are loyal to the character
Facing the rise of new coffee marketing forms, Kan Ouli analyzes:
The competition for coffee is shifting from channel competition to attention competition. The coffee war has risen from the “bladder battle” to the “lifestyle battle”.
Brand building is no longer the only way to spend money on advertising. Although it is difficult to rely on content to drive, it is also very effective. You have to believe that consumers are human, and they can feel your sincerity.
In the retail field, there is a classic theory of “people and goods market”, which can be borrowed to understand the current coffee.
Let me talk about the goods first. In essence, the food industry does not have leapfrog technology. “As far as the coffee industry is concerned, there have been only three major technological changes in the past 100 years. One was the birth of instant, the other was the capsule technology, and the other was the high-pressure extraction technology. In many cases, whether it is offline coffee shops or retail coffee , The blind test can’t tell who is who.” Kan Ouli said.
Let’s talk about it. The entry barrier for e-commerce shelves is very low, and the channels themselves are becoming cheaper and cheaper, but they are fighting for the ability to promote and operate in the later stage.
And only people began to become more and more important. This “person” contains the consumer’s attention, as well as the brand charm and personal charm of coffee practitioners.
Give an example of coffee big V:
In Shanghai, there is a coffee blogger named Niu Xiaoka, who has traveled to 1,000 coffee shops around the world for 5 years. He is the top-ranking owner of the coffee category at station B. On platforms such as station B, YouTube, Xiaohongshu, and Toutiao, etc.. Its video playback volume has exceeded 2000W.
Niu Xiaoka did not open a shop. He was a coffee trainer and trader, and now a professional “coffee V”. The price of a single advertisement has reached tens of thousands. Many people follow him every day to evaluate coffee and buy coffee.
Many consumers, whether buying coffee online or offline, start with the product, but the continued repurchase in the later period comes from the “soul”-either the brand’s core is interesting, or the personal IP is formed, which has a convincing personality.
Just like on Weibo, many people watched Liluxiu’s video and couldn’t help but order a cup of coffee.
4
Creating IP is another new force that breaks the circle of coffee
The lifestyle and cultural attributes of coffee are treasures of content.
Sophia told me: “I saw a lot of people leave messages, saying that it was because they watched my video and became a fan of freshly ground coffee. I feel very pleased.”
In Sophia’s view, if coffee practitioners have the opportunity, they must do brand IP/personal IP, which will definitely help business. Even if the traffic is not much in the early stage, there is definitely no problem with small-scale radiation. “It is better than doing nothing. “.
In the new marketing era of coffee, whoever can better express themselves for consumers, who can lead the cultural trend, who can become a social currency, who can always attract the attention of consumers, has a chance to win.
Relying on content and IP, tearing a hole in a large number of gaps, creating a consumer group of its own, is a new force that breaks the circle of coffee.