Over the weekend, my WeChat subscription posts were bombarded by related articles of Blue Bottle Coffee. Some talked about its taste, and more were analyzing the reasons behind its overwhelming popularity in China.

Curious about the brand, I researched and decided to find out what made people wait in line for eight hours on its first day.

Blue Bottle Coffee’s Debut in Shanghai

The coffee store opened on February 25. Some people woke up at 6 am just to get a cup of Blue Bottle coffee, and on average, it took 3 hours for consumers to get in line and enter the store.

Scalpers took advantage of this chance, and some of them even ordered 60 bottles at a time, reselling each cup at 150 RMB, which was 4-5 times the original prices.

Blue Bottle Coffee’s Mini Program on WeChat also had a harvest time. Within less than one hour after launch, all of the brand’s coffee beans sold out.

About Blue Bottle Coffee

It is a coffee roaster and retailer headquartered in California, United States. In 2017, Nestlé acquired around 68% of Blue Bottle Coffee’s stake. By then, the brand had 40 stores worldwide. Five years later, its number of stores has been expanded to 100, and the Shanghai store is the first one that Blue Bottle Coffee opened in the mainland of China.

What Makes Blue Bottle Coffee A Big Hit Among Chinese Consumers?

Hu Jun (胡骏), CEO of Greater China from Blue Bottle Coffee told YiMagazine (第一财经) that it was easy to open a store, and Shanghai was the city that had new coffee stores open every day. But what made it hard were all infrastructure behind a store, such as the supply system, the IT system, the e-commerce system, and the training system. It was getting all these ready before opening was not easy.

Location

The Blue Bottle Coffee team had a very clear goal when selecting the location. The location needs to have the capability to bring the brand to a local market, and it needs to carry the Shanghai culture. The building of its Shanghai store was a flour mill, built in 1926 and refurnished in 2019. It combines the western and eastern cultures and reflects the construction style back in the Qing Dynasty. It is also located near the Suzhou River (苏州河), bringing beautiful views for customers.

Why Shanghai? If you have been to the city, you will notice how open it is. Either niche or common groups can find a place in the city.

Shanghai is also a huge coffee fan base. According to the Shanghai coffee consumption report in 2021 (上海咖啡消费指数), it is the city that has the most coffee stores in the world. Shanghai citizens love drinking coffee and trying out new flavors.

Shanghai is also many international students’ go-to city to seek job opportunities after graduation. For them, the name Blue Bottle Coffee is not strange, and they can help advocate its opening, just like my colleague did.

Localization  

If the brand just copies and pastes its menu from California, that won’t show much respect for Chinese consumers. As a result, at the Blue Bottle Coffee Shanghai store, consumers can have local snacks to match the coffee, such as mung bean pastry (绿豆糕) and mahua (麻花), a kind of fried dough food.

Since it is a historic building, Blue Bottle also has its sketch on the brand’s canvas and pasters. In the future, it is likely that the brand will collaborate with local brands to drive more attention in the China market.

Quality is the key

There is a saying that Blue Bottle Coffee is the Apple in the industry. Baristas are trained at least two months before they serve customers. In terms of coffee beans, the brand selects beans that have an SCA score over 84 (The Speciality Coffee Association created the score. Coffee scoring from 80-84.99 is graded very good, and coffee scoring from 85-89.99 is graded excellent, and 90-100 means the coffee is outstanding). Blue Bottle Coffee also has a strict rule that the coffee beans need to be used within 45 seconds after they are ground. On average, it takes 15 minutes for a barista to make a coffee.

Can Blue Bottle Coffee Continue Its Popularity in the China Market?

A food publication called Penguin Guide (企鹅吃喝指南) commented after visiting the store on its first day that “It feels like a ‘bug’ that we had to wait for all the drinks that we ordered to get ready before being served. ”

After tasting the coffee, Penguin Guide also felt that the quality was, without doubt, above the middle level in the chain specialty coffee market. Still, it’s not outstanding if you compare it to some of the local independent specialty coffee brands on top.  

The team also found out that the Shanghai store sells the highest price of Blue Bottle Coffee globally. The price is 35% – 40% higher than in Japan or South Korea. In terms of the coffee bean, mixed beans are sold at 138 RMB for 200 grams, while single beans are sold at 168-188 RMB for 200 grams. These prices are 2-3 times higher than the domestic market prices.

The number of coffee stores in China is booming, especially in Shanghai. But we still can’t conclude that Shanghai’s coffee has stepped into a saturated stage. With players such as %Arabica, Peet’s, and more local players such as Manner Coffee, M Stand, and Seesaw, it will be challenging for Blue Bottle Coffee to stand out neither in terms of its in-store decoration nor its taste.

The post People Waited for 8 Hours at Blue Bottle Coffee Shanghai Store appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Luxury brands love him. Over the years he has collaborated with numerous brands including Dior, Cartier, Saint Laurent, and Jimmy Choo. He has even worked with many luxury brands to co-design his own limited-edition bags, including Strathberry, Givenchy, Burberry, Tod’s, Chloé, Montblanc and Qeelin. Every time, those bags were sold out within minutes.

What I admire about him is the fact that Mr. Bags started as a college student studying finance in NYC. But he had a great passion for bags, and he bravely chose to forge a career in a brand-new industry with no connection to his college major. He shared those bags as if he was introducing old friends to readers, and the hard work paid off when he was invited to fashion shows and met high-profile people in the fashion industry.  

How did I meet Mr. Bags? 

Recently I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Bags and see him talk about bags in person at an offline event held by entry-luxury brand Tory Burch. The news was announced on Mr. Bags’ WeChat Official Account, inviting followers who are based in Shanghai to attend the event.  

To join the event, interested followers had to leave a message on the account saying that they want to join the event and leave their WeChat ID. Later followers will receive a notification asking them to add a personal WeChat account.  

The guest list selection process didn’t finish here. After adding Mr. Bags staff WeChat account, there was another round of selection by his employees. And finally, if you are selected, you will get a WeChat message from the account.  

Attending the Event

The event was held in Tory Burch’s flagship store at Jing’an Kerry Center, Shanghai. Guests were split into several groups with different color bracelets on their waists.  

At first, I wasn’t expecting Mr. Bags to interact with guests, but to my surprise, he was there, introducing Tory Burch’s bags one by one, with so much passion.  

And because there were so many guests, he had to speak again and again to each group, like teaching the same content to students three times or even more. To be honest, while he was recommending those bags, I started to learn the charm and appreciate them. Before the event, I hardly have any knowledge about Tory Burch.  

In addition to Mr. Bags, Tory Burch also invited a fashion stylist and models to present its products. If guests finished these two activities, they were welcomed to craft their exclusive notebooks with Tory Burch’s monogram on them.  

There was also a photo session with the chance to take a picture with Mr. Bags. What also impressed me a lot was that even after speaking and introducing the bags for a long time, he stood there and nicely took photos with anyone who wanted one. Some of the guests already met him before in other events and they were greeting Mr. Bags as if they were old friends.  

My Thoughts on the Event 

I quite enjoyed the event. First, it had Mr. Bags, a fashion icon in many people’s eyes. Second, the whole setting was comfortable and not aggressive. There were waiters standing everywhere to make sure guests can grab a drink or snacks whenever they want. And staff didn’t push you to buy anything. Even when you were browsing through products, they gave you time and space to appreciate them on your own.  

It is also a good case study for brands of how they can leverage KOL marketing. Offline events serve as a key bridge for both the KOL and the brand to reach followers/consumers. Even if an attendee didn’t buy anything during the event, the feeling that the brand and the KOL generated makes this experience memorable and they may develop a positive connotation with the brand and be more likely to purchase from it in the future. As I mentioned above, I didn’t know too much about Tory Burch prior to the event but Mr. Bags’ passion for the brand made in interested in its products. 

The post I Finally Met Top Fashion KOL Mr.Bags! appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

One of my most popular podcast episodes to date was a brief one I recorded last summer explaining the concept of ‘private traffic’ (私域流量).

‘Private traffic’ was one of the biggest China marketing buzzwords of 2019 and has only become hotter in 2020 as an increasing number of brands have begun implementing this tactic.

But while the term is thrown around a lot, I bet many of you have still never heard of it, or are wondering…

– What exactly is private traffic?
– Isn’t it just private WeChat groups?
– Why has it become so popular?
– Is it a tactic my brand should be using?
– How does private traffic actually work?
– Are there any case studies for my industry?

Well you’re in luck!

I’m teaming up with private traffic expert Doris Ke to bring you a free private traffic 101 webinar on June 23rd! Doris runs a popular multi-week online course (in Chinese) about private traffic so she certainly knows this topic in and out.

The webinar has already ended! Watch the replay below!

The post Private Traffic 101: Breaking Down China’s Hottest Marketing Trend appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

E-commerce live streaming was already one of the fastest growing marketing trends in China at the end of 2019 and then COVID-19 hit. Consumers were quarantined, offline retail was shut down, and live streaming quickly became THE hottest marketing and sales channel in the country.

While Taobao has historically been the leader in e-commerce live streaming, WeChat’s newly launched mini program live streaming feature has already started to claim market share.

In this webinar, Chatly’s Head of Marketing Lauren Hallanan (a former live streamer in China!) will:

– Give a brief overview of China’s e-commerce live streaming industry, the major players, and why Chinese consumers love this medium
– What is WeChat mini program live streaming and what are the benefits of live streaming on WeChat vs. other channels
– How can brands unlock the feature and set up live streams

This event has already ended! Watch the replay here:

The post Webinar: WeChat Mini Program Live Streaming 101 appeared first on China Marketing Insights.