New brand emerges to grab the market "Net Red" tea into the adjustment period

In the Oriental Baotai Square in Guangzhou East Railway Station, the shops of Xicha and Lujiao Lane, one upstairs and one downstairs, appeared in the staghorns of the year, and the tea is no longer The glory of the year.

With the completion of the financing, the original new tea "net red" answer tea (renamed 1314 tea), Xi tea began to adjust in stages, including rapid copying across the country, store upgrades. What is reflected behind this is the status quo that “Net Red” brands can't avoid: after the popular bubble dissipates, the development of “Net Red” tea brand tends to be stable, and because of the low competition threshold, new brands are constantly appearing, and with the help of capital The encroachment has a limited market share.

The new tea brand broke out last year, and it got rid of the seemingly low-cost street tea shop model, labelled “healthy fashion” and began to pay attention to higher quality raw materials and preparation methods. By entering the popular business districts of first-tier cities, the design of the store and the brand's personalized image, these tea brands have become a big IP, and created a lot of popular friends circle "net red explosion".

However, after the popular bubble has gradually disappeared, the new teas that grew up in the early days are also facing many problems. Due to the low barriers to competition, new brands are constantly emerging, and with the help of capital, they continue to erode the original market share. In Guangzhou, the most obvious performance is that the Lujiao Lane just copied into the market and copied the queue of “His Tea”.

According to the data, the Taiwanese tea brand “Lujiao Lane”, which was founded in 2013, has opened more than 50 stores in Japan, Canada, Malaysia and other places in recent years. The signature drink “Brown Sugar Deer” has become the new network red in the milk tea industry. Because of the healthier black sugar raw milk material, the unique appearance of brown sugar pattern wall, and the fusion of cold milk and hot pearl, it has become the representative of Taiwan's second generation of pearl milk tea.

Lujiao Lane opened its first store in mainland China in Shanghai, and subsequently opened stores in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. At present, there are 9 stores in Lujiao Lane in mainland China, and the “black sugar pearl milk” category has quickly become the “explosion” of the milk tea industry.

Dongfang Baotai Store in Lujiao Lane saw that there were 20 people waiting in line outside the store of about 15 square meters. In Lujiao Lane and trend jewelry MONOLOGUE in Guangzhou K11 jointly created "the monologue under the stars" theme flash shop, is also a long queue. And if you want to get a cup of tea at Lujiao Lane, you can buy it as simple as you can. If you want to spend at the mall, you can get a cup of Aurora Alley for every 500 yuan, limited to 50 cups a day. It is reported that the Aurora Special Drinks at Lujiao Lane have been promoted and shared by many stars.

For the new tea brand, the long queue phenomenon, the industry believes that because the country has not really occupied the consumer mind, high-profile tea brand, so the offline consumption scene with tea as the core is still extremely dispersed At the stage of low-level competition, the quality of tea is only the basic condition for business development, but there is no more dominant brand influence, and the substitutability of offline consumption is still very strong.

The entry of powerful new rivals has brought certain threats to new teas such as Xicha, which have entered a period of steady development. Stepping into May, Xicha and Answer Tea have undergone phase adjustments.

The first is the product benchmark. After Lujiao Lane entered Guangzhou, Lumao Fresh Milk Pearl Milk Tea became the new “Net Red”. In contrast, Xicha also launched a pearl milk tea “Bobpo Tea”, and other new tea brands are also starting to launch. Similar pearl milk tea products.

Secondly, the major “Net Red” tea brands have also been upgraded in store image and brand image. The store located in Dongfang Baotai is the first store opened by Xicha in Guangzhou. Recently, the store has undergone a comprehensive upgrade. Hi Tea said that the store reloading is actually for the overall upgrade of the brand, designed to enhance the experience.

In the premise of good store performance, the risk is quite large, and this is not the first time that Xicha has done this. The Shipaiqiao store in Guangzhou and the Haiya colorful store in Shenzhen have all been renovated recently. New appearance. “We believe that we must do this, and we can see from the business situation after reopening that Xicha is willing to abandon short-term benefits in pursuit of better, in exchange for the long-term development of the brand. The style design and the continuous innovation and pursuit of excellence, It is well separated from the cottage, and it also gives consumers a clearer understanding of hi tea.” The person in charge of Xicha said. It is understood that there are currently more than 90 stores in the country, and there are over 20 stores in Guangzhou, all over Guangzhou.

A few days ago, the answer tea named "a cup of talking tea" was officially renamed "1314 tea" in Guangzhou. Compared with the previous “answer tea”, 1314 tea has been upgraded from the perspective of product packaging and creative copy on the basis of retaining its “divination” and “answer” ideas. For example, the double-layer cup cover "female cup", the customer can see the "hands, hugs, touches, salute" and other patterns by rotating the outer cup cover, the upgraded 1314 tea has more "expression" way, it Will confess, will make a wish, will apologize, will bless ... almost covers a variety of emotional social appeals in people's lives.

For the reason for the change of name, Yang Yanxi, founder of 1314 Tea, said that one is the trademark dispute in the answer tea, and the other is the strategic layout of the 1314 tea company for the market and the 1314 tea brand. It is understood that 1314 tea will reach a strategic cooperation with Box Mashengsheng. In the future, there will be 1314 teas in the place where there is a box of fresh horses. This is a major measure for the integration of 1314 tea cross-border resources.

New teas quickly expand business map

According to Euromonitor's data, sales of coffee and other beverage stores in China totaled 92.6 billion yuan in 2016, an increase of 8.2% year-on-year; sales of other beverage stores including tea shops were 41.3 billion yuan, up 14.5% year-on-year. The “2017 China Beverage Ecology Development Report” jointly launched by the US Mission and the industry from the media cafes shows that in 2017, about 96,000 milk tea juice shops opened in the Chinese market. In addition to the store upgrade, the trend of staking the land with capital is becoming more and more obvious.

New teas are also favored by various capitals. In April this year, Xicha announced that it has completed the 400 million yuan B-round financing of the Dragon Ball Capital investment of the US Mission Review, which is used to comprehensively improve the supply chain and management informationization. In March, Nai Xue の tea was announced by Tiantu Capital. The investment of several hundred million A+ rounds of financing has reached a value of 6 billion yuan, and will accelerate the opening of stores and implement the overall brand experience in the future.

It is reported that 1314 tea has also completed 20 million A round of financing. According to Yang Yanxi, with the continuous advancement of brand and product upgrades, 1314 tea will launch a new round of market layout, and the investment promotion section will be further improved. 1314 Tea will rapidly expand the commercial map and truly realize branding and large-scale operation. After the B round of financing, Xicha also plans to speed up the nationalization of this year. In the interview with the media, he said: "We will not only encrypt stores in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, but also plan to open up new markets. Enter the southwest, central and northern regions, such as Chongqing, Chengdu, Changsha, Wuhan, Tianjin and other cities."

However, the industry believes that regional operations have a great test for supply chain management, channel construction, and team supervision and coordination. Once there is a problem in brand management, it is bound to take a turn for the whole body. Net red brand should promote expansion with steady and steady practice. To minimize cross-regional operational risks.