Soy sauce latte is packaged in a red cup? Luckin Coffee is embarking on the road of "branding of popular products"

Luckin Coffee's joint hit "Soy Sauce Latte" has frequently appeared in the public eye. Starting from this joint venture, this article analyzes the marketing logic behind the success of the brand joint venture and the creation of a hit product, and proposes a specific and feasible methodology for the branding of hit products. It is recommended for those who are interested in brand joint marketing.

How to maintain the popularity and appeal of products is a difficult problem that every brand has to face, and creating a hit joint product is one of the most efficient solutions. Take Luckin's phenomenal hit product "Soy Sauce Latte" for example. From the impressive sales of 5.42 million cups on the first day and sales of more than 100 million yuan, the crazy screen-sweetening of related topics such as "fine wine and coffee, I love this cup" on major platforms, to the repeated out-of-stock and restocking of Soy Sauce Latte, everyone's love for this product has not diminished.

Relying on joint ventures to attract public attention and occupying the minds of users through hot sales seems to be a perfect logic. However, there must be "hidden worries" after prosperity: in the current situation where attention is extremely scattered, a single joint venture and a single hot product are far from enough. Once the hot product lacks stamina, the brand's popularity and attractiveness are likely to be short-lived and difficult to settle into brand value.

However, Mr. Bingfa saw a different idea from Luckin's approach - on November 6, Luckin launched an exclusive red cup for Maotai Latte, and invited Mr. Luo Xiang as the "Luckin Q&A Officer" to release a cooperative short film to respond to the question that netizens had previously hotly discussed, "Is drinking Maotai Latte considered drunk driving?" This not only continued the popularity of this explosive product, but also further promoted the branding process of Maotai Latte.

Recently, Luckin Coffee has registered the trademark of "Jiangxiang Latte". In the ever-changing market, even Luckin, which is known as a "hit-making machine", has not put all its energy into the joint name of hit products. Creating a hit product is just the beginning. Branding the hit product and connecting the short-term impact with long-termism is the right way to maintain its appeal. Today, let's talk about how Luckin did it.

1. Why has the popular joint product “Soy Sauce Latte” been so popular for two months?

Any hit product will be affected by the law of life cycle, but if we continue to explore new opportunities and solve many problems from "Internet celebrity" to "long-term popularity", it is not difficult to continue to rejuvenate. Take the "Jiangxiang Latte" that has been popular for two months, for example, its advancement path also gave us a lot to think about.

1. Optimize the supply chain system and provide sufficient supply of popular products

Compared with the 5.42 million cups of sauce-flavored latte on the first day and the 6.66 million cups of iced raw coconut latte in the first week, the "Raw Coconut Series" in 2021 did not exceed 420,000 cups until a month later, which is a huge gap. This is not only due to the limited consumer base, but also closely related to the limited ability to predict hits and the immaturity of the upstream supply chain. Luckin, aware of this, has established sufficient stocking, estimation and cooperation mechanisms . For example, a few days after the sauce-flavored latte became popular, Luckin Coffee immediately announced a long-term strategic cooperation with Moutai, and the sauce-flavored latte will be sold for a long time. Subsequently, Luckin also submitted an application for registration of the "Luckin Sauce-flavored" trademark, which fundamentally solved the problems of production and supply chain, and laid a good foundation for "long-term success".

2. Accurately tap into collective emotions and release the connotation of the joint venture layer by layer

At a time when co-branded products are emerging one after another, it is not accidental that "Jiangxiang Latte" has become so popular, but the influence and communication power formed by the superposition of multiple topics. The category innovation of "wine coffee" meets the needs of young consumers for "coffee refreshment + alcohol comfort", which is the first; localizing and innovating imported products such as coffee to meet the emotional background and cultural identity of the revival of domestic products, which is the second; using the popular combination of high-end luxury + fast-moving consumer goods to create currency, drive the spontaneous spread of topics, and achieve viral fission, which is the third.

The most crucial thing is that Luckin can accurately release independent materials in every link: whet the appetite of netizens during the preheating period, release the "full record of raw material production" during the growth period, and connect with celebrities, athletes, and Internet celebrities from different circles to add to the popularity during the outbreak period. In the continuous discussion and interaction, it further amplifies the connotation of the joint brand and establishes brand recognition.

2. Continuous operation of popular products to maximize the benefits of popular products

In fact, using sauce-flavored latte as a strategic long-term product is not Luckin’s first attempt to brand a popular product. Looking back at Luckin’s product marketing actions in recent years, we can get a glimpse of Luckin’s attempts at branding popular products.

In 2021, Luckin Coffee launched a major product , "Raw Coconut Latte" . In 2022, on the first anniversary of Raw Coconut Latte, Luckin Coffee launched a wave of high-profile joint ventures with Coconut Tree Coconut Juice to launch Coconut Cloud Latte, setting off a nationwide packaging craze. In April this year, on the second anniversary of Raw Coconut Latte, Luckin Coffee officially announced that "Raw Coconut Latte" had sold 300 million cups in two years. In order to celebrate the birth of "Raw Coconut", the brand has cooperated with people from all walks of life to launch a fancy birthday celebration, such as inviting the Shanghai Rainbow Chamber Choir to sing the birthday song "Happy Raw Coconut", brand spokespersons Gu Ailing and Li Luxiu sent birthday congratulatory messages, and crosstalk actor Qiu Qian performed the traditional allegro of "Luckin Coffee's Raw Coconut Latte". At the same time, Luckin Coffee also launched two new products, Ice-sucking Raw Coconut Latte and Moyu Ice-sucking Raw Coconut Latte, and played a joint venture with Doraemon, which aroused the childlike innocence of countless netizens.

In addition to the well-known Grand Latte, Luckin has also launched the "Little Black Cup" series since 2020, focusing on SOE (single origin espresso) and boutique coffee concepts. Luckin has successively launched products such as Yirgacheffe, Oiran 5.0, and Yunnan Pu'er to attract more people to try boutique coffee, and has created exclusive Little Black Cup packaging for the boutique coffee series. The "Little Black Cup" in "black and gold" color scheme uses a black cup body with simple lines and a striking golden logo, which is full of high-end feeling; each cup has a capacity of 12oz, which is exquisite and delicate, showing the professional sense of boutique-level coffee from the appearance, and fully releasing the benefits brought by the popular single product.

Mr. Bingfa has always felt that the process of selling consumer goods is not equivalent to the process of building brand barriers . Some single products can successfully become hot products, perhaps because they hit a temporary blank spot in the market, or perhaps because they hit a bonus period of traffic. If it is treated as an independent activity, there is no synergy between products, and it is difficult for the brand to form a real barrier. Therefore, Luckin's independent branding path not only takes into account the "art" of new gameplay and traffic effects, but also takes into account the "way" of supporting the long-term value of the brand. It hopes to build the cornerstone of brand development with long-termism while consolidating the sales volume as a survival base. At present, it seems that such a strategy is indeed effective.

3. Methodology for branding hot products: hot product foundation + advanced innovation + IP support

Luckin Coffee co-founder and CGO Yang Fei mentioned in an interview that Luckin will "independently brand " selected annual big products. For example, the brand will find independent short-term spokespersons, IPs, event marketing and advertising for the raw coconut latte we mentioned earlier, making it synonymous with the category. In addition, Luckin has mastered a mature methodology in this process.

First, it is to grasp the characteristics of popular products and spread them in the long term by "celebrating birthdays". Today's beverage market competition has entered a white-hot stage. Although Luckin has created many popular products, it is difficult to form a differentiated competitive barrier due to the low threshold of raw materials and easy imitation of products. Therefore, the brand grasped the characteristics of popular products such as raw coconut latte and raw cheese latte, and repeatedly consolidated consumers' minds by "celebrating birthdays" for products every year, making them more recognizable among homogeneous products.

Secondly, we will further innovate product flavors based on the popular products and continuously develop new growth points. Luckin not only uses diversified communication methods to continue the popularity of popular products, but also uses core products as a fulcrum to leverage more new products with innovative flavors. For example, there are many extremely popular derivative products in the Raw Coconut family, such as the "Coconut Cloud Latte" jointly launched with Coco Tree Coconut Juice, the "Ice Coconut Latte" jointly launched with the new Doraemon movie, and the "Mo Yu Raw Coconut Latte" that is loved by workers, etc. Compared with new products, these derivative products have a higher mass base, save considerable costs in development and communication, and will also feed back the popularity of the core IP.

Finally, Luckin Coffee uses independent packaging to create its own IP, organically combining visual image with brand communication. In order to allow scattered communications to leave a unified impression in the minds of consumers, Luckin Coffee also uses independent packaging to enhance the recognition of its own IP. For example, the "Little Black Cup" with simple lines and a sense of luxury can directly remind people of high-quality, flavorful boutique coffee. The "Sauce-flavored Red Cup" that has just been launched is also a highly condensed version of the influence of the joint venture between Luckin Coffee and Moutai, which can quickly establish a consensus among consumers about the series of products.

4. Final Thoughts

Compared with three years ago, Luckin Coffee has completely changed except for retaining its original name. On the surface, Luckin wins by always launching hot products quickly and creating popular joint names , but if you dig deeper, you will find that Luckin's hot products are never created by luck - the brand will digitize various ingredients and flavors, quantitatively track the popular trends of beverages, and optimize products through these data. Coupled with a marketing team with strong insight and execution, it is not difficult to make a big single product popular.

However, Luckin also realized that the benefits of a single hit product will eventually be exhausted, and the key is how to create hit products with high frequency to continue the brand benefits. So when everyone is competing for IP, price, and co-branding, Luckin is exploring a marketing path of its own, which is to advance from the "big single product strategy" to "single product branding". While continuing the popularity of hit products and creating a series of product matrix, it will brand the annual single product, allowing short-term popularity to settle into long-term proprietary IP, and fully releasing the brand benefits brought by the hit products.

After the "Soy Sauce Red Cup", what other moves will Luckin make on the road to branding Soy Sauce Latte? Will it launch a series of refreshing products? We will wait and see.

Author: Mr. Bingfa

WeChat public account: Marketing Strategy (ID: lanhaiyingxiao)