With a revenue of 6.2 billion in 3 months and a joint venture with Moutai that went viral, how did Niuhulu Luckin Coffee become successful?

This article first briefly introduces the joint venture between Luckin Coffee and Moutai, then explains the situation after the joint venture, and analyzes and introduces the live broadcast situation of Luckin Coffee. This article is suitable for brand owners to learn how to promote.

Luckin Coffee has once again become a hot topic, this time because of its Maotai-flavored latte. On September 4, after a long period of preheating, Luckin Coffee officially launched the Maotai-co-branded coffee Maotai-flavored latte, promising that each cup contains Kweichow Moutai liquor, and accompanied by the slogan "Fine wine plus coffee, I love this cup".

One is the largest coffee chain in China, and the other is a top brand in the wine industry. The joint product of Luckin Coffee and Moutai quickly became a hot topic. On the first day of its launch, more than 1 million cups of Maotai sauce-flavored lattes were sold on the Douyin channel alone.

On this side, the first group of people who had tasted the sauce-flavored latte posted photos on their Moments one after another.

On the other side, witty joke tellers have already started to compose jokes one after another.

Someone is "maliciously" pulling down others.

In response to Heytea, which has collaborated with luxury brand Fendi, one netizen said: "Who dares to call themselves a luxury brand in front of my Maozi brother?" As for why Moutai collaborated with Luckin Coffee, one netizen speculated: "Because people who drink Starbucks have to drive, they are afraid of drunk driving..."

But some people also "sincerely" offered suggestions that if Luckin Coffee could collect the three-piece set of Maozi, Huazi and Isatis root, it would be able to defeat Starbucks in one year.

Although there are both praises and criticisms, the sauce-flavored latte has indeed attracted a lot of attention as "young people's first sip of Moutai."

At noon that day, the topic #Luckin customer service responded to whether Moutai co-branded coffee can be used to drive# ranked top 2 on Weibo and Douyin's hot search list. According to Weibo's hotspot data, the popularity index of Moutai and Luckin both reached a peak in the past three days at 12 noon that day, at 91.2 and 86.4 respectively, an increase of 82.0% and 93.3% respectively compared with the average popularity.

While netizens were busy posting on their Moments, Luckin Coffee’s multiple official Douyin live broadcast rooms had already changed their backgrounds, hoping that young people would “spend 19 yuan to feel the happiness of our dad.”

"The sauce-flavored latte, it's here, it's really here." In Luckin's live broadcast room, the anchors took out Moutai's official authorization letter, emphasizing that every cup of coffee contains 53-degree Feitian Moutai, and then showed the sauce-flavored latte handbags, stickers and other peripherals. In the comment area of ​​the live broadcast room, "Congratulations to the respected Luckin fans for winning 'Moutai'" flashed from time to time.

According to statistics from Xindoutiao, a subsidiary of Xinbang, the cumulative number of live broadcast viewers in Luckin Coffee's live broadcast room reached 14.97 million on that day, an increase of nearly 30 times compared to daily live broadcasts.

A month ago, Luckin Coffee announced its 2023Q2 financial report, with revenue of 6.201 billion yuan in the three months, a year-on-year increase of 88%, surpassing Starbucks China for the first time. From being exposed for financial fraud three years ago and its founder being kicked out to becoming China's "No. 1 coffee company" today, what has Luckin Coffee experienced?

There are many analyses on Luckin Coffee. Some say it is because of its bet on the low-priced coffee market, some say it is because of its frequently successful super products, some say it is because of its aggressive store opening strategy, and some say it is because of its huge private domain user base.

Studying Luckin Coffee is a complex topic. Today we will not talk about other things, but only talk about what Luckin Coffee did right from the perspective of brand new media marketing.

From frequent cross-border collaborations to diligent brand live broadcasts, if we were to select the super king of brand content marketing, Luckin Coffee would definitely be on the list.

1. Luckin Coffee’s collaboration is no big deal

Why did Luckin Coffee collaborate with Moutai?

For Luckin, the biggest benefit of a joint venture is to create marketing topics. For example, in this joint venture, the huge contrast between Luckin and Moutai created a traffic effect of 1+1>2, providing netizens with a lot of material for jokes.

Because the official little deer avatar’s face has a hint of tipsy pink, some netizens had wild imaginations, wondering if it was kissed by Maotai?

Because Luckin Coffee repeatedly emphasized that every cup of Maotai latte was added with 53% Feitian Moutai, some netizens cleverly placed an order: "No ice, no coffee liquid, a full cup of Moutai."

Some netizens also commented that the sauce-flavored latte not only packs young people's morning C (coffee) and evening A (alcohol), but also allows people to act cool, which is really good value for money.

Netizens addicted to CP also thought of Mixue Bingcheng, which just launched a theme post office with China Post. Some comments said that after years of love and hate, Luckin Coffee reluctantly "married into a wealthy family" after seeing Mixue Bingcheng successfully "joined the team".

This year, Luckin Coffee and Mixue Ice City have frequently staged "close combat and real business wars". Although there is no joint name, in the eyes of some netizens, they have long been the best CP in the beverage industry, and no one is better at "yin and yang" against each other than Luckin Coffee and Mixue Ice City.

In addition to topic marketing, the joint venture with Moutai can also bring some tangible benefits. An industry insider commented that this joint venture is "the first cup of Moutai for young people and the first cup of Luckin Coffee for middle-aged people."

For Moutai, since young people don't like to drink liquor and can't afford Moutai, it can use Luckin Coffee to cultivate a wave of users and cultivate young people's love for Maotai in advance. For Luckin Coffee, when the "Hermes of the wine industry" is linked to Luckin Coffee at 9.9 yuan, it may be an opportunity to increase its value and reach new users.

In fact, cross-border collaborations are a common practice in the beverage industry. For example, Heytea has collaborated with Fendi, and Kudi has collaborated with King of Glory. Luckin Coffee is even more popular in the collaboration industry. Since the beginning of this year, Luckin Coffee has collaborated at least 12 times, including Doraemon Movie, Dart Man, Stripe Dog, Victoria's Secret, etc.

Last year, Luckin’s most popular collaboration was with Coco Tree.

Luckin Coffee has sold 300 million cups of raw coconut latte in two years, which is already a super single product. Luckin Coffee’s collaboration with Coco Tree has further strengthened its “raw coconut” label. Luckin Coffee once announced that the sales of the Coconut Cloud Latte jointly launched by the two companies exceeded 660,000 cups on the first day of its launch.

Coconut Tree is also a popular traffic king. The joint name of the two has triggered a wave of discussion. The joint name of Luckin Coffee and Coconut Tree has even become a hot item in WeChat Moments, with many netizens lamenting: "It's so tacky, so tacky that I can't refuse it."

Last year, they collaborated with Coconut Tree, and this year, they collaborated with Moutai. One is a Hainanese rich man, and the other is Guizhou old money. The collaboration with Luckin Coffee focuses on a contrast.

From being established and listed in 17 months to being exposed for financial fraud and having its market value evaporate by nearly US$5 billion, from being a "national enterprise" that profited from the US to treating the Chinese to coffee to its counterattack with the raw coconut latte, Luckin Coffee has never been an old classmate without a story.

But for a brand that pursues youth, there is never too much story, and co-branding is undoubtedly one of the simplest and most effective methods. Perhaps this is why Luckin always likes the sense of contrast when choosing co-branded brands. Every co-branded brand that is completely different from Luckin's temperament is a refresh of Luckin's brand story and a panacea for Luckin's youth.

Of course, although Luckin Coffee’s collaboration with Moutai has exploded in popularity, judging from netizens’ feedback, the most important taste of the sauce-flavored latte is a bit subtle. Some people said it is indeed a “sauce-flavored” taste, but others said it “tasted like vomit.”

Whether the sauce-flavored latte can replicate the sales miracle of the raw coconut latte, we will have to wait and see.

2. Luckin Coffee Live, a life of twists and turns

If doing joint ventures is no big deal, Luckin's live broadcast can be described as working hard and achieving success.

Taking Douyin as an example, Luckin Coffee has set up six official live broadcast rooms, including "Luckin Coffee", "Luckin Coffee Flagship Store", "Luckin Coffee Group Buying", "Luckin Coffee luckincoffee Flagship Store Authorized Number", "Luckin Coffee Live Broadcast Room" and "Luckin Coffee Authorized Extract Live Broadcast Room", with a total number of fans reaching 7.69 million.

In contrast, Mixue Bingcheng’s live broadcasts mainly rely on franchisees across the country, and there is only one official account on Douyin, “Mishe Bingcheng Official Flagship Store”, for broadcasts.

In this joint event, many of Luckin's official live broadcast rooms started selling Maotai-flavored latte early, offering discounts to attract users: the Maotai-flavored latte originally priced at 38 yuan was only 17 yuan per cup, and buying two cups would also give away a Maotai-Luckin joint sticker.

In order to prove that Maotai is really in the sauce-flavored latte, Luckin Coffee also specially released a video recording how Luckin Coffee spent 30 million yuan to buy Maotai to make sauce-flavored latte. This video quickly became a hit, with more than 270,000 likes on Douyin alone.

According to "Douyin Life Service", the transaction volume of Jiangxiang Latte on Douyin exceeded 10 million in 4 hours after its first live broadcast. As of 18:24 on September 4, the cumulative sales of Jiangxiang Latte on Douyin exceeded 1 million cups.

Among Luckin’s six official live broadcast rooms, “Luckin Coffee” has the most fans, currently exceeding 4.13 million, and is also the traffic driver for Luckin.

Initially, Luckin Coffee featured a high-end business style, and its videos were very similar to TVCs. In 2021, with the cooperation with Li Luxiu and the endorsement of Gu Ailing, the video style of Luckin Coffee became younger and younger. In 2022, Luckin Coffee continued to make a lot of moves, and often produced Internet memes such as "e人i人, 瑞门永存".

"Luckin Coffee" is also a brand account that is very good at "taking advantage of the trend". After the release of "Investiture of the Gods", "Luckin Coffee" immediately reached a cooperation with Yu Shi, who became popular for playing Ji Fa. Some netizens joked: "Luckin's sense of smell is more sensitive than that of a police dog."

In addition, "Luckin Coffee" has also released a number of video collections such as "Luckin DIY" and "High-value Barista". Among them, a graphic work introducing how to fold maple leaves with Luckin paper bags has received more than 370,000 likes. This is also the work with the most likes for "Luckin Coffee". Some netizens joked that Luckin's main body is selling peripherals.

In fact, every time Luckin Coffee collaborates with an IP, it will put a lot of thought into DIY peripherals. For example, this time the collaborative peripherals with Moutai quickly became a topic of social conversation.

In terms of live streaming, the gameplay of "Luckin Coffee" is also remarkable. Recently, brands such as Wang Shanzha and Shuyi Shaoxiancao have played a "business war" with macho men, starting a male beauty arms race, but in fact, as early as last year, "Luckin Coffee" played a male beauty marketing in the live broadcast room and took the lead in provoking a "business war".

During the Double 11 Shopping Festival last year, Luckin Coffee invited a group of male college students to stage a very eye-catching male beauty show. The host's voiceover during the live broadcast was also very flirtatious. Not only did he name the product "Secretly Missing You Jasmine Yuanyang", but when introducing the whipped cream latte and whipped coconut latte, he also said: "As a new combination this year, Shengsheng CP is really worth a try."

According to Xin Dou data statistics, the three-hour live broadcast had a cumulative viewing volume of 1.18 million, more than twice the number of viewers for the account's usual 15-hour live broadcast.

This year, Luckin Coffee has become even more popular. In addition to the high-intensity live broadcast of more than 15 hours a day, the live broadcast room is also renewed, often matching live broadcast scenes and anchor makeup according to different themes. For example, around Valentine's Day, Luckin co-branded with a striped puppy and decorated the live broadcast room into a pink love playground.

According to Xin Dou data statistics, the estimated group purchase sales of "Luckin Coffee" in the past 90 days are between 10 million and 25 million yuan.

In addition to daily live broadcast operations, Luckin Coffee is also very willing to spend money on large-scale live broadcasts. In June this year, in order to celebrate the opening of more than 10,000 offline stores across the country, Luckin Coffee held a carnival ceremony for 10,000 stores.

In addition to preparing a full range of 9.9 yuan pallets for the live broadcast, Luckin Coffee also launched a 16-hour marathon-style live broadcast. Through "famous host + light show + aerial photography + live broadcast", the live broadcast eventually attracted more than 10 million viewers, added 300,000 new fans, and the live broadcast transaction volume exceeded 100 million.

According to the official account of Douyin, the GMV of this live broadcast far exceeded the industry record of 11 million yuan. At the same time, the live broadcast exposure, order volume and number of new customers' orders ranked first in the national coffee and tea beverage group buying weekly list.

If the responsibility of "Luckin Coffee" is to stir up trouble and drive traffic to offline stores, the task of other official live broadcast rooms is to sell goods honestly. From freeze-dried coffee powder at 168 yuan to wide-ear ceramic mugs at 52 yuan, you can see the hosts' hard work in selling goods when you open any live broadcast room.

The common features of these live broadcast rooms are: short videos are released frequently, with dozens to hundreds of videos in a month; the live broadcast rooms are diligent in broadcasting, basically more than 15 hours a day.

According to Xindou data, the accounts with the highest live broadcast GMV so far are "Luckin Coffee Flagship Store" and "Luckin Coffee Flagship Store Authorized Account", which have brought in 25 million to 50 million yuan in sales in the past 90 days. The cumulative estimated sales of "Luckin Coffee Authorized Extract Live Broadcast Room", which has just been launched for two months, are between 7.5 million and 10 million yuan.

Although the main broadcast is the brand itself, Luckin Coffee occasionally leverages celebrities. During the 10,000-store carnival, Luckin Coffee invited Jiang Chao and Medina, Huang Youming, and Calvin Chen to do three celebrity live broadcasts, and designed different live broadcast themes. For example, the live broadcast room of Jiang Chao and Medina was themed "Luckin Coffee Pool Party", which strengthened Luckin Coffee's vacation scene. The final number of viewers for this live broadcast was nearly 6.5 million.

For Luckin Coffee, doing things in the live broadcast room has become the norm. The six official live broadcast rooms are not only the receivers of traffic, but also the creators of topics, and ultimately converge on Luckin Coffee's cups of raw coconut latte and soy sauce latte.

As the editorial department of Xinbang discussed in "Monthly GMV exceeds 80 million, how did Douyin become the number one food live broadcaster? | Exclusive interview with the founder of Daxidi", the live broadcast e-commerce industry has entered the era of inventory, and more growth must be sought internally.

Like Luckin Coffee, it uses 6 official live broadcast rooms to maintain its basic market share, creates marketing topics through collaborations with Moutai, Coco Tree, etc., and makes breakthroughs with the help of platforms and celebrity influencers in large-scale live broadcasts. This systematic brand strategy will become more and more the norm.

Author: Yun Feiyang WeChat public account: Xinbang