The most searched product, which is flooding the Moments, is the "Sauce Flavor Latte" jointly launched by Luckin Coffee and Moutai.

Have you seen Moutai Latte on your WeChat Moments again today?

This new coffee drink jointly launched by Moutai and Luckin Coffee has become a hot topic. Whether you drink alcohol or coffee, whether you usually drink Luckin Coffee or not, everyone will try to buy a cup to taste it. The incident also became a hot topic immediately, and because it contains alcohol, "Can you drive?" became the hottest topic of everyone's attention, which once triggered an official explanation. In the circle of friends and various communities, all kinds of jokes and memes are emerging in an endless stream. Even if we don't consider the sales volume, just the popularity of the discussion, this joint venture has already won.

"Good wine and coffee, I just love this one."

On the morning of September 4, Monday, Luckin Coffee and Kweichow Moutai jointly launched a new product, "Jiangxiang Latte", which was launched in Luckin stores nationwide. During the promotion period, it was sold for 19 yuan. At the same time, the co-branded cup sleeves, paper bags and stickers containing Moutai's classic elements were also launched.

After the product was launched, this cup of "baijiu-flavored coffee" attracted a lot of workers to buy and discuss. Many people posted photos of the sauce-flavored latte on social media and WeChat Moments. In the early morning, almost the entire WeChat Moments was filled with the joint name of Luckin Coffee and Kweichow Moutai.

According to social media data, many topics related to "Luckin Coffee co-branded with Moutai" were on Weibo's hot search. Among them, #Luckin responds to whether drinking Moutai co-branded coffee can drive# quickly became the number one hot search, with over 210 million views. Many netizens on social media also posted multiple notes saying that the "Sauce Flavor Latte" was sold out. When Morketing was waiting for coffee at the Luckin store downstairs from the company at around 9:30 in the morning, a Luckin staff member said: "A lot of people ordered this coffee, it's definitely sold out. Now the cream has run out, and the coffee made later can only be made without cream." As of 12 noon, on the Luckin APP, many Beijing stores showed that the "Sauce Flavor Latte" was sold out.

1. From the preparation to the explosion of popularity, is this cup the “C in the morning and A in the evening” for young people?

In fact, the collaboration between Luckin and Moutai was not without warning. As early as last Friday, the official Weibo accounts of Luckin and Moutai both released a countdown to the collaboration. Luckin even hinted at the collaboration with Kweichow Moutai with words such as "drink half a catty", "how expensive", and "53 degrees". In addition to releasing the countdown, Moutai also liked Luckin's Weibo post, making the collaboration between the two almost obvious. This operation naturally attracted a lot of traffic and popularity.

Early this morning, Luckin Coffee and Moutai officially announced their joint cooperation. Offline, Luckin Coffee and Moutai held a strategic cooperation launch ceremony. At the ceremony, Luckin Coffee Chairman and CEO Guo Jinyi revealed, "In the past few months, the teams of both sides have worked closely and worked together. After multiple rounds of rigorous product taste testing and optimization adjustments, the sauce-flavored latte was finally launched today."

Online, both parties announced their cooperation on multiple official accounts, focusing on launching a new "morning C and evening A" model. Luckin Coffee, which has always been good at making trouble, changed its profile picture to a "slightly tipsy deer" to promote its products. In addition to promoting the new product "Jiangxiang Maotai" and co-branded materials, the brand also released a brand TVC starring Ma Dong and others, and tasted more than half a pound of "Maotai" coffee for everyone.

So, what does “Soy Sauce Latte” taste like?

According to the official introduction, each cup of "Jiangxiang Latte" contains Kweichow Moutai, and you can taste the three stages of Jiangxiang flavor: fragrant, soft, and mellow. At the same time, although the alcohol content of "Jiangxiang Latte" is less than 0.5 degrees, it is not recommended for minors, pregnant women, drivers, and people who are allergic to alcohol.

The comments given by netizens who have tried it are polarized. Some netizens are quite satisfied with the taste, "The first sip really hits me with the sauce flavor, and the more I drink, the more I get in my head, and the fragrance lingers in my mouth", "It tastes like chocolate with a liqueur filling, very delicious". Some netizens directly discouraged me from buying it, saying "The real taste is like the taste left in my mouth after I vomited after drinking too much." The vast majority of people said, "The taste is not important, I just want to try it for fun, and I won't buy it again."

After all, for Luckin Coffee followers who are already accustomed to the 9.9 yuan coffee promotion, the excessive price of 19 yuan cannot allow them to enjoy the freedom of "C in the morning and A in the evening". The 9.9 yuan Luckin Coffee is the real deal.

2. Luckin Coffee is on the rise, while Moutai is on the decline. The joint cooperation is a "two-way rush" based on development needs.

Regarding this joint cooperation, some people commented that Luckin Coffee "joined the state-owned enterprise" with Moutai, and joked that after "climbing up" to Moutai, Luckin Coffee's value doubled. So, people began to discuss a question online: Did Luckin Coffee take the initiative to seek a joint venture with Moutai, or did Moutai seek out Luckin Coffee for cooperation?

The key reasons why this issue has caused heated discussions are twofold: First, Luckin's price is almost 9.9 yuan, while Kweichow Moutai sells for 2,000-3,000 yuan per bottle. Why would such a seemingly unequal joint cooperation occur when the price difference is so huge? Second, why would "affordable" Luckin choose Moutai, and why would Kweichow Moutai, which has always been "high-end", choose Luckin?

First of all, it is this seemingly unequal relationship between the two that makes this joint cooperation the biggest gimmick and topic. On Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and WeChat Moments, many netizens actively spread the news, and the messages came one after another. For example, there are many texts such as "It's all thanks to Luckin that I can't let go of Moutai at such a young age" and "The first mouthful of Moutai in my life was given by Luckin." This also made the cooperation between the two appear on multiple hot searches in just one morning, earning enough popularity and volume, which was eventually reflected in the sales of the new product "Jiangxiang Latte".

Although the official sales data of this product has not been disclosed yet, we can speculate based on the fact that multiple stores announced that it was sold out in just one morning. It is possible that the sales volume may be comparable to the previous "Raw Coconut Latte".

Secondly, in fact, the cooperation between the two is unexpected to some extent, but reasonable. The choice of each other is based on the mutual understanding of the current development needs of both parties. The form of joint branding is just a method that Luckin is good at.

Needless to say, Luckin Coffee has countless joint ventures, both large and small, and the frequency is so high that it even gives people the illusion that there is a joint venture every Monday. According to incomplete statistics from Morketing, from last year to now, Luckin Coffee has had more than 10 popular joint ventures. The partners cover almost all fields, from contemporary art master Han Meilin, Rainbow Choir, various art exhibitions, to various consumer beauty brands, beverage brands, and various movies, animation, two-dimensional, popular IP, He Guangzhi and other popular spokespersons, and so on.

A detailed count of these popular joint collaborations shows that Luckin's joint collaboration approach focuses more on product innovation, using new products to drive the popularity of joint collaborations. In other words, joint collaborations are just gimmicks, and brands use the topicality of joint collaborations to launch new products, driving brand growth through product strength and word of mouth. For example, this year's popular iced coconut latte is a joint collaboration between Luckin and Doraemon: Nobita and the Utopia in the Sky, but in fact, compared to joint collaborations, this product is more well-known to consumers.

The cooperation with Moutai this time means an additional upgrade of Luckin's brand image and tone. As a luxury product in the liquor industry, Kweichow Moutai has always positioned itself in the high-end market and has collection value. Its consumer groups are mainly business people and consumers with certain economic strength. Therefore, the cooperation between Luckin and Moutai can, to a certain extent, achieve the brand's upward breakthrough and attract high-spending people. After all, since the normalization of the 9.9 yuan coffee activity, Luckin has gained a large number of consumers, but if it wants to make better profits, Luckin still needs to expand a group of people who can afford 19.9 yuan, 29.9 yuan or even higher prices.

On the other hand, Moutai, as a traditional national enterprise, is well-known but is also trapped in a single product situation, making it difficult to bring in new business growth. At the same time, the audience of liquor that costs two or three thousand yuan is relatively small, and the age gap of consumers is relatively serious. Therefore, "brand rejuvenation" is an important part of Moutai's development strategy.

In recent years, Moutai has tried many times to attract younger customers and continuously developed new diversified businesses. For example, since last year, Moutai has opened several ice cream flagship stores, selling a variety of flavors of ice cream in the store, with the highest price exceeding 60 yuan. Some time ago, if you bought Haagen-Dazs ice cream on JD.com and accumulated a certain amount of money, you could get Moutai ice cream for free. In July this year, Moutai launched a new ice cream for 29 yuan, further lowering the price to reach young people. All of the above are what Moutai hopes to gain more young consumer groups, and this group happens to be the main customer group of Luckin Coffee.

Back to the new co-branded product "Jiangxiang Latte", according to industry insiders, this "Moutai" coffee is most likely blended with Moutai essence developed by Luckin Coffee. This may be the main reason why the product can maintain a rich sauce flavor with extremely low alcohol content. At the same time, it effectively controls costs, allowing consumers to buy "Moutai" coffee at an affordable price of 19 yuan.

In addition, this joint venture has a high volume on social platforms, and Moutai has taken advantage of this opportunity to attract a large number of young people. When these young people have a certain economic strength and can accept liquor, to a large extent, the first choice will be the familiar taste they have tasted in coffee.

3. Conclusion

In general, this joint event brought strong exposure to both brands, and the influence of the joint event covered the consumer groups that each wanted to reach. At the same time, since the announcement of the cooperation, Moutai’s stock price has risen by more than 1%, which also shows the market’s recognition of the value of this joint event.

Author: Jennie Gao, WeChat public account: Morketing (ID: Morketing)