Is it considered drunk driving if you drink Luckin Coffee’s new Moutai product and drive?

On September 4, the Maotai-Luckin Coffee-produced Maotai-flavored latte was officially launched, and the joint venture between Luckin Coffee and Maotai has also attracted a lot of attention and discussion. So what can the joint venture bring to the brand? How much power does the combination of fine wine and coffee have?

Luckin Coffee and Moutai have merged to launch a new product, "Soy Sauce Latte", which can be drunk for only 19 yuan.

Brother Pang learned that Moutai injected soul into Luckin Latte in the form of thick milk with white wine flavor, but the "Moutai content" did not seem to be high, with an alcohol concentration of 0.5%.

Long before Luckin Coffee’s official announcement, many people had already received the news and speculated about the taste and efficacy. Some netizens were prepared to make a fuss, noting that they wanted to remove the coffee liquid and ice, and some people were interested in its peripherals. At the same time, Luckin Coffee’s official confidentiality attitude instantly raised expectations for this marketing campaign.

For Moutai, which has launched coffee drinks before, the collaboration with Luckin Coffee can help it become younger; for Luckin Coffee, Moutai can help it improve its status and thus increase prices, thus widening the gap with its competitors.

One is a top brand in the wine industry, and the other is the largest local coffee chain brand. It can be said that a brand that does not know how to play a joint brand is not easy to operate. However, market experience also tells us that although the threshold of joint branding itself does not seem to be too high, some unexpected problems may arise during the implementation process.

The collaboration is the icing on the cake for a brand. For Luckin Coffee, which loves and knows how to play, the chances of it becoming a hit are stable.

1. How much is the “mud content”?

How can a company that sells coffee and a company that sells liquor collaborate?

Recently, Luckin Coffee officially announced that it will cooperate with Moutai, and the new product will be launched on September 4, with a cooperation popularity of 53 degrees. Brother Pan learned that the Moutai co-branded drink sold by Luckin Coffee is called "Jiangxiang Latte", with an official price of 38 yuan per cup, which is divided into iced drinks and hot drinks, and is available in all Luckin Coffee stores across the country.

It is worth mentioning that this co-branded "Soy Sauce Latte" is only 19 yuan after discount. It turns out that the high-end Moutai also has an affordable version.

So, how much Maotai is contained in a cup of "Soy Sauce Latte"?

In this regard, Luckin Coffee clerk Xiao Wang told Brother Pang: "The ingredients include coffee, milk, white wine flavored thick milk, etc., and the ones with sugar will have syrup." At the same time, Xiao Wang also said: "The white wine is added in the form of thick milk, not pure wine."

On the other side, the clerk Xiaoqi told Ye Pangge: "The method is actually the same as velvet latte, except that velvet is replaced with dairy products containing white wine."

It seems that the key to the so-called Moutai version of coffee lies in the thick milk flavor of liquor in the ingredients, but how much liquor does it contain?

Brother Pan found the ingredient list of white wine flavored thick milk on the Internet and discovered that there were 17 ingredients in total, with white wine ranking 10th. The ingredients ranked at the top were raw milk, condensed milk, light cream, white sugar, etc.

It is not difficult to see from the order of ingredients that the proportion of liquor in the ingredients of liquor-flavored thick milk does not seem to be high. By analogy, the proportion of Moutai in a cup of "Sauce-flavored Latte" is even lower.

Will you get drunk if you drink a co-branded beverage with a low Maotai content?

In this regard, Xiao Wang told Brother Pang: "The alcohol content is 0.5%. Minors, pregnant women, drivers, and people who are allergic to alcohol are not officially recommended to drink it."

As for the specific form of notification, Xiao Wang said: "There will be instructions on the store posters and the details page of mobile phone ordering." On the other hand, the clerk Xiao Liu also told Brother Pan: "In order to fulfill my duties and avoid liability, I will also remind customers when they place and pick up their orders."

2. How about a cup of sauce-flavored latte?

The collaboration between Luckin Coffee and Moutai has made many netizens look forward to the taste and efficacy of the drinks.

One netizen said: "Does the sauce-flavored latte taste like Tujia sauce-flavored cakes?" Another netizen said: "Coffee is refreshing, but liquor makes you drunk. Does this drink intend to make us drunk while awake, or drunk while awake?"

Some netizens with quick minds also started to make some moves.

Many netizens joked: "If I order a Maotai latte and specify to skip the coffee liquid, will I get a glass of Baijiu?" "If I choose to skip the ice when ordering, will the Maotai content be higher?"

In this regard, Xiao Wang told Brother Pang: "If you specify to remove the coffee liquid, you will get a glass of milk with the taste of white wine; if you choose to remove the ice, you will get a drink with very light taste of wine and coffee."

At the same time, regarding the now popular practice of ordering coffee without liquid coffee by making a note, Xiao Wang said: "After making a note, people usually follow the request, but this is against the rules. If found out, the store manager and staff will be punished."

In addition to being curious about the product itself, some netizens have also set their sights on the co-branded peripherals.

Brother Pang discovered that Luckin Coffee and Moutai jointly launched a three-piece set of stickers, paper bags and cup sleeves. The design style is very similar to Moutai, with words like "Fine wine and coffee, I love this cup" and "Soy sauce latte, come on, have one?"

Although the popularity online continues to rise, Luckin Coffee tried its best to keep the collaboration with Moutai confidential before officially "issuing the coupons".

In this regard, the clerk A Chi told Brother Pan: "After the materials arrived, they were not allowed to be unpacked. They could only be opened online on September 4th. The surveillance was monitored 24 hours a day. We notified them to keep it strictly confidential. I heard that colleagues who disclosed the materials online were punished."

However, even with such a strict system, some information still leaked out. For example, the ingredients of the liquor-flavored thick milk and the style of the co-branded peripherals had already spread all over the Internet before the official announcement.

Some people speculated: "This may be intentional by Luckin Coffee, which uses a road perspective, which has aroused people's curiosity and enhanced the communication effect."

On the other hand, regarding the promotion time of the co-branded beverage, a person close to Moutai revealed: "The co-branded coffee will be limited and short-term."

3. Wine and coffee

Why did Luckin Coffee, a coffee company, and Moutai, a liquor company, come together? Brother Pang found that the combination of the two was unexpected, but also reasonable when you think about it carefully.

For Moutai, the collaboration with Luckin Coffee can make the brand younger and attract more young consumer groups. After all, Moutai itself has made many attempts before the collaboration with Luckin Coffee.

For example, Moutai previously launched ice cream, among which the classic original flavor is priced at 66 yuan per cup on the mini program. At the same time, three months ago, it also launched coffee products on the Moutai Ice Cream mini program. The cheapest of them, "Ganzhiyuye", is priced at 28 yuan per cup.

For Luckin Coffee, choosing Moutai as "foreign aid" seems to be to give its own brand a boost.

Nowadays, price wars have intensified in the industry of freshly brewed tea and coffee. For example, not long ago, Nayuki’s Tea launched a 9.9 yuan drink, and in the battle between Luckin Coffee and Kudi, the price confrontation between the two companies at 9.9 yuan and 8.8 yuan has almost never stopped.

But returning to the essence of business, the fundamental purpose of business operation is to gain profits in the market, so it cannot be stuck in the quagmire of price wars. How to improve product quality and then raise pricing standards has become a question for all brands to think about.

Overall, the levels of freshly brewed tea and coffee drinks available today are not very different. It is hard to say that there is any big difference in consumption level and purchasing power between a Cha Baidao user and a Nayuki user.

Therefore, in order to enhance the brand's status, co-branding with big brands has become the most direct and effective way. For example, Heytea's previous co-branding with Fendi made the "little yellow cup" hard to find, and one netizen joked: "This is the closest I have ever been to luxury goods."

Today, Luckin Coffee has chosen to collaborate with Moutai, seemingly with the same intention. Relying on Moutai’s brand effect, each cup of the co-branded drink is priced at 38 yuan, which is truly “noble” compared to Luckin Coffee’s other drinks.

4. Is co-branding a panacea?

Collaborating with other brands and IPs seems to have always been Luckin's passion. According to incomplete statistics, in 2023 alone, Luckin has collaborated with Doraemon Movie, Dart Man, Line Dog, Victoria's Secret, etc.

The joint venture has indeed helped Luckin Coffee achieve good sales. For example, in 2022, Luckin Coffee and Coco Tree jointly brought huge traffic to both of them. The Coconut Cloud Latte jointly launched by the two companies sold more than 660,000 cups on the first day of its launch.

However, collaborating with big brands does not always bring benefits to Luckin Coffee. If the company is not careful in its operations, it will inevitably suffer the consequences.

First of all, the unreliable operations of the co-branded partners can easily have an impact on Luckin Coffee.

For example, during the Luckin Coffee and Coco Tree joint event last year, Coco Tree’s advertisement of “drink from childhood to adulthood” caused some people’s disgust; fortunately, Luckin Coffee was able to escape danger in the end with the promotion of “drink from childhood to adulthood”.

Secondly, if the co-branded peripheral products are not distributed enough, it will cause consumers to be disgusted.

For example, netizen Xiaoxin told Brother Pan: "I went to buy Luckin Coffee's co-branded coffee with a puppy on Valentine's Day. When I picked up the coffee, I was told that the co-branded stickers, cup sleeves, and bags were all gone. Why didn't they mark them out?"

At the same time, in the joint event with Victoria's Secret, many netizens pointed out that the joint small wing cup sleeves are only available for delivery, but the 9.9 yuan discount cannot be used for delivery. One cup costs 22 yuan, which is much more expensive.

Finally, there is no threshold for joint ventures. Luckin can rely on joint ventures for promotions, and so will its competitors.

For example, as a major competitor of Luckin Coffee, since its listing in April, Coodi has collaborated with brands and IPs such as Frida, OATLY, Honor of Kings, and Dove, and has also been sought after by consumers.

From this perspective, if you want to increase sales and competitiveness, relying solely on the joint venture path may not be enough. For freshly brewed tea and coffee brands, joint ventures can only be icing on the cake, not a timely help.

How strong is the aftereffect of wine and coffee? Workers going to work on Monday may experience this only after getting a little tipsy.

Author: Brother Pang; Producer: Daman

Source public account: IQ Tax Research Center (ID: gh_c55b3561ece1), the world is full of tricks, I will step into the trap for you!