With cumulative sales of 1 billion bags and over 10 million fans, how did ChaLi become the top brand in China's tea bag industry by leveraging the private domain?

Tea bags cater to the tea drinking habits of young people today because of their convenience in carrying and simple brewing. The private domain operation of the representative brand Chali is very successful. This article introduces the private domain operation of Chali in detail and is recommended for students who want to learn about private domain operation.

According to the "2021 China Tea Beverage Market Report" by Ries Consulting, the compound growth rate of China's tea beverage market will reach 13.6% in the next five years, and the total market size is expected to reach 764.5 billion yuan by 2025.

In the hot tea beverage industry, the brand voice of tea bags does not seem to be prominent, but with the rise of young consumers born in the 1990s and 2000s, it has become the mainstream population.

Tea bags cater well to the tea drinking habits of today's young audiences because of their convenience in carrying, simple brewing and rich flavors, creating new opportunities for the brand development of tea bags.

CHALI Tea, a local tea bag brand founded in 2013, focuses on the new tea drinking needs of the new generation of consumers. With its rich product line and thoughtful service, it interprets the most traditional and authentic Chinese tea in the most fashionable and popular way.

In 2022, it ranked first in the "Top 15 Chinese Tea Bag Brands in 2022" released by iMedia Gold List.

So, how does Chali conduct private domain operations? This article will provide you with a detailed analysis.

1. Case Background

1. Brand Introduction

CHALI, founded in 2013, is a brand of Guangzhou Chali Group Co., Ltd. It is positioned as a high-end Chinese tea brand and is committed to interpreting the most traditional and authentic Chinese tea in the most fashionable and popular way.

Currently, Chali Online has a series of teabag products such as herbal tea, fruit tea, and health tea; there are also high-end gift box series such as selected Chinese tea and Phoenix Dancong. Offline stores have tea-flavored ice cream, milk tea and other products.

2. Market size

With the gradual popularization of new foldable tea bags, the scale of my country's tea bag market has been growing year by year. According to online data, the scale of my country's tea bag market has reached 48 billion yuan in 2022. It is expected that in 2023, the scale of the tea bag market will continue to grow to 72.1 billion yuan.

3. User portrait

The user group of Chali is mainly female , accounting for nearly 80%. The age range is mainly between 18 and 23 years old , and the regions are mainly distributed in first-tier cities such as Guangzhou, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shanghai.

2. Traffic Channel Analysis

Chali has established a private domain matrix with WeChat platform as the core, and set up private domain drainage channels in mini programs and apps. At the same time, it has carried out different degrees of private domain operation electronic conversion on platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo.

The following is a detailed breakdown of the traffic diversion methods and contents of each channel:

1. Private Domain Platform

(1) Official Account

Chali has set up a private domain traffic entrance on the official account [CHALI Official]. When a user follows it for the first time, a greeting message will automatically pop up.

Specific path: Automatic welcome message - invite you to join the group link - add WeChat account - invite you to join the group

(2) Mini Programs

ChaLi has a mini program [ChaLi], which has set up traffic contact points on the mini program homepage and member center

Traffic flow path 1: Home page offers welfare activities – add corporate WeChat – invite to join the group

Traffic flow path 2: Member Center – R&F Official Community – Add WeChat Account – Invite to Group

2. Public Domain Platform

(1) Video Account

Chali has placed a number of touchpoints on its video account to attract traffic from its corporate microblog and public account. The content of the video account mainly focuses on brand promotion, product recommendations, and popular science about tea culture.

(2) Xiaohongshu

Chali has established a matrix on Xiaohongshu, with more than 100,000 related notes and a total of 4 accounts. Among them, the main account [CHALI] has 29,000 fans, and the matrix has a total of 35,000 fans .

The content mainly focuses on product recommendations, welfare activities, and tea knowledge popularization.

(3) Tik Tok

Chali has two accounts on Douyin, one for tea bags and one for tea beverages, with a total of more than 250,000 followers. The video content is mainly product promotion, knowledge popularization, and live broadcast previews.

(4) Weibo

Chali has 1.32 million followers on Weibo and has posted more than 4,300 posts. Currently, Chali updates 2-3 posts a day, and has achieved daily updates. The main content is knowledge popularization, product recommendations, and promotional activities.

3. Disassembly of Private Domain IP

Chali’s corporate IP is taken over through corporate WeChat, and the content published is mainly brand promotion, welfare distribution, and event announcements.

Below is a detailed analysis using the corporate IP I added as an example.

1. Personal positioning

Nickname: Tea Fairy

Avatar: Exquisite real girl

Role positioning : Brand welfare officer

2. Automatic welcome message

Send a self-introduction and a welcome gift as soon as possible, inform users of how to receive benefits and promotional activities, and guide users into the private domain.

3. Moments Operation

Posting frequency : 2-3 posts per day

Release time: Mostly at 14:00 noon and 20:00 evening every day

Moments content: mainly product recommendations and event introductions

4. Analysis of Community Operation

The tea beverage industry has the obvious characteristics of high repurchase and high sharing, and is one of the most suitable industries for private domain operations. Chali has also grasped this point and actively operates the community, taking the community as the main battlefield for its private domain marketing.

Below is an analysis of the community I added.

1. Basic information of the community

Group nickname: CHALI🍵Tea Club

Group positioning: welfare group

Group announcements: member benefits, new product experiences, celebrity peripheral gifts, etc.

2. Community Welcome

When a user joins the group, an automatic welcome message will be triggered immediately, mainly introducing the community benefits, recent activities, and finally stating the service attitude.

3. Community Operation

The promotional content is in the form of text + mini program link, and users can directly receive coupons and place orders. Coupons are issued to stimulate orders at low prices and generate repeat purchases.

The Chali community has established a SOP, with different activity themes set for each day of the week. From the results, the "Post a picture and win a gift" activity on Monday has the highest overall activity.

Take the SOP for one week as an example:

1. Monday: Post pictures to win gifts
2. Tuesday: Low-price group buying
3. Wednesday: Free tea
4. Thursday: 50% off flash sale
5. Friday: Super FUN Games

5. Membership System Analysis

At present, the membership system of Chali is mainly divided into two parts: one is the growth membership, and the other is the points system. Below, I will break it down in detail.

1. Growing Members

Nowadays, membership benefits have become an important means for brands to attract users into the private domain, and Chali has also launched its own growth membership. The main membership benefits include: birthday gifts, member activities, new products, points redemption gifts, etc.

Taking the mini program membership as an example, there are 5 levels of growth members in Chali: VIP1-VIP5. The higher the level, the more membership benefits you enjoy. The specific upgrade conditions are as follows:

1. VIP1: Free registration
2. VIP2: Annual consumption of RMB 200 or more
3. VIP3: Annual consumption up to 1,500 yuan
4. VIP4: Annual consumption up to 3,000 yuan
5. VIP5: Annual consumption of 5,000 yuan

Currently, Chali members can obtain growth points in two ways: 1. Collect the mini program: get 10 growth points; 2. Purchase goods: get 1 growth point for every 1 yuan spent, with no upper limit.

2. Points system

Now, more and more brands choose to build their own points system. The points system can improve user stickiness and attract users to continue to repurchase.

Taking the Chali Mini Program as an example, the Chali Mini Program currently supports the following ways to earn points:

+50 points for registered membership, +10 points for daily sign-in, +30-100 points for lucky draw/photo sharing/interaction, +100-500 points for upgraded membership, +1 point for every 1 yuan spent on purchases, +5 points for adding a mini program to your favorites.

Points can be used to redeem gifts and coupons. In addition, Chali also launched a points lottery, where users can get a chance to get 6 bottles of beverages for free by using 10 points.

VI. Summary

Finally, let’s summarize the highlights and shortcomings of Chali’s private domain operations:

• There are various types of community activities : different activity gimmicks are set up every day to guide customers to participate, and the community activity and conversion rate are good.
• The IP image is relatively weak : judging from the content posted in the circle of friends, it is basically mainly advertisements, there is no standardized content planning, the frequency of posting is low, and there is a certain distance between it and customers.
• Member benefits are not obvious enough : there are many ways to obtain growth membership, but the benefits are few, and customers are not motivated enough.

Source: Yan Tao

WeChat public account: Yan Tao San Shou