There are so many tea brands, why is Heytea the only high-end luxury brand?

HEYTEA has a long history of collaborations. In this article, the author gives some specific examples to help you review the main categories of HEYTEA collaborations. At the same time, the author discusses: With so many tea brands, why did FENDI and other brands choose to collaborate with HEYTEA? I hope this will give you some inspiration.

TOP Jun has once again been bombarded with news about Heytea’s collaboration, this time with the famous luxury brand FENDI.

HEYTEA×FENDI

As soon as the news came out, it attracted widespread ridicule from netizens. Some people ridiculed themselves, saying "This is the closest I've ever been to FENDI" and "I paid for FENDI at the age of 20." Others questioned whether FENDI's reduction of the customer unit price of its co-branded fast-moving consumer goods to 19 yuan was a self-depreciation.

User comments and posts

But despite the doubts, faced with such a stark contrast in the collaboration, consumers still chose to "go for it". Many netizens said that nearby stores were sold out of goods and would no longer accept orders.

Sold out in store

Looking at the history of HEYTEA’s collaborations, today TOP has reviewed the main categories of HEYTEA’s collaborations, and would also like to discuss why FENDI and other brands choose to collaborate with HEYTEA.

01 HEYTEA Collaboration Collection

1. Fashionable and high-end luxury brands

Judging from the pictures and texts on Heytea's Weibo, the co-branded beverage-level peripherals with FENDI are actually part of the "hand in hand" craftsmanship art exhibition jointly organized by FENDI and Heytea. The theme of this event is to bring the "Heytea Tea Room" to consumers, and also to bring people limited product experiences with Chinese Yi characteristics to express respect for handcrafts and local traditional culture.

HEYTEA×FENDI “hand in hand” art exhibition

But before the art exhibition opened, the co-branded cup bodies and surrounding coasters and badges became the favorites of consumers.

FENDI's identity is special enough. Looking at the entire new consumer tea beverage industry, which ones have collaborated with high-end luxury brands? It may be difficult for consumers in the sinking market to buy FENDI, but it is always possible to buy FENDI's co-branded products.

Consumers purchase photos

However, judging from the popularity of this joint venture, some consumers who want to spend money on HEYTEA may have to wait a little longer before they can catch up with this FENDI trend. After all, luxury goods, even if they are joint ventures, are still "scarce and expensive"~

HEYTEA not only collaborates with high-end luxury brands, but also with trendy brands.

In April last year, HEYTEA announced that it would join hands with street fashion culture leader Hiroshi Fujiwara to launch the HEYTEA X FRAGMENT "Black TEA" limited edition project. This is Fujiwara Hiroshi's first cross-border new tea drink, and this collaboration will also become HEYTEA's annual collaboration in 2022.

HEYTEA 2022 Annual Joint

Why are HEYTEA and Hiroshi Fujiwara so popular?

He is a DJ, music producer, the first Asian member of Stüssy Tribe, and an outstanding fashion designer. Some people call him the Godfather of Fashion, and the "lightning symbol" is one of the symbols that impressed him the most.

Heytea chose to collaborate with such a person with a very personal style. Whether they are his fans or not, young people will be struck by his "trendy" and "cool" attributes. Buy a cup of milk tea, take a photo and check in, and consolidate your "trendy and cool" personality.

2. Chinese style films

The second is the more common film and television works co-branding, but HEYTEA's cross-border co-branding does not cross themes. Although it is a co-branding, consumers can feel the connection between the brand and the IP.

Last October, Heytea chose to collaborate with "The Legend of Zhen Huan" on the 11th anniversary of its premiere and launched a full-scenario "The Legend of Zhen Huan" themed series of activities.

The brand captured the emotional connection between the two protagonists, and with the theme of "Hanhuan and Silang's true love, drinking Zhenxicha to your heart's content" it launched two co-branded drinks, "Zhen Guo·Big Orange Painted Pear" and "Zhen Milk·Snow Brew and Green".

There are also themed cup sleeves, paper bags, "Zhen Xi Chuan" co-branded dress-up stickers and "Zhen Xi Chuan" co-branded spring shakers and other peripherals. Among them, the DIY attribute of the dress-up stickers greatly enhances the playability of the product peripherals.

HEYTEA×"Empresses in the Palace" Jointly Launched

The special thing about choosing "Empresses in the Palace" as a co-branded IP is that this TV series has a strong interactive attribute. It is a TV series that is still popular with the audience 11 years after its launch, due to its various ups and downs and impressive scenes, not to mention the famous lines that netizens often talk about.

Heytea’s official Weibo account also seized on this point, imitating the “episode” format of TV dramas, using methods such as “Poetry Competition” and “Famous Scenes” to guess the names of new products to interact with fans, thus forming a youthful social space.

"The Legend of Zhen Xi"

In addition, as a new type of Chinese tea drink, Heytea also integrates its brand style with the national style elements in The Legend of Zhen Huan. Borrowing the plot setting of the drama, it enriches the connotation from products to peripherals through cross-border collaboration.

Coincidentally, the same is true for the collaboration between Heytea and Dream of the Red Chamber. When the drama became popular, Heytea discovered the commercial potential of Zhao Paner's "half-covered" tea shop in the drama, and opened the tea shop in the costume drama in reality.

Heytea also took inspiration from the top-quality "Perilla Drink" in the drama and China's traditional tea-making technique to launch new products "Perilla·Pink Peach Drink" and "Menghua Tea Heytea·Tea-making".

HEYTEA×"Dream of the Red Chamber" new products

The offline joint stores between Heytea and these two IPs have also attracted many fans to check in and take photos due to their highly adapted painting styles and just the right amount of memes.

The collaboration between Heytea and Chinese drama IP has successfully integrated the traditional cultural connotation with the brand spirit. It can be said to be an effective attempt to draw R&D inspiration and design inspiration from the traditional culture of the new tea brand.

HEYTEA×"Empresses in the Palace" Store Design

HEYTEA×"Dream of the Red Chamber" Store Design

3. Office Tools

Heytea also focuses on the working people as its target audience and has collaborated with WPS and Kingsoft Document respectively.

Its collaboration with WPS took the question of "How do workers feel when they go to work on Monday?" as the entry point, and released the workers' song "Let's Go to the Party on Monday" to sing out the workers' voice.

Faced with negative emotions, office workers on Monday finally couldn't stand it anymore and shouted: "Let's go to Xi'an on Monday!" The homophonic pun of "Go to Xi'an" perfectly reflects the mood of office workers who hate Monday like Garfield. In addition, Heytea and WPS also jointly launched a limited series of peripherals for workers called "Happy Monday for a Week".

The co-branded products such as cup sleeves, badges, and stickers use vivid cartoons to depict the psychological state of people in the workplace. The badges correspond to three major components: text, table, and presentation, which undoubtedly hits the minds of those workers who use WPS at work.

HEYTEA×WPS joint package and peripherals

The WPS site also has a "Career Inspiration Supply Station", which offers multiple demonstrations and poster templates featuring A Xi, using youthful and brand-specific tones and layouts to provide "inspiration" for people in the workplace.

This can be said to be a "peripheral" that fits with the connotation of HEYTEA's "Chinese Inspired Tea", and also gives HEYTEA products a new definition of "relieving Monday anxiety".

HEYTEA×WPS Workplace Inspiration Supply Station

The joint campaign between HEYTEA and Kingsoft Document focuses on HEYTEA’s products and its interactivity with users.

Through Kingsoft Documents, consumers are invited to vote for the "Top Ten Must-Drinks" list to support the beverage ceiling. Users can also share their stories about Heytea at the "Heytea Tea Party". Such creative marketing connects countless fans through online documents and is also a good way to convert private domain traffic.

HEYTEA×Kingsoft Document

4. Popular Games

The collaboration with Genshin Impact focuses on otakus and housegirls, who buy milk tea for the character's peripherals. This is the power of the two-dimensional world.

HEYTEA and Genshin Impact have jointly launched two limited edition drinks, "Ayato·Water Shadow Longan Coconut" and "Ayahua·Frost Longan Coconut". They use seasonal fruits longan and coconut as the tea base, and add the "Scarlet Sakura Bobo" topping inspired by the "Scarlet Sakura Hydrangea" in the Genshin Impact game, effectively combining the brand products and the game IP.

HEYTEA×GENSHIN

In addition, badges, standees and other peripheral products also attract game fans to go to offline stores to buy them.

HEYTEA×Genshin Impact peripherals

02 Why choose HEYTEA?

After seeing so many unique collaborations of HEYTEA, you must be wondering: Why HEYTEA?

Let’s first talk about why the collaboration between HEYTEA and FENDI is so popular. TOP believes that it comes from the sharp contrast between the two brands .

The combination of luxury goods and popular tea drinks may be a "risk hedge", but it is obvious that the act of buying "luxury goods" at an affordable price is itself enough to attract attention. The seventh place in the hot search also benefits from the strong contrast in popularity.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, many people think that FENDI’s move is a self-depreciation. But in fact, the brand is not "lucky". Why did FENDI choose to collaborate with HEYTEA? TOP Jun believes that there are two reasons.

1. Brands hope to attract the purchasing power of young people

"Xiaohongshu 2022 Luxury Industry User Insight Report" shows that more and more young users are beginning to pay attention to luxury goods.

62.3% of users started to pay attention to luxury goods before the age of 22. Obviously, Heytea's younger consumer group is in line with the current trend of luxury goods users.

Excerpt from "Xiaohongshu 2022 Luxury Industry User Insight Report"

Baidu Index-HEYTEA

In addition, according to Bain's "2023 Luxury Industry Trend Insights", social media has become the main source of luxury information for Generation Z. Generation Z is more willing to conduct multi-channel searches to obtain luxury information, and is also more willing to obtain word-of-mouth information and reviews on social media.

Excerpt from "Insights into Luxury Industry Trends in 2023"

2. Heytea is the most popular tea brand

NCBD (Canbaodian), a catering big data research and evaluation organization, officially released the "2022 China Catering Golden Gourmet Award" series of lists. Heytea ranked first among the top ten most popular tea brands.

List of "2022 China's Most Popular Tea Brands in Catering Industry"

The official report released by Heytea, "The Past Ten Years of Heytea", shows that as of the beginning of this year, the total number of Heytea members reached 63 million, and the number of new members in 2022 reached 13 million.

According to the data from Zhaimen Canyan, as of May 12, HEYTEA currently has 1,261 stores in 159 cities. Although the number of stores is not as large as other tea brands, its position as a top brand in the industry is enough to catch FENDI's attention.

Excerpt from "Heytea's Decade"

Narrow Door Canyan Data-Number of HEYTEA stores

It may seem that Heytea has taken advantage of FENDI, but have both parties achieved their own goals? Heytea has gained high-end luxury potential with the help of FENDI, and FENDI has achieved cross-circle communication and promoted the "hand in hand" art exhibition by taking advantage of Heytea's youthful characteristics. This wave of complementary potential is also the key to the implementation of cross-border joint ventures.

We know that the essence of cross-border collaboration is to use the same type of products to attract consumer groups with different hobbies, enter circles and break through circles, thereby realizing the possibility of acquiring new customers.

A group of young people who are interested in new tea drinks and love trendy elements are so keen on cross-border collaborations. The reason for this is the social attributes of the co-branded peripherals.

In today's joint activities, the drinks themselves have become the "appetizers", and the badges, paper bags, cup sleeves and other peripherals are the "main course" in the joint banquet. Badges, cup sleeves, paper bags... No matter how simple the form of the peripherals is, as long as the theme is different, it can attract a variety of consumers.

This new type of co-branded consumer peripherals has now become a kind of "social currency" . People form their own identity and interact with others by purchasing peripherals, checking in at stores, and posting online.

As the co-branded entity, Heytea has never given up the concept of "Chinese-inspired tea" and has effectively combined product flavor with IP in each co-branding.

Although the co-branded peripherals are of a single form, the young audience group is consistent with the brand’s insights into consumers, and Heytea’s private domain operations have always been good, which meets the brand’s customer acquisition needs.

With the popularity of the popular IP, it is foreseeable that the joint event will be a big hit. Seeing this, I believe everyone can understand why FENDI and other brands choose HEYTEA for joint venture.

Author: TOP Jun

Source: WeChat public account "TopMarketing"