Can Heytea, which has won a great success through its collaboration with FENDI, return to its “peak”?

One of the most popular events in the tea industry and even the consumer industry is the collaboration between HEYTEA and FENDI. How did such a popular "cross-border collaboration" marketing move come about? The author of this article will take you to find out.

The collaboration between HEYTEA and FENDI may be the most popular event in the tea beverage industry and even the consumer industry.

A cup of passion fruit milk tea in a bright yellow cup for 19 yuan may seem ordinary, and netizens even joked that it looked like a "railing". However, it caused a huge surge in orders at Heytea stores, with queues of at least an hour in the store, and even scalpers couldn't buy it... Customers said "there's no way to wait", and the clerks said "there's no way to finish making it".

Why is this so? One of the biggest factors that made it a hit is the addition of the Italian luxury brand FENDI’s logo. Collaborations are common, milk tea is common, luxury goods are common, but collaborations between milk tea and luxury goods are rare.

Therefore, the emotions of young people were ignited at once. Internet memes such as "HEYTEA has lowered the price of FENDI" and "Pay in full and get your first FENDI in life!" spread like wildfire, one after another. Coupled with the attractive price of 19 yuan, it has become a huge temptation for young consumers. Once they own it, they will spread the word online as if they own the whole world.

So, how did such a marketing move come about? Is this kind of joint marketing just a passing fad, or will it become a new focus for HEYTEA in the future and slowly return to its peak?

Image source: Weibo @喜茶

01 Why did Heytea win and not others?

On May 17, HEYTEA and Italian luxury brand FENDI jointly launched a campaign. Starting from May 17, as long as you purchase two cups of "FENDI Joy Yellow" co-branded milk tea, you will receive a FENDI co-branded badge or a FENDI co-branded coaster.

Not long after the news was announced, Heytea’s stores were sold out and the mini-app was paralyzed for a while.

Even Lei Jun personally got involved, promoting and leveraging Heytea's "Joy Yellow" to promote his own Xiaomi products of the same color.

In addition to hot sales in stores and celebrity attention, the collaboration between HEYTEA and FENDI has also generated a large number of secondary creations on social media. These secondary creations refer to netizens playing with HEYTEA and FENDI-related peripherals, such as cups and coasters, in various ways.

Some people use the joy yellow cups to arrange flowers, which is very beautiful. Some people stick the badges on bags and clothes, transform them into stickers, insulation bags, cut them into mobile phone cases, and even DIY them into tissue boxes, toy cars, etc. This influx of "tap water" has pushed the joint brand of HEYTEA and FENDI to a climax.

Image source: Weibo @喜茶

Whenever a phenomenal event occurs and becomes a social currency, it often also becomes a hot financial product on Xianyu. For example, a peripheral product that originally costs 36 yuan to buy two cups of milk tea has been hyped up to 100 yuan at its most expensive on Xianyu.

This joint marketing campaign has brought voice and sales to Heytea, and because it is a joint venture with a luxury brand, it is very helpful for its high-end development and internationalization.

After seeing these phenomena, I wondered why it was Heytea and not others? In addition to relying on the scarce resource of FENDI, what other underlying logic does Heytea have?

1. A deep understanding of your users’ psychology

The feeling that this collaboration between HEYTEA and FENDI gives me is very similar to the enthusiasm of young people in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen when new tea drinks emerged a few years ago, and they actually queued for 3 hours just to drink a cup of milk tea.

At that time, the price of more than 30 yuan for a cup of milk tea would make many people feel distressed, but they were still willing to buy it. A beautiful cup of milk tea plus the sign of the new tea drink was a social currency. Coupled with the long queues, this chain reaction continued to strengthen. The more you can't get it, the more you want it, and the more you want it, the more persistent you are, and finally it becomes real money consumption.

Before officially announcing the news, Heytea had already warmed up on Weibo, such as changing the background color of its Weibo avatar to yellow and its logo to a "positive and negative villain", which reminded netizens of FENDI's iconic yellow and black color scheme and its "positive and negative double F" combination monogram logo.

The final announcement, about the collaboration with luxury brand FENDI, exceeded people’s expectations.

Luxury goods are scarce. The underlying spiritual need of people buying luxury goods is that they are worth it, which is also the most attractive aspect of luxury goods.

For Heytea's core users, most of them cannot afford the luxury brand FENDI, but the fact that they can own it at a very low price does give consumers great temptation. This shows Heytea's high insight into the psychology of its users.

2. Strong resource mobilization capabilities

A heartbreaking fact is that it is not that other tea brands cannot think of cooperating with luxury goods. Many popular brands dream of cooperating with high-end luxury goods because of their huge brand value, but are generally limited by resources.

Previously, the coffee brand Manner had collaborated with the high-end skincare brand Helena Rubinstein, but there may still be a certain distance between high-end and luxury brands.

FENDI is a brand under the LVHM Group, which has more than 70 world-renowned brands. It is the world's largest luxury goods group, including Hermès, Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy and Sephora.

Public reports show that in March 2021, L Catterton, the world's largest consumer investment fund, invested in two emerging consumer brands in China, one of which is Yuanqi Forest and the other is Heytea. 40% of the shares of this L Catterton fund belong to the family of Bernard Arnault, the head of LVMH Group.

It has to be said that with a common big boss behind them, it is relatively easier to mobilize resources.

Image source: Weibo @喜茶

3. Heytea has always maintained a good brand tone

As we all know, in the new tea beverage industry, Heytea’s strongest points are its products and brand marketing.

HEYTEA has been working hard to maintain its own brand tone, from the milk tea revolution that initially opened the new era of tea drinks, to the various memes and cultures derived from "inspiration", as well as the HEYTEA official account that has its own system.

Even though the average customer spending has dropped from more than 30 yuan to less than 20 yuan in the mainstream price range, the real milk initiative has been proposed in the industry.

It can be seen that Heytea has been trying hard to maintain its own tone. Even though it is open to franchisees, it dare not spread out its pace and rhythm, but instead lists many seemingly strict rules and regulations.

To sum up, from this perspective, the collaboration between HEYTEA and FENDI seems to be understandable and a good match.

02 FENDI, a "controversial" marketing of a high-end luxury brand

But the same joint marketing action may have changed when it comes to FENDI. FENDI may also realize that its tone seems to have been lowered.

A FENDI fan told the New Consumption Think Tank: "I really like FENDI's clothes and shoes, but I won't buy them anymore. Why would such a high-end luxury brand collaborate with a mass consumer brand? What's the point?"

Some industry insiders also told the New Consumption Think Tank that FENDI might have been fooled by the Heytea team. Does it need such down-to-earth exposure?

The public originally paid for luxury goods because they were out of reach and the brand premium was too high. It should have maintained suspense and aura, but now it has sunk. What should it do? Many people do go to Heytea to buy badges and coasters, but how many people will go to FENDI? "

Image source: Weibo @喜茶

After this marketing event became popular, I noticed two things.

First, it is understood that FENDI, which has never been very popular on Douyin, saw its search popularity increase to 170% of that on May 14 on May 15. After the official announcement on May 16, the search popularity directly increased by 15 times.

But the high-frequency words are "good-looking", "high-end", "affordable", "full payment", and "luxury goods". FENDI has indeed become more popular in Douyin. From these high-frequency words, what is the relationship with FENDI itself? Can consumers know what kind of brand FENDI is through these words? It seems not.

Second, after the joint marketing, some people also saw FENDI’s advertisement, which was about FENDI’s offline craftsmanship art exhibition held in Beijing, promoting local culture, craftsmen, etc.

Some consumers also praised the joint marketing of FENDI and HEYTEA: "Actually, I think it's pretty good. It reminds me of a scarf that has been dusty for a long time, and it also makes everyone think of FENDI." It is understood that FENDI's offline exhibition is currently scheduled for early June.

But I think that the radiation effect of holding offline exhibitions is still limited. Behind the collaboration, FENDI should have more things to undertake, such as what kind of brand spirit can make college students who cannot afford it for the time being have a spiritual yearning, rather than just being a synonym for "vague" luxury goods.

When talking about this collaboration, people can only think that the collaboration between Heytea and a luxury brand is very popular, but apart from those few English letters, people don’t seem to have any other impression of this luxury brand.

FENDI Moments advertisement, source: WeChat Moments

03 By opening up to franchising and collaborating with high-end luxury brands, can Heytea return to its peak?

After price cuts and franchise opening, Heytea, which was originally positioned as a high-end brand, has become more down-to-earth. At the same time, in the most competitive milk tea price range, Heytea seems to have become a "vague" existence.

When new tea drinks were all the rage a few years ago, no one would have thought that Nayuki, which opened large stores, would be able to successfully go public. And Heytea, which obviously had a better valuation and profit model, also rushed into the mainstream price range for mid-range consumers and opened up for franchising.

Earlier media reports said that in order to cut costs, Heytea terminated its cooperation with a large supplier with a pure import positioning and exclusive overseas milk source advantage. It is said that there is no difference in taste, but from a health perspective, better raw materials can bring less health burden.

If we say that the peak period of new tea drinks in the past few years was a model of ignoring costs, using good ingredients and setting high prices, consumers would pay for it anyway.

However, when consumption downgrade occurs, one of the compulsory courses for milk tea brands is to focus on controlling product costs, and launching more explosive new products becomes less important.

According to the data released by HEYTEA in March, after HEYTEA opened for franchising, among the franchise stores that have been opened, the highest daily sales of a single store has exceeded 3,500 cups, and the highest daily sales of a single store has exceeded 60,000 yuan. Since the opening of the business partnership stores in many cities, the average daily sales of a single store has reached 2,000 cups.

At the same time, media reported that the first batch of Heytea franchisees also encountered more or less problems.

For example, some franchise stores were criticized for their declining aesthetics. For example, a store in Chenzhou, Hunan, held its own opening ceremony, rolled out a red carpet and sprinkled gold powder, which was criticized by many netizens as "low". Some Heytea franchise stores are opened next to snack bars and laundries, and look like counterfeit Heytea.

As a newcomer in the franchise industry, Heytea seems to be trying to be as cautious as possible, but the management of franchising is extremely complicated. Heytea needs to hone its skills, but the market will not give it too much time. The decline in aesthetic experience will also erode the Heytea brand itself.

The collaboration between HEYTEA and FENDI is very popular this time, and it should also boost the confidence of franchisees.

This collaboration is similar to the collaboration between Luckin Coffee and Coconut Tree, which is a double harvest of fame and fortune. However, Heytea is different from the former because the former can be precipitated into a product, while the short-lived traffic exposure that Heytea received this time, as well as the subsequent criticism of the FENDI brand, all show a kind of "emptiness".

Based on the keywords of the joint venture between FENDI and HEYTEA, and looking through Douyin, complaints such as "The taste of HEYTEA is not as good as before. It was really amazing when I first drank it a few years ago, but now it tastes just average" also appear frequently.

Even among college students who love drinking milk tea, Heytea’s popularity and preference may be far less than that of Cha Yan Yue Se.

The collaboration between Heytea and luxury brands has made it a hit, but can it really return to its peak? This remains to be seen.

Author: Jiao Yimeng

Source: New Consumption Think Tank