With 63 million members, how does the leading tea brand develop its private domain?

As a well-known tea brand in China, Heytea has grown from a niche milk tea brand in a small city to a large brand with national chain stores, and the operation of private domains has played an indispensable role in this. How did Heytea layout its private domain? The author of this article analyzes this and hopes it will be helpful to you.

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In the list of "China's Most Popular Tea Brands in Catering Industry in 2022", Heytea ranked first for three consecutive years . In January this year, Heytea released its 10th anniversary report, in which a set of data attracted much attention.

By the end of 2022, the number of Heytea members exceeded 63 million, and the number of new members in 2022 reached 13 million. The number of Starbucks members is 18 million, less than one-third of Heytea.

As early as June 2018, Heytea launched the "Heytea GO" mini program independently developed by a small team of ten people. Based on the mini program, the company continuously develops and improves private domain infrastructure such as points, membership, and communities. Now, Heytea's online self-owned channel contribution rate has reached 60%-65%.

So how did Heytea develop its private domain? Let’s analyze it for you.

01 Case Background

1. Brand Introduction

In 2012, HEYTEA originated in an alley called Jiangbianli in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province. It was originally named ROYALTEA. On February 26, 2016, it was fully upgraded to a registered brand "HEYTEA", becoming the pioneer of new tea drinks.

As of January 2022, HEYTEA has opened more than 800 stores in nearly 70 cities around the world, including more than 100 stores in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

2. Market size

The total market size of China's freshly brewed tea drinks in 2020 was 113.6 billion yuan, and is expected to reach 340 billion yuan by 2025. It is a veritable 100 billion yuan market.

3. User portrait

81.7% of Heytea users are between 22 and 40 years old, and the majority are women, accounting for 63.1% , mainly distributed in new first-tier cities and first- and second-tier cities.

02 Traffic Channel Analysis

1. Offline stores

QR code stands can be seen everywhere in Heytea's offline stores. In addition, private domain touchpoints are set up in the user's ordering program code and order receipts.

2. Private Domain Platform

Official account: Heytea has a private domain traffic entrance in the menu bar, the specific path is:

"Axi Community" in the menu bar of the official account - scan the QR code to add the customer service corporate WeChat - invite to join the community.

Mini Program : HEYTEA GO Mini Program is the main private domain infrastructure of HEYTEA. Currently, the number of members has reached 63 million. The enterprise micro touchpoints are set up on the homepage and member center. Specific path:

Home page/Xi VIP-Axi Community-Add customer service corporate WeChat-Invite to join the community.

3. Public Domain Platform

Video account: HEYTEA has set up a corporate WeChat contact point on the homepage of the video account, and users can directly join the group after adding it. The video content is mainly product promotion, video account activities, product recommendations, and story theater.

Douyin : HEYTEA has two main accounts on Douyin, with a total of more than 1.7 million followers. The video content is mainly about promoting mainstream beverages, and the homepage also has settings to attract traffic to offline stores.

Weibo: Heytea has 1.23 million followers on Weibo, and publishes 1-2 pieces of content every day. Most of the content is rewarded interaction, holiday hot spots, topic interaction, product activities, etc. And it will guide users to enter the mini program in the form of text + posters.

Xiaohongshu: Heytea has more than 420,000 notes and 395,000 fans on Xiaohongshu. The content mainly consists of rewarded interactions, topic interactions, joint activities, and product recommendations.

03 IP Image Disassembly

1. Enterprise WeChat profile positioning

Nickname : Axi

Avatar : HEYTEA brand logo

Position : Welfare Officer

WeChat business card : In each A Xi’s WeChat business card, you can see the links to bind the video account, mini program and group entry, which makes rational use of resources and diverts traffic in multiple dimensions.

2. Automatic welcome message

Introduce the community value + service guidelines + group joining link . Clicking the link will automatically identify stores near the user and generate a store group. Long press to identify and join the group directly.

3. Moments content

Content frequency : Less

Release time : Unfixed

Moments content : mainly new product introductions and brand promotions

04 Community Operation Analysis

Heytea has more than 800 stores across the country, and the community is mainly based on store groups. It attracts users to join the group with a 18-yuan new member gift , and guides users to enter the mini program to receive coupons and place orders after joining the group. The following is an example of the community I joined:

1. Community Positioning

Group nickname: Heytea Hangzhou Joy City Store 4 Group

Group positioning: new product activities, member activity groups

2. Welcome message/group announcement

The welcome message for joining the group will update new products and activities in real time, guide users to understand membership rights, consulting services, and receive group gifts; the announcement mainly introduces the group's value and group rules.

3. Community Content

The content of Heytea’s social media is mainly about product recommendations and activities. The content sent is arranged in a fixed way. Different welfare activities are set up from Monday to weekend. The SOP of a certain week is as follows:

Monday 11:30: Product recommendation

Tuesday 11:30: Product recommendation

Wednesday 13:50: Points Flash Sale Day Event

Thursday 11:10: Top-up activity

Friday 15:00: Community lucky wheel (prizes are mainly discount coupons, takeaway coupons and free drink coupons)

Saturday 11:00: Product promotion (taking advantage of the holiday hot spots)

05 Membership System Analysis

Currently, HEYTEA has membership entrances in mini programs/apps and e-commerce platforms.

1. Mini Program Membership System

Heytea’s growth membership has five levels, namely: trainee VIP (free registration), advanced VIP (1+growth value), high-level VIP (200+growth value), senior VIP (700+growth value), black card VIP (2200+growth value) , and upgrades are made through growth points (1 yuan spent = 1 growth value).

The benefits that members can enjoy include: 50% off on birthdays, free delivery, random additions and exemptions, exclusive discounts, points-based flash sales, free extras, etc.

It is worth mentioning that Heytea members can set up a benefits reminder service to attract users to repurchase by exposing their benefits.

Stored-value cards: Heytea's stored-value cards have a variety of themes, with a minimum denomination of no less than 30 and no more than 888. They can be used for personal use or given to friends. In order to meet the needs of different users, Heytea also has physical cards, but only in denominations of 100 yuan.

Points system: Heytea’s points are mainly obtained through consumption, 2 yuan = 1 point, and points can be exchanged for discount coupons, takeaway coupons, rebate coupons, full-reduction coupons, redemption coupons, free drink coupons and other virtual items.

2. E-commerce membership system (Taobao as an example)

Heytea’s Taobao store has a total of 1.25 million fans, and the membership level is divided into five levels: New Cute Tea (0 yuan to join), Expert Tea (consumption of 1 yuan or more), Senior Tea (consumption of 300 yuan or more), Treasure Tea (consumption of 1,000 yuan or more), and Tea Tasting Officer (consumption of 2,500 yuan or more) .

Membership benefits include: membership gifts, exclusive gifts, shopping points, points redemption, exclusive customer service, direct fan promotion, 15-day no-questions-asked returns, and priority refunds.

Points system: Heytea points are mainly used to offset cash and can be obtained in a variety of ways, including consumption, sign-in, following, birthday registration, invitation to membership, earning points by playing games, and points lottery.

06 Summary

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

• Membership benefits can be reminded : The benefits of Heytea members are cleverly set up, with different discounts set every day, and users are reminded to use them to cultivate their consumption habits.
• Community operation lacks interaction : Heytea’s community is remarkable. The good thing is that the community touchpoints in the official account, mini-programs and video accounts are very smooth, while the community content is mediocre. Like most fast-moving consumer goods brands, there are many product activities, but there is a lack of interaction with users.
• Lack of operation in the WeChat Moments: The WeChat Moments on HEYTEA’s corporate WeChat account have relatively little content and are basically not maintained or updated, which has led to the loss of a channel for direct communication with users.

Author: Yan Tao Sanshou

Source: WeChat public account "Yan Tao Sanshou (ID: yantao-219)"