With more and more brands in the new tea drinking track, the internal volume of the entire industry is becoming more and more serious, and even in early 2022, Xicha and Naixue's teas that take the high-end route in the domestic market have adopted price reduction strategies.
In order to seize the market as soon as possible, but also in order to avoid the inner roll, many milk tea brands have chosen to go to sea as early as when domestic milk tea has gradually become a trend. There are both mid-to-high-end brands such as Xicha and Mi Xue Ice City, which has just opened its first store in Malaysia and Singapore.
Michelle Ice City's store in Vietnam
All the way to the overseas milk tea brand, Bawang Cha Ji is a special existence. In China, Bawang Chaji is not as rapid and high-profile as brands such as Xicha, and most of the stores are currently concentrated in the southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan. Compared with the "caution" in China, Bawang Chaji has a very good result overseas. According to the new consumer think tank, during the Double Eleven period last year, the average daily sales of Bawang Chaji's overseas stores exceeded 25,000 yuan, and the highest sales of a single store exceeded 38,000 yuan, creating a record for the highest single-day receipt of Chinese tea brands in Malaysia.
Out of curiosity about this new tea brand that is "full of Chinese style", Moby Dick recently interviewed the head of the overseas business of Bawang Chaji to further understand the history and thinking of the new tea brand going overseas, as well as the latest situation in the current overseas tea market.
Bawang Chaji integrates Chinese style into the brand, which is reflected in the brand name taken from the classic opera "Bawang Bieji", the LOGO with the xiqu face image as the main visual, and the offline store design full of Chinese painting, calligraphy, opera and other elements.
"Do better" is not as good as "do different", Overlord Cha Ji decided to make a "tea latte"
Bawang Chaji was founded in Kunming in 2017 and went to Southeast Asia in 2019. Compared with other tea brands, Bawang Chaji started relatively late in going to sea. Below we can briefly review the history of Chinese tea brands before Bawang Tea Ji went to sea.
After the author made some understanding of several overseas tea brands, I found that the earliest Chinese tea brands going to sea can be traced back to 2010, when Happy Lemon from Shanghai opened its first overseas store in Manila. However, according to the global expansion layout of the brand's official website, Happy Lemon will focus on the US market in the follow-up.
Happy Lemon's journey to sea
Taiwanese milk tea brand Coco went to the United States and Hong Kong in China in 2011, and subsequently laid out southeast Asia, South Africa, Canada, Australia and other markets. Then there is Chunshuitang, a Taiwanese milk tea brand that is relatively low-key in the mainland, which opened its first store in Japan in 2013. According to previous titanium media reports, at that time, the Chunshuitang Japanese store could sell about 1,000 drinks a day.
After the round of bubble tea out of the sea from 2010 to 2013, around 2018, a wave of new tea brands went to sea again. In 2018, Heytea and Nesher's teas brought the brand to Singapore, and Michelle Ice City also entered the Vietnamese market in this year. So it seems that the timing of Bawang Chaji's choice to go to the sea in 2019 is not too early, at this point in time, Bawang Chaji has to face a market that has been very competitive, as well as a group of consumers who have been occupied mentally. However, even as a latecomer, the overlord Cha ji still seems full of confidence.
At the beginning of the establishment of the brand, Bawang Chaji realized that the pattern of domestic new tea brands has been roughly formed, and in such a situation, the brand has a greater chance of "doing different" than "doing better". For how to "make a difference", at that time, Bawang Chaji thought from the two perspectives of brand positioning and product positioning.
First of all, at the level of brand positioning, Bawang Chaji chose to create a new Chinese style brand based on Chinese cultural positioning, which can be regarded as unique among the new tea brands in China. Why choose to inject Chinese culture into the brand, the overseas person in charge of Bawang Chaji elaborated on two reasons: the first is that it is currently in the context of an era of the rise of China's national strength, this generation of post-00s and post-10s have more cultural pride than the previous generation, so Chinese entrepreneurs also have a stronger motivation to export Chinese culture overseas with the help of brands; secondly, for global consumers, tea is one of China's cultural symbols, just like luxury is a cultural symbol in Europe, and scientific and technological products are cultural symbols in the United States.
Secondly, in terms of product positioning, Bawang Chaji is inspired by coffee lattes. Coffee latte in all kinds of drinks in the highest repurchase rate, there are four reasons: 1, it is a mixture of coffee and milk, the taste is warm; 2, the price of coffee latte is generally between 15 and 25 yuan, the price is easy to be accepted by young people; 3, coffee has a refreshing function, high consumption frequency; 4, the output of strong Culture in the United States.
Similar to coffee, tea also has a refreshing and soothing effect, and coffee can go to the public because it has found a good fusion of milk. Therefore, the thinking of the overlord Cha Ji at that time was to replace the coffee beans with tea leaves and make a cup of "tea latte". Different from traditional milk tea, tea is the protagonist. "Tea latte" can not only become a substitute for coffee lattes, but also an industrial upgrade for Chinese tea drinks based on bubble tea at that time.
Tea Vanna
After the birth of this inspiration, Bawang Chaji did a lot of market research and found that in fact, similar things have been done by brands, such as the brand Chawana that was previously acquired by Starbucks, but Chawana's tea latte products did not set off a storm. In addition, there are also some brands in China that are making tea latte products, but they are using Western tea varieties such as Greek black tea, so Bawang Chaji sees the opportunity of Chinese original leaf tea. "In the past, everyone would think that tea was just a supporting role in a cup of milk tea, and fruit and milk were the protagonists. However, the overlord Cha Ji reversed the main supporting role, and the tea became the protagonist, and we emphasized the original ecology and natural taste of the original leaf tea. The overseas head of the overlord Chaji said.
After finding a direction in the product, Bawang Chaji began to create strategic differentiation and chose to launch the brand in Yunnan. Yunnan is the hometown of founder Zhang Junjie, but also the starting place of the Tea Horse Ancient Road, the hometown of the world's tea, starting from Yunnan can also avoid the most fierce new tea competition area.
At the same time, the choice of Yunnan also has considerations for going to sea. Geographically closer to Southeast Asia, Bawang Cha ji has been considering opportunities to enter the Southeast Asian market since 2018. At the beginning of the establishment of the brand, Bawang Chaji took "serving consumers in 100 countries" as its vision, and the overseas market has always been the focus.
However, the real implementation of the plan of the overlord Cha Ji to go to sea came from a coincidence.
Entering the Malaysian market was due to a coincidence
In 2019, Bawang Chaji accepted an invitation from a potential Malaysian partner to visit the local market. During the inspection, it was unexpectedly found that the local Chinese were very interested in the new tea drinking style that emerged in China, but no local brands were involved. This inspection became the "prequel" to the sea of Bawang Chaji, which made the inspection team at that time collectively realize the possibility of doing business in overseas markets for the first time.
Subsequently, Bawang Chaji decided to use Malaysia as the first stop to go to sea and began to prepare for the establishment of a Malaysian branch. Soon after the first store landed, it attracted the attention of Malay star badminton player Li Zongwei. The overseas person in charge of Bawang Chaji said that at that time, Bawang Chaji was in the initial stage of opening stores, and the total number of stores in Malaysia was less than 10, but the taste of tea was very iconic in a number of bubble tea products, with a strong tasting effect, and began to become popular in the Chinese circle.
Starting from 0 to 1 is not too difficult, but in the process of starting from 10 to 100, the bottleneck of insufficient brand strength began to be revealed, and a series of problems such as store location were created, and the addition of Li Zongwei gave Bawang Chaji a place in malaysia's milk tea industry.
In early April, while changing its name to Chagee, Bawang Chakra Malaysia announced the hiring of Datok Willa Lee Chung Wai as Malaysia's newest spokesperson and once again cut the ribbon for the opening of Malaysia's first 2.0 flagship store.
In Malaysia, some people who have meritorious service to the country are awarded the title of "Dato", which is awarded by the Head of State, the Sultan and the Heads of State. This means that Datuk status can have a strong social impact. The most famous Datuk in Malaysia is Lee Chung Wai, who, because of his outstanding contribution to Malaysia, has even been named "Datuk Willa" in Malaysia after Datuk Seri. "With the support of Li Zongwei, Bawang Chaji has also opened up popularity in the local area." The overseas head of The Overlord Cha-Hee said.
Lee Chung Wai endorses The King Cha Ji in Malaysia
Observe the "Yuanqi Forest" opportunity and take the high-end route to benchmark Starbucks
When Bawang Chaji first entered the Malaysian market, the main local competitive brand was Tealive. Tealive was born from the Taiwanese milk tea brand "Sunrise Tea Tai", the main team of personnel from the Malaysian agent Loob Holding, but from the price band and customer base point of view, Tealive to take the low-end positioning, still in the layout of the 1.0 era of bubble tea route. The reason why the audience in Malaysia is very wide is on the one hand because the price is close to the people, and on the other hand, because the milk taste is more prominent. At that time, Tealive had opened more than 500 stores in Malaysia, but Bawang Chaji observed that Tealive's consumers were mainly low-income people, and middle- and high-income people would hardly drink, because the latter paid more attention to health and body, and Tealive was more likely to get fat due to its high sugar content.
Tealive
Therefore, when entering the Malaysian market, Bawang Chaji naturally targeted the high-end group, continuing the main original leaf tea and fresh milk in China, and the tea taste is heavier, sweeter and healthier.
Even the overseas head of Bawang Chaji said that in Malaysia, Bawang Chaji's positioning of the brand has completely risen to "Oriental Starbucks". This is reflected in the location of the Bawang Chaji offline store. Bawang Chaji often sets up stores close to Starbucks stores, such as in shopping malls, the right side of Starbucks on the first floor may be Bawang Chaji, such a strategy is to form a "Bawang Chaji and Starbucks on a level" cognition in the minds of consumers.
However, as a tea brand that emphasizes the new Chinese national style, after locking in the target customer group, it is more important to tell the brand story in a way that is easier to be understood by local consumers and realize the localization of the brand. In this regard, the overseas person in charge of Bawang Chaji said that it can smoothly achieve good sales performance, and because of the consumer base that Bawang Chaji faces in Malaysia, Chinese account for a very large proportion. In Malaysia, 60% of indigenous peoples, about 20% of Chinese, and the rest are of other ethnic groups. Although the 60% proportion of indigenous people seems to be a large base, in fact, the consumption power is not as good as that of the Chinese.
Malaysian consumers at the Bawang Cha-hee store
From the perspective of the audience, the process of Bawang Chaji positioning the brand in the high-end crowd naturally covered a large number of Chinese. For the Chinese, it is relatively easier to accept traditional Chinese culture, which provides convenience for Bawang Chaji to bring the traditional Chinese culture contained in the brand to Southeast Asian consumers. In other words, because it is still mainly engaged in Chinese business, the overlord Cha Ji cannot be counted as going to sea in the full sense.
"It is difficult for any brand to be recognized by the whole people, so what Bawang Chaji has to do is not to let the whole people drink." As long as you go from 'most people know Starbucks' to 'most people know The Overlord Cha ji', then it has been successful. The overseas head of the overlord Chaji said.
Bawang Cha ji is a pure tea product promoted in Malaysia
However, on this basis, Bawang Chaji still makes great efforts in marketing to make the brand better localized. For example, the overseas person in charge of Bawang Chaji revealed that Bawang Chaji recently signed a highly popular star in the Malay Chinese circle as a spokesperson, and found a well-known radio broadcast host "Sunshine Gang" to endorse the product in the limited new product launched at the end of March, in order to further break through the bottleneck of brand awareness.
In addition, Bawang Cha ji also attaches great importance to the joint cooperation with well-known local brands in Malaysia. For example, previously, Bawang Chaji and The Malaysian national treasure-level pewter brand Royal Selangor reached a joint cooperation and launched a limited cup. The overseas head of Bawang Chaji said that this cooperation is of great significance to bawang Chaji for the early opening of the Malay market, which not only increases brand exposure, but also gains a wave of local consumer trust, and finally the limited cup is sold out in only three days of offline stores. This joint signature with Royal Selangor is equivalent to a joint name with the Forbidden City in China, and in addition, Bawang Chaji recently launched evian mineral water co-branded products in Malaysia.
The joint cup of The Overlord Cha-hime and the Royal Selangor
In addition to these specific marketing methods, Bawang Chaji is also trying to upgrade the brand to let overseas consumers have a new understanding.
In September last year, Bawang Chaji demonstrated the brand 2.0 upgrade for the first time in Chengdu, and the cultural attributes of the overall space were stronger. It may sound a little abstract, if specific, reflected in the store design, that is, the overlord Chaji will be in the store in the 1.0 period through the "swing Hanfu", "put the opera head crown" to promote the traditional Chinese culture into the transformation of the offline store decoration style, such as the door head using the tenon structure in the ancient building, in the interior of a large area using wood texture and other designs. The overseas person in charge of Bawang Chaji said that Bawang Chaji does not want to forcibly export Chinese culture through a hard and large entity, and the transformation of store decoration design is more natural and more acceptable than the previous expression.
Bawang Chaji 2.0 store display
"Western-style cold wind and American country style have been popular overseas for more than ten years, and consumers have aesthetic fatigue, so when Bawang Chaji opens a new Chinese-style storefront overseas, overseas consumers will be very interested, so that it stands out from the overseas INS-style storefronts and has a higher degree of recognition."
And this series of localization strategies eventually paid off. It is understood that bawang tea ji in Singapore's earliest 3 stores, the original leaf fresh milk tea series product sales before the proportion of 82%, compared with the domestic only about 70% at that time.
Where's the next stop?
In addition to Malaysia, Bawang Chaji has brought the brand to Singapore and Thailand. At present, Bawang Chaji has 6 stores in Singapore and 1 store in Bangkok, Thailand.
"Singapore and Malaysia are just one bridge apart, and the cultures of the two countries are very similar. At the same time, the proportion of Chinese in Singapore has reached 70%, and the acceptance of Chinese culture is very high, and even to some traditional Chinese festivals, the atmosphere is better than many cities in China. Thailand is also a country that attaches great importance to tea culture, Thais will drink la tea (a special craft made of milk tea), while black tea, green tea is also cheap in Thailand. A good tea drinking foundation and tea culture atmosphere are a major driving force for Bawang Chaji to do the Thai market. The head of the overlord Cha-hime overseas said.
Pull tea
In addition to the Southeast Asian market, what surprises the author is that the next stop of Bawang Chaji may choose the United States. "In the future, we will set up a special group to investigate the North American market." The overseas head of The Overlord Cha-Hee said.
In the stereotype of the Chinese people, Americans may prefer to drink coffee rather than tea, but in fact, the United States is the first destination for tea brands to go to sea, and there are even local Chinese who are creating new tea brands that are more in line with American tastes. The overseas head of Bawang Chaji told us that according to their preliminary research on a number of overseas regions, American consumers are very interested in China's new tea drinks, and there are still opportunities in the entire North American market.
In the United States, it is often seen that there are twenty or thirty people lined up at the entrance of milk tea shops, on the one hand, there are relatively few Milk Tea Shops in the United States, on the other hand, because American consumers have a large consumer demand for milk tea, which stimulates Costco supermarkets to sell bubble bags of bubble tea, and Starbucks has also begun to imitate the idea of bubble tea to launch "pearl coffee".
"From a strategic point of view, Bawang Chaji wants to go to the US market because this is the commanding heights of the global market, and once it is successfully based on the brand advantage, it will be very obvious and can further feed back the Southeast Asian market and other parts of overseas." The overseas head of Bawang Chaji said.
At that time, Bawang Chaji may be one step closer to their goal of "serving consumers in 100 countries around the world".
epilogue
Bawang Cha Ji went to sea in 2019, from the timing point of view, it has been later than many overseas brands, coupled with the choice of tea brands will go to the Southeast Asian market, the competition is actually very fierce. However, as a latecomer, Bawang Chaji still found its own market opportunities with differentiation and clear positioning of the target audience. This also confirms to some extent that for consumer goods, the opportunity is always there.