来源 | 伯虎财经（bohuFN）
Author | Spirit
In this year's new tea market, if you want to talk about Internet celebrities, Bawang Tea Ji must have a place.
As of December 2023, Bawang Chaji has opened more than 3,000 stores.
Someone gave a high evaluation of the development of Bawang Tea Girl: "Overlord Tea Lady has fully caught up with the tea and become the new overlord of Chinese tea drinks." ”
01 Positioning "original fresh milk tea", Bawang Tea Ji gives a new choice
In 2017, Bawang Chaji opened its first store. The brand positioning is a new Chinese-style tea drink, focusing on raw leaf fresh milk tea, covering pure tea, fresh fruit tea and related derivative products.
The brand name "Bawang Chaji" is derived from the classic Peking Opera song "Farewell My Concubine", and the national style elements are used in the product design, name and store decoration.
Regarding the popularity of Bawang Tea, some Zhihu creators believe that after years of tossing, the tea market has finally returned to the classic category - milk tea. However, milk tea has some new demand changes, simplification, heavy tea, and authenticity of flavor.
According to Bohu Finance and Economics, Bawang Chaji's "original fresh milk tea" has opened up a new category selection path to meet some new tea needs. Just like the oriental leaves of Nongfu Spring, which made middle-aged men who don't like drinks begin to like drinks, Bawang Tea Ji also gave some consumers who are not so sweet a new choice of tea.
In essence, this is to find new opportunities through the cracks in the tea market. And the choice of category is a big breakthrough.
In addition, marketing has become another highlight of Overlord Chaji. From the time of its launch, the packaging and LOGO design of Bawang Chaji were widely controversial and were considered "plagiarism". But similar high-profile marketing has also contributed a lot of attention to Bawang Chaji.
Previously, it was reported by the media that on Xiaohongshu, the number of notes related to Overlord Chaji in the past 3 months was almost twice that of Chayan Yuese. In terms of business notes, that is, the notes placed in advertising, there are more than 1,600 articles of Bawang Chaji, while there are only 102 articles of Chayan Yuese.
The professional team formed early on by Bawang Chaji has largely promoted the development of Bawang Chaji. As early as 2021, Bawang Chaji introduced experienced professional managers. The current operation team includes the former deputy global finance director of Huawei, the former supply chain director of DJI and Heytea, and the former director of the product department of Heytea and Gongcha.
"I feel that Bawang Chaji is inexplicably popular", this is the feeling of many consumers. An analysis of its various aspects of the grip will show that this is not "inexplicable". And the growth of the overlord tea is indeed violent.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, there were 437 stores in Bawang Chaji, 934 stores in the fourth quarter of 2022, 1,191 stores in the first quarter of 2023, and more than 2,000 stores for the first time in the third quarter, and 3,114 stores in the fourth quarter of this year.
02 Peer preaching gives way, and capital fuels it
The promotion of various forces in the external environment has also made the development of Bawang Chaji more smooth. Tea and beauty in front of the way and give way, as well as the help of capital to the overlord tea queen, these have become the accelerator of the development of the overlord tea queen.
On the track of national style tea and fresh milk tea, Chayan Yuese has enough popularity and advantages, but its attitude towards expansion and the negative news that has repeatedly appeared since then have made a good deck of cards gradually lose the advantage of the beginning.
Lu Liang, the founder of Chayan Yuese, said in public more than once, "I am more pessimistic, either expand to death, or not to expand to death." If we don't expand this way of dying, we are more dignified. ”
In the environment of new tea players staking their territory, it is indeed "death" that does not expand, which Lu Liang knows very well. Of course, we don't know how to "die", but what is certain is that behind the non-expansion is that the track and cognition that have been opened up with great difficulty will soon pave the way for competitors.
Overlord Chahime seized this opportunity. Overlord Chahime has strong ambitions for expansion.
Zhang Junjie, CEO of Bawang Chaji, believes that "the first major foundation of the milk tea track is the scale effect, fighting scale, you can't get on the table before you don't have a scale, and you can only be qualified to go to the table after you get on the scale." ”
Zhang Junjie once analyzed the profit path of the tea industry: the number of stores is less than 50, which can be profitable, but the profit part is mainly used for labor expenses, which is in the stage of brand raising employees; the number of stores is between 50 and 500, the profitability is better, and it has entered the stage of brand support shareholders; the net profit of brands with more than 300 stores is conservatively estimated to be between 15 million yuan and 30 million yuan. Bawang Chaji will accelerate the expansion of stores under the model of "direct sales + franchise", and will open nearly 2,000 stores in 2023 alone.
When it comes to national style tea, people are likely to be the first to think of tea, but when it comes to who is the hottest and largest at the moment, it is undoubtedly the overlord tea queen.
In other words, the overlord tea girl crossed the river with a pleasant face. Whether it is fresh milk tea or national style tea, there is a tea face and pleasant color in front of the sermon.
It should be noted that in the past, there were not many players in the national style tea track, in addition to the tea and beauty, there are also tea brands such as tea in the palace, these brands are either in a safe corner, or the operation is discolored, and it is difficult to find a store, which obviously gives Bawang Tea Ji an excellent opportunity for expansion.
In addition, the optimism of capital has also given Bawang Chaji a bargaining chip to accelerate its expansion. In 2020, Bawang Chaji received angel round investment from Guo Guangchang's Fosun Group, XVC and other institutions, and in March and October 2021, Bawang Chaji successively received Series A and B financing, with investors including XVC, Fosun Ruizheng Capital and Congbi Qiushi Investment Management Company, of which Series B received an investment of 300 million yuan. This year, the brand received an investment from the American hedge fund Coatue, with a post-investment valuation of up to 3 billion yuan.
03 霸王茶姬，被嫌弃“难喝”
Overlord Chahime's expansion looks to be going well. However, flipping through social platforms and combining with consumers' consumption experience, the future situation of Bawang Chaji is not yet clear.
"Unpleasant" is almost a more prominent label of Overlord Tea Ji at the moment.
On social platforms, there are many slots about the taste of Bawang Chaji.
"In fact, it is the taste of oriental leaf jasmine tea mixed with milk", this Xiaohongshu note received 5,197 likes. The high praise comment at the bottom reads, "I can only say that the milk flavor and tea flavor are very balanced, they are all so vague and vague, and it is light, as if two spoonfuls of milk and water are added to the mineral water." ”
Consumer Xiaoberry drank Bawang Tea Ji once, she told Bohu Finance, "I don't think Bawang Chaji tastes good, I don't know why it's so popular." I can find the characteristics of the milk tea that has become popular before, but in addition to opening a very fierce store, I can't find the characteristics. ”
Another consumer, Honghong, said, "It's just a light taste, and I don't feel very prominent in many tea brands." ”
Nowadays, in addition to the "Boya Juexian" single product that is out of the circle, there is no eye-catching new single product. How to meet the tastes of more consumers is also a big issue.
Should I say it or not, while the overlord tea queen exploded, there were also many related negative controversies. The bottle packaging design of Bawang Chaji was suspected of plagiarizing Dior, and the logo design was considered to imitate Starbucks, which was criticized by many netizens. The public opinion controversy of plagiarism is everywhere, which is a kind of heat for Bawang Chaji itself, but it is also a challenge to brand power.
In recent years, the growth momentum of the tea market is very gratifying, but it also means that the competition is fierce and the changes are fast. Occupying a hill today does not mean that you can keep a hill forever. There are still many challenges left for Bawang Chaji, and whether this brand can continue to catch the "splashing wealth" and stand at the forefront of the tide still needs to be answered by Bawang Chaji herself.
Resources:
1. DT Business Observation: Overlord Tea Lady, crossing the river with a pleasant face and a pleasant face
2. 36 Krypton: Bawang Tea Ji completed more than 300 million yuan in financing, focusing on raw leaf fresh milk tea, and wants to be a representative of oriental tea culture
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