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- Source/Chief Business Intelligence
- Author/Chief Business Intelligence
Introduction: The milk tea track, like the baking track, is facing a brutal reshuffle.
On the one hand, several new tea drink head brands are fighting each other, and on the other hand, the once smash hit Internet celebrity milk tea is quietly closing.
New tea brands such as Tea Baidao, Mixue Bingcheng, and Gu Ming have piled up for IPOs, and Heytea and Naixue's tea have been opened to join from direct sales, and new tea brands have been continuously moving.
On the other side of the contrast, there was news of the closure of a large number of stores at 1 o'clock, and a total of 965 stores have been closed in the past two years. The milk tea enlightenment "Happy Lemon" of the post-90s generation has closed nearly 450 stores in China.
A little bit of the number of stores
Recently, another Internet celebrity tea drink has fallen.
The tea brand "Fu Xiaotao" from Nanjing was exposed to large-scale store closures, and there are currently fewer than 30 stores in the country.
Speaking of the name "Fu Xiaotao", everyone may not be so familiar. But when it comes to the name "Fushimi Momoyama", you may have an impression.
That's right, "Fushimi Momoyama" is the former name of "Fushimi Momoyama", and before "Fushimi Momoyama", "Bianjing Chaliao" was also its brand name.
In less than 5 years, he was forced to change his name twice.
Therefore, Fu Xiaotao's fall from the altar was attributed by many netizens to "frequent name changes" and lack of coherent memory points.
01. It used to be the king of queuing, and 230+ stores were closed to less than 30
Fu Xiaotao's first store opened in 2017 in Nanjing Xinjiekou Mingwa Gallery, then called "Bianjing Tea Liao", focusing on Japanese tea shops, which is also the biggest feature of Fu Xiaotao that distinguishes it from other tea brands.
Fu Xiaotao reveals a Japanese style everywhere in the product name, poster promotion, store design, and cup painting style, and every corner, every scenery, and every piece of furnishings can let you see the Japanese culture that the brand wants to convey.
At the entrance of the Fushikomo store, there is a Japanese-style curtain with the sign of an izakaya, and when you enter the store, you can see a colorful background wall from traditional Japanese colors and a Kyoto-style operation table, which focuses on a quiet space called "Hanagetsu Poetry Sake Tea".
In the 2 years since it opened, Fu Xiaotao has become a smash hit Internet celebrity store with its high-value tea, attracting a large number of young people to check in.
Every time Fu Xiaotao opens her first store in a new city, she is instantly crowded, with a long queue, and the popularity is no less than that of Hey Tea and Nai Xue's tea.
With the concept of Japanese cutting-edge tea drinks, Fu Xiaotao swept away a lot of "boring" drinks as soon as she debuted, and made her debut with a high-value drink C-position, which swept up the ticket circle of many young people.
On Xiaohongshu, netizens called it "the coexistence of appearance and good taste" and "authentic Kyoto flavor".
Its oversized cup of milk tea has become a photo material for young people, dominating Xiaohongshu and Douyin all year round, just like a proper milk tea Internet celebrity store.
It's just that the word "Internet celebrity" has long evolved into a derogatory term, and in the ever-changing tea market, batches of Internet celebrity milk tea brands have been eliminated.
Today's Fu Xiaotao is no exception, not only is there no crowded scene, but also closes stores intensively.
According to the data of Narrow Door Restaurant, from 2020 to 2023, Fu Xiaotao opened a total of 249 new stores, while before 2020, Fu Xiaotao had about 79 stores, with a total of about 328 stores.
This means that as of now, Fu Xiaotao has closed about 300 stores.
On Fu Xiaotao's official mini program, there are only 26 stores that are open, and 3 stores are in a state of "rest", and in first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places, there is only one store left in business.
At its peak, Fu Xiaotao had more than 20 stores in Hangzhou and 16 stores in Shenzhen.
Today, there is only one store left in Hangzhou, namely Fu Xiaotao EFC European and American Financial City Store. According to media reports, the store is also about to close, and the store manager is already working on the transfer of the store.
On social platforms, many consumers who have drunk its milk tea have expressed their regret and regret that Fuxiao peach tea is delicious and innovative, and the store should not be closed.
"At present, the new tea brands are all in roll packaging, volume co-branding, and volume marketing, and Fu Xiaotao has been designing different cups for different tea drinks when it was founded. And when there was no shadow of the overlord tea queen, Fu Xiaotao was making fresh milk tea. It's not cheap, but it gives you the feeling that it's worth the money. ”
can't help but make people curious, as a new tea brand that can clearly differentiate, why didn't Fu Xiaotao survive this round of reshuffle?
02. The naming caused controversy, and there were too many copycat brands
There must be a reason why a brand has fallen off the altar.
In the early days of its establishment, Fu Xiaotao quickly became popular, resulting in the emergence of many of its copycat stores on the market.
Like the dilemma of Heytea's predecessor "Imperial Tea" being besieged by cottages, Fu Xiaotao also made the same decision as Heytea in August 2019: announced that it would be renamed "Fushimi Momoyama".
Similarly, the case of being robbed of trademarks by copycats has also happened in Antler Alley.
Antler Alley, which was once popular all over the country, was exploited by others because it did not register its trademark in advance, and there were many "Li Ghosts" on the market.
Even a large number of fast recruitment companies recruited franchisees in the name of authentic Antler Alley, resulting in the opening speed of copycat stores far faster than genuine stores, crowding out the milk tea market and destroying the brand reputation of Antler Alley.
Antler Alley spent more than 100 million to crack down on more than 7,000 counterfeit stores, due to spending too much energy and cost on fighting counterfeits, Antler Alley missed the market development opportunity, was squeezed to the edge of the market, and now it is directly disappearing.
However, after Fu Xiaotao changed its name for the first time, it was not yet visible. It also received tens of millions of yuan in PreA round financing from Hangzhou Kuaifeng Investment in the same year, with a valuation of 200 million yuan.
However, since then, Fu Xiaotao has never received financing, and this is the only time.
After winning the financing, with the support of capital, Fu Xiaotao has obviously opened stores faster, and has entered Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and other cities, and in 2020, Fu Xiaotao will open 134 new stores.
Until August 2021, Fu Xiaotao ushered in a public opinion storm that was enough to enter the "Chronicle of the Development of Bubble Tea Shops".
The reason is that some netizens posted on social media that the Fushimi Momoyama Mausoleum is the mausoleum of Emperor Meiji of Japan, and the name of "Fushimi Momoyama" is similar to it, questioning whether the brand has a bad purpose, which has caused a lot of controversy on the Internet for a while, and everyone has denounced the brand.
So, under the pressure of public opinion, the brand was renamed again, changed to the current "Fu Xiaotao", and said that "as a 100% Chinese brand, the company and all employees have no intention or behavior that disrespects history." ”
In addition, the brand has also reduced the proportion of Japanese style, changed the logo and store design, and stripped away all elements related to Japanese style.
It was also this brand strategy that made Fu Xiaotao lose its advantage.
In the early days of its establishment, Fu Xiaotao attracted a group of young people by using culture to create differentiated positioning, and the "de-daily" initiative not only made Fu Xiaotao lose its brand recognition, but also made Fu Xiaotao's advantages different from other tea brands.
The brand potential is weakened, and the loyalty of consumers is naturally gone.
Moreover, around 2020, a number of new tea brands based on Hey Tea and Nai Xue's tea began to become popular across the country, and Fu Xiaotao's market share was eroded a little bit.
Among the rising new tea brands, there are those that are suitable for the student party and are cost-effective, those who will "live" to please young people, and those who are proficient in all aspects of "eighteen kinds of tea art......
It can be said that consumers have too many choices in milk tea. And Fu Xiaotao also stripped off its advantages, coupled with the previous name change turmoil, the wind review has not been completely reversed, and consumers will naturally vote with their feet.
From a product point of view, in fact, the product quality of Fu Xiaotao is still good, and there are few negative reviews, which can be said to be a representative of good appearance and taste.
In particular, its signature product "Fushimi Momoyama", the extra-long cup body is its most unique shape, using self-developed white peach oolong as the tea base, with freshly beaten New Zealand cream on top. and "Strawberry Daifuku Milk Tea" are also popular products in the past.
Because Fu Xiaotao's product concept has always been: to make a good product first, and then to reverse design the packaging and find the supply chain.
It is precisely because of the good product that Fu Xiaotao has few bad reviews on product reputation.
It's just that in recent years, Fu Xiaotao has never released a popular product, and the frequency of new products is extremely low, and she has been eating the old book.
In 2023, Fu Xiaotao will only launch 12 new products. According to Gu Ming's prospectus, Gu Ming will launch 94, 82 and 107 new products in 2021, 2022 and the first three quarters of 2023 respectively, which is equivalent to launching about 8, 7 and 12 new products every month.
Although the popularity will always be the classics, in the highly competitive tea market, consumer loyalty is low, and the freshness of young people comes and goes too quickly, so brands need to constantly introduce new products and co-brands to stimulate their order demand.
Therefore, various tea brands are relying on waves of co-branding to scramble to brush up on their presence and popularity.
Whether it is volume co-branding or volume marketing, Fu Xiaotao can't beat it. The competition is extremely fierce, and it is not surprising that Fu Xiaotao is gradually falling behind.
03. The reshuffle of the tea track accelerated, and small brands were swept to death
I have to admit that in the tea track, the gap between the head tea brands and the small Internet celebrity brands is widening step by step.
If the small Internet celebrity brand does not form a scale advantage, the final result will either be swept to death by the head brand, or it will be eliminated by itself.
Since Fu Xiaotao received a PreA round of financing of tens of millions of yuan from Hangzhou Kuaifeng Investment, there is no capital to give it a blood transfusion, and financial support is needed to open a store, obviously Fu Xiaotao does not have this ability.
Therefore, at present, its stores are scattered all over the country, and it can be said that there is almost no sense of existence.
Previously, Gu Ming's prospectus also disclosed that a tea brand must open at least 500 stores in order to form a scale advantage in a province.
If the brand does not form its own differentiation and maximize the consumer experience, it will be difficult to survive in the competitive tea market.
Waiting for Fu Xiaotao, there may be only one ending.
Have you ever drunk "Fu Xiaotao" milk tea? There are so many milk tea shops, which one do you like the most? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss, express your opinions or opinions, thank you.
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