In the involuted coffee track, a catering giant has come.
At the node of the fierce battle in the industry, KFC extended its business tentacles and incubated Kenyue Coffee. In the past, there was a 9.9 yuan bubble latte to create a new era of categories, and after that, there was a 6.6 yuan egg tart Dirty to set off a creative trend.
Correspondingly, on June 30, the 200th store of Kenyue Coffee opened at the airport and railway station.
Under the incubation of giants, from the celebration of 100 stores on March 29 to the 200th store today, Kenyue Coffee has entered the coffee field with a speed of 100 meters sprint.
(Pictured: Kenyue Coffee Airport Store)
The curiosity that arises is how the restaurant chain giants will incubate their new coffee brands.
Thinking outside the industry, the secret of product innovation
Unlike starting from scratch, chain restaurant bigwigs make coffee and have different visions and judgments on the industry.
Jumping out of the single coffee industry thinking, KFC brings mature catering experience to the coffee field, and broadens the consumption scene of Kenyatt coffee with its dual ability to make coffee and hot food.
A prime example is Café Kenyatt's custard tart Dirty.
It is a new concept of catering cross-border coffee, with egg tart crust as a cup, wrapped in mellow egg tart flavored coffee liquid, hot food and coffee collide and merge, opening up new ideas and possibilities for coffee products.
(Pictured: Dirty)
To a certain extent, in the catering and coffee industry, whoever has the ability to produce explosive products will have the initiative to iterate and innovate and lead development.
KFC's years of experience and accurate insight in popular products can find the greatest common divisor of people's tastes; On this basis, find the combination point of taste and product to create a star item.
For coffee brands, the emergence of star products is enough to strengthen the brand's recognition and competitiveness, and effectively expand the consumer group.
For example, Kenyue Coffee's sparkling coffee, the bubble taste is a popular flavor that is much loved, and after it is integrated with coffee, it has become a favorite item among young people, and is called "the sober god in the working world" by netizens.
For example, the classic childhood memories of Snow Top Coffee, the creative combination of ice cream + coffee, has been fully tested by the market and has a good audience base. The upgraded torch-shaped snow top coffee not only has a classic aftertaste, but also highlights the quality and characteristics of Keryatt's freshly ground coffee.
In less than a year, Coffee has launched more than 50 new products, with an average of new products coming out every week. Many young consumers regard the weekly new coffee check-in as a small ritual in their daily life.
(Source: Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)
"DT Business Observer" combined with social media platform discussions to find several ways for chain catering giants to do a good job in coffee products.
First of all, hold the trump card of product innovation, make coffee products beautiful and creative, and attract young people with "freshness".
Product quality and innovation ability are the basic skills of catering giants.
KFC holds the trump card of "product innovation", and reproduces mature experience and methods to coffee brands - with product taste and creativity, arouse consumer interest; With the appearance and appearance, it pulls social topics, and combines the two to make new coffee products deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Secondly, the strong bargaining power of the supply chain makes coffee products have a rich mix and high cost performance, providing consumers with reasons to buy, forming stickiness and repeat purchases.
The temporary cheapness is due to the means of promotion; Sustainable "cost performance" is inseparable from the bargaining power of the supply chain.
Kenyatt's menu is rich in categories, including bubble coffee, miracle Geisha, strong brew series, colorful snow top, barista hand crank and other products, and all participate in the 9.9 yuan promotion, which is in the consumption power circle of the target group and is very cost-effective.
Behind this, relying on the origin resources of KFC's upstream coffee beans and the strategic cooperation of domestic leading dairy enterprises. The bargaining power of the supply chain and the scale effect of the giants have given more room for innovation to the coffee milk base and brought the support of the parity strategy to the coffee.
In addition, KFC is a veteran of marketing, good at creating emotional links between products and people based on consumer demand, and strengthening the value identity of the brand. In terms of creative marketing, Kenyue Coffee can also continue to innovate consumption scenarios and create memory points.
For example, during this year's Dragon Boat Festival, Kenyue Coffee combined cultural and folk activities such as dragon boat racing in Guangzhou to open a brand creative flash mob. First, let coffee enter new scenes and create new surprises; Second, create social topics to attract everyone's attention to new products.
As soon as the spread of the word began, more and more young people threw themselves into the "embrace" of Kenyue Coffee.
On Xiaohongshu, the frequency of Kenyatt's appearances has steadily increased; On Weibo, the related remarks that "Kenyue coffee is high-quality and cost-effective" became popular.
In the "shoulder to shoulder" model, catering giants write new stories of stores
In the coffee industry, stores are an effective means to reach consumers, but store expansion is a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, the increase in the number of stores will lead to an increase in the number of users; But on the other hand, too high a store density can lead to crowd diversion.
Regarding the difficult question of "how to control store density", KFC has mature wisdom and experience. The giant's store location advantages and operation management experience give Kenyue Coffee a natural advantage and confidence in opening stores.
Looking deeper, Café Hyatt has adopted a "shoulder-to-shoulder" store model, that is, opening a Café Café store next to the KFC restaurant.
Under the incubation of giants, Kenyue Coffee has a clear store expansion path - a dotted layout of the first line, and new stores have been opened in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou; At the same time, it will encrypt the low-tier market and expand its stores to multiple cities in Shandong, Anhui and Henan provinces.
The benefit of this is that the number and expansion of coffee outlets has been significantly accelerated, while also significantly expanding the empty market.
It is reported that KFC with a scale of 10,000 stores has covered more than 2,000 cities and towns. In other words, if KFC's existing store resources and store network are utilized, Kenyatt Coffee may accelerate its entry into the "10,000 store club".
Looking at the distribution of stores in the entire coffee industry, Chinese coffee brands regard office areas and shopping areas as the basic plate for opening stores. Among them, Luckin and Cudi are more in-depth into the campus scene, and Starbucks has the highest proportion of stores in transportation hubs.
KFC's store network can open coffee shops into offices and shopping spots, and can go deep into special channels such as scenic spots, airports, and high-speed rail stations, and also has a layout in colleges and universities. As a result, the stores of Kenyatt Coffee also cover different cities horizontally and penetrate into the channel texture vertically.
In addition, under the "shoulder-to-shoulder" model, Kenyatt and KFC share kitchens and store traffic, which effectively reduces the operating costs of the new brand.
The KFC team's localized operation capabilities, mature store management experience and perfect training system make it easier to pass on the "standardized" experience of the store and help Kenyatt Coffee create a comfortable store experience.
The brand effect brought about by this giant endorsement and store chain has enhanced consumers' sense of security and strengthened the brand awareness of Kenyatt Coffee.
Write at the end
In general, there are two types of giants: one is cutting-edge technologies that can change the future, such as AI models; One is a high-frequency track with a huge market and growth space, such as clothing, food, housing and transportation.
The coffee industry, obviously, falls into the latter category.
According to the 2024 China Urban Coffee Development Report, the scale of China's coffee industry is expected to grow to 313.3 billion yuan in 2024, with an average annual compound growth rate of 17.14%; The average annual coffee consumption of Chinese has risen from 9 cups to 16.74 cups, which means that the consumer side has great potential.
On the other side of the coin, there is a fierce competition among coffee brands.
From cost performance, user experience to taste upgrades, there are players standing in every segment of the advantage, trying to gain more market share.
When the chain restaurant giant chooses to enter the new coffee brand, it already has a new idea and methodology that other coffee brands do not have, and it is a new variable in the homogeneous market.
In the involution war between price and stores, Kenyue Coffee has the confidence to go out of a new way and establish a brand moat with continuous product innovation.
For Kindyatt, it is shaping a positive circular vision: to provide more creative coffee products and services, attract more consumers who are looking for creativity and fun, and ultimately create value in the coffee industry.
From "making a good cup of coffee" to "becoming a creative celebrity", there is enough room for imagination to open up.
Source: DT Business Observer