'Start of Autumn' frenzy boosts beverage brands

With the concept of "the first cup of milk tea in autumn" going viral, fresh tea brands are seizing the business opportunity that this seasonal phenomenon presents.

Liqiu, or "Start of Autumn", the 13th solar term in the traditional Chinese calendar, fell on Aug 7.

Starting as recently as two years ago, there is a saying — "who gets the first cup of milk tea in autumn will get happiness". Therefore, on Liqiu, drinking milk tea has become something big. During the course of the day, among the top 50 trending searches on Weibo were more than five topics related to "the first cup of milk tea in autumn".

Fresh tea brands were quick to capitalize on the buzz. Heytea co-branded with Japanese intellectual property Chiikawa, while Luckin Coffee teamed up with animated short Yao-Chinese Folktales and launched the slogan "the first milk tea in autumn should be osmanthus-flavored".

Wang Qian, a consumer in Beijing, said that she ordered a cup of milk tea on milk tea brand No Yeye No Tea at 12:30 pm, and the system showed that the order number was queued as 1,085. However, at 3 pm there were still over 200 orders ahead of hers. As of 7 pm she still had not received her order.

Such demand turned out to be a boon for fresh tea brands, especially smaller ones, which previously had seen stiff demand greatly benefit top chain brands.

"On the first day we launched the campaign of 'the first milk tea in autumn', our sales on food delivery platform Ele.me surged nearly 300 percent. Currently, we have only 1,300 outlets nationwide. However, data from Ele.me showed that our daily sales of our top seller totaled 100,000 cups," said Shenzhen, Guangdong province-based milk tea brand Molly Tea.

Between July 7 and Aug 7, the monthly sales of smaller beverage brands such as Molly Tea, Friday Eve, and No Yeye No Tea all totaled nearly 10,000 cups on food delivery platforms, while those of top-tier brands such as Manner and Heytea were around 3,000 to 6,000 cups.

Data from market consultancy QuestMobile showed that by May, the monthly active users of JD's food delivery platform surpassed 6 million, up 368 percent on a year-on-year basis, while those of Meituan and Ele.me reached 5.46 million and 2.82 million, growing 16.7 percent and 30.7 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Intense competition in the food delivery space has led various food delivery platforms to keep increasing their transportation capacity by expanding their dedicated rider teams and activating delivery resources. The continuous improvement of transportation facilities provides opportunities for the development of fresh tea brands.

Experts said that top-tier fresh tea brands rely on long-term accumulated brand momentum and user base to maintain a leading advantage in cumulative sales, while smaller brands have seized the traffic dividend in the recent food delivery war, and may achieve a phased surpassing of top brands.

However, they noted that after Liqiu, to realize long-term development, smaller fresh tea brands must pay attention to their business strategies.

Zhan Junhao, founder of Fujian Huace Brand Positioning Consulting, said: "On one hand, they should conduct deep differentiation positioning, break out of shallow differences at the product level, explore unique brand value from cognitive dimensions such as consumer emotional needs and lifestyle, build true competitive barriers, and avoid falling into the vortex of homogenization.

"On the other hand, they should systematically operate around brand positioning, integrate differentiation concepts into product innovation, service details and store experience, allowing consumers to truly perceive brand uniqueness and become the first choice in segmented fields."

Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said that smaller fresh tea brands should focus on innovation, to bring out new products once in a while. They should also ensure product quality, by strictly controlling the procurement of raw materials, and standardizing the production process.