The 100 billion coffee market accelerates the "involution" of competition, and local brands rely on innovation to break the game

Reporter Wang Jinchen

"I'm not at home, it's in the café
.
Not in the café, just on the way
to the café.
As a heavy dependent on coffee, Balzac, known as the "father of modern French fiction", allegedly drank up to about 50,000 cups of coffee
in his lifetime.

Balzac lived in a time when coffee was still a symbol
of life for the middle class with a certain accumulation of wealth.
Nowadays, with the improvement of consumption level and the popularization of coffee culture, coffee has moved from elite to people-friendly and popular, becoming one of the protagonists of consumption in daily life, which has also spawned a booming coffee consumption industry, and China's coffee track is also heating up
.

In the 100 billion scale market, local brands are expanding rapidly

According to public data, there are currently about 300 million coffee consumers in China, but the total consumption and per capita consumption of coffee are far lower than those of mature markets
such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea.
This is expected to support the 100 billion scale market and maintain the potential
for rapid growth.
According to Frost & Sullivan's forecast, China's coffee market will grow at a compound growth rate of nearly 26%, and the market size will reach 180.
6 billion yuan
in 2023.

Data source: online public information, compiled by Tianyancha Research Institute

Coffee has thus become a "good business" in the eyes of entrepreneurs and capital, and a group of entrepreneurs have poured into the coffee track, making the coffee industry shine vigorously in the Chinese market
.

According to Tianyancha data, the annual registration of coffee-related enterprises in China has continued to grow in recent years, and more than 60% of coffee-related enterprises have been established within five years
.
At present, there are about 170,000 coffee-related enterprises in China, of which more than 23,000 were newly registered last year, and the growth rate of newly registered enterprises reached 18.
9%; There were nearly 30 investment and financing events in the coffee industry, with an overall financing amount of more than 17 billion yuan
.

In this process, many domestic coffee brands emerged, such as Luckin Coffee, whose store size has surpassed Starbucks, as well as Manner, M Stand, Seesaw, T97, Yongpu Coffee, Santon, Sumida River, etc.
, local brands ushered in a period of rapid expansion, and Chinese people also have more coffee consumption choices
.

At the same time, the promising coffee industry has also attracted many enterprises to cross-border layout
.
According to Tianyan inspection data, tea brands such as Heytea, Naixue's tea, and tea Yanyueshi, well-known enterprises such as China Post and Li Ning have sold coffee across borders, and Huawei, NIO, etc.
have also applied for coffee trademarks
before.
It can be said that the competition in the coffee market is also becoming more and more fierce
.

Coffee crossover contestants Data source: online public information, Tianyancha Research Institute

As an imported product, the domestic market has been occupied
by mainstream foreign-funded enterprises such as Starbucks and Nestle for a long time.
But with the intensive birth and expansion of local coffee brands, they also got a piece of
the coffee market.
For example, in the domestic coffee bean market last year, domestic brands accounted for more than half for the first time, with a five-year compound growth rate of 34%, which was 1.
6 times that of international brands, and Santon, Sumida River, Yongpu, etc.
entered the top ten
sales of coffee and related products.

Innovate brand marketing strategies to capture the minds of consumers

As a consumer product, the rise of local coffee brands is inseparable from their innovative branding and marketing strategies
.
At present, the main consumption force of the coffee market is still the Y generation composed of the post-80s and post-90s, but the Z generation of the post-00s has become "accustomed to nature" coffee, and the awareness and enthusiasm for coffee have reached a higher level, but they have not yet formed a "strong market cognition", and they have the courage to try new things, and many coffee brands regard them as the core consumer group
.

Therefore, for coffee brands, a single, non-selling product will be difficult to meet the needs of this group of young consumers, and it is necessary to innovate and create a creative, boutique and personalized product brand
.
It can be seen that freshly ground coffee is no longer the traditional four old ways of American, latte, mocha and cappuccino, but upgraded to coconut milk, oat milk, osmanthus syrup, etc.
as additives, or creative drinks with cucumbers, strawberries, white peaches and other fruits, which also discount the general trend
of diversification of the coffee market.

In the increasingly "involution" market competition, young consumers often have clearer consumption propositions, so how coffee brands accurately grasp the demands of consumers and occupy consumers' minds has become an important factor
that major coffee companies must consider when shaping brands.

T97 Coffee, which was only established in April last year, has created differentiation by focusing on "low-calorie coffee", which is used as a selling point to meet the needs of users for slimming
.
The creative design of freeze-dried coffee powder and mini cup launched in three and a half meals has made it quickly out of the circle in the coffee industry, and its continuous improvement of the high-quality instant coffee can meet more tastes of consumers and ensure the market freshness
of its own brand.

In addition to making efforts in product brands, local coffee companies are also full of tricks in marketing, through live broadcasting, co-branded cross-border, content cooperation, IP creation and other colorful innovative marketing methods, expand the boundaries of brand stories, achieve brand out of the circle, so as to reach more users, and even integrate into user life scenarios, meet more emotional and social needs of users, and enhance user stickiness
.

T97 Coffee is a "top-stream" brand that has recently relied on Douyin live broadcasting, and the IP anchor "Big Mouth Girl" created by T97 Coffee has achieved a breakthrough
of brand "from 0 to 1" online with the help of unique appearance and magic microphone to attract brand traffic.
Data shows that "Big Mouth Girl" has added 1.
269 million fans in the past 30 days, and the average number of live broadcast viewers in the past 90 days has exceeded 2.
32 million, reaching a maximum of more than
10 million.
Relying on borrowing momentum and innovative marketing, T97 coffee is becoming a new traffic explosion on Douyin
.

Yongpu Coffee has established its own IP "Shi Duanzheng", the guardian saint of Chinese elements, Shi Lion, who is cute and has a sense of justice, and at the same time interprets the brand value
of "doing good products and people".
This company is also a master of playing crossover, having launched more than 400 collaborations so far, and "Strange Words", "Young You", NetEase Cloud Music and other joint cross-border have caused topic fermentation, it can be said that it has mastered the preferences of consumers in the Z generation and achieved a double breakthrough
in traffic and sales.

In addition, exploring online and offline "global integration" is also a major trend in the development of local coffee brands, and new scenarios and channels such as e-commerce retail, takeaway, and in-store pick-up have emerged, and brand new retail genes are prominent
.
With e-commerce as the main channel, Santong shows the brand's concept and values through offline concept stores, so that users can feel and touch
.
After T97 Coffee came out of the circle online, it quickly deployed offline stores and opened the expansion of third- and fourth-tier cities, intending to transform the potential of online brand traffic from marketing to product-driven and make users pay.

As China's coffee market continues to grow and expand, coffee will become more and more daily and demanded
.
Major coffee brands need to continue to innovate and enter the hearts of consumers through accurate brand building and unique marketing methods, in order to win the favor
of more users in the increasingly fierce market competition.

Responsible editor: Zhang Jiazhen Review: Peng Zonglu