Source: Lijin (ID: Finding_Gold)
Tea brand open-roll snacks.
Text: Vicky
Source: Lijin (ID: Finding_Gold)
Tea brands that have gone crazy have begun to find another way.
The Snow King sold 1 yuan/pack of melon seeds, and the tea and joy pushed the 2.5 yuan/pack of bread cubes.
In the past, the periphery of the bubble tea shop may be the same tea bag and co-branded water cup, but now if you don't take out a pack of self-developed snacks, you are embarrassed to say that you are selling milk tea.
Tea brands are scrambling to swim into the moat of snacks and sell small snacks for a few dollars.
Is it that the milk tea can't be sold, or is the snack too profitable? Can selling snacks support the second growth curve of tea drinks?
01
Hey tea planting trees
The Snow King is cool
As early as 2020, Heytea and Naixue's tea, two tea brands positioned in the high-end market, began to march into the snack industry.
The former has launched snacks such as mixed nuts, cheese-filled biscuits, popcorn, etc., while the latter has put freeze-dried yogurt cubes and freeze-dried fruits on the shelves.
Left: Hey Tea mixed with nuts; Right: Nayuki's tea freeze-dried yogurt block series
Source: Hey Tea, Nai Xue's tea WeChat public account
Now 4 years have passed, and there is no trace of snacks in the Heytea ordering mini program and the official mall; And Nai Xue's tea has not expanded as much as it originally claimed, and in addition to freeze-dried yogurt cubes, only three small snacks have been added to the current sale.
The two who ate the crab first seem to have put away their interest in snacks and poured more energy into bottled drinks and tea bags. But that doesn't stop other brands from feeling the stones across the river and catching up with snacks.
Lijin made statistics on the snacks that are still on sale in 2024 of several major tea brands, and found three major characteristics of tea brands as snacks.
In 2024, tea brands will develop self-developed snack products
First, brand positioning influences snack category and flavor development.
Affordable brands such as Sweet Lala and Mixue Bingcheng cover the most complete categories, but the main products are still heavily seasoned meat snacks, dried tofu, gluten, and konjac.
Taste development stands in the decompression scene, focusing on coolness, it doesn't matter what you eat, spicy and fresh fragrance is king. New flavors can add color, but cool flavors can brilliant.
Left: Honey Snow Ice City crispy konjac; Right: Sweet and spicy green peas
Source: Mixue Bingcheng Tmall flagship store; Sweet Lala WeChat public account
The mid-to-high-end brands are betting on biscuits/puffed foods, with biscuits and French fries as the base, and only by playing with flavor and innovating product names can they be differentiated.
The taste development station is in the afternoon tea scene, focusing on the new flavor, and the product must have a sense of atmosphere and satisfaction after eating, which is suitable for the idea of making desserts.
Left: Tea and french fries; Right: Shanghai Auntie-style pastry
Source: Brand Tmall flagship store
02
Drain traffic at a low price and turn the bubble tea shop into a department store
Second, use small packaging + low selling price to attract early adopters.
Mixue Bingcheng played 1 yuan pocket, and Tea Yan Yuese launched a 2.5 yuan snack area. Almost all brands have chosen the same way to play, and the snacks ordered online are all the smallest specifications, generally in 20g-50g, and the corresponding price is 1-5 yuan.
Honey Snow Ice City, Tea Beauty, Shanghai Auntie, Lele Tea
Source: Brand Order Mini Program
Of course, there are exceptions, and that is the tea of Nayuki, which was the first batch of snacks to test the water.
Nai Xue's tea is 9 yuan/50g for a pack of fries, compared with other brands, such as 2.5 yuan/20g for a pack of fries for Chayan Yuese, the packaging is larger, and the unit price and selling price are also higher.
Nai Xue's tea snacks Source: Brand order applet
It is not difficult to see that the tea drinks of cross-border snacks have avoided high-end play and began to roll small packages and low prices, which is inseparable from the downgrading of consumption and the sinking of tea drinks in recent years.
Third, snacks are the killer tool for drainage, and it is the goal to become a global business.
It is not difficult to imagine the consumption scene of small snacks: customers order milk tea to make up an order or buy a pack when there is a long queue in the store. If it tastes good, go to e-commerce or its own mall to repurchase.
The secondary use of offline traffic and the conversion of online sales have led to the fact that the omni-channel business has been handled by tea brands.
Honey Snow Bingcheng, Shanghai Auntie, Chayan Yuese, Hey Tea, Nai Xue's Tea, Lele Tea have all opened stores on Tmall, in addition to Lele Tea, several others are also equipped with a cloud mall in the order applet, e-commerce + private domain two-pronged.
Among them, the leader is the Shanghai aunt, who directly opened the tea shop into a department store, and the Shanghai aunt turned into a department store proprietor.
Shanghai aunt is selling peripheral products Source: Internet
In Aunt Shanghai's cloud mall, in addition to self-developed products, there is also a "Aunt Shanghai Selection", which sells other brand products.
Snacks and pastries, tea bags and cups are standard, and beauty care and home cleaning, life and home furnishing, shoes and clothing accessories are also covered.
03
Unhealthy pleasure
Harvest all categories
Tea drinks cross-border snacks, and even opened department stores, in the final analysis, it is still too rolly, after all, milk tea is really not as good as before.
From the perspective of the milk tea market, consumption downgrade and brand sinking have been a commonplace topic. If you stick to the low price and there are no new tricks, it is easy to play yourself to death.
But the reality is that milk, tea, fruits, and small ingredients, even if they are permutated and combined, are endless, and the famous fruits are not enough, and it is becoming more and more difficult to rely on the tea itself.
That's why there are more and more tea brands that engage in side businesses, such as Snow King who opens a lucky coffee and Chayan Yuese, who opens a tavern.
Selling snacks, like selling coffee and wine, is just a solution under the involution of tea brands: horizontal cross-category development.
Snow King Snacks Source: Honey Snow Bingcheng WeChat public account
So why snacks?
Because the money for snacks is really lucrative, at least for tea brands.
First, as far as the crowd is concerned, tea brands have a natural crowd advantage in making snacks.
They don't have to go through a lot of trouble to get customers. It's the same group of people who drink milk tea and eat snacks, and they're both willing to pay for unhealthy pleasures.
Unhealthy happiness is a big business that can connect all the categories of eating and drinking and help brands run out of scale.
Second, as far as products are concerned, snacks are a market that has been verified by countless brands. Not only is it not easy to make mistakes, but the opening efficiency is also high.
Third, in terms of cost, the brand comes up with ideas + the foundry contributes, and the cost of opening the product is low.
More than ten years ago, when milk tea shops were still only mom-and-pop shops, many milk tea shops were left-handed milk tea and right-hand strings, and they didn't drink enough to eat.
Nowadays, the combination of milk tea + snacks is like the 2.0 version of this "meal + drink", but it iterates manpower, raw materials, and supply chain links.
04
Crazy 100 million, the right bet?
So, can selling snacks support the second growth curve of tea brands?
Judging from the growth rate, the side business of snacks is feasible. Taking Mixue Bingcheng and Chayan Yuese as examples, in the past year, the annual sales of the two snacks in the e-commerce channel (referring to Taobao Tmall + Jingdong + Douyin, the same below) have increased by 5 times and 12 times respectively.
However, from the perspective of revenue proportion, the side business of snacks still has a long way to go to support the main brand. Of course, at this stage, the brand's attitude is only to treat it as a cost-effective peripheral.
Or take Honey Snow Ice City and Tea and Pleasant Color as examples. In the past year, Mixue Bingcheng's snacks have sold more than 47 million yuan in e-commerce channels, even if you add the sales volume in the mini program, it is only a drop in the bucket in the brand's revenue of 10 billion yuan.
In comparison, the development of snacks with tea and joy has developed better, and the sales volume in the e-commerce channel has exceeded 100 million yuan in the past year, of which more than 40% of the goods are sold on Douyin.
In the past year, the snack sales of Tea and Joy and Honey Snow Bingcheng in the e-commerce channel
Looking at the brands that engage in snack side businesses, tea and beauty are actually a good model.
From the perspective of the product, the flavor and packaging are in line with the brand tonality and strong recognition. Tea sugar, jasmine tea-flavored fries, peach oolong mochi, etc. are all "translations" of beverage flavors, which can instantly remind people of the brand.
Tea face and color tea sugar Source: Tea face and color Tmall flagship store
From the price point of view, put down the body and roll up at a low price of 2.5 yuan, which lowers the threshold for early adoption.
From the perspective of channels, attach importance to Douyin live broadcast. The milk tea white moonlight that used to be out of Changsha, and the squatting live broadcast room could buy the peripherals at a good price, which attracted a large wave of consumers, and the traffic led to sales.
The snack war for tea brands has just begun, and every step of the way is crucial in terms of product, price, and channel. If you go right, you may really be able to run a comprehensive brand with both food and drink and scale.
Source: Lijin (ID: Finding_Gold)