Milktea analytics: Gong Cha vs. Chagee
Daring to dream is the key to success.
“The Starbucks in the Eastern World” is what Chagee, a milk tea brand that started off from a Chinese Yunan man’s big dream, aimed for.
Among all the milk tea brands in the highly competitive market of that sip of sweetness, it has always been hard for a certain brand to reach a peak of popularity with its products. Especially to a man with only a middle-school diploma, it has been hard to take the first step.
But seven years passed by, and he has earned more than ten billion RMB. With a unique take on the traditional milk tea brands, Chagee’s marketing techniques won the hearts of its targeted customers.
“With Eastern tea, meet the world’s team.” This has been the ultimate goal of the brand, as emphasized by Zhang Junjie, the founder and chairman of Chagee.
With a Chinese-inspired beauty, the cup’s unique design is what first stood out to the public. It incorporated traditional Chinese opera costumes, embroidery, and engraved wood elements into the cup’s blue, gold, red, and white design. The company’s name pays homage to the classic Chinese opera “Farewell My Concubine,” and the name of its drinks recall Chinese literary references like "Bo Ya Jue Xian" and "Lanting Xu." The power of the beauty in the rich Chinese cultural elements has motivated customers to buy these drinks not only for their taste, but also the design they can post on their TikToks and Stories. The approach brought Chagee its first wave of consumers– girls and young women under the age of 24– right at a time when beautiful things make for perfect Instagram posts.
Instagram @chagee
"In the future, I hope to connect with 100 countries and regions, providing 1.5 billion cups of tea to consumers worldwide," said Zhang Junjie, the founder and chairman of Chagee.
He dreamed big, and he did it. The brand made an appearance at the 10th Sino-French Brand Summit Forum at UNESCO's Paris headquarters. By opening a pop-up shop in Paris on July 5, 2024, Chagee brought the charm of modern Eastern tea to French consumers and to the Olympics.
In the past May, CHAGEE opened its first US store at the Westfield Century City Mall in Los Angeles, California, marking its entrance to the US consumer market, a major step towards its globalization.
In May 2024, Zhang Junjie said, “Six years ago, we aimed to benchmark ourselves fully against Starbucks. This year, we've set a modest goal: to surpass Starbucks China in total sales across the country.” He did it, with a middle-school diploma and a passionate heart with a big dream.
The drink’s unique taste brings people a new perspective on traditional milk teas. Surprisingly, the drinks are not made from black tea, milk and boba; in its best-selling product “Bo Ya Jue Xian” the traditional Yunnan Jasmine green tea is combined with a flow of milk and a spoon of honey for a sip of sweetness. No tapioca or coconut jelly are added. But when you taste the drink, you forget about all the toppings and inclusions. The fragrance of jasmine fills your mouth and nose, giving a mind-blowing experience. And that brings the brand the second wave of consumers, the ones originally dedicated to Heytea and Gongcha, going for a new taste.
Have you ever been grinding out work and only wanted something to sweeten your life and make you feel better so you could take on another hour of work? The drink functions like Starbucks’ drinks do. Caffeine is replaced by tea polyphenols, bringing you a more sweetened experience than an americano, but it functions just the same. In addition, it is healthy, with zero additives of creamers and no hydrogenated oils. Chagee’s drinks have “calorie visualization” and “ingredient transparency,” offering a “product ID card” for each beverage. So don’t even worry about the calories when you are drinking boba! The classic drink, “Bo Ya Jue Xian,” or jasmine green milk tea, has only 130 calories– the amount in half an avocado. Consumers in the workplace and in school love the healthy, not-fat, sweet, and energetic drink as an alternative to the high-calorie Starbucks Frappuccino.
To lock in customers, Chagee offered gifts for subscribers as well as various activities and pop-ups at festivals. Celebrations were given for brand ambassadors such as Qin Wen, the Paris Olympics winner in women’s singles tennis. When Qin Wen was playing in Wuhan on her birthday, the brand promoted a “Happy birthday, Qin Wen” message on three LED screens in the city. If I were a fan of Qin Wen, I would definitely try a cup of Chagee.
In the modern era of social media the brand used TikTok to advertise its best-sellers. Chagee created TikTok challenges, working with ambassadors from various professions and introducing the concepts of health, beauty, and that unique taste under a worldwide concept to expand Eastern tea’s influence to the Western world. The higher the exposure, the more pathways the brand can explore.
Ribbon-cutting ceremony of CHAGEE’s US store in Westfield Century City. Credit: CHAGEE/PRNewswire.
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