Chris Liu, the CMO of Nayuki’s tea, was interviewed by WARC and shared that under the cold environment of new consumer brands, Nayuki’s tea continues to strengthen its product strength, focusing on the offline store scene and the channel construction of self-operated mini programs. Launch new cross-border joint names and peripheral products to bring surprises and satisfaction to consumers, and build long-termism for brand and enterprise development.
Chris Liu, CMO of Nayuki's Tea
WARC: Nayuki’s tea is an early enterprise in China that has practiced in the metaverse field. What are the leading practices of your company at present?
Liu Yanli: In 2019, we returned a seasonal product, Domineering Pomegranate, and cooperated with Guofeng virtual digital human Lingling. This is Nayuki's first attempt at tea in the Metaverse. Ling Ling has a distinctive oriental color image, which fits very well with the expression of pomegranate products, so we choose her as the recommendation officer for the domineering pomegranate product. We used technical means to produce a short story about Lingling tea making. With the help of Lingling, consumers firmly remembered the highlights of the product.
In December 2021, Nayuki's 6th anniversary. We released a set of NFT digital art blind box - Nayuki IP with the theme of beautiful multiverse, issued 300 copies, priced at 59 yuan, using Nayuki's official account as the only purchase channel. As a result, the blind box was snatched within a second of the official tweet. At that time, the overall estimate was relatively conservative, but the result exceeded our team's expectations. The fans who grabbed it were very excited, and the enthusiasm of the fans even pushed the topic of Naixue's launch of NFT to the hot search on Weibo.
Image source: Nayuki's tea official Weibo
June 30, 2022 is the first anniversary of Nayuki’s listing. We thought about how to play with fans, so we launched the Nayuki Metaverse Paradise Treasure Hunt. Online, we invited 3,000 in-depth users to immerse themselves in the Metaverse Paradise experience, check in, guess, play games, etc.
Our three-dimensional universe attempt has received relatively positive consumer feedback.
The application of the brand in the Metaverse is a process of continuous deepening and continuous learning. Naixue's application is mainly based on this new medium to create a more immersive content experience. Compared with previous marketing methods, Metaverse mainly empowers new ways of playing in our content and scenarios, and enhances consumers' experience and sense of interaction. This is an underlying thinking for our insight, judgment, and exploration, because consumers may not think so much, and do not distinguish whether they are in a metaverse now, but they will feel the degree of participation and playability of this matter. Sexuality is recognized through this.
In the future, we also believe that Metaverse will enter the lives of more people and expand more application scenarios. For Naixue, we may still imagine from new social media and new consumption experience in the future. At this stage, we are mainly doing metaverse marketing in the content ecology. Of course, we will continue to learn with an open attitude. For example, this year we also paid attention to the application scenario of metaverse live broadcast.
WARC: Tea drinking is now a very "volume" track, and it has also passed the era of brutal growth for new consumer brands. Then, combined with the current consumer behavior psychology shown in this track, the new demand you see where? Why is the tea-drinking lifestyle still important in an era of tight wallets?
Liu Yanli: I think the essential needs of consumers still focus on the taste, taste and quality of the product itself. This is essential no matter what kind of "roll" it is, and it is the first step for us to do it well. .
Consumers have higher and higher requirements for cost performance, including things other than product premium. In terms of premium ability, Nayuki’s tea first needs to make some continuous challenges and attempts in terms of cultural output, and first create a brand image. Secondly, while we are making many products now, we will also have some small peripheral combinations, so that everyone can get more emotional value when consuming products.
Nayuki's Tea Domineering Happy Tangerine Products and Peripherals
Image source: Nayuki's tea official Weibo
New-style tea drink companies are constantly innovating and expanding their categories in order to continuously increase consumers’ acceptance of new-style tea drinks, which has also driven the continuous rise in demand for new-style tea drinks. As for the new needs of consumers, I think this is a process of continuous verification with the innovation of the industry. For example, Nayuki’s tea will launch a newly developed natural sugar substitute in the whole country in 2022-Nayueki’s pioneering Luo Han Guo 0-calorie sugar substitute. More and more consumers choose it first in the choice of sugar, which shows that Health indicators such as sugar content and calories are becoming one of the new needs of consumers; in addition, young people also have new health care needs.
It is precisely because of continuous innovation and continuous exploration of new needs that new tea drinks enter consumers' lives more frequently.
WARC: Why are mini programs and stores the key channels that Nayuki’s Tea wants to focus on now? Reducing costs and increasing efficiency is actually a common action of many domestic companies to achieve sustainable development. What are the corresponding plans for Nayuki's tea?
Liu Yanli: Our Mini Program members have exceeded 55 million, which is inseparable from the completeness of private domain construction. In this ecology, we can achieve a complete closed loop while saving marketing costs. The value of private domain construction also lies in the fact that we have more possibilities to serve users in depth and better respond to user needs. For example, we can push content more accurately and continue to optimize it based on consumer feedback. We can also stratify users, provide operational strategies at different stages, and listen to user feedback in a shorter path, helping us continuously progress.
In terms of stores, we will adjust the precision marketing capabilities more dynamically according to the actual operating conditions of the stores. The current market environment is changing very fast, and the operating dynamics of stores are also very unpredictable. This tests our team's vision of channels, including external channels and self-owned channels, as well as the overall business level, and then we can make some more effective and practical actions.
The challenge is shared by everyone. Naixue itself places great emphasis on the third space. The store is a good communication space for consumers, so that they can better feel and experience our products, no matter through dine-in or take-out, They all have real warm exchanges with our shop assistants in this space.
Nayuki's Tea Qingdao Kaide Store
Image source: Nayuki's tea official website
We will focus on channel construction based on self-operated mini programs and offline store scenarios, and do not want to evenly distribute the energy of all channel operations. In the end, we may not do well in any channel.
Digitalization is an important measure for us to reduce costs and increase efficiency. The use of self-developed digital systems and equipment has gradually reflected the help in reducing costs and increasing efficiency in operations. At present, our self-developed automatic milk tea machine has been fully put into use in stores across the country, shortening the tea making time and increasing production capacity by about 40%. At the same time, the store has also implemented automatic shift scheduling and automatic ordering systems, which has greatly improved manpower efficiency.
WARC: Nayuki’s tea online and offline marketing activities are very rich, closely binding the brand with fashion, art, culture and other labels, including frequent cross-border marketing activities. How do you find opportunities in connecting these layers of interests? How to transform these labels into a part of the brand connotation, and select suitable targets in cross-border cooperation to exert marketing effects?
Liu Yanli: While capturing the attention of consumers across borders, it is also necessary to ensure that the brand clearly defines its goals. From the perspective of cross-border, we mainly think about the content from several aspects such as mutual penetration of users, complementary experience, and dramatic linkage, so as to achieve 1+1>2. The label on the brand itself is also a reflection of the personality of the target consumer, which will be considered in cross-border cooperation. So in the end we still have to judge from the perspective of target consumers, and then think about how to get back to target consumers. And this also ensures the integrity of the brand image, and there will be no contradictions.
In September 2022, we cooperated with this year's phenomenal film and television drama "Canglan Jue" to launch a joint drink. In the case that the user group is highly consistent, because fans are still unsatisfied with the end of the show, we have spent some ingenuity on the details of the joint name, including extra plots, in-play plots embedded in consumer experience, character peripherals, and customized products. Waiting, let the fans of the drama who are still unsatisfied once again, through the dramatic joint name of the two brands, the topic has reached a boiling point.
Nayuki's tea x "Canglan Jue" joint product domineering oriental pomegranate and its surroundings
Image source: Nayuki's tea official Weibo
WARC: In terms of interest circles, how does Nayuki’s tea carry out user insight work?
Liu Yanli: Listening to users' voices is very effective in my opinion, but it is necessary to systematically collect, organize and analyze users' voices. Most of the user feedback is not a single piece of information, so this will test our ability to process information. At the same time, we will actively maintain close communication with various types of platforms, and try to have as many data dimensions and samples as possible.
WARC: In the past two years, "sustainable development" has become a hot topic that has swept the world. How does Nayuki's tea practice in the process of communicating with consumers? From a marketing point of view, what do you think brands can do to encourage users to take a sustainable path, and thus support the development of the brand?
Liu Yanli: The concept of low-carbon development has been integrated into all aspects of Naixue 's tea, but for consumers, the product packaging is the most intuitive way for them to feel the actual effect of green development. We launched thermal insulation bags to increase the usage rate of handbags, which are both environmentally friendly and practical; we replaced the packaged cup holders with "recycled pulp" raw materials, and the stores gradually reduced the supply of plastic straws and gradually replaced them with paper straws. PLA material straws based on vegetable starch.
At the product level, for tea drinking enterprises, the key to operation depends on obtaining reliable water resources. We implement water-saving actions throughout all aspects of daily operations, and reduce waste of water resources by adopting water-saving equipment and recycling water.
In terms of procurement and supply, we implement a three-level energy consumption management system based on the energy consumption management system of the storage center, with "energy saving and efficiency enhancement, continuous optimization, and building a green storage center" as the management policy and guidelines. Through the establishment of an energy consumption management team Coordinate energy consumption management and control work, and set up energy consumption administrators in each department to implement energy consumption budget management. Next, we will jointly create a win-win situation of sustainable development from R&D, production links to supply chain construction.
In terms of marketing, we have held many environmental protection activities, such as "bring your own cup to get 2 yuan off", "beautiful regeneration", "Jade Oil Orange Drifting Bottle Project", and paperless ordering to get Ant Forest Energy, etc. In addition, we have cooperated with environmental protection public welfare brands and artists many times to recycle waste beverage bottles, and use recycled resources to make backpacks, raincoats and other peripherals, advocating that everyone care for the environment and use more environmentally friendly materials.
Nayuki's tea x @宝普负货BOTTLOOP, using disposable PET plastic packaging to remake the "beautiful recycling bag"
Image source: Nayuki's tea official Weibo
From the beginning of the brand's establishment, we have continued to do these things from the perspective of corporate social responsibility, hoping to do what we can for the earth, not from the perspective of brand marketing or other utilitarianism. This is the action that needs to be persisted in the process of enterprise development, and it is also the process of quantitative change to qualitative change. And these actions will definitely get more and more recognition and response from consumers.
