瑞幸瓶装咖啡要来了，九块九之后又有新玩法了？Luckin Coffee bottled coffee is coming, is there a new gameplay after 9.9 yuan?

In recent years, the topic of coffee price wars has long been ringing in people's ears. However, recently, the new move of Luckin Coffee, an important participant in the coffee market, has attracted everyone's attention. This is Luckin Coffee bottled coffee coming. What should we think about the new gameplay after 9.9 yuan?

1、 Is Luckin Coffee bottled coffee coming?

According to Interface News, Luckin Coffee is trying to tap into new consumer scenarios. The first batch of bottled ready to drink coffee from Luckin Coffee was officially launched at the end of April, with product prices ranging from 6-7 yuan. The beverage types include classic American, grapefruit C American, and coconut latte, which are popular in Luckin stores. Luckin Coffee has completed provincial-level agent investment promotion, and the new products will be mainly launched in convenience stores, supermarkets, vending machines, etc.

Interface News further inquired with Luckin Coffee customer service regarding this matter, but they stated that they have not received any notification regarding the sale of bottled coffee.

In fact, as early as early March, there was already news on social media that Luckin Coffee would enter the ready to drink coffee race, and multiple physical pictures of Luckin Coffee's new bottled ready to drink coffee products were exposed. The product design in the picture is highly recognizable, with Luckin Coffee's iconic deep blue as the main color tone. The bottle body is printed with the white Luckin Deer Head Logo and the Chinese and English words "Luckin Coffee".

From the three product images, the classic American style serves as the foundation of the coffee category, featuring health labels of "100% Arabica coffee beans" and "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories"; Grapefruit C American style additional annotation "Selected Red Pomelo" highlights the fusion of fruit flavor and coffee properties; The raw coconut latte is prominently labeled as "low sugar" and comes with "100% cold pressed coconut juice", emphasizing the quality of ingredients and low sugar positioning. All three products are packaged in 300ml PET bottles.

According to the news inquiry on the Hema app, the currently available Starbucks bottled coffee on the market has a specification of 270ml and a single bottle price of 8.5 yuan per bottle. The flavors include latte, Americano, and Fray Blanc. And Nestle COSTA、 The ready to drink coffee from Nongfu Spring generally ranges in size from 268ml to 400ml, with COSTA priced lower at 4 yuan per bottle for 300ml.

2、 How should we view the new gameplay after 9.9 yuan?

Now that Luckin Coffee is about to launch bottled coffee, is this move a wise choice for its continued deep cultivation in the coffee market, or is it a risky attempt full of unknowns? How should we view it?

Firstly, exploring the second curve is an inevitable choice for Luckin Coffee's development. After years of rapid expansion, Luckin Coffee has unquestionably become the leader in the Chinese chain coffee market, with its store network covering a vast area from core commercial districts in first tier cities to lower tier markets in counties and towns. In the field of freshly brewed coffee, Luckin Coffee is already an absolute top player in terms of the number of stores, user base, and brand reputation. However, the expansion of scale also comes with hidden concerns about growth. When the density of stores reaches a certain level, the slowdown in same store sales growth and the emergence of a single store revenue ceiling become an unavoidable reality. Especially in first and second tier cities, excessively high store density may even lead to internal customer flow diversion and dilute the efficiency of individual stores.

In this context, finding and cultivating a "second growth curve" has become a necessary answer for Luckin to maintain its high growth trend and tell a new story to the capital market. And bottled ready to drink coffee provides an ideal option. Unlike the existing store model with heavy assets and high operating costs, the bottled coffee business belongs to the typical fast-moving consumer goods logic. It does not need to bear high store rent and huge labor costs. Through industrial mass production and mature distribution channels, it can reach a wider range of consumer scenarios with a lighter asset model. For Luckin, which is already accustomed to digitalization and high turnover operations, this is an extension of its business model and an effective way to monetize its huge brand assets and user base.

Secondly, meeting the convenience needs of consumers is the key to seizing more consumption scenarios. Although the Chinese coffee market has become increasingly mature under the education of companies such as Luckin Coffee, there is still a huge unmet space in the core pain point of "convenience", and bottled coffee is a powerful tool to fill this gap.

The greatest historical achievement of top brands such as Luckin Coffee is to bring coffee back from a petty bourgeois "social currency" to a everyday "functional drink" for the general public. However, consumer demands are diverse and stratified. Although freshly made coffee is certainly fresh, its consumption scenarios still heavily rely on the physical radiation range of the store or the time tolerance of food delivery. In more fragmented and real-time scenarios such as convenience stores, supermarket shelves, and even e-commerce hoarding, freshly made coffee is missing.

Consumers' demand for simplicity, speed, and anytime, anywhere has always existed. Luckin Coffee's launch of bottled coffee at this time is essentially a seamless extension of consumer scenarios. By bottling and replicating the popular products that have been repeatedly verified in the store, Luckin can easily transplant the "product mentality" accumulated in the store onto the shelves. This is not only about maximizing the monetization of existing brand assets, but also about occupying more consumer scenarios, creating a comprehensive temporal and spatial pressure on competitors.

Thirdly, expanding the low-priced range with bottled coffee is undoubtedly a wise choice. Luckin Coffee has successfully brought the consumer mentality to the low price range with its marketing strategy of 9.9 yuan, establishing a high cost-effective brand image in the minds of consumers. However, in the coffee market, the market for lower prices is still relatively blank. From the perspective of market segmentation theory in industrial economics, different consumers have varying levels of sensitivity to prices, resulting in different levels of price demand in the market. Luckin Coffee's existing freshly brewed coffee products mainly focus on the mid to low price market, but have not yet had a deep layout in the lower price market.

The launch of bottled coffee undoubtedly provides an opportunity for Luckin Coffee to continue exploring the low price range. Due to the different cost structure of bottled coffee compared to freshly brewed coffee, its production cost is relatively low, making it more competitive in terms of price. By launching low-priced bottled coffee, Luckin Coffee will not occupy the existing price space in the freshly brewed coffee market, avoid internal competition, and can better explore new markets. For consumers who are price sensitive and pursue the ultimate cost-effectiveness, low-priced bottled coffee has great appeal. Luckin can use this product to attract more price sensitive consumers, further expand its consumer base, and achieve diversified market expansion.

Fourthly, although bottled coffee is good, it is not easy. Luckin Coffee's layout is by no means smooth sailing. Ready made coffee and bottled coffee are two completely different tracks in terms of underlying business logic. The complexity of channel terminals and the degree of taste restoration will be the sword of Damocles hanging over Luckin Coffee's head. Although the subject matter is all called "coffee", the current coffee is playing the Internet logic of "brand+traffic+store efficiency", while the bottled coffee is playing the pure traditional FMCG logic, that is, "channel+shelf+terminal dynamic marketing".

The barrier between these two tracks is much higher than the outside world imagines. In the world of bottled coffee, channels are king. How to make products available in thousands of convenience stores and mom and pop shops? How to compete with channel giants such as Nongfu Spring and Coca Cola for limited freezer noodles? How to manage the intricate network of provincial distributors? The waters are extremely deep, and those who have not truly engaged in offline deep distribution or struggled in the traditional fast-moving consumer goods quagmire find it difficult to understand the intricacies and cruelty involved. Internet thinking is often acclimatized here.

Meanwhile, as a beverage that is extremely sensitive to flavor, coffee's taste is bound to decline from freshly ground to industrialized sterilization and bottling. How to rely on breakthroughs in supply chain technology to restore the soul and taste of popular products in stores to the greatest extent possible, and avoid consumers' cognitive bias of "this is just a bottle of sugar water with coffee flavor", is also an extremely severe technical test.

(Image source for this article: UNsplash)

Source: Beijing Number

Author: Jiang Han's Perspective