An exclusive interview with CEO Lanyi: "Chinese Zen" in Pacific Coffee

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Wen | 21CBR Tan Lu

Last May, Pacific Coffee Chairman and CEO Lanyi threw away both iPhone phones and replaced them with two domestic phones: Huawei P7 and Xiaomi 4. Lan Yi said: "this replacement operation is more or less of a national complex, just as my heart hopes that customers can walk into Pacific Coffee."

In an exclusive interview with the 21 Century Business Review, Lan Yi made no secret that according to the current rate of development, Pacific Coffee will occupy one of the best positions in mainland China's coffee market in the future.

Pacific Coffee was born in Hong Kong in 1992, naturally with the genes of Chinese and Western fusion. In 2010, it was acquired by China Resources Venture and became its only coffee chain brand. As of January 15, 2016, the number of global stores of Pacific Coffee has reached 474, making it the second largest coffee chain in China.

At present, the coffee market in the mainland is completely different from that in 2011 when Pacific Coffee first entered mainland China. Korean cafes have broken the monopoly of European and American chain giants. and some personalized minority cafes and cafes with entrepreneurial space are also emerging. How does Pacific Coffee deal with itself?

"one cup, one thought, one world" is the Chinese Zen depicted by Lan Yi for Pacific Coffee, and it also hides the courage to break through. "one cup, to make a good cup of coffee; one idea, to provide good service; one world, to provide a good environment."

Pacific Coffee Chairman and CEO Lanyi

Lanyi also believes that the Coffee Solution business provided by Pacific Coffee can not only serve its own stores and franchises, but also include other competitors or individuals who need coffee.

Last year, Lan Yi carefully read the book "sense of participation" written by Xiaomi co-founder Li Wanqiang on kindle and was impressed by a sentence in the book: "the core of Internet thinking is word-of-mouth, and the essence of word-of-mouth is user thinking, which is to give users a sense of participation."

Lan Yi reflects that the coffee business is also customer-oriented, creating a perfect customer experience. For Pacific Coffee, how to use word-of-mouth marketing to expand its influence? "our use of social media to spread word-of-mouth is obviously inadequate, and our relationship with customers has not reached the same level of heart-to-heart and trust as friends."

According to the book, Xiaomi's three strategies to quickly build a sense of participation are to be explosive, to be a fan, and to be self-media. The three tactics are: open participation nodes, design interactive ways, and spread word-of-mouth events.

Lan Yi feels that these rules are also applicable to the coffee industry and are highly operable. "can our national wine coffee, ancient tree tea, Camasuna, waffles, Monchhichi and Christmas bears be made into explosive products?" How to create stories, topics, and interesting interactions for these products? How can members who hold our card become our fans and be willing to drum and cheer for Pacific Coffee? "

Realize "Little Girl's Dream"

"21CBR": what do you think of the current competitive situation in the mainland coffee market, and what is the strategy for Pacific Coffee?

Lan Yi: Pacific Coffee is now divided into two markets, one mainland market and one Hong Kong overseas market. The maturity of the Hong Kong market is relatively high, while the mainland market is still being cultivated, and the two markets do not play in the same way. The Hong Kong market will maintain its original pace because it has already done a good job.

On the other hand, the mainland market is now in a state of "indiscriminate fighting" by various forces, and there are several forces: one is classic cafes such as Starbucks, Pacific Coffee and Costa, and the other is Korean Wave. Korean-style cafes take the star marketing route and expand their scale by joining individual stores, which means they are eager to encircle money.

Another group of so-called cafes, in fact, is only a simple meal business; there are some minority cafes, fighting alone, can not form a chain scale, although they are worthy of respect, they will not form competition for chain coffee shops.

In addition, there is another category that provides mobile office space for entrepreneurs, who are not really cafes in the strict sense. However, these entrepreneurial spaces or individual cafes are precisely the service objects of our Coffee Solution, which shows that our business space is very large.

Under the situation of the rapid development of the coffee industry as a whole, the competitive advantage of Pacific Coffee is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

First, Pacific Coffee's "three, two, one" strategy. The "three" refers to three strategies, namely, the "troika" owned by Pacific Coffee: the first driver is Pacific Coffee retail business-Pacific Coffee Direct Store; the second driver is corporate coffee service business; and the third driver is franchise business. "two" refers to two battlefields, namely, the Chinese mainland market and the Hong Kong overseas market. "one" refers to a powerful and organizational background support system owned by Pacific Coffee.

Second, consolidate the foundation and cultivate the yuan. Pacific Coffee strives to upgrade the system from different levels, strive to enhance organizational capacity and promote business development. For example, the basic carding of management process, the arrangement of supply chain, the standardization of information system, the establishment of coffee institute, the innovative development of Internet technology and so on.

Third, brand-driven. The brand positioning of "blending Chinese and Western cultures and full of scholarship" makes Pacific Coffee stand out in the same industry.

Fourth, the rapid development of Pacific Coffee in recent years is inseparable from the "sense of mission" that enterprises adhere to, build a national brand belonging to the Chinese people, and strengthen the influence of the brand.

"21CBR": the corporate coffee business is one of the important strategies for the development of Pacific Coffee. How effective is it in the promotion process in the mainland this year?

Lan Yi: with regard to Coffee Solution, that is, "Enterprise Coffee solution", its focus is to have a complete grasp of all the appliances, raw materials, training and information systems related to the coffee industry. As I said before, every girl has a dream of opening a coffee shop in her heart. They just dream about it, and we will help her realize her dream.

Pacific Coffee can tell you how to choose the location and control the investment cost, recommend the engineering team to decorate, install the bar, machine, and match the coffee beans. We offer menu options, and you can choose the services you need and build your own brand. For example, in Vivienne Westwood Caf é, which opened in China last year, Pacific Coffee is responsible for the specific operation of the cafe, and even the employees are our people, just wearing Vivienne Westwood clothes.

Coffee Solution started out as a B2B business, and actually does B2C business. Coffee Solution has three channels, the first is Coffee Solution for Shops, for example, we went to transform the China Resources Wanjia convenience store to customize a coffee brand for the supermarket.

The second is Coffee Solution for Office, which revamped the enterprise's pantry to provide customized food, sugar packets, milk and other consumable materials. The third is Coffee Solution for Home, if you want to make a coffee bar in your own kitchen, we can help you make drawings. We are not tuba rabbits, but we can also cooperate with tuba rabbits.

Coffee Solution is very malleable and is actually a platform business that serves our own direct stores and franchisees as well as external customers.

A group of fans with an attitude

21CBR: how does the Pacific Coffee Project attract loyal fans?

Lan Yi: membership card is our key promotion business in recent years. Now there are about 120000 members in Hong Kong and about 200000 in China, but I think it is not enough. The accumulation of members is related to the growth of the brand. It is true that there must be the number of stores as the basis, after the influence, the members will grow slowly.

Of course, we can't wait, we have to take the initiative to pull members in, so Pacific Coffee has a very clear brand positioning of "Chinese and Western culture integration, full of bookish style". Let those who like us know that I feel sorry for myself if I don't become your member.

In addition, of course, members should be given all kinds of preferential rights and interests. The so-called concessions not only refer to material enjoyment such as buy one get one free and open cards to send coffee, but also should be spiritual. People who can become members of Pacific Coffee must have the same values, must be in the same circle, and share a common attitude towards life.

In the future, we will work with drama groups, music groups, art, exhibitions, books and other groups to do cross-border cooperation, these circles have the same audience groups, they can be integrated. Our members can often participate in these activities for free. They know that Pacific Coffee members love drama, music, exhibitions, reading, public welfare and environmental protection, give warmth to children in the mountains, or take a walk to Hope Primary School. They will find that we have the same attitude towards life.

For example, we held an event in South China, where big cakes and opinion leaders donated an hour to share with our members. In December last year, we worked with Wu Xiaobo Channel, and his fans were also our members. Come to our store to watch Wu Xiaobo's year-end show, Liang Wendao and Cao Qitai also come to participate, there will be many similar activities in the future.

"21CBR": is there anything new in the application of Internet technology?

Lan Yi: in fact, we invest a lot in the Internet, such as O2O, and the cooperation with Wechat, and recently we launched APP. Our APP can be opened, there are a lot of additional business, we hope to cooperate with more partners in these areas.

Now that we regard mobile as a very important way of connection, we are also thinking about how Pacific Coffee, as a way of life, can make users experience better in the Internet era. For APP, as long as you think about the security of payment, do not disclose the information of members, many ports can be opened, we look forward to cooperation with you with an open mind.

"21CBR": what support will the industrial chain owned by China Resources Group provide for the development of Pacific Coffee?

Lan Yi: shareholders are very supportive of us. The strategic characteristic of China Resources is to be one of the best in an industry. However, China Resources Group's investment in an industry depends on the judgment of the industry. China Resources Group will analyze whether the industry is growing, and the coffee industry is indeed a growing industry; the group will also judge whether the industry is collaborative or not. and we do cooperate with brother units internally.

We cooperate with China Resources Land, China Resources Wanjia and China Resources Bank. If we get through all the customer resources of China Resources Group, there are a lot of cooperation points to be found under a diversified group, which is just beginning, and there is still a lot of room for growth.