When the "small and beautiful" boutique coffee faces the mass market, will it be desperate?

Professional barista communication, please pay attention to coffee workshop (Weixin Official Accounts cafe_style)

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently more than 20,000 coffee shops nationwide, mainly distributed in first-, second-and third-tier cities. Starbucks alone has opened more than 2600 stores in more than 120 cities, and many "small and beautiful" independent boutique coffee shops have gradually gained consumer recognition in the wave of consumption upgrading, which may no longer be just the demand of niche markets, but gradually become the daily needs of consumers.

Shanghai is a mature coffee market city, if you are in Shanghai, Seesaw Coffee should be no stranger, it is the leader in the domestic fine coffee market. However, it did the opposite, breaking the pattern of independent stores and starting to move towards the commercial chain store model.

With these questions in mind, the reporter interviewed Seesaw founder Zong Xinkuang Tom.

Seize the core customer group, once sold 1000 cups of coffee a day

"Good life should be shared with more people, and good coffee should be shared with more people." This is the original intention of Zong Xinkuang to create a brand.

Seesaw Coffee can be interpreted as seewhatwesaw. Zong Xinkuang believes that the market size of coffee itself has enough space to give different types of coffee platforms. Seesaw, as a young, energetic, passionate and creative brand, wants to bring fine coffee into the domestic coffee market and bring it to Chinese consumers.

In 2012, Seesaw opened its first store in Yuyuan Road, Shanghai, and entered the boutique coffee market earlier. Relying on quality and concept, as well as store space design full of emotional concepts, Seesaw quickly gained recognition from consumers and the industry. On the opening day of Huaihai Road Store in 2015, it sold an amazing number of 1000 cups of coffee.

Fine coffee in the domestic coffee market at that time, there has been a relatively large commercial space and business opportunities exist, even never drink coffee Zong Xinkuang have changed to create a coffee brand.

From the beginning, Seesaw's core consumer base is a group of people who have personalized needs for quality of life, want to be more distinctive, more human, better texture, and better experience, and their consumption patterns have been upgraded. This is also the group Seesaw wants to capture.

So, is there a conflict between the niche positioning of specialty coffee itself and Seesaw's spirit of sharing?

Zong Xinkuang believes that fine coffee can be accepted and liked by more people, without having to look at it with a certain label. Consumers themselves upgrade and change the quality and taste of food. In fact, they only need to feel that you are more refined, special and better than before, and feel differentiation from the overall experience. Seesaw wants to create such a positioning.

Boutique coffee is just a personalized drink with high cost performance,"focusing on every step from coffee beans to a cup of coffee"


The reason why Seesaw defines itself as fine coffee is because no matter from the source of coffee, to the way coffee is roasted, brewed, and finally delivered by the barista in the store, the final cup of coffee can present a more refined state in each link, which makes people interested in mining, which is also the uniqueness of the brand.

The ultimate, diversity and personality of fine coffee are different from Starbucks, Costa, Pacific Coffee and other commercial coffee in the following four aspects:

1. Direct purchase from origin;

2. Fine processed micro-batches of fine coffee beans;

3. Rich manual brewing methods;

4. Personalized social sharing design space.

Seesaw offers other types of drinks besides coffee, as well as exquisite cake desserts. And here, all coffee is only one size, consumers no longer need to struggle with medium or large cups.

Seesaw will adjust the menu according to the season of coffee beans and through innovation in brewing methods, which will make it easier and more direct for consumers to understand what fine coffee is and generate greater interest in it.

At the same time, we found that Seesaw's Italian coffee price is controlled between 22-35 yuan, and the lowest filter coffee category is 38 yuan. This coffee pricing is indeed much more cost-effective than other fine coffee.

According to Zong Xinkuang, coffee can only be regarded as a drink after all. From an industry perspective, brands price coffee while ensuring profitability. From the purchase of upstream coffee beans, the control of intermediate roasting links, to the production of final stores, they have done quality optimization in all aspects accordingly.

Seesaw's product structure is very simple, mainly coffee. Therefore, as long as we can improve better efficiency operation, reduce unnecessary waste, control costs, and make them meet the expected gross profit margin performance of the brand, we can basically maintain profitability.

Break the small but beautiful convention of boutique coffee shops and move towards chain operation

Seesaw is different from other boutique coffee peers in that it is planned to take a commercial and large-scale road from the beginning, rather than simply opening a small and beautiful store.

As Zong Xinkuang said, Seesaw has been aiming for chain operation since the beginning. It has taken five years to have nine stores in mainland China, eight stores in Shanghai and one store in Shenzhen. From the third store, they put down their posture and walked into the bustling shopping center, breaking the convention of boutique coffee shops and closing the distance with consumers.

Seesaw just received a $45 million investment from Hony last month, which is a good boost and support for the brand. It can not only attract the attention of more resources and talents with the help of capital, but also let more people drink the good coffee insisted by Seesaw through the rapid expansion of stores, which is a basic point and the most expected part of Zong Xinkuang.

According to Zong Xinkuang, in 2017, Seesaw will open 20 stores in mainland China, mainly in medium-and high-end shopping malls in first-tier cities, giving priority to cities with good economic development, entrepreneurial atmosphere and easy acceptance of new things, which is beneficial to opening up the market in the early stage of the brand. In addition to Shanghai and Shenzhen, the first cities to be stationed are Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Chengdu.

The area requirements of stores are generally divided into three categories:

The first category is a 300 square meter store with a complete experience and on-site baking area, so that guests can learn more about the process from coffee beans to a cup of coffee;

The second category is 150-200 square meters of medium-sized stores, the whole space of the creation and production experience can meet the needs of consumers temporary office;

The third category is 30-50 square meters, generally open in office buildings or dedicated to take-out services.

The design style of each Seesaw store will be somewhat different. However, in general, open bar and open space will be set up, which will not be over-designed, but will create a just right space experience and achieve a just right balance.

Popularize coffee culture and open sharing courses

It is understood that in the five years since SeesawCoffee was founded, the number of advertisements placed on the media platform is almost zero, and the exposure in the market is only based on the overall temperament presented by the existing stores, products and barista team, as well as the word-of-mouth communication of fans.

In order to maintain a good coffee culture, Seesaw will not only update some coffee-related things from time to time on the brand public number, but also set up coffee sharing classes with different themes in stores to get close contact and communication with consumers. Inject new energy into the city through coffee culture activities, and expand market influence for brands and boutique coffee itself through various means.

Seesaw offers about 20-30 coffee sharing sessions per month, divided into fee-based and free-to-pay types. Among them, the price range of the fee-based courses will be 280-350 yuan a basic course, and there will also be professional-level courses priced at about 2000 yuan, lasting for one week, which can provide a complete and systematic understanding of the training of the whole boutique coffee industry.

In addition, there will be coffee knowledge sharing classes, free cup testing activities, coffee brewing teaching activities and so on.

In addition, Seesaw Coffee is currently the only coffee supplier for shared office giant WeWork China, which is undoubtedly another affirmation for Seesaw.

Zong Xinkuang said that Seesaw gives consumers tonality, and WeWork membership fit is very high. Seesaw helped them build a fully automated coffee system, as well as coffee sharing classes for their members and participating in recruitment activities.

Is Seesaw an online coffee shop?

Zong Xinkuang said that any great brand, from the initial stage to the stage of being recognized by consumers, most of them were once online stores. But to define its success, it needs to see whether the products and content it exports can be established in the market for a long time.

Seesaw, as a young coffee brand, doesn't need to create a certain popular food or hot item. The brand itself creates such a coffee culture, as well as the concept of fine coffee behind it, are preparing for the future. I hope that after the next five or ten years, if it can continue to be active in this market, such a voice may slowly fade away.