Haagen-Dazs sounded the bugle of entering the coffee industry

Recently, rumors about "international ice cream giant Haagen-Dazs purchasing a large number of coffee product-related materials in the international market and intending to attack China's coffee industry" have been rampant. Just like many news is not groundless, this time there is no exception: following the announcement that cappuccino coffee is free for all members, Haagen-Dazs has launched the latest coffee product-"Color Latte", which combines Haagen-Dazs classic ice cream flavor with Illy coffee beans, officially blowing the horn into the coffee industry. Recently, the author has also been confirmed from a number of sources that Haagen-Dazs will promote the coffee business in the Chinese market from product innovation, store upgrading, cultural advocacy and other starting points in the future.

Cross-border disruption

Why target coffee?

Although it has been acknowledged that a large number of high-end coffee beans purchased by Haagen-Dazs from the international market will be used for the capacity of coffee products in the Chinese market, Haagen-Dazs is still quite cautious about the strategic planning to be adopted in the future. A senior Haagen-Dazs official, who declined to be named, said: "Entering the coffee industry, Haagen-Dazs has been brewing for many years. We have been looking for excellent partners, raw materials and teams, and the launch of coffee has opened a new page for Haagen-Dazs. At present, many Haagen-Dazs stores have separate coffee counters, coffee areas, market-leading coffee machines, professional barista training and R & D teams; in the future, we may open Haagen-Dazs coffee shops with coffee as the main product, and it is possible to extend our business to more products."

Although the coffee consumption of Chinese people is still small, the average annual coffee consumption of each Chinese is only 4 cups, even in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the average annual consumption of each person is only 20 cups, while the neighboring Japanese consume 200 cups per year and the Korean consumes 140 cups per year. However, the growth momentum is very considerable: the annual growth rate of coffee consumption in China is 15%, while the annual growth rate of coffee consumption in the world is only 2%. China's per capita coffee consumption is increasing at a rate of 30% year by year.

Illy Coffee

Target after 90

In the face of the traditional coffee giants, in the face of the coffee rookie aggressive, Haagen-Dazs and how to move?

"We're making a good cup of coffee." The above-mentioned Haagen-Dazs executives answered the author like this.

How to understand? The author visited Haagen-Dazs Xintiandi Store with this question. At 10:30 a.m. on a cold weekday, the restaurant seemed less crowded than the fast-food restaurant next door, but many were drinking coffee. The store sales area has made a breakthrough in the original simple and elegant style, adding conspicuous coffee elements, color and decoration style into the coffee culture, the overall style has become more fashionable, fashionable and younger; even the Illy logo on the coffee powder package next to the coffee machine is more conspicuous.

"The new coffee product inherits Haagen-Dazs 'high-quality ice cream genes, while bringing new flavors to consumers." Haagen-Dazs executives told me,"We will go all over the world to find the best ingredients to make our ice cream at any cost." This time with Illy coffee, because Illy is a well-known Italian coffee, their coffee quality is known; coupled with Haagen-Dazs unique flavor, I believe that will create a new specialty latte."

But Haagen-Dazs 'coffee mug, which comes with coffee, seems even more eye-catching. I saw in Haagen-Dazs stores that this is a new cup that will break your understanding of traditional coffee cups because it is completely different from other coffee shop cups. It is similar in shape to a large coffee cup, but is completely glass blown and transparent, with a vacuum between the inner and outer walls of the cup. Through the transparent outer wall and inner wall, you can imagine that when drinking coffee, you can clearly see the world inside the cup.

Clearly, Haagen-Dazs is shaping its coffee path by a different new standard, which seems feasible. But will the market accept it?

According to the summary of Chen Hua, founder and CEO of the festival selection, the post-90s generation has many obvious characteristics: for example, very personality, very strong hormones, pheromones, adrenaline-stimulated social desire, group loneliness, etc.; and the biggest characteristic of the post-90s generation is "if you hold it, I will feel nothing."

"Haagen-Dazs is working hard to create a new coffee culture belonging to the post-90s generation." Haagen-Dazs executives, who declined to be named, said in an interview with the author,"Haagen-Dazs is called 'luxury in ice cream,' but if coffee is made with this attitude, the post-90s group may not recognize it." So what kind of people are the post-90s? What do you like? We also spent quite a long time after full investigation and demonstration found that after 90 is a group you want to carry them will feel nothing, so this time Haagen-Dazs is also making brave close: a new series of coffee called specialty latte coffee, due to rich taste, colorful, after 90 young people like to call it 'color latte'. It features a variety of flavors, including matcha, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, macadamia nuts and espresso. It's also using color to convey multi-dimensional emotions."

Brand marketing expert Wang Lei believes that "Haagen-Dazs's entry into the coffee industry is a pioneering work, because they boldly release a higher emotion to all coffee lovers, including the post-90s." This kind of emotion is a bit like tracing the origin of coffee, just like the first feeling of unrestrained, passionate, dense and free coffee found in Ethiopia's Kafa Province; at the same time, it makes the product have a younger consciousness, and strives to become the unique choice of TA when facing the post-90s TA group that will soon become the main consumer group."

conclusion

Building a new standard and culture in the coffee business is bold, but the number one measure of chain strength is still the number of stores. At present, the number of Starbucks stores in the mainland of China in the United States is getting closer and closer to the target of 1500, the number of Costa stores in Britain has exceeded 300, the number of Pacific coffee stores in China Hong Kong is more than 200, and even the number of stores of Korean Man Coffee, a rising star, has exceeded 100. For Haagen-Dazs, it will take time to catch up with the Premier League. But reliable sources say Haagen-Dazs may have planned a separate coffee shop. Maybe it won't be long before you can see it in the commercial center of Shanghai.

In the next ten years, China's coffee market will enter a period of rapid growth, and by 2020, China's coffee market consumption is expected to reach 300 billion yuan. For Haagen-Dazs, it remains to be seen how the cross-border competition for coffee chain cake will fare.