Starbucks Coffee Education in Hong Kong allows more coffee lovers to know the real coffee

Starbucks has been in Hong Kong for 15 years, bringing about a change in Hong Kong's coffee culture. In the past, a specialty store was opened at Ka Lok Square in Mong Kok, which not only used Reserve coffee as an attraction, but also set up Coffee Experience Bar. Zeng Guangjian (Norbert Tan), executive director of Starbucks in Hong Kong and Macau, said frankly that he hopes to make customers know more about coffee and love coffee more, so as to indirectly expand the market.

To open a branch in the proposed residential area

Starbucks dominates the 4500-foot basement of Jia Le Square, which can accommodate 135guests at a time. Although it is not the largest branch in Hong Kong, it will become an important venue for coffee education in the future.

An area of 4500 feet can accommodate 135guests (photo taken by Zeng Youwei)

Why the education market? All because of a recent survey commissioned by Starbucks, 52% of the respondents said they would drink coffee, but the frequency of visiting Starbucks was not high, many of them only once a month, and 48% said they did not drink coffee, so there is still a lot of room for development in the market. Zeng Guangjian pointed out that although other chain brands and some small coffee shops have emerged in recent years, we can still "make big cakes" together.

Optimize the application lik

The brand now has 151 stores in Hong Kong and will continue to open in the future. "Rent is indeed a major consideration, but the recent increase is not as high as it has been in the past few years. In the future, we will consider opening more branches in residential areas, such as Mei Foo, Sham Tseng, Yuen long, Jardine Peninsula and Shengyueju. "

The decoration and food of the chain stores are mostly the same, but Zeng Guangjian pointed out that Starbucks should integrate into each community. For example, the Ka Le Fang store invited local artists Bao Ho and Stern Rockwell to display their mural art in the walls of the store, while the Reserve logo was designed with neon lights, and the walls were decorated with advertisements and slogans commonly seen on the streets of Mong Kok. "there are dragon boats in Sha Tin shops, Sai Yee Street shops with Hong Kong cinemas as the theme, and Tai Po shops decorated with bicycles, which are also closely related to the characteristics of the area."

The serving form of Reserve coffee is different from that of ordinary coffee. (photo by Zeng Youwei)

If you want to retain guests, the membership system is very important, and in the hot environment of mobile smart devices, the membership system combined with applications is even more indispensable. Zeng Guangjian pointed out that the company will also invest more in the coming year to make applications more functional and more user-friendly. "at present, more than 1/4 of transactions are conducted through Starbucks stored value cards or applications, the vast majority of which are members."

At present, gold card members can enjoy the pre-order service in 11 branches. As long as you enter the store and open the application, the application will automatically settle the order and check out. Sometimes special promotional activities are even launched, such as the recent "Share Good Cheer" event, where members can make music clips and give them to their friends. In addition to apps, it also interacts with fans on social platforms such as ig and fb.

Zeng Guangjian, executive director of Starbucks in Hong Kong and Macau, hopes that Coffee Experience Bar will give guests a better understanding of coffee. (photo by Zeng Youwei)

While keeping in touch with fans, we also hope to attract more new visitors. Zeng Guangjian said that one of the goals for next year is to do more "coffee education." Including holding more seminars in the branches to enable more people to have a better understanding of coffee. Now the Ka Lok Fang branch, with more special facilities, will be an important education venue. In addition, in response to the current trend of pop-up shops, it is planned to open short-term pop-up shops in different districts next year, not only for the public to try coffee, but also to introduce to them where the brand of coffee comes from and how to conduct quality testing. "the variety of Reserve coffee is changed every two months. I hope guests will have the opportunity to taste coffee beans from different regions and farms."

The economic downturn and the flow of people are not affected.

Coffee is not a necessity, tens of yuan a cup is not very cheap, so it has always been regarded as a middle-class gift. In the economic downturn, some financial advice even includes "drink less coffee". Hong Kong has also been affected by the economic instability in Europe and the United States in recent years, coupled with the slowdown in China's economic growth.

Zeng Guangjian pointed out that this year, the flow of people in Hong Kong stores has not declined due to the impact of the economy. It is more emphasized that what the brand sells is not a cup of coffee, but also an attitude towards life. "Home is the first space, work and school places are the second space, Starbucks is the third space, and our application is the fourth space."

Therefore, when training employees, they are often reminded that customers coming in to buy coffee is not a simple transaction, but a kind of communication between people, and each customer is also a unique individual.

(reproduced from Hong Kong Economic Daily)