Open to join, push hand to make coffee. What game of chess is Pacific Coffee playing?

Cafes in China are affected by the market environment, with many brands and rich forms. they are the product of experience economy, with high-end well-known chain brands and independent small shops with different tastes. At the same time, as a versatile "one-size-fits-all oil", it can also be mixed with different formats. The whole coffee industry market is in a period of rapid development in which a hundred flowers blossom. In the face of fierce competition, Pacific Coffee has gained a firm foothold in the industry and become the second largest coffee chain brand in the domestic market. What is the secret?

Li Haitao, Vice Chairman of Pacific Coffee

According to statistics, the coffee industry is growing at an annual rate of 25%. It is estimated that by 2020, the capacity of China's coffee market will reach 300 billion, which is expected to become an important increase in the catering industry.

As a result, a large number of chain coffee brands have appeared in China, deducing their imagination of the Chinese coffee market. At the same time, after six years in mainland China, Pacific Coffee has opened nearly 500 stores around the world, making it the second largest coffee chain brand in the Chinese market. In the face of fierce market competition, how can Pacific Coffee gain a firm foothold in the industry? How to maintain the tonality of the brand while the store is expanding rapidly?

To this end, the New Store study Society interviewed Li Haitao, vice chairman of Pacific Coffee, to discuss various aspects of brand management and development, as well as how customer experience promotes the development of physical business.

Troika

Respectively meet the different needs of the market

Li Haitao told the New Store study Society that Pacific Coffee currently has a "troika": the first driver is Pacific Coffee retail business-Pacific Coffee Direct Store; after the brand has gained some influence, it will bring the second "carriage" franchise business; after the expansion of the scale of enterprise development, the third "horse-drawn" enterprise coffee service business follows.

In terms of direct stores, as of March 27, 2017, Pacific Coffee has nearly 500 stores, of which mainland China has more than 300 stores, Hong Kong has more than 100 stores, and franchise stores account for about 10%.

In terms of franchise business, Pacific Coffee provides a standardized cooperative investment scheme for franchisees through urban agents and special channels (single stores). In addition, Volgo Caff è, a brand of Pacific Coffee, is also open to join.

Among the three major businesses of Pacific Coffee, the corporate coffee service business is the fastest growing module. At present, Pacific Coffee has more than 300 cooperative enterprises, including Cofco, Ping an Trust, Greenland Group, Hang Seng Bank and so on. Li Haitao said: "there is great market potential for cooperation between coffee business and enterprises. Our 'integrated coffee operation service' in Chinese mainland region has just begun, and there is still a lot of room for development in the future."

In the "Coffee Integrated Operation Service", the reserve of professionals is also very important. Pacific Coffee currently has a comprehensive professional training system, and its coffee institute built in Shanghai has now officially enrolled students in April 2017. it can provide external professional training services, and it is also the brand's first SCAE European Fine Coffee Institute certified member college.

The college has a sound hardware infrastructure, together with a team of elite coffee mentors to help coffee practitioners and enthusiasts establish a systematic system of coffee knowledge and skills. Pacific Coffee strives to root the image of "coffee expert" more deeply in the hearts of customers.

Based on the operation of direct stores, the development of franchise business and coffee service business is the natural product of market demand and brand development. In the face of the retail customer base, meet the entrepreneur's dream of "opening a shop", and provide coffee solutions for corporate customers, the three categories meet the different needs of the market.

Open up the "second battlefield"

Promote "hand-made coffee" and open coffee shops in cooperation with enterprises

Market trends are changing with each passing day, to meet the third wave of coffee, Pacific Coffee also seize the opportunity to seize emerging markets. On July 21, 2016, Pacific Coffee launched "hand Coffee". This is more professional and boutique for a large coffee chain with nearly 500 stores in the world.

Li Haitao believes that the launch of hand-brewed coffee on the one hand is to adapt to the trend of boutique coffee in the industry, on the other hand, it is to make business adjustments that keep pace with the times in the face of changes in customers' beverage habits, and further deepen the professional tone of the brand. "in the future, customers will be able to drink exquisite hand-brewed coffee in more Pacific Coffee shops, and can choose a series of hand-brewed utensils, so that it is convenient to DIY a cup of their own coffee at home or at work, so that the boutique can be integrated into life."

In addition, Pacific Coffee has a long history of cross-border business. In previous years, cross-border cooperation with banks and hospitals to open coffee shops, and then, in addition to continuing to cultivate bank coffee shops and hospital coffee shops, Li Haitao added that different cross-border cooperation is currently in the pilot stage. College coffee shops, telecom coffee shops and high-end supermarket coffee shops are the new battlefields for brands to try in the future.

Attach importance to young consumer groups

To be the "most influential coffee chain brand"

At present, there are two mainstream systems for coffee chain brands in mainland China: one is a large international chain coffee brand, and the other is Korean Wave. Korean cafes take the star marketing route and expand their scale by joining individual stores. Pacific Coffee belongs to the former.

Pacific Coffee was born in Hong Kong in 1992 and was acquired by China Resources Venture in 2010, becoming its only coffee chain brand. In 2011, Pacific Coffee officially entered the Chinese mainland market. Li Haitao said that Pacific Coffee has obvious brand differentiation. Pacific Coffee brand positioning in high-end business people, the product pursuit of the spirit of craftsmen, open stores to join. Not only that, we from the store environment, marketing to product development to deepen the transmission of oriental characteristics, not blindly copy the westernized brand culture, to achieve the blending of Chinese and Western cultures, and strive to develop into the 'most influential coffee chain brand'. "

In addition to having a stable business consumer group and obvious brand attributes, Pacific Coffee also attaches great importance to these young groups such as post-80s and post-90s. For this part of the population, they are keen on in-depth experience, and like to use the Internet as a reference channel, performance-to-price ratio has become their first choice for relaxation, leisure and entertainment. Li Haitao said that there are four major measures to absorb this type of consumer group:

Launch new products regularly and attach importance to the extension of the product line

Pacific Coffee has a mature product research and development team, which regularly launches seasonal promotional drinks every 4 to 5 weeks, such as berries, sea salt and other coffee drinks with different flavors; there will be a series of floral coffee special drinks for female customers; consumers can drink high-quality raw and cooked Pu leaf tea in the coffee shop to meet Chinese traditional tea habits; combined with the current season to develop attractive ice drinks, such as iced tea and yogurt. Or introduce time-limited special drinks in combination with current events, such as limited supply of "blue samba" rum special drinks during the World Cup in Brazil.

Supply a wide range of food

In addition to regularly serving some new cakes and desserts and special festive foods, the store will also increase the types of food according to the needs of customers at different times, such as spaghetti, pizza, waffles, English afternoon tea, etc. special salads and hand rolls are launched to meet the healthy choices of urban consumers.

Enrich brand activities

Pacific Coffee Club holds a variety of innovative cross-border and circle activities. For example, they took the initiative to enter the university campus to carry out coffee workshops, jointly covered hundreds of thousands of Chinese college students' youth community-"Beichen Youth", and launched a public welfare activity of "sending warmth to the campus at four o'clock in the morning" and so on.

Implement the membership system and launch a variety of member promotion activities

Pacific Coffee introduced the membership system in Hong Kong as early as 2007, and formally introduced the membership system to mainland China in 2012, and launched a series of super-value exclusive rights and interests of members, such as Monday buy one get one free, Friday recharge gift, open card to send coffee, birthday free coupons and so on. At the end of 2016, Pacific Coffee joined the China Resources membership system across the board to achieve points-through-exchange. Up to now, China Resources Pacific Coffee membership card has 450000 members and more than 270000 registered members.

"one, two, three" strategy

Attach importance to brand upgrading, innovation and sustainable development

In the face of foreign coffee chain giants have added to the domestic market, new domestic coffee shops are springing up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Li Haitao said calmly that Pacific Coffee is not aggressive in terms of store opening plans, but emphasizes the importance of both quality and quantity. These include product quality, service level and shop environment and equipment. Li Haitao believes that at present, there is still some room for excavation in the development of first-tier cities, and Pacific Coffee will continue to focus on the first-tier cities in the north, Guangzhou and Shenzhen as the center, radiating the surrounding second-and third-tier cities to carry out cloth stores.

For the future development of enterprises, Li Haitao put forward the "one, two, three" strategy of Pacific Coffee: "one" refers to a powerful and organizational background support system owned by Pacific Coffee; "two" refers to two battlefields. That is, the Chinese mainland market and the Hong Kong overseas market; "three" refers to the three strategies, that is, the "troika" owned by Pacific Coffee.

Consolidate the foundation and cultivate the yuan

Pacific Coffee efforts will 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.

Innovative breakthroughs

The brand will continue to carry out multi-brand cross-border projects and hold many cooperative activities in conjunction with high-quality brands to integrate the image of Pacific Coffee into fashion, humanities, sports, drama shows and other circles to expand the influence of the brand. At the same time, the store image is constantly updated and upgraded, such as the opening of the Taiguhui boutique in Guangzhou and the project preparation in Shenzhen Shenye Shangcheng, so as to open up more space for customers to imagine and spread the brand.

Sustainable development

In addition to insisting on product quality, Pacific Coffee also emphasizes optimizing the vertical integration of enterprises, strengthening the development and control of all aspects of the industrial chain, from front-end raw materials to offline operation, customized R & D technology development, etc. while effectively controlling costs, it also keeps the brand at the front end of the industry.

Combine with social depth

To make the experience really "applaud".

As early as 2011, Pacific Coffee launched the "I butterfly" event during celebrations in Hong Kong. Customers can capture virtual butterflies through the cameras in the software, each butterfly carries a different discount, and the captured discount can also be passed on to friends. The game is similar to the current rise of virtual and real AR technology. In 2017, the brand launched AR seal simultaneously in Hong Kong and the mainland, which can be photographed through the camera in the software to form a dynamic audio effect, promote the interaction between family and friends during the Spring Festival, and create a good festive atmosphere.

To develop physical commerce, Li Haitao believes that a strong experience attribute is essential, and Pacific Coffee has a good practice in this respect.

Pull lattes are produced in all the stores.

Every latte in Pacific Coffee provides free flower drawing service. The flower pattern is rich and attractive, including peach hearts, leaves, tulips and so on, making every cup of coffee a work of art, increasing the visual experience of customers.

The launch of hand-made coffee

Boutique hand-made products provide customers with one-to-one service, certified hand-made baristas will interact with customers in detail and cordially, analyze the story behind hand-made coffee in detail while making coffee by hand, so as to better guide customers to understand and taste it.

Focus on experience

Regularly pay attention to fans' recognition of the comfort of the store environment, pay more attention to furniture and space design, and have upgraded the store image many times, and various spaces and furniture combinations have enhanced customers' sense of experience.

Analysis and investigation of big data

Accurately grasp customer preferences, specially select popular products from the time-limited promotional drinks launched in the past years and add them to the standard menu, so that customers can drink their favorite products whenever they come to the store.

Conclusion: in addition, now that e-commerce is popular, Pacific Coffee has also responded positively to the market demand, launching an online e-commerce platform in 2016, holding hands with Tmall, JD.com and Huaruntong for the first time to open a new market. As a professional "online coffee butler", Pacific Coffee is currently providing convenient and professional coffee services for global consumers. Customers can purchase equipment, coffee beans, hanging-ear coffee and other products online to meet their needs for easy coffee making at home or office space.

In the future, Pacific Coffee will continue to uphold a modest and enterprising attitude, pay close attention to the industry trend, and keep pace with the times to promote brand development.