2024-04-25 01:19:58
When you enter Chicha Sanqian in Nan Tuen Mun Town, Taichung, you’ll be greeted by exposed red brick walls and floor-to-ceiling white windows that will make you want to take photos and record yourself. Instead of tea buckets that are common in hand-cranked beverage stores, tea machines are used to extract tea on the spot and then mix it into drinks. To enhance the experience, a freshly brewed oolong tea tasting area has also been set up.
What most customers order is a 500ml cup of King’s Pearl milk tea, which costs NT$110. The price is comparable to Starbucks. It is the hand drink chain with the highest average price per customer in Taiwan. the “Hermes of the hand drinks industry”.
This brand is not only very popular in Taiwan, but also has more than 100 stores in 12 regions including Singapore. The price is also slightly higher than its peers. In California, where hand-shaken drinks are booming, its stores have become famous stores in the queue over the past five years. This year, it is planned to open flagship stores in 12 states in the United States. As China’s Mixue Bingcheng and other hand-drinking companies gobble up low-cost overseas markets, its group’s revenue has grown by triple digits in recent years and has begun to turn a profit.
What many people don’t know is that Fangyuan International, which launched Chicha Sanqian, started as Chicha Shop, an affordable hand drink brand founded in 1998. Why does she want to create a high-priced brand to expand into the international market? ?
The cause was actually the impact of low Chinese prices caused by ECFA. Twenty-six years ago, Wang Guoliang, who worked at a contact lens company in Taichung, decided to turn his wife’s small black tea stall at the Twilight Market into a brand. The tea shop was born and the number of franchised stores increased. regarding two at its peak. After that, he also followed other hand drinkers to go to western China. It was the most prosperous era of Taiwan’s affordable hand drinks in China.
Yunlin towels affected by red chain’s low prices
He saw the crisis and turned to the high-end market
However, Wang Guoliang saw a crisis in business opportunities. Born in Douliu, Yunlin, he noticed that Yunlin napkins were facing price cut competition from the red supply chain, which shocked him: today’s napkins will be drinks a handful of tomorrow.
So in 2015, in the first Chicha Sanqian store in Xiamen Mall, which was less than seven square feet, although business was very good, he quickly gave up imitating Taiwan’s affordable model and turned to the construction of Chicha Sanqian into a high-end store. a. brand. The second store opened in Xiamen in 2017 was a flagship store. In 18 and 19, flagship stores were also opened in Taiwan and the United States.
Not only sell delicious food, but also sell honor
Store decoration area compared to Starbucks
But how easy is it to get customers to spend hundreds of dollars for a cup of precious milk? His thought is: “This cup is not meant to quench thirst or taste good, but to feel honored. »
First, he boldly built a store the same size as a select Starbucks store, with few seats for people to take photos.
When it expanded to other countries, its store area was at least twice as large as a regular crank beverage store, but it was slightly smaller than a coffee shop mainly used for indoor use.
Typically, Taiwanese craft beverage stores can open in just two weeks, but Chicha Sanqian’s high-end decor and location standards lengthen the preparation period for opening a store, which often starts at three months , thus sacrificing the possibility of quickly generating turnover.
“The way Chicha Sanqian builds its store identity is to no longer have to fight,” said Li Peifen, general consultant of the Taiwan Service Industry Development Association. “It subverts the appearance of teahouses that only have signs and at most one pillar, and it attracts attention, changes to create an aesthetic economy, and then cashes in the market.
Using ritual services to add value to high prices
Offer tea to taste and ask the hostess to teach you how to behave.
Second, Wang Guoliang broke the “one buy, one sell” customer relationship in crank beverage stores and added many ceremonial services. For example, before customers order food, the seller offers a tasting drink first and then later. ask the customer to choose their favorite from the wooden box in front of them. Boxes of tea to taste; Wang Guoliang developed a tea extraction machine that mimics an espresso machine and places it prominently on the counter. Customers can see the whole process. tea extraction on site following ordering.
The flagship store will also set up a semi-circular tea tasting area for customers waiting for drinks, introduce tea brewing methods, and exchange tea brewing knowledge with customers. The unique experience of tea culture makes foreigners think that drinking bubble milk tea is becoming more advanced. For example, in the tea tasting area of American stores, you need to draw a license plate to experience it.
They even hired a former flight attendant to teach a class on beauty and grooming, and stipulated the angle employees smile when they speak. They also divided all work areas into five work zones: counter, tea extraction, drink preparation, cooking and tasting. Employees must Only following passing the instructor’s oral and practical exams for each position can you begin work.
“It is very difficult for others in the industry to replicate the experience of drinking Sanqian tea,” observed an anonymous Taiwanese hand-drinking industry expert. For Wang Guoliang, high-quality service is a permanent solution to support the price ceiling of takeaway drinks.
Concept co-production is the first priority of overseas exhibition stores
Merchant and location selection determines quality of experience
However, high positioning choices come with high pressures on store opening costs and workforce training requirements. How can brands open stores abroad?
Fangyuan’s approach is to strictly screen agents and only select partners who agree with the brand concept. At the same time, the “concentric circle store display method” is adopted. An agent’s first flagship store in a region or country is designed and built by Fangyuan only when that store is profitable, has sufficient manpower, and has sufficient brand. visibility, other stores will be open. Medium sized store.
According to industry peers, the size of Chicha Sanqian is not yet large if it continues to open stores, there is still room for improvement in brand popularity, but whether it will be a challenge to maintain the quality of service of foreign agents. But at least for now, Fangyuan International has successfully positioned itself at a high price in the portable beverage market and attracted the attention of the market…
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