Why does Kuma have so many stores in Nanjing?

On August 18, Changsha online celebrity tea brand Modern Chinese Tea Shop opened two stores in Nanjing. Just like every time before leaving the Hunan base camp and entering other places, Zha Yan, who came to the East China Market for the first time, unsurprisingly took over the hot searches of the day. Only half an hour after the store opened, the Xinjiekou IFCX store, a modern Chinese tea shop, was suspended due to crowds gathering and queuing, and was reported to have affected epidemic prevention and control. In front of another store located in Jingfeng Shopping Mall, the team was outside for a time, and Nanjing Jiangning police had to deploy police forces to maintain order on the scene. Just opposite the Teayan IFCX store, the tea brand "T Comma" added fuel to this discussion. If you have passed by Xinjiekou recently, it is difficult not to notice the existence of this new Nanjing Internet celebrity store. Bahau was established in September 2021. In less than a year, 40 directly-operated stores have been opened within a 300-meter radius of Xinjiekou, "China's No. 1 business district" in Nanjing, and a dozen other stores are also in preparation - 24 exits of Xinjiekou subway station. Bahou can be found almost everywhere, with the nearest two shops less than 5 meters apart. When the "Nanjing Xinjiekou Overlord" met the "Changsha Modern Chinese Tea Shop", Bakou, as the host, was not friendly. On the first day of the opening of the modern Chinese tea store, Bahau launched the banner of "Responsible for Defending the Land" in the afternoon, and scrolled the PK slogan "T Comma VS Tea The quality, price/performance ratio and taste of the noodles are not as good as their own. Description of participating in the war while rolling around in the store. Source: Internet This duel ended because Chayan’s shop was temporarily closed, but it also indicated that it would be difficult for newcomers like modern Chinese tea shops to gain a foothold in Nanjing. "Following the ups and downs of the tea market for six years, we have understood a truth. Only when the market as a whole prospers will we be better." Another tea brand, Shisan Tea, is known as the "Nanjing Modern Chinese Tea Shop". Whether it is a local brand that "defends its territory" or a foreign brand that "conquers a city", the worst outcome would be to lose both sides. Modern Chinese Tea Shop and its “Spiritual Apprentice” On August 24, Modern Chinese Tea Shop came to Nanjing for a week. At around 10 a.m., hundreds of people were already queuing in front of the Xinjiekou store, and the waiting time was more than an hour. A scalper who is engaged in purchasing on behalf of others told us that several of his colleagues have been arrested this week, but there are at least a dozen scalpers in Xinjiekou. Because of the long queue time in Nanjing, the current purchasing price is 100 yuan per cup, while the purchasing price at modern Chinese tea shops in Wuhan and Changsha is 60 yuan. On the last day of the Modern China Tea Shop's "New Friends Event", interviewees lined up in front of the Xinjiekou IFCX store to be photographed. On the other hand, there were only a few people queuing in front of the Bahau store, and the challenge launched a week ago has been cancelled. Fang Jie, the head of the brand, said tea drinkers express kindness to each other. After consultation with Modern China Tea Shop, both parties decided to give public opinion some time to cool down. Excluding the sales of each store, daily sales remain at 1,700-1,800 cups, and weekend sales are around 2,200 cups. "With such a large flow of people in Xinjiekou, Chayan only opens one store, so it won't have much impact. What's more, tea noodles, mochi, milk tea and fruit tea are all weak competition." Nanjing Xinjiekou has always been known as " "China's No. 1 Business District", where many shopping malls and shops are gathered. Xinjiekou Subway Station is the largest subway station in Asia, covering an area of ??76,000 square meters and with a daily passenger flow of 500,000. Today, Asia's largest subway station has another name - Xinjiekou Makou Station. In the underground passage of the subway station, you can see a linen shop every few steps. Distribution map of discount shops at Xinjiekou subway station. Source: T Comma WeChat official account. A local tea industry practitioner in Nanjing told us that shops around the Xinjiekou subway line usually sign up once a year. In 2019, the rent for his brand's store near the Line 1 exit was 680,000 per year. When the contract was renewed for the second year, he had no choice but to give up because other companies offered higher bids. Not long ago, the only remaining tea and white road in Xinjiekou also left the business district. Being able to open a large number of stores in Xinjiekou is enough to illustrate the "rich wealth" of Makou. According to investigation data, it is affiliated to Nanjing Comma Brand Management Co., Ltd., and received 100 million yuan in angel round financing from Zhejiang Dai Xingqiao Clothing Co., Ltd. two months after its establishment. The actual controller is Zhang Nen. In April this year, Bahau received another 50 million euros in strategic financing from RUWISHDA (Louis Starr). This is not a small amount in 2022, when the current tea-making industry is in a slump. Although Zhang had no previous experience of drinking tea, he embraced the "tea dream". In 2020, he saw the rise of a group of Chinese local online celebrity brands represented by Modern China Milk Tea Shop, and came up with an idea - to create a new consumer brand in Nanjing that can represent local culture like Modern China Milk Tea Shop. It can be said that consumers have no choice but to seize the prime business district, open stores intensively in this area, and enhance brand awareness. This is the first lesson Bahou learned from the tea talk. Modern China Tea Store once had 41 stores within 0.64 square kilometers of Wuyi Square. Perhaps it was the absolute home court advantage in Xinjiekou that made Ma Kou tweet in April this year, "I heard that someone is coming to Ning to 'play'? Provocatively, saying that modern Chinese tea shops "don't dare to choose the location of the shop. Xinjiekou", said, "If Tea Talk wants to take root smoothly in Nanjing, the cost is not small. Injuring the enemy by 1000 and damaging yourself by 800 is not worth it! "Facing challenges from Bahau one after another, the person in charge of the brand department of Modern China Tea Shop said that he has no time to pay attention to it for the time being and has never had any interaction with Bahau. At present, he is mainly focused on the service of the new store.

Currently, in this one-sided confrontation, Kuma does not have an advantage. Previously, consumers generally had a positive attitude towards Makuu, with most comments saying "delicious and cost-effective", and some customers rushed to Xinjiekou to check in. However, although the marketing activities in the past few days have brought popularity to Kouma, they have also caused dissatisfaction and rebellious psychology among many consumers. They think that the variety of mokou is too small and relies solely on the heat of stepping on it, so it is not worthy of representing Nanjing's local tea. Compared to Kou Ma, Cha Yan's other "spiritual disciple" is more friendly in picking up San Cha. Shisan Tea focuses on Chinese style tea. Whether it is product creativity, menu names or visual design, you can see the shadow of modern Chinese milk tea shops. Source of Sansha Yunding series products: Sansha official website After Yan Guanxuan will settle in Nanjing, many local consumers are worried about the future of Sancha. However, on August 18, a large number of orders poured into Pika Tea's store, and the takeaway backend was closed several times due to the explosion of orders. New customers pay attention to this Nanjing-born milk tea shop mostly because of the controversy between Cha Noodles and Mokou. When Pika Tea was first established in 2016, there were very few local milk tea brands in Nanjing. In the past few years, many local tea shops, including Picking Three Teas, Tianhui and Xiongji Handmade Tea, have become known to more consumers. "Our company is a bit like the city of Nanjing. It's very comfortable but not very competitive. Although it doesn't live up to expectations, we don't want others to say bad things." Chen Yan, who is in charge of tea picking, told us that in 2018 and 2019, tea production When the circuit was at its hottest, more than a dozen investors came looking for it. However, the team felt that it could not afford the financing based on its current strength, so they declined. Today, there are only 16 stores in Nanjing with less than 20 office staff. Chen Yan said that it must be admitted that many consumers only know tea picking through the name of "Nanjing Modern Chinese Tea Shop". "We are taking advantage of Tea Face, and it is reasonable to accept the criticism it brings.