When "wow" isn't enough to buy "loyalty."

🛑 "Premium Chinese Tea" phenomenon...When "wow" isn't enough to buy "loyalty."

F & B Business Lessons When the Current Comes Sensitive... and May Go Faster Than Thought

If you've been following the top department stores for the last 1-2 years,

You should have noticed one interesting phenomenon.

That is, the market invasion of "premium Chinese tea brands."

The store is elegantly designed.

Big branch area, Flagship Store level.

The tea glass is elaborately designed.

Until sometimes many people tease that

"Hold, then, more like holding Luxury goods than holding drinks."

And of course... the image that we are familiar with is

* Long queue stretching in front of the store

* People waiting in line for hours

* Tikis and Instagram full review

* And taking a picture of a tea glass becomes part of Lifestyle.

But over time,

What began to happen quietly was

"Silence" began to replace storefront queues.

Many branches that used to have to wait in line today can walk in and buy immediately.

"Why did the brand that used to create the phenomenon... start to roll out faster than many expected?"

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📉 Hype Cycle of the Thai F & B business... that's ready to swing the brand up and throw it down just as quickly.

If you look at consumer behavior

The Thai market has one very obvious characteristic.

We are a country that is very "loving of the new."

* We like to experiment

* We like the current

* We like sharing experiences.

* And we love getting involved with what's going to be Talk of the Town.

In the early stages of the launch,

Queuing up the purchase of premium Chinese tea is therefore not just about buying a drink.

But it's a purchase.

* Experience

* Social Status

* and the online world's "right to be in dialogue."

In other words,

Many customers do not buy "tea" alone.

But buying "the feeling of not falling out of trend" too.

The problem is,

F & B business can't live with "first wow" forever

Because after the Hype phase passed,

The real game will start immediately.

And that game is called

"Will customers repurchase?."

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☕ Chinese tea may be "wow," but it is not meant to be "edible every day."

One of the truths business people have to accept is

A famous product... doesn't always mean a product becomes a Daily Habit.

Premium Chinese tea has very obvious strengths.

* Sophisticated aroma

* Mood & Tone See Premium

* Strong storefront experience

* Pretty Packaging

* And there's a clear Cultural Story.

But in the meantime,

Many Thais' consumption tastes are tied to something more "intense and obvious."

Many Thai people grew up with

* Sweet Thai tea

* Dark milk coffee

* Pearl milk tea

* Or drinks with high Texture and Sugar Impact.

When the excitement began to fade,

Consumers will start asking the more important question:

"Can this shop really eat again every week?"

And this is where many brands are starting to come across the fact that

Despite the premium

But consumers may put it in the category.

* "Once in a while, eat."

* "Time to come to the mall"

* Or "eat to take pictures"

More than a daily drink bought every morning.

Which in the F & B business

Differences between

"The thing people want to try."

And "what people want to buy again."

It could be the line between "stream" and "long-term business."

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💸 big, fast-growing and upscale branches... could become a cost trap.

The scariest thing about business in the flow is "misreading long-term Demand."

Many brands saw long queues during the launch.

Therefore quickly expanded the branch

And use a large store model to create a Premium image.

The problem is,

In the world of business, Offline

Every luxury always has a latent cost.

* Big space = high rent

* Very staff = High Fixed Cost

* Magnificent decoration = longer payback period

* And being in Prime Location = the pressure of daily sales is very high.

During high traffic. Everything can look beautiful.

But when consumer behavior starts to go into normalisation,

Important questions will change immediately from

"Do people want to try it?"

Is

"Sales per branch... still worth the real cost?"

And this is where many brands are starting to know that.

The F & B business couldn't survive with customers eating once to take pictures.

Because finally, what pays the rent is not Viral Moment, but "loyal customers."

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👩‍💼 Indicator of the food market... that is sometimes more accurate than the entire company Dashboard?

In the modern business world, we have a huge amount of data analytics.

* Dashboard

* Data Warehouse

* AI Forecasting

* Social Listening

* Heatmap

* Customer Analytics

But for the food and drink market,

I look at

No more Persona is as accurate as observing the behavior of "women in the house." 😅

This is not a joke.

But it reflects what marketers around the world call

"She-conomy."

The idea that women have a high influence on everyday buying decisions.

Especially the platoon.

* Food

* Drink

* Lifestyle

* And repeated consumption

Let's simply observe that these people are

* The first to know that the new store opened

* People who agree to go to Q try first

* The person who reviews the most detailed taste

* And those who judge very quickly that

"This shop can eat repeatedly" or "This shop takes beautiful pictures... but once enough."

And in the world of F & B.

The latter sentence... is much more dangerous than many brands think.

Because when do these people stop talking about brands?

Even if you record any more marketing statements,

The current may not return.

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🏗️ The food business is not measured at the "first glass..." but at the "tenth glass +."

Making people come to the opening day is the talent of Marketing.

But making customers repurchase on a day without a promotion is the strength of the Product and Business Model.

For any premium Chinese tea brand or any F & B business, what matters after the Hype period is to resume the most basic question:

"Is Our Product-Market Fit Really Still Strong?."

* Is Localize taste enough?

* Does the price actually correspond to the purchase frequency?

* Does the store size really suit Traffic?

* And what brand is selling "Lifestyle" or selling "consumption habits"?

Because on a competitive business battleground like today,

Current goods... may generate temporary cash.

But the goods that really understand life are the ones that make long-term gains.

And finally,

In the world of F & B.

A real surviving brand.

Probably not the brand that makes people "wow the most."

But is the brand that makes customers feel

"Tomorrow... I still want to come back and buy another glass."

# Two stories a day  # BusinessStrategy # ExecutiveMindset # FoodAndBeverage # ProductMarketFit# ConsumerBehavior # SheConomy

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📚 Source / Reference

* Gartner Hype Cycle: The model describes the life cycle of technology and business trends that start from the peak of inflated Expectations to the Trough of Disillusionment, which can be used to explain F & B behavior in Thailand.

* She-conomy (Female Power Economy): Global Economics and Marketing Concepts that state that women are the holders of 70-80% of household purchase and daily consumption decision-making power, specifically in the food, beverage, and lifestyle categories (based on Forbes and Nielsen analysis).

* Chagee Market Expansion Case Study: A highly successful premium Chinese tea brand in China and Malaysia with "Oriental Pop Culture" strategy and premium glass design before facing the challenge of adapting to Local Taste and the fierce level of competition in Café Thailand.