Why Did This Coffee Industry Co-Branding Backfire?

Peet's Coffee partnered with the Dunhuang Museum in early 2024 to release themed merchandise and two specialty drinks, part of a wave of co-branding across the coffee industry that also included Luckin, Cotti and Starbucks. Buyers criticized the hot drinks because the cream topping melted quickly, leaving the cup far from the look shown on the promotional posters.

The merchandise side of the campaign fared better, with items such as a Guardian Talisman and couplet fridge magnets drawing young consumers interested in traditional culture. The drink complaints highlight a recurring problem for international coffee brands selling cream-topped hot beverages: the gap between advertising photos and what customers actually receive.

At the start of 2024, the co-branding wars in the coffee industry intensified, with Luckin, Cotti, and Starbucks all making their moves, and Peet's Coffee not wanting to fall behind either, teaming up with the Dunhuang Museum to launch themed merchandise and two specialty drinks. However, once the new products were in hand, they were criticized by consumers because the cream top melted quickly and the drinks' appearance differed too much from the promotional posters. This article reviews the highlights and controversies of this co-branding campaign, and explores the common "buyer's photo vs. seller's photo" problem with hot drinks topped with cream. For coffee lovers who enjoy trying new things, this is undoubtedly a consumer experience case worth paying attention to.

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A quarter of 2024 has only just passed, yet competition in the coffee industry has already reached a fever pitch. In just half a month, co-branding battles have unfolded one after another. Luckin teamed up with Little Blue and His Friends and even launched scratch cards, playing out a new co-branding trick; old rival Cotti brought out a new spokesperson, leveraging the power of the star's fans to make a splash on trending searches.

Starbucks, which has always been relatively restrained with co-branding campaigns, finally decided that "if you can't beat them, join them," announcing a collaboration with the "Havoc in Heaven" IP. The clash between an international brand and a domestic classic IP is indeed eye-catching, but for now there is more hype than action, and the follow-up direction remains unclear.

With the new round of co-branding commercial warfare in full swing, Peet's Coffee was unwilling to lag behind and recently launched a co-branding campaign with the Dunhuang Museum. The themed merchandise was full of Chinese aesthetics and successfully won over a group of fans who love cultural and creative little items.

The exquisitely crafted Guardian Talisman, rich in cultural flavor, and the auspicious, seasonally fitting couplet fridge magnets won over many young consumers who are fond of traditional culture. Soon after the campaign launched, they placed orders to snap them up, taking photos, posting them, and leaving comments all in one go, accepting the blessings from Peet's and the Dunhuang Museum together.

The two drinks Peet's launched this time were inspired by Dunhuang's local specialty, Li Guang apricot, combining local characteristics with auspicious meaning. Some consumers said that although they knew drinking it would not really make their wishes come true, they were still willing to pay and give it a try for the sake of the blessing: "Drinking this cup in the New Year brings good fortune."

However, just after receiving the drink from the staff and before they even had time to take a photo, more than half of the cream top had already collapsed. Worse still, the melted cream mixed with the coffee liquid and ran down the side of the cup, making both takeaway cups and dine-in cups dirty and seriously affecting the consumer experience.

Looking at the actual new Peet's product in front of them and then comparing it with the poster on the wall, netizens could not help but complain: "The difference is really not just a tiny bit," "I expected there would be a gap, but I didn't expect the gap to be that big," "One is the genuine version at 99, the other is 9.9 with free shipping," "You can't say this is exactly the same as the picture—it's practically completely unrelated."

According to Peet's ordering mini-program, the cream top for both new drinks is an optional add-on, but consumers who want to try something new or take a photo to remember it naturally expect to receive a drink almost identical to the one on the promotional poster. If they order the same hot drink as shown on the poster, what they get is only a rapidly melting cream top. Apart from looking unattractive, the melted cream top also easily causes the liquid in the cup to overflow, creating a mess and ruining a good mood along with it.

Drinks with a cream top generally share a common problem—they cannot be made as hot drinks. Whether it is Peet's, Luckin, or other brands that have launched cream-topped products, they all inevitably encounter complaints that the real thing does not match the picture. Therefore, some netizens suggested that when brands release posters, they should avoid using photos of hot drinks with added cream top, so as to avoid the huge disconnect between the buyer's photo and the seller's photo.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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