Why Were Luckin Coffee Tengger Stickers Rejected in Stores?
Luckin Coffee's co-branded campaign with singer Tengger has produced an odd result: many customers bought the combo for the meme stickers, yet others took their coffee and left the stickers on the pickup counter. One store collected as many as 20 abandoned stickers in a single day and discarded them as waste, exposing a split between fan demand and everyday consumer interest.
The campaign launched with the song "Coconut Joy Song," written for the Coconut Latte's birthday and played on loop in stores, while Tengger's real-life meme stickers drove fans to order the limited combo. Some consumers found the stickers embarrassing and did not know where to place them, which left stores holding unwanted merchandise and raises questions about how Luckin designs co-branded items.
Luckin Coffee's co-branded campaign with singer Tengger officially launched recently, with "Coconut Joy Song" — created to celebrate the birthday of the Coconut Latte — playing on loop in stores, and the accompanying Tengger real-life meme stickers also sparking a buying frenzy among fans. However, these stickers encountered an unexpected awkwardness at physical stores — many customers took their coffee and left the stickers behind in the pickup area, with one store accumulating as many as 20 unclaimed stickers in a single day. On one hand, fans were frantically placing orders for the stickers; on the other, consumers bluntly said they were "too embarrassing" and they "don't know where to stick them." Why has this co-branded merchandise received such polarized reviews? This article will walk you through the whole story and discuss the gains and losses behind Luckin's co-branding strategy.
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Luckin's co-branded campaign with singer Tengger officially debuted yesterday, and "Coconut Joy Song," created to celebrate the birthday of the Coconut Latte, immediately became the looping background music in stores over the past two days. Tengger's meme stickers, with their striking contrast, also successfully sparked the collecting urge of many Luckin fans, who jokingly said they were "buying stickers and getting coffee for free."
But just today, an employee at a Luckin store posted on social media revealing that the real-life meme stickers included with the combo meal were refused by quite a few customers at the store. After the coffee was taken away, the stickers were left all alone on the pickup counter. One employee discovered during closing inventory yesterday that as many as 20 stickers had been abandoned by customers who purchased the limited-edition combo, and ultimately had to be discarded as waste.
As a singer, Tengger's classic works have a broad popular following. In recent years, he has gained the affection and admiration of the younger generation by covering many popular internet songs and delivering many hilarious performances in film and television works, showing the public the witty and endearing side of this artist.
Luckin invited Tengger to perform "Coconut Joy Song" — on one hand, naturally because they valued his professional skills as a singer; on the other hand, because Tengger's fan base spans all age groups, and he himself comes with topic heat and traffic. Therefore, as soon as the collaboration was announced, it quickly caught the public's attention, and everyone was eager to see what sparks this partnership would create.
Perhaps boosted by the star effect, those fans who "buy the casket for the pearl" decisively placed orders for this wildly quirky sticker after the campaign launched, even buying the co-branded combo multiple times. Some netizens said that after hearing the news, they wanted to buy it, only to find that the gifts at several nearby Luckin stores had already been given out. Some Luckin employees also confirmed that the stickers at their stores were all distributed within a single day.
However, many consumers who are passionate about collecting Luckin stickers said that in the past, they were willing to pay for co-branded stickers because those stickers were cute in design, aesthetically pleasing, and could be used to decorate journals, phone cases, and other personal items — both good-looking and practical.
As for the co-branded meme stickers Luckin launched this time, although they are distinctive and hilariously funny, consumers were left bewildered after getting them, not knowing where to stick them. "When I saw it was this while ordering yesterday, I thought, what use is this? I even considered adding a note saying I didn't want it," "It's too embarrassing, I don't really want it," "So ugly, wherever I stick it, it's an eyesore."
Compared to the stickers given out in previous collaborations with IPs like "Tom and Jerry" and "Line Dog," Luckin's Tengger stickers this time made consumers who prefer comedic styles exclaim "explosive," and also successfully attracted many passersby to place orders and give it a try. But for some Luckin users, although the real-life meme stickers are certainly humorous and witty, it is precisely because of this realism that people find it hard to accept a freebie that is "neither good-looking nor aesthetically decorative."
So those netizens who refused the freebie put their hands together in a prayer gesture, and facing the stickers lying quietly in the trash can, sincerely said: "Teacher Teng, sorry!"
Image source: Xiaohongshu
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