What Can Old Instant Coffee Brands Learn from the Xiangpiaopiao Case?

Xiangpiaopiao, the long-established Chinese instant milk tea brand, drew attention after a cup sleeve bearing Chinese and Japanese text criticizing Japan's nuclear-contaminated water appeared on its drinks in a Chinese supermarket in Japan. Live-stream sales rose about 400-fold, the stock hit its daily limit, and netizens praised the brand. Local Japanese supermarkets then denied selling the product.

Media questioned the episode as staged publicity, and the sleeve was removed from shelves on May 8, after which the share price fell back. The storm arrived as instant milk tea made with non-dairy creamer struggles against fresh tea drinks from brands like Heytea and Mixue Bingcheng and shifting health preferences. Xiangpiaopiao's performance had already declined for three straight years, making ready-to-drink products its main pivot.

Xiangpiaopiao, with a cup sleeve printed with Chinese and Japanese bilingual text mocking Japan's nuclear-contaminated water, shot to the top of trending searches within just a few days, saw live-stream sales surge 400-fold, and its stock hit the daily limit at market open, hailed by netizens as the "light of domestic goods." However, the incident soon took a reversal—local Japanese supermarkets denied selling products with the cup sleeve, media questioned it as a staged publicity stunt, the cup sleeve was removed from shelves on May 8, and the stock price subsequently fell back. Behind this "heaven-sent fortune," it reflects the deep anxiety of instant milk tea made with non-dairy creamer amid the rise of freshly-made tea drinks and changing health consumption concepts. The impact of brands like Heytea and Mixue Bingcheng caused Xiangpiaopiao's performance to decline for three consecutive years, making the transition to ready-to-drink products an inevitable choice. This article provides a complete account of the incident and explores the real impact of this traffic storm on the brand's image. Follow Front Street Coffee and savor the ups and downs of the coffee and tea beverage industry together.

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Recently, the long-established domestic milk tea brand Xiangpiaopiao has frequently appeared in trending searches, with related topics drawing attention for several consecutive days, and has been called the "light of domestic goods" by many netizens.

The starting point of this wave of popularity came from a netizen traveling in Japan. The netizen noticed a Xiangpiaopiao beverage on the drink shelf of a Chinese supermarket in Japan. Its appearance was basically the same as the domestic version, but it had an extra cup sleeve printed with Chinese and Japanese bilingual text mocking Japan's nuclear-contaminated water.

This "anti-Japan cup sleeve" quickly sparked netizens' patriotic enthusiasm, and everyone praised the brand for "doing a great job." Later, online rumors claimed that adding the cup sleeve was a personal act by a Xiangpiaopiao employee, but netizens' emotions did not cool down because of this. After the incident fermented, Xiangpiaopiao also posted text and images saying, "Our employees are great!" This official statement made netizens even more excited, and they flooded the Weibo post with likes and comments.

On May 5, the chairman of Xiangpiaopiao personally went to the airport to welcome the employee returning from Japan and called the person a "warrior." That evening, the general manager of Xiangpiaopiao entered the live-stream and announced a reward of 100,000 yuan for the "great employee," expressing the brand's support for the employee's behavior through concrete action.

This series of moves quickly brought Xiangpiaopiao huge traffic. In widely circulated images, the products were snapped up by consumers, and the live-stream's daily sales soared from 2,500 yuan to 1 million yuan, an increase of 400 times. Affected by this, on May 6, Xiangpiaopiao's stock hit the daily limit at market open, enjoying unmatched momentum for a time and successfully breaking out of its niche.

However, the reversal came unexpectedly. Many people spotted suspicious points in the images and questioned whether the "anti-Japan cup sleeve" behavior might be a staged publicity stunt. Subsequently, media asked local Japanese supermarkets to verify whether they sold Xiangpiaopiao products with the cup sleeve, and the other party gave a negative response. In addition, when asked by the media, Xiangpiaopiao also emphasized that adding the cup sleeve was the employee's personal behavior.

Questions kept emerging. Xiangpiaopiao changed the live-stream promotion from "buy now and get the same cup sleeve as the trending topic" to "light of domestic goods," and the "anti-Japan cup sleeve" that sparked heated discussion was also removed from shelves on May 8. On the same day, Xiangpiaopiao's stock price fell, and the surging sales returned to daily average levels amid the debate over staged publicity.

Although this "heaven-sent fortune" stayed in Xiangpiaopiao's hands for only a few days, the incident also brought Xiangpiaopiao and instant milk tea back into the public eye. The development of freshly-made tea drinks and changes in consumers' health and wellness dietary concepts have made milk tea powder made with non-dairy creamer no longer favored by young people, greatly affecting the growth of instant milk tea and making Xiangpiaopiao, the "first Chinese milk tea stock," feel the crisis.

After the rise of freshly-made tea drink brands such as Heytea and Mixue Bingcheng, Xiangpiaopiao experienced three consecutive years of performance decline after 2020, forcing the brand to transform and launch ready-to-drink products that better meet the needs of contemporary consumers. The "anti-Japan cup sleeve" in this incident was placed on Xiangpiaopiao's ready-to-drink products, which caused such products to sell out within just a few days.

The popularity of the "anti-Japan cup sleeve" brought attention and traffic to Xiangpiaopiao, but when doubts about staged publicity arose, what was affected was not only product sales and the company's stock price, but also the image the brand had accumulated over many years. Whether this heaven-sent opportunity is a blessing or a curse for Xiangpiaopiao remains to be seen.

Image source: Internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.