What went wrong with the Manner coffee cat coffee cup drop?

Manner teased a light purple ceramic cup on Xiaohongshu, and collectors expected the giveaway to land within a day or two of the poster, as past campaigns had. The launch did not arrive on schedule: customers set alarms for several nights, refreshed the mini-program repeatedly, and still found no campaign package, while store staff said they had received no notice.

Fans had asked stores in advance and were told the ceramic cups had already been delivered, which raised expectations further. The delay left the sequence of events unclear, and the episode exposed gaps in how the brand communicated the timing of a nationwide merchandise launch to both shoppers and its own outlets.

Manner previously teased a cup giveaway campaign on Xiaohongshu, and the light purple ceramic cup in the accompanying image quickly captured the hearts of many cup enthusiasts. As per usual practice, new merchandise would land on various platforms within a day or two after the official poster was released, with many fans even confirming stock availability with stores in advance, gearing up for the rush. However, this campaign was slow to materialize. Some people set alarms for several consecutive nights to wait, only to come up empty-handed, and store employees also said they had not yet received notice. Was it the weather that delayed the nationwide launch, or was there a problem with brand communication? This article will recount the sequence of events and explore the communication shortcomings Manner exposed during the campaign delay controversy.

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Not long ago, Manner posted a teaser on its official Xiaohongshu account to build hype for the upcoming cup giveaway campaign. The light purple ceramic cup in the post successfully caught the eye of a host of cup collectors with its outstanding looks. Although a previous dark purple version in the same series had drawn complaints from some consumers over cracks in the cup body, merchandise fans were still full of anticipation for this new cup.

Based on the experience fans had summed up in the past, once Manner released promotional posters for merchandise, the next day was often the launch day for the limited-edition campaign. To be safe, some customers even specifically asked staff at Manner stores for information, and the reply they got was that this ceramic cup had already been delivered to stores. For this reason, many netizens speculated that after 11 p.m. that night, the official mini-program and third-party platforms would roll out the new campaign package.

However, to everyone's surprise, the new campaign they had been waiting for did not appear on schedule. Some persistent users even stayed up for several nights in a row, camped in front of their phones and refreshing repeatedly. But even now, the merchandise package they had long awaited still cannot be found on the mini-program.

This unusual situation left many fans baffled. They recalled that in the past, as long as the official account released promotional materials and related posters, new merchandise would usually be listed across all channels within a day or two. Never before had it been like this time, with still no news after three or four days.

Some netizens who had lost patience turned to employees at nearby stores to ask about progress. The staff said the stores had not yet received notice of the new campaign and advised consumers to refer to information released by the official WeChat account. Some staff also revealed that this limited-edition campaign had been confirmed not to launch this week, so customers need not continue waiting around.

As for the reason for the delay, some speculated that the powerful Typhoon Kong-rey had affected campaign promotion work at some stores in Shanghai and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region. In order to launch the ceramic cup merchandise simultaneously nationwide, the official side had to postpone the campaign, but no specific campaign date has been announced yet.

In response, fans who had waited several nights in vain and come up empty-handed said bluntly that they had "been tricked again!" and "tricked for two days — I refreshed once at 11 and 12 every night, and there was nothing." They said that ever since the official account released news of the new campaign, they had set alarms to wait for the merchandise to go online, only to ultimately receive news of the postponement, prompting them to sigh that "all my expectations were misplaced."

Although this was only a limited-edition campaign and its launch time was forced to be postponed due to sudden weather conditions, Manner remained silent throughout and never made any explanation about the delay, leaving expectant users waiting anxiously and ultimately able to learn what had happened only through rumors online.

Netizens believe that in this matter, Manner's approach will not only make many users mistakenly feel that they have "been strung along by the official side" and breed dissatisfaction, but may also have a negative impact on the promotion of subsequent campaigns and the brand's image.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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