What does cramming ambassador materials reveal about coffee and tea shops?
A ChaPanda employee was filmed hunched over the counter studying color-printed pages before the brand's official announcement of its global premium ambassador, Cheng Yi. Staff are reportedly required to memorize the materials, and stores that leak early face fines or contract cancellation, with watermark photos returned every night. The scene mirrors exam cramming, but the stakes are commercial secrecy rather than a grade.
The tight control is widely read as a response to a previous failed collaboration between Goodme and Love and Deepspace. Some consumers argue the effort would be better spent on drink recipes and technique, since beverage quality drives repeat purchases. The episode raises a familiar question in the industry: how much of a shop's attention goes to marketing versus the cup.
A scene of cramming before an exam—unexpectedly, it can also be seen in a milk tea shop. Recently, a netizen photographed a ChaPanda employee hunched over the counter, studying a stack of color-printed materials, muttering to themselves while occasionally looking up to recite from memory. Upon investigation, it turned out that this involves ChaPanda's upcoming official announcement of its global premium brand ambassador, Cheng Yi. It's not unusual for brands to have employees familiarize themselves with ambassador information in advance, but at the same time, they strictly prohibit early leaks, with material control so tight that uncut watermark photos must be sent back every night, and violating stores even face financial penalties and contract cancellation. Many interpret this as having learned from the disastrous collaboration between Goodme and Love and Deepspace. However, some consumers believe that instead of spending so much effort memorizing materials, it would be better to thoroughly study the recipes and techniques, since beverage quality is the fundamental factor for repeat purchases.
When we were in school, before every major exam, everyone would race against time to cram desperately. We thought that after graduation and starting work, we could bid farewell to those days of last-minute cramming, but working people have found that the "major exams" in the workplace are still unavoidable.
Recently, a netizen uploaded a video on social media, saying they saw an employee studying hard at a ChaPanda store. In the footage, the employee is leaning over the counter with their head down, fully focused on a stack of color-printed materials in their hands, fingers tracing the lines of text while muttering to themselves. Even funnier, after reading silently for a while, the employee looks up to try recalling from memory, clearly trying to engrave the material content into their brain.
After this post titled "ChaPanda Employees Are Cramming" was published, it quickly attracted netizens' attention and discussion. Some sharp-eyed netizens noticed that one page of the materials in the employee's hands had a headline reading "ChaPanda Global Ambassador," and even more curious friends directly forwarded the video to employees they knew to inquire about the content.
All clues point in the same direction—ChaPanda's upcoming global premium brand ambassador, Cheng Yi. As a currently popular young actor in mainland China, Cheng Yi has a large number of loyal fans behind him. So even though ChaPanda hasn't officially announced it yet, Cheng Yi's fans have already been spreading the news on Weibo super topics and Xiaohongshu that their idol has secured a tea beverage brand endorsement.
In recent years, celebrity endorsements have become a routine strategy for new tea beverage brands. Many brands will strengthen employee training in advance, letting employees understand information about the brand ambassador and how to incorporate this information into daily service. After all, when facing the ambassador's fans, being able to demonstrate the brand's professionalism and attention to customer needs in a Q&A interaction is a plus for milk tea employees.
However, while ChaPanda distributes materials to let employees learn about the new ambassador in advance, it also mysteriously emphasizes discipline on the other hand, not allowing employees to reveal or privately forward any related content about this endorsement campaign in advance.
As a result, when fans who can't contain their curiosity contact store employees to verify, they only get a uniform response: "Hello, sorry! We haven't received definitive notice on our end yet. For specific information, please follow our official Weibo." Fans then turn to the internet to complain that ChaPanda employees are really tight-lipped.
Not just endorsement information, ChaPanda's management of peripheral materials is also quite strict. An employee revealed that the company stipulates that materials must not be opened upon arrival, and every night stores must send back uncut watermark photos. Once materials are leaked or resold, the store will receive financial penalties, and in serious cases, the contract will be directly canceled, and individual employees will also be held legally responsible.
Some analysts believe that ChaPanda's series of strict regulations on endorsements and peripherals is learning from the disastrous collaboration between Goodme and Love and Deepspace. In June of this year, Goodme's official Weibo posted an apology statement due to imperfect supervision processes, including employees insulting Love and Deepspace players and peripheral material leaks, which brought a terrible pre-experience to the collaborating brand's fans—a textbook-level failure case.
But some netizens feel that instead of having employees spend so much effort memorizing ambassador materials, ChaPanda would be better off using that time to study recipes and techniques more. After all, for consumers, beverage quality is the fundamental factor determining whether they will repurchase from a brand.
Image source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
