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The beverage industry as a whole has not been performing well this year. Many companies have introduced new products to reverse the decline, but the results have been insignificant. Uni-President's new product, Assam Mini Milk Tea, has gradually come into view. This mini milk tea, with its cute and adorable image, entered the market at a premium price. In June, it was tested in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Recently, I saw this legendary cute product in a supermarket, tried it, and thought about why it has been lukewarm for over half a year. There are several reasons.

(1) Old tree blooming new flowers, but the sentiment doesn't match

First, let's talk about the taste. Uni-President launched PET 500ml Assam Milk Tea in October 2009. In September 2014, it was renamed Uni-President Qinglan Assam Milk Tea. The 500ml Assam Milk Tea has a unique taste, with a rich milky flavor and tea aroma, and has been loved by consumers, becoming increasingly popular. This mini version continues the Assam flavor with almost no change; it tastes the same as the 500ml bottled version.

In terms of product positioning, Assam Mini Milk Tea focuses on an emotional appeal, evoking childhood memories and restoring the original flavor of milk tea, aiming for consumers to identify with "Assam Mini Milk Tea = simple milk + tea."

Clearly, Assam Mini Milk Tea is trying to sell nostalgia, but this nostalgia is outdated and lacks novelty. Many products nowadays emphasize returning to simplicity and purity. However, for milk tea, returning to the simplest and most pure childhood seems mismatched. Drinking milk tea as a child was not a frequent occurrence for many people, making it hard to resonate. For example, Mengniu's Pure Zhen milk has developed well in this direction because milk was a common product in childhood, making it easier to evoke consumer resonance.

(2) Vague consumer positioning

Assam Mini Milk Tea's mainstream consumer group is positioned as young and fashionable people aged 18-30. In my view, this age range is quite broad. 18-year-olds are post-95s, while 30-year-olds are post-85s. There is a generation gap between post-90s/post-95s and post-80s/post-85s, and their consumption views differ.

The post-90s and post-95s generation is characterized by strong self-awareness. While they value individuality, entertainment, and enjoying the present, compared to the post-80s' impulsive consumption and strong brand awareness, post-90s consider both price and quality, being shrewd and pragmatic "economic agents."

When consuming, they evaluate whether a product is worth its price from multiple dimensions: price, quality, appearance, and practicality. Although they also value brands, to them, a brand means the product's overall score must be high. Post-90s perceive quality through brand and price. From another perspective, post-90s and post-95s consumption is quite rational.

Considering price, quality, and appearance, positioning the mini milk tea for the 18-30 age group seems vague. With a premium price of 6-7 yuan, a small 360ml capacity, a fresh and literary design, and PET packaging, overall it feels neither here nor there. It lacks the practicality of the 500ml Assam Milk Tea and the brand personality of Xiao Ming Tong Xue. The only highlight of the mini milk tea might be its cute packaging design, which is fresh and literary, but the actual product feels mediocre. After all, it's PET material, even with a pearlescent effect; it has almost no texture in hand, and the grip is uncomfortable. Overall, the mini milk tea lacks the individuality and uniqueness that post-90s and post-95s seek. If cuteness and literary style are considered different, post-90s would say it's too ordinary and not individuality at all. It also lacks the quality and value that post-80s and post-85s want. The packaging would look childish in the hands of a 25-30-year-old.

Both are new products from Uni-President, but Xiao Ming Tong Xue has done better. Its consumer positioning is very clear: it targets post-90s and post-95s, and its taste, price, packaging design, and promotion all match this positioning.

So I think, given the lack of novelty in taste, and just from packaging, the mini milk tea's two designs (one green, one white) have a fresh and literary style with a warm atmosphere, suitable for literary young women and sweet couples. Therefore, positioning it for 15-25-year-old literary youths might be better, with a focus on women and couples.

(3) High price point

Assam Mini Milk Tea has a single bottle capacity of 360ml, with a mainstream supermarket price of 6 yuan and convenience store retail price of 7 yuan.

In terms of packaging, the mini milk tea uses PET packaging with a pearlescent design. Looking at pictures, it seems high-end, but the actual product doesn't have the expected texture, and the round body is not comfortable to hold.

Additionally, the ingredients are high-end: Australian imported milk, African rooibos tea, and Indonesian coconut milk. The ingredient list shows no milk powder, non-dairy creamer, or artificial flavors.

That is, the high-end positioning of Assam Mini Milk Tea is due to the high quality and value of its packaging and ingredients. But the target group is 18-30-year-olds, for whom the seemingly fancy imported ingredients may not be that important, especially since there is already a 500ml Assam Milk Tea available.

Another important point is that milk tea has long been considered an unhealthy drink. The premium price of 6-7 yuan is a hard hurdle. In supermarkets and convenience stores, 6-7 yuan can buy 1-2 boxes of milk or yogurt. In an increasingly health-conscious environment, consumers are unlikely to easily spend 6-7 yuan on a 360ml milk tea.

With no novelty in taste, why would consumers choose the more expensive but smaller mini milk tea? This is worth considering. After all, milk tea is for drinking, and the most important factors determining sales are taste and matching factors. If the taste is not differentiated, and other added factors cannot support a premium price, the product will remain lukewarm and stuck in the middle.

This situation is similar to Nongfu Spring's Da Nai Cha. When it was launched, it also had black and white versions, priced at 6.5 yuan/320ml, with a high-end banner. Many consumers tried it, but later found the product didn't match the price, and it eventually faded away quietly.

(4) Weak promotion

Assam Mini Milk Tea has been on the market for a few months, but there has been almost no promotional activity. The tie-in with the movie "The Peanuts Movie" (Snoopy) has not been effective.

The weak promotion is inevitable because the product positioning was vague from the start, so the promotion was also vague, and the poor results were expected.

The product emphasizes returning to childhood, simplicity, and purity, but the target group is 18-30-year-old young and fashionable people, and the movie tie-in is "The Peanuts Movie" (Snoopy). These combinations have many contradictions. The Snoopy movie's audience is more likely children and families. Unlike Doraemon, Snoopy's image is not as deeply rooted in Chinese consumers' minds, and the movie is very animated and childish. So when the movie was released, not many 18-30-year-olds would go to see it. If Uni-President intended to use entertainment marketing, this approach clearly missed the mark. Apart from this movie, there have been no major promotional moves, so it's no surprise that the movie tie-in had no effect.

Besides the product itself, pricing, consumer positioning, and promotion, there may be deeper reasons for the mini milk tea's lukewarm performance. Of course, since it has only been on the market for a short time, we don't know what Uni-President's expectations and plans are. Whether this product will be a flash in the pan remains to be seen.

Special reminder: All images used in this article are from the internet. If we have accidentally used your image, please contact us directly.

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