As soon as Cudi co-branded, consumers were angry.
Judging from the recent joint activities between Cudi and IPs such as "The Legend of Zhen Huan", "Love Bear" and "Spy Playing Home", many consumers who rushed to the surrounding area were angered by Cudi's operations such as either not taking the initiative to give it or being out of stock, and even having quality problems.
Some netizens who went to buy Cudi because of "Spy Playing Home" said: Coco milk tea has been co-branded IP, and when you go to Cudi, you will pull your crotch like this, and you won't be able to copy it?
Angry consumers generally complain to the store, but in fact, the affiliate also has a hard time.
On Xiaohongshu, there have been two associates in a row who have "written" Cudi to face up to management problems and give associates a way out. But Cudi's response seems to have been to make the post and the poster's account "disappear naturally".
Judging from the recent co-branded activities of Cudi, the feedback from consumers is mostly focused on: buying co-branded products as required, but not taking the initiative to give them to the relevant peripherals;The quality of the surrounding products is poor and the style is incomplete;Some stores have changed the purchase rules of co-branded products without permission, just to force consumers who want to buy two drinks in the surrounding area.
Just looking at the three recent joint activities between Cudi and "The Legend of Zhen Huan", "Love Bear" and "Spy Playing Home", basically consumers in all regions of the country have complained on social platforms, bought co-branded products but didn't even take the initiative to give them a matching cup sleeve or paper bag. In some stores, consumers will give it if they want it strongly, but in some stores, consumers will get the reply that they have not ordered.
That is to say, many stores do not give co-branded peripheralsThe core reason is that Cudi did not provide sufficient material security to the associates. If the associate can't order the goods, they can only not give it, and if they order few goods, they can only "deduct and search" it
The problem of material shortage has existed since the beginning of Cudi's store, but now Cudi has opened more than 6,000 stores, and the associated partners are still suffering from material shortages.
Some consumers who have paid attention to multiple issues of co-branding and are annoyed by the current situation of frequent shortages even directly said;If you can't do it well, don't do co-branding, what is the difference between this degree and deceiving consumers?
In addition to being out of stock, there are also quality problems with the co-branded peripheral products.
Cudi's joint name with "Spy Playing Home", some netizens saidPrinting on cup sleeves, paper bags, and busts is not clear enough. And because Coco Milk Tea has done a joint event with "Spy Playing Home" before, with the material comparison of Coco Milk Tea, Cudi's products are not enough to see.
Of course, that's not the worst.
There are Cudi associates or store staff who "confess" in Xiaohongshu that there will be rules for co-branded materials when buying drinks and snacks, straightIn accordance with the operation of "all snacks are off the shelves", consumers can only buy two drinks for the sake of co-branded peripherals, even so, "some stores do not note that they will not give two glasses".
The question arises, how did Cudi deal with it?
Some consumers who have complained said that the feedback is that "the company does not require that the co-branded cup must be used";There is even more arrogance, after the consumer ** gave feedback to the customer service, he received the treatment** but was scolded by the store manager, emphasizing".I bought coffee and peripherals, cup sleeves and bags were gifts, and if I had it, I didn't have itYou shouldn't be unreasonable.
Cudi's frequent co-branding, in essence, is that Cudi's products are not strong enough, and they can only rely on co-branding to increase the number of cups, so many consumers are just "buying and returning pearls" for peripheral products. Even so, Cudi does not have qualified ** chain management capabilities to ensure a good experience for consumers. The way the problem was dealt with after it arose also exposed the management problems of Cudi, but all the consequences were borne by the associates.
Some affiliates have already begun to choose to "cut the meat and exit". According to the data on the official website of Jihai Brand Monitoring, Cudi only monitored the number of store closures in the period from October 22 to November 30, and the number of closed stores reached 242.
Even if the affiliate "makes the above statement" or chooses to "get off and stop loss", Cudi still "goes its own way" and continues to run wildly according to the ambitious goal of "opening 10,000 stores by the end of 2025". Because, reality no longer allows Cudi to stop.
The scale has reached more than 6,000 stores, and Cudi still does not have the upstream first-class merchants that can work closely with them. It is precisely because of the frequent replacement of the first business at the end of the chain, and the worse the change, that it will lead to the shortage of various raw materials and materials in the store all year round.
Some affiliates have long broken the news that Cudi is often unable to negotiate long-term cooperation, resulting in frequent replacement of first-class merchants, so there are always various raw materials and materials out of stock in stores. There was a period of time when Cudi's thick breasts were out of stock, just because the new ** business did not negotiate.
Can't talk about a suitable businessman, Cudi itself is not able to promote the construction of its own ** chain base as scheduled.
In July this year, Cudi Coffee announced that the East China ** chain base landed in Dangtu, Anhui Province, and will be officially put into operation in the second half of the year. In November, Cudi held a signing ceremony for the international first-chain base project in Wuhu, Anhui Province, and established the second self-owned first-chain project in Wuhu Free Trade Zone.
However, Li Yingbo, chief strategy officer of Cudi, said at the end of November that the operation of the East China ** chain base was postponed to early 2024.
Cudi announced the construction of the ** chain, originally to prove its strength to the market, can support the speed and scale of the rollout, and stabilize the previous associates.
But this urgent matter was still postponed by Cudi and he was "slapped in the face", and the key reason may be that Cudi's cash flow cannot support his dream.
Cudi's founding team is the "former Luckin financial fraud team" headed by Lu Zhengyao, and it is burdened with such a black history, which makes it difficult for it to obtain a "blood bag" in the capital market. Therefore, Cudi relied on pulling associates to join in from the beginning and attract social funds to realize the coffee dream. But Cudi is busy expanding its scale, and franchisees don't make money, so they can only rely on the "wool out of the sheep" method to subsidize franchisees. In this vicious circle, Cudi's cash flow began to have problems as early as the first half of this year. A blogger broke the news that Cudi began to settle with ** merchants through bank acceptance bills in June.
If you can't raise capital, you have to subsidize the associates, and you have to support the ** chain of painting cakes, and the "not rich" Cudi wants to continue to support the ** of more than 6,000 stores.
Cudi's store opening speed can be called "unprecedented and unprecedented". It's just that in order to achieve the scale of 10,000 stores, there is no Cudi that can be called a popular product now, and even if there is a subsidy policy, the affiliates have reached the point where it is unsustainable. Some Cudi associates reported that there are only 100 cups per day, and even the number of daily orders is less than 20.
In this case, Luckin has increased subsidies for affiliates. If Cudi wants to stabilize the affiliates and give them more confidence in this cold winter, they need to come up with more powerful subsidies to ensure that the affiliates still have business. However, with Cudi's profitability and financial strength, the subsidy game is becoming more and more difficult to parry.
Cudi may also have a premonition that he is taking too big a step, so he launched the tea brand Tea Cat and prepared a way back for himself.
But what about the more than 6,000 affiliates that are stuck in sunk costs?