Luckin Coffee's Hunger Marketing: Haoguai Coffee Beans Sold Out in Two Days! Is Luckin's Haoguai 5.0 Coffee Bean Dirty Delicious?

Recently, the Luckin Coffee Fei Gui SOE incident has been causing quite a stir. The reason is that on the day Fei Gui SOE was launched, Li Guoqing posted videos questioning Luckin Coffee's monopoly on multiple social media platforms. The next day, netizens complained online: they couldn't get Fei Gui SOE at all! Most stores showed that the drink was sold out.

Luckin also issued a statement the day after the questioning video was released (that is, on January 6): "Thank you Teacher Li for your concern and attention + 'reverse promotion'. Here's an explanation: over 90 tons of premium Fei Gui beans were acquired through overseas bidding (direct purchase from origin), suggesting upstream monopoly is a bit too intimidating 😱 Luckin's premium coffee (Little Black Cup) has been around for 2 years, besides Fei Gui, we also have Yunnan, Yirgacheffe... We use over 5,000 stores to popularize premium coffee, which should be a good thing for the industry. Also a friendly reminder: premium coffee is not elite coffee, good beans are fundamental; Dirty doesn't need latte art."

However, this move makes it hard not to suspect that Luckin and Li Guoqing are "working in concert," and that Luckin is actually engaging in scarcity marketing with an attitude of "Heh, I'm just playing! I'll sell out the Fei Gui SOE series drinks as soon as they get popular, making you curious and getting you hooked."

Luckin's Response to Fei Gui SOE Shortage

Regarding the issue of Fei Gui SOE series being completely sold out, Luckin issued a statement on January 11: "Fei Gui series has recently been sold out in some cities and stores. The purchased 90+ tons of Fei Gui beans were consumed nearly half in just 10 days. The second batch of beans is expected to arrive in some cities tomorrow (January 12), but there are indeed only 90+ tons of Fei Gui 5.0 available this season." (Although I feel there's something awkward about this statement, one key point can be seen: there are only 90+ tons of Fei Gui 5.0, and once sold out, it's gone. The 80+ tons of Fei Gui promised to be purchased in 2022 under the new agreement is just a promise and hasn't been completed yet.) However, in times of such tense shipping and container shortages, Luckin's directly purchased Fei Gui beans arrived right on schedule - large companies are indeed very efficient.

At the same time, the statement also mentioned that even if Fei Gui SOE is gone, we still have Yirgacheffe SOE! And in case Yirgacheffe SOE is also gone, we will launch new premium SOE products, so don't worry everyone!

Netizens' Reactions and Doubts

Regarding the key point in the statement that nearly half of Fei Gui 5.0 coffee beans were consumed in 10 days, netizens couldn't help but laugh, exclaiming "people really can drink a lot." At the same time, some netizens expressed doubts: every time Luckin launches popular new products, they run out of stock in less than two days. The last time they ran out of stock was the coconut latte, saying they ran out of coconut milk, and the marketing department went to Hainan to pick coconuts and squeeze coconut juice... This time Fei Gui ran out of stock, did the marketing department go to grow coffee beans?? Hmm... calculating with my fingers, it's too late for the marketing department to grow coffee beans, at most they could go pick coffee beans... Even if! There's still time, it has nothing to do with Fei Gui 5.0 coffee beans 🤔

About Fei Gu Coffee Bean Series

Each year from October to February of the following year is the new harvest season for all Ethiopian coffee beans. That is, Ethiopian coffee beans harvested from October 2021 to February 2022 are 2022 new season coffee beans, and Fei Gui coffee beans produced during this period are the new 6.0 series. According to the latest news from Coffee Workshop, the 2022 new season Fei Gui 6.0 series coffee beans are expected to arrive in China as early as March this year.

Due to extremely tight shipping in the past two years and a severe shortage of containers, after booking a container, shipping to China takes at most half a month, but when a container can be booked is unknown. After all, the degree of container shortage in these two years has reached a level where money can't even book one.

Understanding the Fei Gui X.0 Series

How are the Fei Gui X.0 series distinguished? Since coffee beans are agricultural products, the coffee flavor each year will vary with factors such as climate, soil, and environment. To distinguish from the Fei Gui coffee beans that won first place in TOH in 2017, DW Company added X.0 to each year's Fei Gui coffee beans. The 2018 season launched Fei Gui 2.0, the 2019 season launched Fei Gui 3.0 & 3.1, the 2020 season launched Fei Gui 4.0, the 2021 season launched 5.0 and added the Fei Gui small bean series (not within the X.0 series range), so the one launched in 2022 will be named Fei Gui 6.0.

Image source: Internet, Weibo

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