Manner x HR Helena Collaboration Draws Comparisons to 'High-Profile Marriage' Among Netizens

Manner Coffee x HR Helena Rubinstein Collaboration: A Case Study in Brand Partnership

On June 24th, Manner Coffee officially announced a collaboration with HR Helena Rubinstein, L'Oréal Group's top luxury beauty brand, to launch a co-branded drink called "A Cup of Green Revival." The new beverage features limited-edition green packaging, with the tagline "Empowered with self-healing strength, embrace confusion, revive overnight. Engaging in youth dialogue with Gen Z consumers through a全新 model, showcasing vibrant youth with green radiance."

However, the launch of this collaboration naturally attracted comments from netizens. Some netizens described this collaboration event as a marriage between a high-ranking official's daughter and a factory manager's son, a comment that received high praise and agreement from other netizens.

Brand Positioning Misalignment

As Gen Z consumers, consumption trends are primarily focused on cost-effectiveness. While HR's Green Power Serum is the most entry-level product from the brand, positioned for anti-inflammatory, barrier repair, soothing, and moisturizing, its price is not low—50ml costs 1580 yuan on the official website, which is not sustainable for ordinary working professionals.

Moreover, this Manner collaboration product is a matcha milk drink without coffee, which holds little appeal for coffee consumers.

HR's brand positioning is high-end skincare for affluent consumers, so its core users are people with strong spending power on skincare. Meanwhile, Manner is positioned as affordable specialty coffee, with core users being those who want boutique coffee but still value cost-effectiveness. From a positioning perspective, the two brands find it difficult to achieve resonance.

Execution Challenges and Consumer Feedback

Although there was advance promotion for the event, it failed to effectively drive sharing and transmission between the two consumer bases (to be honest, the writer only learned about it through browsing Xiaohongshu...). Even six days into the event, the overall response was lackluster. Additionally, the official event announcement was unclear, leading many netizens to comment: "If you can't afford to play, don't play."

The official event announcement stated that before June 25th, by following Manner's official account and sharing this post to WeChat Moments, then wearing green clothing to the store on June 25th to place an order, customers could receive one free limited-edition co-branded drink, with each customer limited to one participation. However, the post never clearly indicated that this "dress green for free drink" event was time-limited and ended at 17:00... This led to many people who had to work on weekends and planned to participate after work finding themselves disappointed.

From June 24th to July 15th, customers who purchased large-sized drinks at full price could participate in the hidden cup sleeve activity. Those who drew the hidden cup sleeve with the question "What is freedom?" could exchange it for a co-branded limited edition coffee cup; if they received the super-hidden "What is freedom?" cup sleeve with a unique code, they could exchange it for a 50ml HR Green Power Serum worth 1580 yuan.

However, some netizens reported that after drawing cup sleeves at certain stores, staff were unwilling to provide the co-branded packaging bags, stating that customers who drew cup sleeves couldn't also take the packaging bags—it was one or the other... But there were no such rules mentioned in the official event announcement.

Other netizens reported that some store baristas didn't remind customers about this activity, only casually handing them a cup sleeve when customers asked why they didn't receive one. Meanwhile, the text on the cup sleeves was completely unobscured, like the emperor's new clothes—everything was so openly displayed...

On the 24th, before Manner stores even opened, hidden cup sleeves started being sold on Xianyu, with cup sleeves originally worth 158 yuan for cup exchange being sold for 188 yuan... This raised questions about how Manner could ensure their employees didn't draw cup sleeves in advance. Some netizens also reported that some stores didn't proactively provide cup sleeves, depriving customers of even the chance to participate in the lottery...

On June 27th, due to an activity where customers could receive a 3ml Green Power Serum sample set when purchasing co-branded drinks through the mini-program starting at 12:30 daily, many consumers couldn't normally use Manner's mini-program to order other products. Manner subsequently issued a response: "Due to the overwhelming response to the MANNER x HR Helena Rubinstein collaboration, our servers are under emergency repair," and apologized to consumers who couldn't use the mini-program normally.

On June 28th, Manner also stated on their official Weibo that to apologize, the activity would start at 12:00, hoping customers could stagger their ordering times. However, many netizens still reported that the system was sluggish, and other drinks still couldn't be ordered normally. By the time they could place orders, their lunch break was over, diminishing the purchasing experience for ordinary consumers.

Marketing Analysis and Outcomes

Regarding this collaboration, marketing professionals analyzed that it was actually a win-win: for Manner, HR is a high-end brand, and this collaboration could elevate Manner's brand level and strengthen audience understanding of its extreme cost-effectiveness. For HR, this collaboration was "achieving great results with small investment," leveraging Manner's store distribution to let more mass consumers learn about the brand. Through sample distribution activities, they could stimulate more potential users and attract Gen Z consumers to "get hooked."

However! The haphazard event copywriting, unclear core information, and weak connection between the co-branded product's tone and both brands prevented consumers from understanding the intention behind this activity. Cross-industry collaboration emphasizes bringing traffic to each other—you have the audience I need, I have the audience you need, expanding and integrating with each other to ultimately achieve conversion. Meanwhile, both parties convey the same story, creating resonance among consumers and expanding brand voice in a short time.

Although this collaboration could make HR's Green Power Serum more "down-to-earth," and Manner is a brand that white-collar professionals purchase daily, there is some overlap in their target audiences from this perspective. However, due to unclear event rules and Manner's backend technology failing to handle the situation, various problems emerged right from the start of the collaboration, resulting in more criticism than praise from netizens.

The co-branded drink itself was an ice cream-flavored matcha milk with high sweetness. Many netizens commented that people who truly care about their skin condition wouldn't drink such high-sugar beverages. Even though HR distributed samples, a single experience couldn't effectively demonstrate results, and very few people would actually purchase after using them.

The text on this collaboration's cup sleeves was also quite heart-wrenching... "Is infatuation true love?" "Do social anxiety sufferers envy social butterflies?" "When exactly does childhood end?" "Is makeup self-deception?" "Want to zone out." "What is freedom?" It just... does this align with the collaboration's theme "A Cup of Green Revival"? These are all melancholic phrases that don't convey the vitality of returning to youth.

This is probably also why everyone's complaints became traffic...

Credits and Additional Information

Image source: Internet

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473