Marketing promotion: Starbucks cat claw cup becomes a hit, is it hunger marketing at work?

As the main body in the social system, people seem to have one thing in common: they flock to others, that is, they follow the herd mentality. As individuals, people seem to have a problem: curiosity and jealousy that cannot be changed!

The Starbucks cat claw cup has become a big hit, from the first diary about the cat claw cup on Xiaohongshu, to the high traffic of the cat claw cup on Douyin, to the continued fermentation on Starbucks official Weibo. The sudden popularity has led to crazy sales and snap-up of the product. Some people even queued up all night just to own such a cup. This is not common. It may have happened with Apple and Xiaomi phones in previous years, but this is just a cup.

As a spectator, I was a little confused when I saw this "spectacle". My first thought was that Starbucks' hunger marketing was pretty good. Starbucks’ official Weibo account released such a message early this morning, which is worth pondering.

Thank you friends for your love for our new product #cat claw cup# in the cherry blossom season. We are sorry that we cannot let everyone have a "cat", but this is by no means the so-called "hunger marketing".

Why is it called the Holy Grail War?

The Holy Grail War was originally a concept that appeared in the Fate series such as "Fate/stay night" and "Fate/Zero" produced by TYPE-MOON. The battle for the "Holy Grail" that can grant the holder's wish is the Holy Grail War in a broad sense.

A trial video uploaded by a Douyin user named "Wuxi Starbucks Partner" became popular and was later promoted on Weibo. Many netizens fought to get such a cat claw cup, so some friends joked that the scramble for Starbucks cat claw cups was the Holy Grail War.

Netizens began to forward the message crazily: This is not a cup, this is the Holy Grail War, it is the blood of the loser and the trophy of the winner.

Whether Starbucks admits to its hunger marketing or not, it has become popular.

It can be seen from the Baidu Index that starting from February 27, the keywords "Starbucks" and "cat claw cup" have soared, and the search volume of the combined keyword "Starbucks cat claw cup" has soared to 36,354 times, more than twice the search volume of the "Starbucks" brand name of 16,727.

On Sina Weibo, the topic "Starbucks cat claw cup" has been read 81.842 million times and discussed 55,000 times, while the topic "cat claw cup" has been read 51.939 million times and discussed 70,000 times.

On Douyin, the topic of "Cat's Paw Cup" has been played 6.021 million times, on Xiaohongshu, there are 3,146 notes on "Cat's Paw Cup", and there are 2,582 diaries on "Starbucks Cat's Paw Cup".

The above data is as of the time of publication

Judging from the data, Starbucks cat claw cup is really popular, and various platforms have performed well. Users are actively generating content without any compensation. Now Starbucks' planners deserve some extra credit.

Why is Starbucks cat claw cup so popular?

We say that the Starbucks cat claw cup is very popular, but the strange thing is that there was not much screen-sweeping content on WeChat Moments and WeChat official accounts. Maybe only a few brand-related official accounts were interested in this "cup".

On the Internet, although the earliest content about the cat claw cup appeared on Xiaohongshu around February 18 and on Weibo around the 20th, it did not receive much attention. The search keywords given by merchants selling cat claw cups on Taobao are, for example: "Starbucks cat scratching cup 2019 Sakura limited edition cat claw cup Starbucks glass cup Douyin same style pink Sakura cup".

We can learn that the cat claw cup became popular on Douyin. It should be noted that the number of Douyin users currently exceeds 1 billion. After seeing the business opportunities, these Taobao products followed the trend and their selling prices at that time were similar to those of Starbucks and were not sky-high.

01 Product level

It is no exaggeration to say that in this age of "looks", whether you admit it or not. Men look at you women, women look at men, and of course there are other things as well. The cups launched by Starbucks have a characteristic - high appearance value that is highly recognized by the public. The design of the cat claw cup is also very thoughtful, using double-layer pink glass, and both the outer shell and the inner wall are pink. Therefore, no matter whether tea, milk or other liquids are poured into the cup, they will appear red, which greatly satisfies the users' insatiable curiosity. Such an interesting cup can easily resonate with users whether it is placed in the younger version of Xiaohongshu or Douyin.

In addition, why is it called the "cat's paw cup"? Because the shape of the inside of the cup is very strange, like a cat's paw. The creative cups that are available to the public are somewhat different. Most of them have a lot of work done on the outer wall, such as Chinese paintings, texts, etc. Such a unique and innovative product is bound to hit the hearts of many girls.

At the same time, the cat claw cup accurately grasps the psychology of current consumers. Cats and cherry blossoms, the mainstream elements of Starbucks this season, all demonstrate the ambition to capture the young groups. You can see a lot of videos about cats on Tik Tok and Huoshan, with a lot of shares and comments. In addition, the celebrity cats in the Forbidden City have left a deep impression on young TV viewers. For many young people in cities, they are busy with work and have no time for personal emotional development, so a cat is increasingly becoming their emotional sustenance.

02 Brand level

At the beginning, I proposed a keyword called "rush to it", which is a derogatory word in itself, so I put it in double quotation marks. From the perspective of the brand, this is the trend force generated by the consumer on the brand. If from the perspective of the brand, it is the centripetal force generated by the brand on the consumer. The stronger the centripetal force, which we can simply understand as the emotional value of consumers, the higher the brand premium will be.

Take Starbucks as an analogy: for the same coffee, if you compare non-branded coffee with Starbucks, you may be willing to spend a few dozen dollars more to buy Starbucks coffee. In fact, they are both consumed and the taste is not much different. However, there is an emotional value in it, which is determined by the consumer's consumption psychology.

Because of this consumer psychology, you must shape your brand into an image that is superior to other brands in the minds of consumers. With this image, brand premium becomes a natural thing. This is also the reason why Starbucks dares to sell it at 199 yuan per piece.

03 Marketing

Whether Starbucks official Weibo admits it or not, it has indeed engaged in hunger marketing, whether intentionally or unintentionally, for example:

1. Starbucks launches limited edition themed cups during the cherry blossom season. Please note that they are limited edition.
2. Starbucks began to implement the first-come, first-served rule with no restrictions on who gets what.

This is essentially about managing a sense of hunger! Through online explosion (TikTok video) → offline cooperation (bidding for the deal) → online hot search (Holy Grail War).

This is a rhythmic event marketing method that creates the illusion of supply exceeding demand. This is very similar to the three states we usually have when eating, namely "a little hungry", "hungry" and "starving".

I will just mention one here: “A little hungry” – demand (constantly strengthened) – online explosion

A little hungry? What kind of mental state does this correspond to for our customers? Everyone understands the mood and psychology of seeing this Starbucks cat claw cup video on TikTok and commenting in the comment section. One is a spontaneous content promotion, the other is a spontaneous expression of one's own needs, "seeking commonality", "seeking novelty" and "seeking beauty", which is very similar to what I said at the beginning, "innate curiosity and jealousy that cannot be changed".

What Starbucks needs to do is to grasp this demand, and then combine it with the selling points of the product, constantly shape it, constantly promote it, and constantly strengthen the customers' desire to buy the product, so that they will have an urge to buy the product and finally achieve the purchase.

I still have to complain here: jealousy is a human bad nature. If you can get something that others can't get, you will inexplicably feel that you are better than others, and be happy for others' loss. So the less something there is, the more people will fight for it. If there is an abundant supply of goods and everyone can have them, many people will not feel superior.

04 Market

Of course, the popularity of the cat claw cup this time is inseparable from the scalpers, which is also what we think is caused by "hunger marketing". Scalpers certainly understand the economic principle of supply exceeding demand. Their prices are determined not by cost but by the relationship between supply and demand. When demand exceeds supply, prices rise.

They also understand, “Wow, you also have this internet-famous cup! It’s so rare”; “My boyfriend stayed up late to queue up to buy it for me!”... They understand all these human desires, not to mention the profit margins involved. Even though the price of the cat claw cup on Taobao is much higher than 199 yuan, the transaction volume is still large, which led to a news event.

This is why Starbucks fans really like this cup. Most people's expectations were not met, which challenged user stickiness and loyalty.

05 Coffee-derived cup culture

Since the launch of the first limited edition red Christmas cup in 1997, the "cup culture" developed by Starbucks based on coffee has gradually been loved by consumers and fans. At one point, more and more fans even developed a hobby and habit of collecting Starbucks cups.

Therefore, the enthusiasm caused by the rush to buy cat claw cups is ultimately due to the cup culture that Starbucks has been operating for many years. From paper cups to mugs, Starbucks has turned small cups into big business.

The cat claw cup is indeed popular, but I am still skeptical about Starbucks’s hunger marketing strategy, but of course I do not deny its brand value.

I would like to express my opinion on the four words "hunger marketing": whether it will sow disaster for Starbucks or fail to maximize the energy generated by the popularity is still unknown, despite Starbucks' official explanation.

In an era of expansion where material supply exceeds demand, hunger marketing is hooliganism, which is a huge legal and moral loophole.

Source: Qichen Style