Luckin Coffee: Rise, Fall, and Reinvention — Part 5

The power of the brand

This article is Part 5 of the eight-part chronicle on Luckin Coffee’s rise, collapse, and reinvention. It is the excerpt of a sharing by Luckin Coffee CEO Guo Jinyi in 2024, translated into English here. 

You can also read the other parts of the series here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Aspiring to Become a Brand with the Power of Belief

Our new brand perception is “Luck in Your Hands.” Luck doesn’t just fall from the sky—it requires effort to seize it.

Turning a brand into a belief-driven force is challenging, and we aim to learn from Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola’s brand transcends price segments and demographics—from former U.S. President Donald Trump to cleaning staff, everyone drinks it.

It can be sold for 30 RMB in a five-star hotel or 3 RMB in a rural convenience store, yet the brand always stands tall. No one thinks Coca-Cola is low-end. It consistently sponsors the Olympics, the World Cup, Universal Studios, and more.

Coca-Cola has become a belief, known as the “happiness drink.”

We aspire to achieve the same, but it is a long and challenging journey. We will continue to work towards this goal, and over generations, we believe we will have the opportunity to succeed.

Our brand personality is defined by four key attributes:

1. Professionalism
2. Youthfulness
3. Fashionability
4. Health-consciousness

Health is now the most important pursuit. Many people have commented that Luckin’s coffee is too sweet, and we are actively making adjustments.

That said, coffee is inherently a healthy beverage, widely consumed in longevity hotspots such as Scandinavia and Japan. Coffee is perhaps one of the few addictive products that contribute positively to health—making it an excellent industry to be in.

In the past, we sponsored the Australian Open and launched the famous Sauce-Flavored Latte.

This year, our brand collaborations include partnerships with Black Myth: Wukong and Genshin Impact.

However, our collaboration with Black Myth didn’t generate profits because we underestimated demand, and once the initial stock sold out, it was difficult to replenish in time. As a result, we only gained traffic, not revenue.

Nonetheless, gaining traffic is still valuable.

Learning from that experience, we prepared a larger product lineup for our Genshin Impact collaboration this time, and so far, the results are looking promising.

Customer Value and Social Value Determine How Far a Company Can Go

The extent to which a company can grow and sustain itself depends on customer value and social value.

Customer value refers to the services and products provided to customers, which directly determine the revenue and profit a company can achieve—and ultimately, how long it can survive.

Social value, on the other hand, has two main aspects:

1. Job creation
   • Currently, Luckin Coffee serves over 300 million customers, with 79.85 million monthly active users.
   • We have more than 120,000 employees, along with 75,000 delivery riders serving Luckin.
   • The average age of our workforce (full-time and part-time) is under 25 years old, and we even have six store managers who are just 19 years old.
   • Women account for 60% of our total workforce (full-time and part-time).
2. Tax contributions
   • Our headquarters is located in Xiamen.
   • In 2020 and 2021, we paid around 7 to 8 million RMB in taxes annually, but this year, our tax contribution has neared 500 million RMB.
   • Anta, one of Xiamen’s major companies, contributed 3.2 billion RMB in taxes this year, and we aim to learn from them and follow their lead.

Given the complex international environment that China faces today, our third area of social value is to contribute to the nation on two fronts.

1. On the procurement side:
   • Through our market-driven capabilities, we align with national policies by sourcing raw materials and products from overseas.
   • The coffee and coconut-producing regions we procure from are mainly countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and BRICS nations, including Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Honduras, Panama, Guatemala, and African countries such as Kenya and Rwanda.
2. On the expansion side:
   • Taking Chinese brands global is a long-term and significant mission.
   • The United States has extended its influence worldwide not only through its military and technological power but also through its brands—McDonald’s, KFC, Hollywood, Starbucks, and Disney have all played a role.
   • We aspire for Luckin Coffee, as an everyday consumer beverage, to also enter households across the globe, making its mark as a Chinese brand in international markets.

You can also make reference to the following Momentum Works reports and articles for more:

• Inside Luckin Coffee
• Coffee in Southeast Asia
• Chinese F&B in Southeast Asia
• Quick Commerce in China 2025
• Food delivery in Southeast Asia 5.0