Chatime: What drives its success?

I am pretty sure most of you have heard this buzz going around with this newly opened chain of franchises called Chatime. To those who have not, well shame on you because you have obviously been living under a rock! Anyway, Chatime's core product is their none other than thier Bubble Tea which originated all the way from Taiwan (apparently the country said to have the best bubble tea on earth).

The brand started in 2008 and goes about its tagline: Good Tea Good Time. In just a few short years, it has gained its presence not only in Taiwan but in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia and lately Malaysia.

Now, take a look at this picture.......


This was the queue of people waiting for their "Chatime" drinks on a Sunday afternoon @ The Gardens Mall. Word has it that the crowd is similar on weekday lunch times as well. [Side note: Upon ordering & paying for your drink at the counter, you get a receipt with a waiting number on it (like in banks) and you wait for your number to be called to collect your drink]. When I was there, I had to wait 30 numbers for my bubble tea! Now is this madness or what?!


So, what drives this booming success of the Chatime brand? In a short span of 3 months this name that is currently available at 7 locations in KL/PJ & Penang (click for location) is well known among us..especially the youths.


The answer is simple.



The power of WORD OF MOUTH and SOCIAL MEDIA.



Word of mouth and social media comes hand in hand. If you like something, you post it on Facebook, tweet about it, blog about it..and then someone comments on your post, or retweet it or share that blog entry on Facebook, Twitter or on their own blog...and the whole process repeats itself over and over again. The more people commenting, posting & tweeting about something, the more hype it creates. And the fact that you see your friends checking into Chatime on Foursquare so freaking often instills some form of curiosity towards the brand as well...Then you start asking people who actually have been there, and they'll tell you how awesome it is..then you start developing strong urges to try it because if everyone is talking about it, it should be good right? Well, that is quite right. Positive word of mouth is the best way to promote your brand, apart from it being the most cost effective way as well. This is the very same reason why many companies are jumping on the social media bandwagon these days and the best part is, it actually works!

The franchise owners of Chatime Gardens personally making drinks for their customers on a busy Sunday afternoon.

Here's a little pointer to all new brands out there, if you want to get your brand noticed, all you need is a simple mathematical equation:

FACEBOOK + TWITTER + FOURSQUARE + BLOGGERS = WORD OF MOUTH

Ok fine, that wasn't math but you get my drift!

Oh, of course you got to make sure that your product/service is actually good to begin with because you DO NOT want an inverse reaction to happen (Read: Negative W-O-M) which will probably spread faster than wildfire in the social media world (ie: the Steven Corner boycott case). Look at Steven's Corner (OUG branch) now, it can never get back to it's former glory days...despite how good the food is.

Anyway, back to the story....

Top 5 recommenders - I have yet to try all of the flavours yet but I am definately planning to visit Chatime many many more times to come! Blogging about it is making me crave for it already :(



Here's 2 of the 4 types of drinks I tried so far. On the left is the Roasted Milk Tea with pearls and on the right is the Brown Rice Green Tea. These two are the best I've tried so far =) Despite their funky names (and God knows what ingredients, though i suspect there must be coccaine in it) it is pretty awesome. I have definately became a Bubble Tea convert thanks to them. Planning to get my hands on the Passion Fruit QQ and Strawberry Pudding next!


Till then!