Major coffee chains lure young consumers with K-pop, character goods

[Courtesy of Starbucks Korea]

Major coffee chains in South Korea such as Starbucks and Twosome Place are going all-out to attract young customers by collaborating with various content providers.

Their efforts come as young consumers flock to budget coffee franchises like Mega MGC Coffee and Compose.

According to sources on Sunday, Starbucks Korea is set to unveil collaboration products with SM Entertainment Co.’s boy group NCT from May 30 until July 4.

This exclusive promotion, only available in Korea, will feature beverages reminiscent of NCT, such as the Neo Cool Tasty Plum Fizzio.

In addition to beverages and desserts, a variety of goods including doll keychains and concert bags will be offered to appeal to K-pop fans.

Following its collaboration with the popular cartoon Peanuts last year, Twosome Place is launching its second collaboration for the summer season.

The collaboration includes goods such as cooler bags, embossed mats, and transparent umbrellas depicting characters enjoying their summer vacation.

Korean coffee chain Hollys has also been enjoying popularity with its collaboration product Sesame Street introduced last month.

Since its release, Elmo’s Strawberry Smoothie and Big Bird’s Apple Mango Smoothie have consistently ranked as the top-selling non-coffee products.

Among the goods, keyrings that align with the backpack decoration trend among the young people have become scarce in some stores.

Budget coffee franchises, in the meantime, are also strengthening their consumer touchpoints through collaborations with webtoons and university festivals.

Mega MGC Coffee said that the collaboration with the popular Naver webtoon Maru is a Puppy caused a sold-out frenzy of their cakes and goods.

Within a week of launching the collaboration products, sales of sweet potato latte increased by more than twice the daily average.

Compose Coffee hosted coffee truck events at Korea University and Ewha Womans University during the university festival season.

The coffee seller provided popular drinks like iced Americano, lemonade, and grapefruit-ade for free to customers who installed its mobile application.

According to National Tax Service data, the number of coffee beverage shops reached 96,106 nationwide as of February.