Why have Luckin and Moutai teamed up for a second time?

Chinese baijiu brand Moutai’s collaboration with Chinese coffee chain Luckin was a blockbuster hit in 2023. But does a second collaboration show that when it comes to co-branding, lightning doesn’t strike twice?

In September 2023, Luckin Coffee launched a partnership with Kweichou Moutai, one of the world’s largest spirits companies, selling a baijiu-infused latte for RMB 38 (£4.27) per cup (although discounts usually made it around RMB 19). Despite many being sceptical of the coffee/baijiu mashup, consumers still flocked to Luckin in their millions. According to Luckin, 5.42 million cups of the coffee were sold on the first day of launch, with sales topping RMB 100 million (£11.2 million).

Now, Moutai has teamed up with Luckin again, this time launching a coffee-less chocolate drink that tastes “just like baijiu-filled chocolate”. The collaboration has been created to coincide with the run-up to Lunar New Year, with campaigns featuring Year of the Dragon imagery and slogans like “The First Cup of the Year of the Dragon”.

The timing is apt, as Lunar New Year celebrations are often accompanied by copious amounts of baijiu, and consumers will often shell out for a pricier brand like Moutai (500ml bottles of Moutai typically retail for upwards of RMB 1,500 (£168)) to mark the occasion.

Yet despite the good timing, the collaboration has failed to drum up the massive interest that the first round attracted. As Dao Insights reported, although the Weibo hashtag “Luckin Moutai collaborate again” (瑞幸茅台再联名) attracted 50 million views, it only reached number five on the Hot Search list – the previous collaboration reached the top spot.

It is hard to say why some campaigns go viral in China when others don’t, but it could be that this second campaign lacks the element of surprise and novelty – Moutai has already released a popular baijiu chocolate with Dove, so consumers could already imagine what the fusion of baijiu and chocolate would taste like.

This underlines the importance of keeping co-branded campaigns fresh and exciting and embracing collaborations that push the boundaries of your brand’s values – other examples from the China market in recent years include Gucci x North Face and Mac Cosmetics x Honor of Kings (an online multiplayer game).

These collaborations also reflect the continuing relevance of the “guochao” trend. Guochao, which translates to “national trend” (or ‘China chic’), encapsulates the rise of brands that celebrate and promote Chinese cultural identity, as well as the growing popularity of home-grown Chinese brands. Moutai’s recent collaborations reflect both sides of this trend. On the one hand, the decision to partner with Luckin rather than Starbucks aligned well with Moutai’s identity as a Chinese company and resonated with the national pride of Chinese consumers. On the other hand, marrying Western favourites like coffee and chocolate with a traditionally Chinese spirit was a smart way to integrate global tastes with local preferences.