An innovator in Vietnam’s food and drink space, The Coffee House strives to elevate the coffee-drinking experience by combining traditional coffee culture with modern lifestyles.
While Vietnam has a strong coffee culture, The Coffee House saw a shift in coffee consumption preferences among younger consumers. They recognised the need to modernise their products without compromising on local tradition to cater to the youth – which makes up a third of the country’s population.
Guided by WGSN’s Food & Drink Personas report, The Coffee House was able to identify the consumer profiles to target and what’s essential to these markets. Combining this with WGSN’s Drinks Forecast, they were able to develop products within the right categories for the right consumer segments. One of these profiles is The Balanced Seeker, who wants to improve their wellbeing. This led to the launch of Hi-Tea, a wellness tea range with immunity-boosting ingredients.
Nostalgia was another lifestyle trend called out by WGSN that The Coffee House picked up on. They capitalised on this emotional factor and, combined with the bubble tea trend among the youth market, led them to create the CloudFee range. With its unique combination of dessert and drink, CloudFee features indulgent and creamy flavours such as crème brûlée to attract younger consumers who prefer drinks with added texture and flavour.
“Through WGSN, we’re able to see what’s happening around the world. This usually takes a lot of time and research to put this together, but with WGSN, it has become very easy. We’re able to see how trends are really applied in different countries and certain case studies, which help put things into perspective. These insights have helped us choose the right battles and balance risks versus rewards.”
Edward Teonadi, Product Director, The Coffee House
Results
Through WGSN, The Coffee House was able to map out both consumer demands and product attributes, and create drinks that tap into their consumers’ emotions. The Hi-Tea range became an instant hit with record-breaking sales. Starting with five flavours, they have now expanded to more than 16 due to the high demand. After the launch of CloudFee, The Coffee House saw a shift in demand to coffee among the younger segment, showing that this product can onboard new coffee drinkers.
“It’s been helpful having WGSN as our single source for everything. WGSN reports also provide key takeaways on how we should activate the strategies."
Minh Trang Nguyen, Associate Chief Marketing Officer
