A View From The Top

Gong cha president reveals 4 steps to conquering US market

Geoff Henry, president of Gong cha Americas, shares the brand's 4-step strategy to enter the US market.

Provided

June 20, 2023 | Geoff Henry, president, Gong cha Americas

When an international franchise brand sets its sights on entering the highly competitive U.S. market, it faces a unique set of challenges that can make or break the success of the brand's expansion. When Gong cha — a premium international bubble tea brand — launched in the U.S. in 2014, we developed a strategic approach that allowed us to not only make a successful entry into the U.S. market but to chart a course for continued growth.

1. Building brand awareness
One of the first challenges any brand faces in a new market is building brand awareness. It's important to invest in a multi-pronged marketing strategy that gets your brand in front of its target demographic and takes advantage of current market trends in your segment. As a bubble tea brand, Gong cha benefits from being in a category that is already gaining popularity both internationally and domestically. By capitalizing on the exponential growth of the bubble tea category—and leveraging the millions of fans who have already experienced Gong cha in other international markets—the brand is able to generate significant word-of-mouth. This organic promotion, coupled with a strong digital presence and targeted paid, earned, and owned media campaigns, allows Gong cha to quickly build a loyal customer base among its core target audience of Gen Z and millennial consumers.

2. Localizing the approach
Localizing your brand to adapt to the unique cultural preferences and consumer behaviors of the U.S. market is key to expanding stateside. To achieve this, Gong cha has established a dedicated team on the ground in the U.S., allowing us to closely monitor and analyze market trends. Taking a localized approach enables Gong cha to optimize its menu offerings, ensuring relevance to American consumers while still leveraging successful menu items from our biggest overseas markets. By conducting local market testing, and actively seeking quantitative feedback, Gong cha fine-tunes its offerings to cater to the specific tastes and preferences of the US consumer.

3. Controlling the Supply chain
Developing and maintaining an efficient supply chain is another vital consideration for any international brand entering a new market. Gong cha is well-positioned to overcome potential supply chain challenges in the U.S. by leaning on our fully integrated global supply chain to source high-quality raw materials from existing suppliers in Asia and Vietnam. By developing and maintaining a healthy supply chain, We are able to provide continuity and consistency in our product offerings for our franchisees, manage our costs effectively, and ensure a consistent customer experience.

4. Providing franchise support
One of the most important parts of ensuring the success of a franchise brand in a new market is through the development of a robust franchise support system. Gong cha invests considerable resources toward developing comprehensive training tools and processes to help our franchisees succeed. By leveraging decades of experience gained from franchisees abroad to train our U.S. franchisees, we are able to ensure the brand experience remains consistent in our new markets. This in-house training — coupled with the adoption of best practices and standard operating procedures — allows Gong cha to maintain operational excellence and a high level of customer satisfaction. We have also assembled a highly competent U.S. team with deep expertise in the food and beverage retail industry to provide marketing support, work closely with franchisees to drive sales, and help educate them on the brand's unique value proposition.

Building brand awareness, localizing your approach to account for cultural preferences, optimizing your supply chain, and providing comprehensive franchise system support can help set an international brand up for success when entering the U.S. market. Gong cha's successful expansion into the U.S. and rapid domestic growth is a testament to how a strategic approach can position an international brand to emerge as a category leader.

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