For the previous 123 years, Yeo’s (Yeo Hiap Seng) has cornered the chrysanthemum tea market with its inexpensive, thirst-quenching drinks. Its yellow cans are an on a regular basis sight in coffeeshops and supermarkets throughout Singapore and Malaysia, in addition to China and Indonesia. What’s subsequent for this multimillion-dollar model? Right here, we speak to CEO Ong Yuh Hwang who tells us how Yeo’s is utilizing the ability of storytelling to attach with a brand new technology of shoppers.
For a very long time, our drinks have been beloved and ubiquitous, however humble of their presence. They might be a family staple, however they didn’t essentially command the eye of the room. To deal with this, we just lately labored with three companions who’re all specialists of their area, to relaunch our model – Singapore’s very personal world-class horticultural vacation spot Gardens by the Bay (GBTB), award-winning botanical studio This Humid Home (THH) and world inventive company Forsman & Bodenfors.
In September and October, we opened the pop-up Yeo’s Drinkable Backyard at GBTB. Guests had been in a position to expertise the goodness of nature inside a multi-sensorial ambiance. Not solely might they see and scent the flowers, they had been additionally in a position to style them within the type of our chrysanthemum tea.
The Drinkable Backyard demonstrated how the unassuming chrysanthemum tea generally is a supply of well being and nourishment, whereas additionally sharing how Yeo’s preserves nature’s goodness within the means of brewing our teas. It was part of our technique to refresh this century-old model and seize the eye – and love – of a brand new viewers.
Lately, it isn’t sufficient to easily have a scrumptious product. Competitors is stiff in the case of the beverage trade, and that may be simply forgotten when the following new factor comes alongside. So we wish our followers to maintain coming again for extra; we wish our merchandise to be irresistible.
“For a very long time, our drinks have been beloved and ubiquitous, however humble of their presence”
A brand new technology of shoppers is curious in regards to the story of the model and what goes on behind the scenes.
Storytelling won’t be the main focus of many longstanding manufacturers. Some have made their mark by creating a great product, scaling operations and capturing market share. Such improvements and skilled execution have gotten them to the place they’re at the moment – and that’s a laudable achievement.
However leaning into wealthy storytelling may be a useful alternative, particularly for a model that already has a robust historical past.
Leveraging on Yeo’s agency foothold within the area for our well-loved drinks, we’re shifting into an age the place we try to be extra daring and completely different in the case of our model picture. Yeo’s Drinkable Backyard was our first marketing campaign that concerned model partnerships and an immersive method.
Once we determined to deal with the story of our drink’s healthful origins, GBTB and THH naturally got here to thoughts. One is a worldwide horticultural vacationer vacation spot whereas the opposite is a extremely wanted, award-winning botanical studio. Each are robust native manufacturers that champion the goodness and fantastic thing about nature, so I daresay that there aren’t any higher companions to work with for a challenge like this.
Apart from searching for out like-minded manufacturers to inform our story, belief can also be a key a part of the method. There are such a lot of variables concerned when attempting one thing new. However in case you’ve chosen your companions nicely, then you’ll be able to belief that they’ll use their skilled information as a way to attain your frequent desired outcomes collectively. It’s been a particularly rewarding course of, and we’re trying ahead to extra of such partnerships on this subsequent stage of the model’s progress.
As instructed to Michelle JN Lim
