What is LePur?
A Chinese online yogurt brand.
"As a next generation consuming brand, we have been asking ourselves how to improve the life of all the foodies. With the dedicated efforts, by some of the most advanced biotech-engineers, we are proud to present the world’s first smart, social 'device', that you can actually eat. We call it LePur. LePur is designed to be the best companion for all the foodies out there. Whenever you are eating by yourself, the LePur device can connect you with an interesting new friend, who is also passionate about food. LePur has an algorithm that only selects foodies who are attractive, have interesting jobs, and love making friends. We call them Pur Foodies. Connecting them is easy, depending on your country and region, you can use your Facebook, Instagram, Line and WeChat account. All you need is typing 'I am hungry' when you add them. They will know you find them through LePur, and it will significantly increase your chance being accepted. By the way, when we designed the social function of LePur, we went back to some of the most memorable social stories of the foodie history and discover that we are most genuine and attentive when we only have one social partner. That is why we came up with the revolutionary setting: you can only get to know one interesting person through each LePur. But just using LePur when you eating is not enough, you can actually eat the LePur device itself. And it’s delicious! This is LePur, a yogurt from the future, but you can get now.”
It was from an “Apple style” advertising video of LePur, a young Beijing based brand focused on producing high-quality fresh yogurt. LePure was founded in 2014 and started to become well-known after the “Apple style” advertising video in 2016 when it launched “Pur Foodies”. Denny Liu is the founder and CEO of LePur, graduated from Wharton and worked as previous Chinese student outreach manager for Minerva University. Before LePur, he founded BIMP (Banking & Investment Mentorship Program) and Linker, but both failed. LePur is his third start-up and has been a popular yogurt brand among Chinese young people.
Before launching “Pur Foodies”, LePur only had one direct-sale store in Beijing CBD and focused on online ordering service. It was only known by few people. But with the successful adverting and the idea of the revolutionary social setting, LePur has become attractive. After three months of the “Pur Foodies” advertisement, LePur was permitted to sell in mass consumption channels, such as 7-11. People started to know about LePur, even though they might not watch the “Pur Foodies” advertisement.
Yogurt consumption has been increasing with annual growth rate of over 30% in China and the market completion is increasingly fierce (Reportbuyer, 2014). But most market share has been taken by Mengniu, Yili, and Zhuangyuan, three local companies which have a long history and good relationship with government. The rest 20% market share was split almost equally by the rest competitors. Compared with the three big players and other competitors, the most advantage of LePur is it has its own direct-sale store (3 in Beijing, 1 in Shanghai and 1 in Chengdu so far) and it focused heavily on its consumers, which called Pur Foodies. In order to win Chinese market, LePur has to maintain its competitive advantage – be customer-centric as much as possible.
Recommendations for LePur
1.Build Pur Foodies Community (P.F.C.)
LePur was known by most people through “Pur Foodies” advertising, which combined social and yogurt. Similar to Lego, LePur should build a Pur Foodies Community, where Pur foodie can get to know other Pur Foodies, share their own experiences/stories about LePur, write comments about different tastes of LePur online. LePur should also hold some off-line activities so that Pur Foodies can get together to eat LePur and make them feel a sense of belonging to the Pur Foodies Community.
2. Make Consumers Involved in Designing LePur Package
Consumers can’t involved in the production process of LePur since it may affect quality of LePur and harm to people’s health. But Consumers can involved in designing process of LePur. I found many consumers posted their own drawings about LePur on Weibo. Most of them are young people who like drawing and sharing. LePur targets to young people, so if LePur can ask for permissions and use their drawing to design the package, it will make consumers feel be a part of LePur and make LePur be different from other yogurts.
3. Dining With LePur
There are many consumers posted how to use LePur to make food on Weibo. LePur should collect these recipes and share them in the Pur Foodies Community. LePur can also invite Pur foodies to cook food by using LePur together in the LePur direct-sale store.
4. Improve In-store Experience
Compared with other yogurt brands, one competitive advantage LePur has is owning its direct-sale store, where consumer can get freshly-made LePur. LePur should maintain its direct-sale store and use it as a base or “home” for Pur foodies to hold some off-line Pur Foodies Community activities.
5. Train Employees In Customer-centric Behaviors
Denny, as the founder and CEO of LePur, should delivery a customer-centric message to the whole LePur team. LePur should establish a customer-experience team which promotes cross-functional collaboration via targets and metrics. LePur should shape a customer-centric mindset among all employees and establish a continuing relationship with customers before a LePur is purchased and continues long after the sale via Pur Foodies Community.
6. Design LePur Based On Customer Demand
LePur should not invested heavily on R&D without knowing customer demand. LePur should be customer-centric when designing product. They can look what Pur foodies discussed in the Pur Foodies Community and send some surveys in order to get to know what customers are really looking for. For example, do they want tasty yogurt or healthy yogurt with little fat and what kind of taste they like most.
References
1. Reportbuyer,. (2014). Analysis and Forecast Report on Yogurt Market in China. Prnewswire.com. Retrieved 10 March 2017, from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/analysis-and-forecast- report-on-yogurt-market-in-china-264549861.html
Author & Copyright: Yinwei Sun
Published Date: March 2017
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