It is reported that ’s new national fashion pre-mixed alcohol brand WAT cocktail has recently completed its Series A financing, led by a joint strategic investment from BAI Capital, Tomato Capital and Heytea .
Previously, WAT Cocktail had completed
WAT cocktail
Picture source: WAT Weibo
WAT was founded in 2019. The brand is known as "Cocktails. Anywhere, Anytime." as the core concept, striving to "quickly win the favor of consumers through unique product creativity and high standards of product quality, breakthrough trend branding, and online and offline integrated consumer experience, while breaking through the industry's product standards. "To solve the problems of serious qualitative and low quality sense, we will promote the dimensionality reduction and quantification of fine cocktails."
WAT said that in the future, it will continue to bring consumers a "good-tasting, good-looking, and fun" brand experience, breaking through scene restrictions to bring high-quality pre-mixed cocktail products to a wider range of consumers. Currently, WAT has two product lines, "high-end" and "mass", with a total of 16 SKUs.
Taking this opportunity, we chatted with the WAT team: What is so charming about this innovative cocktail brand that has been praised by both young consumers and management?
01
Creativity and quality are the core of products
"Unique product creativity and high standard product quality" is what WAT has always insisted on at the product level, and it is also the starting point for WAT's differentiated development.
WAT believes: "Cocktail itself is an expression of creativity."
Although wine, liquor, whiskey and other wines themselves have many subdivisions, due to different origins, years, brewing processes and other factors, they will have very changeable flavors, but Overall, the flavor will still be limited to a single type of wine. However, in addition to the many variations of the base liquor, cocktails can also incorporate various fresh fruits, tea and other raw materials.
Therefore, cocktails are creatively prepared with various flavors. From a sensory perspective, there is no boundary in theory.
The "unrestricted" cocktails provide WAT with a broader imagination space for product creativity. WAT is also constantly exploring new flavors. In the early stage, it adopted a "variety and small quantity" strategy to collect special flavors and bring more to consumers. A rich sensory experience.
At the same time, product quality is also WAT’s insistence.
WAT told FBIF that WAT uses raw materials from all over the world, from base liquors such as whiskey, brandy, vodka, to tea and juice, all adhering to high standards.
WAT shared with us: "Just like making tea, this is a very important process in our production process. Sometimes the temperature or humidity changes a lot, or the tea brewing time is longer or shorter, it will affect the flavor of the final product. Impact.” Therefore, in order to achieve high-standard production, WAT spends a lot of energy on winery due diligence, communicating with wineries, and strictly controlling everything from the selection of raw materials to the standardization of production processes.
In terms of product research and development, WAT strives to continue to bring creative and high-quality pre-mixed cocktail products to consumers through its independent product research and development capabilities and inspiration.
At present, many classic products created by WAT since its establishment have been widely recognized by users and the industry. In June 2021, in the 26th ISC International Spirits Competition, all 6 WAT cocktails participating in the international competition were on the list, winning 1 gold medal, 4 silver medals and 1 bronze medal. In addition, in this year's IWSC International Wine and Spirits Competition, WAT's 6 wines also won 2 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 1 bronze medal.These 6 wines are also the best-selling products of WAT cocktails and are deeply loved by young consumer groups.
Picture source: WAT
02
Offline experience stores are the soul of WAT cocktails
In terms of experience, WAT believes that " offline experience stores are the soul of WAT cocktails". In July this year, WAT opened the first WAT cocktail brand concept store in Shanghai. Through boundary-breaking design, ultra-futuristic cool store style and unique social experience, WAT wants to create a social center for youth and freedom.
Recently, many new consumer brands have gone “offline” and started to try offline stores. When we asked WAT about the core competitiveness of WAT's offline stores, WAT said without hesitation: " is number one, it must be delicious ."
In WAT's view, if today's young people want to take the initiative to drink, it is good Drinking comes first. Offline stores can help WAT consumers get closer and quickly adjust their products; they also give WAT the opportunity to integrate into the local customs and capture the individual flavor that is both popular among young people and has regional characteristics.
Second, it looks good. WAT Shanghai’s experience store uses eye-catching fresh turquoise green as the main color. The products displayed in the store are mainly bright yellow, orange and other color blocks, showing a fashionable and energetic feeling. It has been in business for more than three months. There are already many trendy check-in content on Xiaohongshu, , Weibo and , which has helped WAT spread well online.
Third, is fun . The revolving bar in the store and the personalized experience where customers can mix their own drinks give consumers a more sense of participation and make it more fun.
Image source: WAT
The offline experience store gives consumers an opportunity to experience it in person, and also gives WAT an opportunity to communicate with consumers at close range.
Image source: WAT
03
The new layout of the popular product line
In September 2021, WAT cocktails also entered the Shanghai Lawson convenience store channel . At the same time, WAT has successively launched e-commerce channel layout on Tmall , Xiaohongshu, Douyin and other platforms. Through online channels to drive breakthroughs in products and scenarios as well as unique experiences brought by offline stores, WAT provides solutions to the product and experience gaps that have always existed in pre-mixed wine .
Recently, WAT also launched a 5%vol sparkling tea wine, making a new layout in the mass product line.
5%vol sparkling wine
Image source: WAT
The WAT team told us that WAT hopes that the brand will be unique. 's high-end line of square bottle cocktails is mainly produced in cooperation with professional bartenders and Michelin restaurants . The taste is on the level of a clear bar, but the price is half of that of a clear bar. I hope more consumers can try and understand it. More great cocktails.
WAT believes that when a brand makes good products, its future development direction can be very broad.
04
Use brands to transcend the limitations of space and time
In terms of brand building, WAT cocktails have been playing cross-border experience with various brands, thereby expressing the brand core of "Cocktails. Anywhere, Anytime."
Since its establishment, WAT has cooperated with many Michelin restaurants such as MUME, Longtail, and Impromptu to launch cross-border products.Recently, it has also joined hands with Mayday singer Ashin and the brand STAYREAL of the well-known designer Fujiliang to launch a limited edition co-branded gift box to help open a new store in Shanghai. At the same time, WAT Cocktail has also teamed up with the specialty coffee brand Seesaw to launch three co-branded products, bringing urbanites a cup of "coffee that can make them tipsy" with a unique flavor.
WAT revealed that the reason for co-branding with Seesaw was that Seesaw wanted to use their coffee extract to make a delicious coffee cocktail. In the end, WAT’s cocktail chef made three cocktails within a week, and Seesaw liked them all very much.
Through these co-branding and brand operations, WAT fully conveys the brand spirit of "good to drink, good looking and fun" to consumers in terms of taste, vision and experience, as well as the brand concept of "breaking the frame and having unlimited freedom". WAT hopes to open up online and offline consumption scenarios through cross-sector cooperation, break the boundaries between cocktails and other categories, expand and extend the product form and public awareness of cocktails, and enable in-depth communication with a wider customer base.
05
New products, new scenes and new experiences
has officially entered consumers’ horizons at the end of 2019. Within 2 years, WAT cocktail has initially made its mark in the market with its efforts in product innovation, branding, channel expansion, experience optimization, etc. .
WAT saw that the post-90s and post-95s are slowly finding their own tastes and tastes, rather than drinking because of socializing. With the rise of "Generation Z" and "Her Power", low-alcohol pre-mixed drinks have broken through the traditional drinking scene, transcending the limitations of space and time, and are sought after by young consumer groups. According to WAT, in the past two or three years, although many young pre-mixed wine brands have emerged, due to serious product homogeneity and low quality, there is still a lack of outstanding product quality, product creativity and brand awareness brand.
In order to bring higher quality premium pre-mixed cocktails to consumers, in early 2019, WAT formed a team that loves cocktail culture and has mature experience. The WAT team believes that in the past, the cocktail scene was limited to light bars, making it difficult for more people to experience cocktail products and culture in more diverse scenes. To this end, WAT hopes to create pre-mixed cocktail products and brands that are "good to drink, look good and fun". breaks through the scene limitations of and brings high-quality pre-mixed cocktails to a wider range of consumers.
WAT said that this Series A financing was jointly led by three major investment institutions: BAI Capital, Heytea and Tomato Capital. Among them, Heytea, as the founder and promoter of new tea drinks, has been committed to creating good products and precipitating real brand. WAT said that in the future, WAT and Heytea will have more opportunities to cooperate based on mutual recognition of the products.
Tomato Capital is a professional investment institution focusing on the catering industry and is committed to promoting the transformation of China's catering industry. This capital injection will provide stronger support for brand development and help WAT create more new cocktail products, new scenes and new experiences that meet the aesthetics and needs of today's young people.
At the same time, after receiving investment, WAT will continue to promote product innovation research and development, brand and channel construction, and enhance consumer experience. WAT cocktails will continue to launch new high-quality, creative and flavored products.
At the same time, in terms of brand operation, it will also try to co-brand with brands in more fields to break through the boundaries of fine cocktails and make drinking fine cocktails an unrestricted "fashion accessory" for more consumers.
WAT will also simultaneously launch plans to open new brand concept stores in first- and second-tier cities. expects to open more than 20 offline stores in 2022 . The WAT team said that the cocktail market differs greatly from city to city and province to province. For example, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu are relatively mature, while Beijing has a stronger atmosphere for liquor, beer or single malt whiskey, and there is still a lot of room for promotion.
At the same time, WAT will also use its extensive online and offline channel layout to bring a new boutique cocktail experience to more consumers.
Source: FBIF Food and Beverage Innovation
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