If you work for a candy company, no one needs to tell you about the power of nostalgia when marketing your product. If you are reading this and still need some convincing, you should look no further than the LuOne shopping mall in China’s Huangpu District. Now, I know China is 7,000 miles away but something remarkable happened when a pop-up milk tea shop (Happy Lemon) decided to rely on the nostalgia of a Chinese classic: White Rabbit.
Shanghai-based White Rabbit candy company is a confectionary icon throughout the world. The vanilla, nougat-like candy has satisfied generations of Chinese consumers.
Happy Lemon began offering a White Rabbit version of its milk tea as a way to honor the company’s 60th anniversary this year. A large tea costs 19 yuan or about US $2.75, which is about a dollar more than Happy Lemon’s large regular milk tea. Still, the White Rabbit tea has been beyond popular with the Chinese public and long lines began to appear just weeks after the tea’s introduction.
I think “long lines” here is an understatement. Customers have literally been queuing up for hours, even on weekdays. The wait has been so long that Happy Lemon had to arrange a way for customers to go about their day while they wait for their chance to be served.
“First, you wait in line to grab a wristband, then you come back at the corresponding time,” said one older man in line in this article by Shine. “In total, I’ve waited for four hours. After getting the wristband, I walked around the mall for three hours and bought a coffee (before coming back).”
Waiting four hours is one thing but buying a beverage to wait for your second beverage is testament to the power of nostalgia in this particular case. At the time that this man received his wristband, more than 200 people were lined up, each waiting for their White Rabbit drink.
If that doesn’t convince you, SHINE went ahead and surveyed people waiting in line. When asked how long they expected to wait, many said four or five hours. Not only that, many were willing to draw the line at 8 hours.
Why 8 hours? Because waiting more than 8 hours to buy a milk tea is just unreasonable.
For more posts like this, keep up with our blog!