Jilin Yanbian Prefecture Party Secretary Invites Internet Celebrity Coffee Enterprises for Discussion: Making the “King of County Coffee” Golden Brand Shine Even Brighter
On December 2, Yanbian Prefecture, Jilin Province, held a symposium for influential coffee enterprises, with Hu Jiafu, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Prefectural Party Committee, in attendance. Nineteen representatives from coffee, catering, and vocational training institutions were invited to participate.
On December 2, Yanbian Prefecture gathered select influential coffee enterprise leaders to discuss ways to upgrade the coffee industry and accelerate the development of Yanbian’s cultural tourism market. (WeChat public account “Yanbian Fabu” image)
According to reports in the “Yanbian Daily,” Hu Jiafu, representing the Yanbian Prefectural Party Committee and Government, expressed gratitude to the coffee enterprises for their contributions to the prosperity of Yanbian’s cultural tourism market. He encouraged them to seize the current favorable opportunity of Yanbian’s rising cultural tourism market, closely follow changes in market demand, enrich product offerings, enhance consumer experiences, tell compelling coffee stories, and jointly promote the large-scale, unique, and branded development of Yanji’s coffee industry, making the search for a whiff of coffee in Yanbian a new cultural tourism consumption trend.
The report stated that the symposium had a relaxed and lively atmosphere. Nineteen enterprise leaders from coffee shops including Hanzhi Coffee, Laodingben Coffee, Yanchuan Xuebing Coffee, Shiting Coffee, Houlang Coffee, Xinluoyu Coffee, Yinglun Shiguang Coffee, Xiaoxingqiu Coffee, Kube Coffee, Quanchao Coffee, Hagenna Coffee, Leye Coffee, Yanqing Coffee, Miluojia Coffee, 153 Coffee Co., Ltd., Yanbian Yanfu Qingtandong Catering Management Co., Ltd., Yanbian Enxi Coffee Management Co., Ltd., Yanji Pengbei Vocational Training School, and Longjing Tianhuali Coffee freely expressed their views, introduced their current production and operation status, candidly discussed the challenges they faced, shared their future development plans, and expressed their ideas and expectations regarding policies supporting enterprises, staff training, and strengthened financial services. Officials from Yanji City, Longjing City, and relevant prefectural departments interacted with the enterprise leaders on supporting enterprise development and promoting the deep integration of “coffee and tourism.”
Hu Jiafu pointed out that he hoped everyone would persist in creativity, innovation, and invention, focusing their efforts on production and operation management, coffee product development, and marketing promotion to make the “King of County Coffee” an even brighter and more attractive “golden signboard” that would further enhance the popularity and influence of Yanbian’s cultural tourism. (WeChat public account “Yanbian Fabu” image)
Hu Jiafu noted that Yanji is dotted with coffee shops and brands, ranking first among county-level cities nationwide in coffee shops per 10,000 people. Coffee culture has deeply integrated into the city’s fabric and citizens’ lives, becoming a beautiful calling card for the city. Currently, Yanbian Prefecture is leveraging the rapid development of Yanji’s coffee industry, actively attracting upstream and downstream coffee enterprises to settle, further extending the coffee industry chain, cultivating new coffee consumption formats, accelerating the deep integration of “coffee and tourism,” and striving to make the coffee industry a new growth point for the cultural tourism industry. He hoped everyone would adhere to creativity, innovation, and invention, concentrating their efforts on production and operation management, coffee product development, and marketing promotion to make the “King of County Coffee” an even more dazzling and attractive brand, thereby further enhancing Yanbian’s cultural tourism popularity and influence. Efforts should be made to meticulously develop products, catering to increasingly diverse consumer demands and personalized consumer psychology. Innovations should be explored in taste, pairing, packaging, and drinking methods, and product development with local Yanbian characteristics should be strengthened to introduce more coffee products with rich and varied flavors, suitable for various drinking habits, combining fashion and convenience, and embodying local Yanbian features to provide consumers with better taste experiences and superior consumption experiences. Efforts should also be made to carefully craft innovative consumption scenarios, closely integrating the business theme and target consumer group characteristics to create distinctive consumption scenarios such as “coffee + books,” “coffee + e-sports,” “coffee + performances,” and “coffee + folklore” tailored to local conditions. By shaping specific scenarios and atmospheres, creating comfortable environments and services, and offering immersive consumption experiences that are observable, sensible, participatory, and interactive, customer loyalty can be further enhanced, and word-of-mouth promotion can be facilitated, striving to create new city attractions. Precise efforts should be made in marketing, learning from the operating models and marketing strategies of well-known enterprises in the industry, exploring the opening of 24-hour stores, brand image stores, and city flagship stores, adopting comprehensive online and offline “omnichannel retail,” leveraging social media platforms for real-time interaction and live sales, actively engaging in cross-brand and IP collaborations, meticulously launching a series of collaborative coffee and related products, and conducting promotional activities during specific periods to continuously stimulate consumers’ freshness and purchasing desire, thereby promoting sustained and steady growth in enterprise operating performance.
Among these, the “King of County Coffee” mentioned by Hu Jiafu refers to Yanji City, the capital of Yanbian Prefecture.
According to data provided by the Yanji Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department, in Yanji City, a county-level city with a permanent population of 690,000, there are over 800 coffee shops scattered throughout the city. The number of coffee shops per 10,000 people is nearly four times that of Shanghai, known as the “Coffee Capital,” making it worthy of the title “King of County Coffee” among the 394 county-level cities in China.
According to a previous report by People’s Network, Yanbian is located at the junction of China, Russia, and North Korea. As the capital city of Yanbian Prefecture, Yanji was the first to come into contact with the coffee culture of neighboring countries at the beginning of reform and opening up, becoming a “window” for cultural openness and integration in Northeast Asia.
“I remember when I was a child, a relative brought back instant coffee from Russia, which was my first time having coffee,” said Cui Fenghua, President of the Yanbian Coffee Culture Exchange and Development Association, in an interview with People’s Network. In the 1980s and 1990s, Yanji residents were already drinking coffee. With the deepening of reform and opening up, many Korean-Chinese took advantage of their language and geographical advantages to work in South Korea. Influenced by the South Korean love for coffee, they brought this trend back to Yanji, ushering in the “tea shop” era in Yanbian.
The report stated that around 2008, Yanji people who had worked in South Korea returned to start businesses, introducing South Korean coffee chain brands. The elegant and comfortable environment of these shops, coupled with freshly ground coffee beans, gradually introduced more Yanji people to coffee culture and cultivated their fondness for it. After nearly four decades of development, drinking coffee has become a daily habit for most Yanji residents.
