1. Introduction

China is not only the birthplace of tea and tea culture but also the first country to grow, produce, and drink tea [1]. Today, tea in China is more than just a beverage; it is a cultural symbol. CHAGEE brings tea to the world with a fresh perspective, ushering in the next millennium of tea culture. Founded in June 2017, the new-style tea brand CHAGEE started from the ancient Tea Horse Road in Yunnan. The slogan "Eastern Tea, Global Friends, Connecting Every Day" successfully conveys the core values and vision of Eastern tea culture, global interaction, and daily companionship. In just seven years, CHAGEE rapidly expanded to several provinces in China and countries like Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, demonstrating its international brand influence, consumer recognition, and cultural dissemination ability. With over 4,500 global stores, CHAGEE demonstrates strong market expansion, efficient operation, and management capabilities. Despite the oversaturated milk tea market in China, CHAGEE continues to focus on quality-driven operations.

CHAGEE's beverages feature a "tea base with zero added flavoring, milk with zero creamers, and zero trans fats per cup." The foundation is fresh-leaf milk tea, offering a true tea taste-refreshing, low-calorie, and healthier with controlled sugar. This fully reflects its commitment to health and natural ingredients, offering consumers a beverage choice that combines taste and health. Removing artificial flavorings and creamers ensures the natural flavor and high quality of the tea while avoiding the health risks associated with trans fats. This reflects young people's emphasis on health and demand for beverage quality. They are more focused on natural ingredients and health benefits, preferring low-calorie, healthier options. This commitment not only enhances the product's health value but also strengthens the brand's market competitiveness and consumer trust, meeting modern consumers' demand for healthy diets. For example, CHAGEE's signature drink, "Boyaju Xian" is how many people first come to know the brand, selling over 100 million cups annually. To attract consumers, CHAGEE gives its beverages uniquely distinctive names. For example, names like "Guifu Lanxiang", "Ceylon Black Tea", "Qingqing Nuoshan" and "Shanye Zhi Zi" are culturally rich. These unique names easily capture consumer interest, making them memorable and shareable, allowing consumers to experience the brand's innovation and distinctiveness. Additionally, CHAGEE's beverage packaging is impressive. It uses bright, eye-catching colors, along with a unique brand logo and design style, enhancing consumer memory and conveying a sense of premium quality.

In today's society, the main group is young consumers, who are gradually becoming the target audience for many brands. CHAGEE not only offers great beverages but also employs effective marketing strategies. Social media is not just a platform for information dissemination; it is also a crucial channel for brand-consumer interaction. Social media greatly facilitates rapid information dissemination and global communication. It breaks regional barriers, allowing people to share their views and creativity anytime. For businesses, social media provides channels for targeted marketing and real-time user feedback, enabling better optimization of products and services, and fostering closer connections between consumers and brands. High school students, as a young consumer group, are influenced by various factors in their purchasing behavior. First, peer influence plays a crucial role, as they tend to follow friends' recommendations and group trends. Secondly, brand image significantly impacts their choices, with well-known brands and compelling brand stories capturing their interest and trust. Additionally, social validation is a crucial factor, as high school students often express their individuality and seek group belonging through consuming specific brands, thereby gaining peer acceptance. These factors collectively shape their consumption preferences and decision-making process.

2. Literature Review

According to the research by Liu Dinghui, Li Mingyue, and Yang Wentao, milk tea sales heavily rely on direct recommendations and trends among consumers [2]. The social circles among students significantly impact product promotion. Interactions and social relationships among consumers play a crucial role in driving product sales. Recommendations and trends benefit brands by rapidly expanding their influence through word-of-mouth, increasing exposure. Positive consumer recommendations enhance brand credibility, while the trend-following effect attracts more potential customers, boosting sales growth. Relying on consumer recommendations and the influence of social networks is an efficient and cost-effective marketing strategy. To achieve word-of-mouth marketing, the quality and taste of the product must meet or even exceed customer expectations. In contemporary times, interpersonal communication can become a powerful marketing tool, influencing whether potential consumers will make a purchase. Purchase decisions are often based on trust and social relationships between people [2].

In Zhu Minhua's research, milk tea is not just a beverage but also a medium for social activities. By drinking milk tea together, young people can enhance friendships and bonds. Milk tea culture has become an important symbol of their lifestyle and culture, reflecting their social preferences. Having a shared favorite beverage can bridge the gap between young people and strengthen their relationships [3]. Nowadays, when going out, young people often carry a cup of milk tea, using it as a medium for conversation and socializing. This trend not only reflects their love for milk tea but also highlights its importance in social interactions. Milk tea shops have become popular gathering spots, further enhancing social connections.

In Qu Bin's research, it is mentioned that new-style milk tea shops focus on the service experience, paying attention not only to product quality but also to the overall consumer experience [4]. "Affordable prices and trendy and spacious environments become key to attracting customers, aligning with the young people's 'check-in' culture." This strategy's benefits include attracting more customers and raising brand awareness. It expands influence through social media, further driving sales growth and brand loyalty. It enhances customer satisfaction and brings the brand greater market influence and word-of-mouth promotion [4].

In Li Xifan's research, social media influencers are a group of internet celebrities who shape their own brand by sharing original content online. They have a large number of fans and strong communication influence [5]. By collaborating with influencers, brands can maximize their influence and creativity to effectively reach target markets and increase product exposure. Their authenticity and charisma allow brands to interact with consumers more naturally, bridging the gap and enhancing brand trust and consumer loyalty.

Reinikainen points out that the credibility of influencers significantly impacts brand trust and purchase intentions [6]. Due to the vast reach and speed of information dissemination on social media, an influencer's authenticity and reliability directly affect consumer trust in a brand. The alignment between the brand’s products and the influencer and their audience influences purchasing decisions. Collaborating with high-quality, reputable, and popular influencers to promote products through their social media channels can significantly enhance brand credibility and consumer trust. They are usually skilled at creating engaging content and enhancing the brand's promotional impact. If the influencers are popular celebrities or trending online personalities with tens of thousands or even millions of followers, their fans are likely to purchase products to support them, boosting sales.

In Zhang Zhichi's research, brand collaboration aims to leverage each other's brand assets to expand brand awareness [7]. By combining different brands' audiences, market coverage can be expanded. Collaborating with well-known brands can enhance a brand's reputation and image. Collaborations often bring novel and unique products that capture consumer interest. For example, CHAGEE has partnered with brands like White Rabbit Candy and Pop Mart. These collaborations have helped CHAGEE expand its brand influence and attract consumers from various fields.

The above research and theories help us understand some background information about the CHAGEE brand. While there is plenty of analysis on beverages, there is a lack of literature on social media marketing for this category. The aim of this study is to explore how CHAGEE's social media marketing strategies influence Chinese high school students' purchase intentions. This research seeks to help industry marketers better understand how to attract consumer purchases, maximizing the study's significance.

3. Methodology

To conduct this research more comprehensively, the author created a set of 5 multiple-choice questions on Wenjuanxing and then posted them for a week-long online survey on Xiaohongshu. By distributing the questionnaire online, high school students from different regions could participate in the survey. My goal is to collect 100 valid samples to ensure data representativeness and analysis accuracy. However, after two weeks of research, 90 questionnaires were collected. The data from Wenjuanxing still provided important insights for the study.

4. Results

In the survey, when asked how they learned about CHAGEE, most people indicated it was mainly through TikTok (47%) and word of mouth (40%). In choosing CHAGEE, taste (52.5%) and appearance (40%) were considered the most attractive factors. When discussing social media factors prompting the purchase of CHAGEE, visual appeal and brand image (51.25%), along with the influence of KOLs (40%), were considered important. Regarding social media marketing suggestions for CHAGEE, many believe that collaborating with other brands to launch limited editions (48.75%) could attract more attention.

5. Discussion

Based on the data collected from the Wenjuanxing survey posted on Xiaohongshu, most people learned about the CHAGEE beverage brand through TikTok and word of mouth. TikTok is one of the most popular new media platforms today, facilitating rapid information dissemination and broad coverage. With a large user base, especially popular among young people, it provides new marketing channels for brands, enabling them to quickly reach a wide audience. Moreover, the short video format is ideal for quickly showcasing product features and brand stories, capturing users' attention in a short time. Additionally, TikTok's strong interactivity allows users to engage with content through likes, comments, and shares, which not only increases brand exposure but also strengthens the connection between the brand and consumers. Conducting live promotions and offering discounts on TikTok can further enhance brand exposure and appeal, increasing user engagement. Word-of-mouth reflects consumers' opinions and trust in CHAGEE. This method usually involves personal experiences, with little chance of falsification, and is highly credible. Word-of-mouth can help brands build a good reputation and a loyal customer base. This approach not only enhances brand credibility but also spreads influence through natural social networks, achieving effective results with less effort.

When people choose the CHAGEE beverage brand, most do so based on its taste and appearance. The taste of the beverage is crucial, as it directly affects consumer experience and satisfaction. The quality of the brand determines the taste. A beverage with excellent taste can provide consumers with a delightful sensory experience, enhancing their overall experience and increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases. Taste is not only the consumer's first impression of the product but also largely determines whether they will recommend it to others. Good taste can also spread through word-of-mouth, attracting more potential consumers. Therefore, taste is a key factor in determining a beverage's success. After experiencing high-quality taste, consumers are often eager to share their experiences, bringing more attention and trust to the brand. Moreover, beverages with good taste are more likely to stand out in a competitive market. Consumers often prioritize taste when choosing drinks, prompting brands to continually improve quality to meet consumer expectations. CHAGEE's beverages not only taste great but also have outstanding packaging. Attractive packaging is an important factor in drawing consumers. Exquisite packaging design enhances visual appeal and conveys the brand's personality and quality. On social media, unique packaging can spark consumers' desire to purchase. They share the product on various platforms, increasing brand exposure and enhancing the product's impression in consumers' minds. Overall, the combination of taste and appearance allows CHAGEE to stand out in a competitive market, winning the favor of more consumers. By continuously improving product quality and packaging design, the brand can maintain market competitiveness and enhance consumer loyalty.

On social media, a brand's visual appeal and image play important roles. The benefit of visual appeal is that it forms the first impression consumers have of the brand. Unique packaging, color schemes, and overall design style can attract many consumers' attention and spark their interest in purchasing. The brand image further reinforces this appeal. Creating a positive, trustworthy, high-quality brand image enhances consumers' overall impression of the brand. Consumers often prefer brands that exhibit high quality and sophistication in both visuals and images, as it makes them feel secure and trustworthy. However, the influence of KOLs lies in their large fan base and high trust level. When these KOLs recommend products, brands can quickly enter the target audience's view. Fans often develop greater interest and trust, feeling a sense of reliability from the KOL's recommendation. Collaborating with KOLs not only increases brand exposure but also injects new energy through their personal influence and word-of-mouth effect, boosting product awareness and sales. By collaborating with celebrities, brands can leverage their influence to expand market share and infuse products with energy through the celebrity's personality and charm, thereby enhancing market competitiveness and customer loyalty. The combination enhances brand competitiveness, promotes sales growth, and increases customer loyalty.

To enhance CHAGEE’s brand visibility on social media, co-branding with other well-known brands to release limited edition products is an effective strategy. Through such collaborations, CHAGEE can broaden its market reach and attract a wider consumer base by harnessing the combined brand influence and fan following. Co-branded limited editions offer distinctiveness and exclusivity, stimulating consumer curiosity and demand. This sense of scarcity can make these products more collectible, often encouraging consumers to pay premium prices for their rarity. The unique appeal of co-branded items also facilitates rapid social media engagement, as consumers enjoy sharing their experiences with limited-edition purchases. Capitalizing on social media’s speed and extensive reach can amplify brand exposure and impact. Additionally, building CHAGEE’s cultural identity online strengthens brand recognition and customer loyalty. The inclusion of cultural elements will allow a product to carry a distinct cultural identity, which significantly impacts product dissemination [8]. Cultural elements lend a distinctive character to the brand, influencing product visibility and elevating the brand’s emotional resonance with consumers. This cultural reinforcement can foster a memorable brand image, helping CHAGEE carve out a unique position and competitive advantage in a crowded market.

6. Conclusion

CHAGEE is mainly discovered by consumers through TikTok and word-of-mouth. TikTok's rapid dissemination and wide reach greatly boosts brand exposure, while word-of-mouth enhances brand credibility and customer loyalty. Consumers choose CHAGEE mainly for its excellent taste and attractive packaging design. The taste boosts consumer satisfaction and repeat purchase rates, while the beautiful packaging enhances brand visual appeal and social media sharing. The combination of taste and appearance helps CHAGEE stand out in a competitive market. The brand's visual appeal and image attract consumers through unique design, while KOLs use their fan base and trust to help the brand quickly enter the target market. The combination can enhance brand exposure, market competitiveness, and customer loyalty. CHAGEE can launch co-branded limited editions with other brands, leveraging both parties' influence and fan base to expand market coverage and spark consumer curiosity and desire to purchase. The scarcity and uniqueness of these limited editions can spread quickly on social media, enhancing brand exposure and recognition.