How Did Michelle Ice City (MiXue BingCheng) become so popular in China?

Recently, Michelle Ice City (MiXue BingCheng), a Chinese beverage chain brand that mainly focuses on ice cream and tea, has gone absolutely viral in China. Most of the credit for this sudden popularity goes to the brand's theme song. "I love you, you love me, MiXue Ice Cream & Tea..." With its unique and catchy melody, Michelle Ice City's theme song has become so popular that people were joking you can't stop singing it once you heard it. As I'm writing this blog, the song has been played over 2.5 billion times on the internet. On BiliBili, a popular video streaming platform in China, the song's music video has already reached almost 5 million views for the Chinese version and approximately 17 million views for the Chinese and English bilingual version. No one saw this coming. In fact, the song was created in 2019, but it never caught the public's attention. So what made the brand and its theme song go viral now?

Michelle Ice City's theme song music video. Image Source: Youxiputao

1. The Repetitive Melody

Michelle Ice City's theme song is based on the melody of Oh! Sussana. When it was first introduced, it faced a lot of negative reactions and criticisms. Some said the melody was too simple, there were not enough words, and it didn't feel "advanced" compared to other brand's theme songs. However, as the song continued being played in Michelle Ice City's more than 15 thousand stores nationwide, the repetitive tune within the song caused a "brainwashing" effect in the customers as many claimed they couldn't stop singing the song once they heard it. In fact, the technique of repetition has been used in many Chinese advertisements, including the earlier ones, such as "Nao Bai Jin," or some of the more recent ones, such as "Wang Lao Ji." But what made Michelle Ice City's repetition unique is its use of the melody from Oh! Sussana. The song Oh! Sussana was already familiar to many, meaning Michelle Ice City didn't have to spend time getting people familiar with it. So when the widely-known melody from Oh! Sussana combined with the easy-to-remember and straightforward lyrics, the song exploded. Interestingly, many enterprises in China recently sought to utilize its theme songs to obtain exposure. For example, 热爱105度的你 (Love the 105 degrees you), one of the most popular songs on Douyin, is a song that Watson used to promote its distilled water. 

热爱105度的你 went viral on Douyin as well. Image Source: Douyin

2. Online to Offline? Why Not Reverse It?

It is very prevalent for brands first to gather attention online and redirect them to offline stores. However, Michelle Ice City took a different approach. The brand decided to reverse the order, which was to start from offline then move to online. Having around 15 thousand stores nationwide, Michelle Ice City can reach millions and millions of customers nationwide. Also, having cheap price tags on its products increases the chances of repurchasing from customers, developing a higher level of loyalty among the customers. As Michelle Ice City continued to build its popularity and reputation offline, it was only waiting for the perfect moment to march online. 

Michelle Ice City's physical store in China. Image Source: MINNEWS

When the marketing team for Michelle Ice City spotted a UGC (User Generated Content) post on Douyin related to the song played over more than 100 thousand times, the team decided that it was the right time to push the song online. Out of all the social platforms, such as WeChat, Weibo, and KuaiShou, the marketing team put the most emphasis on Douyin. Having already built up over 2 million followers on Douyin, it set a solid base for the viral of the brand and its theme song. And as the brand continued to work with KOLs (Key Opinion Leader) by asking them to visit the stores and generate contents to post on Douyin, the people on the internet soon followed and began to have fun with the song. To maintain its popularity on Douyin, the marketing team also did a great job of constantly creating topics and trends that sparked the creation of various short videos. Interestingly, Michelle Ice City's popularity became so out of control that there was even a challenge on Douyin related to Michelle Ice City that was not even part of the brand's policy. The challenge was to sing in front of a Michelle Ice City store to earn a free drink. Despite not being part of the policy, the brand quickly responded to the challenge by notifying staff to give coupons or ice creams to those who sing, utilizing this opportunity to encourage people to visit the store and create content about it. 

The challenge on Douyin that asked people to sing in front of Michelle Ice City store to earn a free drink. 

Image Source: Douyin

3. Positioning Itself "Low"

While more and more tea brands are vying for a place in the premium market following Hey Tea's success, Michelle Ice City set itself apart from its competitors in the tea industry by positioning itself "low" to serve the ordinary consumers who care more about the price-performance ratio. Whether it's the name, logo, or theme song, the brand gave the consumers a "down to earth" feeling. The strategy helped the brand to develop a deep rapport with the customers, allowing Michelle Ice City to maintain a positive image in public. Also, by establishing a completely self-sufficient product chain and eliminating the intermediary profit margin, Michelle Ice City can keep the price tags for its products substantially cheaper than other popular Chinese tea brands. 3-yuan ($0.46) for an ice cream cone, 4-yuan ($0.62) for a lemon tea, and 8-yuan ($1.23) for a milk tea. These low prices allowed Michelle Ice City to get all the potential customers because no one would feel they couldn't afford it. It also guaranteed Michelle Ice City total control over the entire mid-to-lower tier market, the largest market sector that had gone unnoticed by other brands. In other words, when talking about tea brands in China, many different names can come up. But when talking about the CHEAP tea brands in China, Michelle Ice City will probably be the first name to pop up in everyone's head, and that's where the success of Michelle Ice City comes from. 

Michelle Ice City's menu

On the left is the name of the product, and on the right is the price of the product in Yuan

Image Source: iNEWS

Living in such a fast-paced and internet-oriented world, the buzz about Michelle Ice City will eventually settle down. However, there are many marketing and management strategies that other brands can learn from Michelle Ice City and utilize in the future. Many people generally only see the surface of things but missed what's beneath the surface. Behind what seemed to be an accidental rise or a fluke run from Michelle Ice City are the marketing and management strategies that the outside world does not see under the iceberg.