Guming opens in Nanjing: Key takeaways
- After years holding off on a Nanjing opening – and despite running more than 1,100 stores in Jiangsu – tea brand, Guming, is finally coming to the provincial capital
- The brand has turned years of consumer jokes about its absence into a localised launch campaign built around forgiveness
- A city-exclusive drink and public voting activation aim to convert online anticipation into opening-day footfall
For years, anyone in Nanjing who caught a craving for Guming (Goodme, 古茗) tea had only one option: travel to nearby Jurong or Ma’anshan. While the Chinese tea chain expanded across Nanjing’s home province of Jiangsu, hitting more than 1,100 stores, the provincial capital remained empty of branches. In August, that’s due to change.
‘Nanjing, you’ve waited a long time. Which drink would make you forgive Guming?’
The brand’s absence had long been a running joke online. Social media users asked when the brand would ‘forgive Nanjing’. Others pointed out that Guming had stores as far away as Italy but none in the city. A rumour even suggested that the company’s founder suffered heartbreak in Nanjing and therefore refused to enter the market.
Guming has never gone public with an explanation for holding off in Nanjing. Its cautious, supply-chain-led expansion model — alongside the city’s exceptionally crowded tea market — is a more plausible explanation than the founder’s heartbreak. But that heartbreak and the jokes around it was a tree of low-hanging fruit as far as reactive marketing is concerned, and Guming was right to capitalise on it the way they did.
They built their announcement around it. An outdoor screen at the Jingfeng Centre – site of the new store – asked: ‘Nanjing, you’ve waited a long time. Which drink would make you forgive Guming?’ The line niftily tapped into both sentiment and humour, giving the internet reason to revive the old gag.
Guming also used its store hoarding to ask passers-by to vote for their favourite drinks, tease a Nanjing-exclusive limited-edition blend. It is a smart way to turn a practical retail milestone into an early consumer-feedback loop — and to create reasons for locals to share, visit and speculate before the doors open.
When will Guming forgive Shanghai?
The Dao view: Guming knows what a city’s first store really means
Any expanding tea chain in China should understand that a first store is also a local cultural debut. Guming’s absence gave Nanjing consumers years to create their own story around the brand.
By joining the joke instead of correcting it, the company has converted a perceived cold shoulder into a warmer, and very memorable, arrival. The question now being posed online says it all: when will Guming forgive Shanghai? And with that, the brand’s stickiest marketing copy has been forged.
