In December last year, Compose Coffee announced K-pop superstar V as their new brand ambassador. With the announcement of the new representative face, this coffee brand has witnessed rapid growth, bringing value many times higher than the contract price.
However, recently, Compose Coffee's stores seem to have encountered some conflict issues with HYBE - V's management company. On SNS, there are many posts about HYBE asking this brand to remove V's photos and merchandise from their franchise stores even though he was still a brand ambassador.
Faced with this situation and what the store owners shared, most fans objected to HYBE's behavior while some fans had other views. Here's what fans are arguing about on the matter:
Established in 2014, Compose Coffee is the fourth largest branded coffee chain in Korea after Ediya Coffee, Paris Baguette and Mega Coffee. In its 10th year of establishment, Compose Coffee changed their marketing strategy by appointing V as brand ambassador with the desire to further promote the company's reputation as well as to penetrate new markets and further, international markets thanks to the influence of the Kpop superstar.
Since the end of December last year, V has appeared in a series of promotional videos celebrating the 10th anniversary of its founding, wall posters and promotional signs of this brand's store chain. Not only that, some store owners have attracted attention by decorating their stores with a series of portrait photos of V such as posters, photocards, dolls or group albums. A number of V-related items given to fans are also deployed in many stores.
However, in recent days, some Compose Coffee stores have had to remove these photos and items from their stores. This was due to a request from the brand's headquarters and especially because HYBE contacted the company when it noticed items related to V but not included in the ambassador contract appearing in stores. Compose Coffee headquarters said that HYBE is pretty strict about copyright and what can or cannot be displayed.
Even when franchise stores explain that those images and items are for fan displays and not for profit or for sell, HYBE shows no concessions. Before, things like display tables, posters, photocard giveaway stations, and cardboard cuts out have always been allowed as long as the establishment allows it and HYBE has never disallowed these things. Now, it changes a lot in the way they act.
This new move of HYBE has caused a huge controversy in the fan community. Some think that HYBE is doing unnecessary things while they delay in distributing his solo album. Others just think that HYBE is protecting V's rights according to his contract but they think that HYBE should allow it in this case because those items are non-profit. Fans gave many opinions:
- So hybe has time to tell compose coffee to take down photos of Taehyung but couldn’t ship his albums out on time? Couldn’t ship his Slow Dancing cds out on time? Couldn’t stock and restock his album properly? Didn’t have Layover downloads ready upon release til kths trended hashtags? Didn’t contact itunes about SD deleted sales? Didn’t make sure geffen posted about Layover on its release instead of making kths again trend hashtags about it? Need I go on? Can that company do anything other than constantly sabotage Taehyung cus they’re mad Taehyung isn’t under their thumb and he refuses to be small like they desperately want him to be??
- A big company is jeolous of their own artist is crazy and shameful
- Always a problem with tae and tae only. The selectiveness of this company, disgusting
- I don't think Taehyung would care if FANS were leaving pictures & other merc. at Compose Coffee, he probably thought it was sweet, but Taehyung isn't Petty like some people at that building
- Maybe they protecting him pls. It might be out of the contract
- I thought hybe pr team is d3ad. cause last time when we were asking for restock or literally anything related to tae, they were definitely d3ad
- TAE's Photocards n Dolls aren't d items being sold in Compose Coffee Shops, it's COMPOSE COFFEE! Why so affected? Fans will buy c. coffee even w/out d photocards or dolls b'coz of Tae. Copyright it is, yes? Which copyright???
- But those are actual purchases, aren’t they happy that it’s like a free merch display? It’s not like Compose Coffee is selling them for a profit. I really don’t get the beef
Meanwhile, despite the problems between HYBE, Compose Coffee and the franchise stores, the coffee brand has seen explosive growth, surpassing 10 million app users since then. since appointing V as ambassador. With less than 9.3 million before TaeHyung's endorsement, the app has seen a staggering 2.6 million new faces in just 10 days, pushing its user number to nearly 12 million.
Not only that, topics about V and Compose Coffee also appear widely on online communities. Obviously, like the slogan "V is a Composer. Everyone is a Composer", V and Compose Coffee are gradually dominating the market thanks to the strong influence of the Kpop superstar.
