Kopi Kenangan names head of marketing in MY ahead of expansion

Coffee brand Kenangan Coffee, also popularly known in Indonesia as Kopi Kenangan, is gearing up for its official launch in Malaysia next month by bringing on board Quennie Tan as head of marketing ahead of its expansion. She was previously senior marketing manager at QSR Brands and also worked at F&N and Nestle.

Tan currently leads all marketing components from social media, PR and digital campaigns to advertising and creative projects, commercial partnerships, product positioning & R&D. As part of her role, she also looks into consumer behaviour, habits and personas to identify opportunities and expand Kenangan Coffee's market share and reach. She also works different agencies to ensure the team is positioning Kenangan Coffee well before the official launch in October. Tan reports to Jordan Lung, country manager of Kenangan Coffee.

"Kenangan Coffee is Southeast Asia’s first new retail F&B unicorn and is one of the fastest growing grab-and-go coffee chains. It is a new concept helmed on young culture and I personally see it as a futuristic company that focuses on tech-enabled retail experiences that map the F&B trends of customised and digitised customer preferences," she told A+M. According to Tan, joining a brand like Kenangan Coffee, which is actively expanding, was the right move as her brand marketing experiences in the FMCG field will help build the brand in the long run in Malaysia.

As Malaysia is the first market expansion out of Indonesia, Tan said Kenangan Coffee will be investing heavily in driving brand awareness and loyalty. "We are looking at all the various consumer touchpoints in narrating our product differentiation and store opening announcements. It will be a digitally-led strategy that enables us to better study our marketing spend and tweak our efforts where needed," she explained. Kenangan Coffee is actively hiring in line with its brand and store growth trajectory. Tan, however, did not reveal the number of employees she plans to hire.

Kopi Kenangan (which loosely translates to 'Memories Over Coffee') has ambitious expansion plans and changed its name to Kenangan Coffee as it goes international. The spokesperson previously told A+M that while it is currently focused on Malaysia and Indonesia, Kenangan Coffee plans to become one of the “most-loved consumer brands in Southeast Asia”. Its CEO also told CNBC that the brand has long had ambitions for regional growth.

Last December, it bagged US$96 million in series C funding, valuing the company above US$1 billion. According to the Jakarta Globe, this made the coffee brand its first F&B unicorn in Southeast Asia. Two years ago, it raised US$109 million in Series B funding to strengthen its operations in Indonesia, launch new products, invest in technology to better serve its customers, and protect employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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