Episode 24: Yesua – The Brand Manager

 For the Got Tea founders, building a visual identity for the brand has been an important aspect, right from the beginning. The founders realized the importance of aesthetics, especially for the current generation and their target audience, and knew that this was one area they had to focus on. So, they knew that they wanted someone strong with a good eye for visual aesthetics to take on this job and Yesua was the perfect choice. 

When YuSung and SuAh had gone back to Korea during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had met up with a lot of people from the Woodstock community, including Yesua Jeon, who was a few years younger to us in school. It was a casual meeting, where YuSung and SuAh mentioned their plans of opening a bubble tea venture in India. They explained their vision to Yesua, who understood a lot of what they wanted to achieve, especially with regards to bringing Korean culture to India to the F&B industry in India, since he had spent 6 years in India. 

So Yesua came on board, helping them build their visual brand by designing their drink labels, building drink images and cards for the website, and other branding design needs. After school, he went to college to study Fine Arts and started working in the design field after, helping a variety of different brands with their visuals. When Yesua served in the Korean Army during his mandatory service time, he actually did some photography and design there as well! 

He helped his friends with their design needs, for a theme park and a record label logo. So, when Got Tea approached him, he was excited for this new opportunity, which would make him a part of building a brand identity, right from the beginning and to start their e-commerce journey as well. Yesua worked on and off with the Got Tea team, as a consultant, aiding in their design needs.

When Got Tea decided in early 2021 to launch a DIY bubble tea kit – Got at Home – they brought Yesua back on the team, to help design the kit. Having previously worked at a marketing company, Yesua had the experience to help Got Tea with this new venture. 

Yesua has been an integral part of the team – his work has been essential in building Got Tea’s minimal aesthetics. It hasn’t been easy though – as the only team member working from Korea, it is sometimes difficult to communicate with the other team members, even just in terms of scheduling. But these are small obstacles in the grand scheme of things, and Yesua’s flexibility makes it quite easy to work with him (as I found out while trying to work on this episode). 

Yesua hopes that Got Tea is able to become India’s headline brand, the brand that people think of when they think about bubble tea, just like his favourites Gongcha and Tiger Sugar in Korea. He hopes that the brand is able to expand internationally, with a strong e-commerce side and global reach.

While he isn’t working on Got Tea’s design, Yesua also dabbles in music production. He wants to move into 3D modelling and industrial design now and he is excited for where the future will take his design career.

Since he is in Korea, Yesua hasn’t had the chance to try any of Got Tea’s bubble teas, but he did try some of their prototype products during a tasting session in Korea, held in mid-2020. His favourite bubble tea flavour is black sugar with a lot of cream topping or taro. For the future, Yesua thinks Got Tea should create a mango flavoured drink – after all, India does love its mangoes!

This journal is an ongoing series tracing the story of Got Tea, the latest bubble tea store launched in India, located in South Delhi, now available on Zomato and Swiggy. Want to know what happens next? Stay tuned – new episodes come out every week!