Do you think about the tea you drink?
Do you ever stop to examine the paper tea bag, or what is inside it? Tea evangelists Nick and Louise are teapigs, and if you have any interest in drinking great tea, you may well be a teapig too.
These tea pioneers have really taken on the category of tea and created a brand that is infused with their passion for terrific tea. teapigs offer a limited but comprehensive range of whole leaf quality tea, presented to you in a convenient temple bag format. Their focus and single-minded branding is delivered to you right from their unique packaging, quality product and throughout your experience of any aspect of their business.
This company loves what they do.
teapigs took an undying love affair with quality tea and sought to disrupt the market. Says Nick: tea drinking has been so boring. Any movement in the market has not created any innovation. Tea has been commoditised by promotion - a cup of something hot and wet rather than anything special. People don’t think about the tea they are drinking - it’s become simple thirst quenching exercise rather than an experience. The culture of tea has been lost with it's instant accessibility.
The category has been stuck - so now is the perfect time to introduce a fantastic product that appeals to anyone interested in drinking tea.
Most people simply haven’t tasted tea this good. In launching the business teapigs fell straight in with key consumer trends, calling for authenticity, a brand to engage with, provenance, choice. Tea could be the new wine. So what is the teapigs success mix?Teapigs on:
Customers
teapigs tea drinkers cross income barriers. The basic qualification is to be an interested tea drinker. teapigs put themselves in the minds of the customers and make sure that they treat their customers the way they want to be treated as customers. As a product, the tea is a small luxury, the price justified by the taste and the experience of drinking their tea. Even the tea temple - the prism shaped bag - is a sensory experience. One look at the whole leaves inside and you know it is going to be different taste experience. Given their confidence that they will convert you based on taste, sampling is a powerful driver of business.
Marketing
A challenge has been issued to those who stick to convention. This is a brand that polarises. teapigs doesn’t mind. They like it. People who love great tea, want to be teapigs too. Says Nick, People who get us, get us straight away. Simplicity is key. A strong brand and product proposition makes the work of marketing so much easier. We are consistent in delivering our brand from our packaging, through product experience, through our people, our website, our trade shows. Our brand values are: Quality. Contemporary. Quirky. Friendly. Approachable. We don’t use a hard sell approach, but we do ask everyone what they think of our product. We are proud of it, so aren’t afraid to sell it. We’ve done the cold calling as part of our seeding strategy and now get trade enquiries consistently. We are completely confident in the product we produce and that translates into a consistent, strong message through any of our communications.
You can join teapigs' drink real tea mission by signing up here.
teapigs inspired thinking to apply to your business:
- Not everyone should like you and your product. Serve the needs of your chosen customers exceptionally well. Don’t try to be all things to all people.
- Love your product and talk to everyone about it. Sales is about matching customer need to your product benefit (at a basic level), and you can let your passion for your business drive it, rather than a hard nose approach.
- Invest in your brand. Even the smallest of businesses can create a powerful brand through association and the actions the business takes. It starts with a strong and simple idea. Then make it work through everything from your customer service, website, blog, and product itself.
- Put yourself in the mind of your customer and deliver a terrific experience.
Please read the full teapigs interview here.
Buy tea direct from www.teapigs.co.uk
Contact Nick Kilby, tea evangelist or Louise Allen, tea addict
0208 568 5511/ 1200
Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Voodoo blog for JupiterJasper, the marketing mentor for small businesses. Bronwyn consults on commercial identity as The Brand Whisperer. Do you get my free weekly email? Sign up to ’1 Thing to Improve Your Marketing this week’ here.
Bronwyn, I think Starbucks is an excellent example of this for coffee. They’ve helped me come to despise stainless steel and the word Bunn anywhere near my coffee…and I feel equally in regard to tea.
I try to do this with my ebook writing services–there are many writers that slap some words into a word process the same they would do any Web copy (or worse, print copy) with no regard to the unique medium of an ebook. I try to educate business owners and show them the need for a qualified specialist to write authority ebooks for them. Their platform suffers to hire someone that doesn’t think like me, have my experience…
Do you understand where I’m coming from, or am I a soggy bag in hot water?