This tea takes 5 minutes to brew? (frowny face) Sit down and relax with a pot of tea for half an hour?? Thirty minutes??? OMG!!!!
It’s questionable whether a traditional warm, fuzzy, “serenity now” tea marketing message hits the mark with the younger generation. To be blunt, the qualities of tea advertising that appeal to middle-aged women, aka “mom”, (the actual prime tea sales demographic), probably don’t excite younger customers. Energy drinking, coffee guzzling, trend-driven, distracted consumers for whom tea can seem… quaint.
Are these gross generalizations? To be sure, yet they point towards a tea messaging disconnect. After all, it is this younger generation that many in the tea industry point to as the source of exponential growth in specialty teas. The younger generation “gets” the good health, good tea connection. Do they? And if they do, when does convenience or the perceived lack thereof, create a counter balance that tips the scales against choosing healthy teas?
A fully developed product category can support segmenting into smaller niche divisions. Specialty teas are certainly moving in this direction, although few tea companies will risk success with one tea customer demographic to tweak their marketing for another tea tribe. For those willing to take the risk, the tea fountain of youth awaits them. Or not, LOL.
You bring up some disturbing points Guy. I’m not sure what a viable solution would be. I think you’ve nailed the youth culture and identified some issues that do need to be addressed. Do we buy into their fast, frantic life stye or does tea offer an alternative for them? When will they realize that peace and harmony is what to strive for and tea can be their companion. It looks like matcha shots is what they’re wanting however.
Guy, I think you are right on about needing to divide up the marketing message. I’m a Gen X’er and a mom. The mom message does nothing for me. I think of it as my mom. I don’t have time to sit and ponder. As wonderful as that sounds, I’ve got a business to run, two small children to raise and educate, a household to manage, volunteerism, and Candy Crush. I tend to lean towards products that can make things in my life move faster and with more efficiency. Do I love my loose leaf tea? Absolutely. But while the water is boiling, I schedule appointments, contact customers, make breakfast, do dishes and catch up on emails.
For five years, I served tea on Tuesdays in my high school English classroom. Quality whole leaf tea, purified water heated to the proper temperature, steeped according to conservative standards, and served in real ceramic or glass cups. With every class, it was a hit and enjoyed almost 100% participation. A spirit of calmness pervaded the classroom on these tea Tuesdays. Woe was me on the Tuesdays I forgot to bring the purified water: hell hath no wrath as thirty-some teens looking forward to their tea time. When I made it students’ responsibility to bring water, Tuesday tea almost went the way of the dodo. Delicious tea was an easy choice as long as it was free.
You are 100% , but I think that we are already starting to see messaging pivot in the marketing world of tea.
If you look at the evolution of tea mixes in stores you will quickly see that the energy infused teas are not aimed at mothers, rather kids who want instant vitmization with 3000% extra caffeine.
The marketing is evolving as the demographics are widening to ensure mass adoption. I wouldn’t be surprised if we started to see offshoots of labels into more hip sounding names.
Although not technically a tea, this yerba mate drink is a prime example of diversified products and messaging in the tea/tisane/yerba mate niche:
http://drinkmarley.com/mmm-products/
My successful, kind and lovely adult daughters can’t even find time to brew coffee in the morning – they use k-cups. The thing is that of course they do have some down time, but that’s for TV and computers. They seem to be too simultaneously sped up and fried to read any more (once avid readers all) and the idea of a casual tea session, with multiple infusions and restful conversations or solitary quietness just isn’t in harmony with their rhythms. But guess who comes every day for tea? Little 9 year old granddaughter, who thinks adults are crazy hectic, has her own little treasured yixing teapot now and hopes the world slows down soon. Me too.
Our most passionate tea customers in the store were late teens to late 20’s, and the most purist. Alot of them thought of big chain coffee as their parents’ drink and were excited and adventuresome about a new experience..real quality loose leaf tea.
It think even thinking of developing a marketing approach for people in my sons generation, is an indication, at least in the older sense of marketing, is an indication that the tea business does not understand them. They are people that for the most part can’t be marketed to. They talk to each other are distrustful of any smell of manipulative marketing. They respond to authenticity not spin. Tea is a compelling beverage that they just need exposure to Diane and Rafe point out. They don’t watch TV, and there are a lot of them that shun social networking, but they are still talking to each other, and shopping is one of the many things they talk about. Instead of thinking about marketing messages, it might be more effective to look at means of exposure, and supplying them with good information. Certainly they are great, loyal customers, that provide for some very effective word of mouth marketing.