The great thing about blogs is that I can always change my mind and re-blog about something.  I seem to be doing this a lot lately!

At the beginning of 2009, I wrote about who will be the Starbucks of tea.  I use this reference strictly because it is the exact question I am asked constantly. My answer then was Starbucks will be the Starbucks of tea, but the game has changed significantly over the last 12 months.

When I wrote the last blog, I was inspired that Starbucks had started a nation-wide promotion announcing “It’s Tea Time,” and creating a number of fruit-juice and flavor-infused tea lattes and chais.  While I felt the Apple Chai Latte was more like a holiday spiced cider and quickly reverted back to my personal stash of Kukicha and puer, my hopes were that this promotion would engage a large number of new tea drinkers who would eventually expand and sophisticate their palates in time.  On this, the jury is still out.

But in the meantime, Starbucks opened a new concept store called 15^th Street Coffee & Tea, moving away from their tea bags and into the whole leaf experience!  And even more recently, Starbucks’ branded stores began converting all their Tazo tea bags into pyramid bags.

So I revisit the question of will Starbucks be the Starbucks of tea?  Or will their new concept store?  More fundamentally, what will a national tea chain store look like?  What will be its business model, margins, vision?  Will tea rooms reach the hype and craze of the coffee boom, with not just one on every corner, but two, sometimes, three? And what is going on in Chicago?

TeaGschwendner came on to the U.S. market strong in 2007 with a name I still struggle to pronounce (but manage).  They are THE dominant tea retail outlet in Germany with over 130 locations.  They now list five company owned and franchised locations in the U.S.  There store is crisp, modern, and clean and they have primarily targeted dense urban centers, starting in Chicago.

Also out of Chicago has emerged Argo Tea.  Just recently they opened their 15^th store, expanding into the center of the known universe, New York City.  They have a fun, playful menu that keeps it simple and mainstream for the masses.  They also make their tea using extracts to create efficiency and speed, both challenges for brewing tea traditionally.

So to top things off, Adagio recently announced with the hiring of Charles Cain, formerly with TeaGschwendner, to open their first brick-and-mortar in Chicago.  So now I am wondering if Chicago is the hotbed of the American tea revolution?  I didn’t know tea went so well with bratwurst and polish sausage (anyone offended by this remark, please note, I lived in Milwaukee for 30 years!).

Jumping north of the border, eh, I recently spoke with a consultant to DAVIDsTEA, who noted they have opened ten stores in Canada in a little over 18 months and plan on opening another 12 in 2010.  Tea must make people ambitious – another in the long line of benefits!

And other well-planned startups are emerging such as Village Tea who opened their flagship store in Dallas this past winter with plans on opening five locations in the Dallas area before expanding nationally.  Again, the concept is modern, with a simple menu and non-intimidating tea atmosphere.  They offer playful blends like their Cherry Me Bloom Rooibos blend and a Strawberry Passion white tea.  Having spoken with Village Tea CEO, Martin Ekechukwu (another name I struggle to pronounce nonetheless spell) , and his concept is to create a place to build community; hence, the village theme.  It embraces some of the very core values that tea offers though community, relaxation, and connectivity.

And one would have to been hibernating not to see the rapid growth and success of the Atlanta-based Teavana.  Their philosophy clearly is to go into high-traffic mall locations which often means high rents.  They keep their space fairly minimal offering a tea bar for concoctions to-go, and a healthy mix of tea retail items, from ying xing tea pots to tea books by beloved authors like Jane Pettigrew. Several years back they got a healthy infusion of capital and are now nearing 100 locations in the US.  They are at this time the front runner for the largest national tea chain… Wait, they are the largest national tea chain!

There are many more exciting stories of successful tea retailers who are expanding with big ambitions, such as Bill Waddington of the Tea Source (two locations) in Minnesota, and Jesse Jacobs of the Samovar Tea Lounge (three locations) in San Francisco.  (If you are building a chain, please post a comment here with your story.)  Consistently, the chains are located in high traffic density areas and most offer a contemporary urban approach to their design.  None are cheap, as history has shown consumers will pay a premium price for a premium product.

But all have proven definitively that a tea-only retail concept is viable, profitable and successful.  This is critical as all will need to follow in Teavana’s footsteps and secure significant capital to fund their ambitions. Even in the tight capital markets I have met private equity investors who are eager to begin investing in tea.  And with a history of investment in tea brands and retailer Teavana, I doubt raising capital will limit the growth of any well-planned and proven retail concept. I look forward to seeing how the game changes again in twenty-ten.

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If you haven’t read the front page story on the Wall Street Journal with Bruce Richardson and a leading member of the Kentucky Tea Party, please do. I applaud Bruce for getting some front page rebuttal coverage of the Tea Party, and when I spoke to Bruce about the story, he mentioned that it was a nice and polite visit, up until the end, when he saw the Kentucky Tea Party’s Web site featuring a picture of Al Gore breathing fire. Tea Partyists consider Al a heretic for making up global warming, which they claim is a hoax. I can only assume these are the same people who are pushing to remove Darwin from our classrooms.

Those who know Bruce will understand when I say that I could not imagine him ever not liking someone or uttering a mean word. He is a kind and gentle man. So, storming out of someplace after having tea is definitely out of character for him.

There is actually some underlying humor in all of this. (For example, see the recent video on how to speak tea bag on NPR’s website.)  And although the intent is to be humorous, we tea people can clearly see the predicament this puts us in.

The use of the term “socialist” as fear-based mud-slinging against anyone trying to do something productive is not productive. I grew up in Milwaukee where we had one of the only socialist mayors in America, Henry Maier. He built a public fairground that is used for Summer Fest, one of the largest annual music festivals in the world. What is so bad about that? Will the Tea Party start saying that building community is actually Communist?

And on one last political soapbox, I personally believe it is not only reasonable but necessary for people living in the (allegedly) richest country in the world to be entitled to education, justice and health care regardless of their economic status, not to mention public access to the art and culture which bind us as a society. But I digress…

Ah yes, what to do about all these left-wing communists and right-wing fascists (and a bunch of other people in the middle somewhere) banding together under the banner of tea? We certainly can’t start an anti-tea-party party; that would just muddy the waters further. At a minimum, we must take to arms (proverbially) and confront any supporter of the Tea Party movement with kindness and tea. Let them know that the original tea party wasn’t about protesting government; it was about profits, the seedlings of corporate greed. After all, the bootleg tea (untaxed) was far more profitable for the merchants. And while they were at it, the original tea-partiers publicly dishonored Native Americans - the original working class in this country.

In the long term, a third political party will create a significant shift in the politics of Washington as it has historically, but will continue to associate tea with many of the negative aspects of this movement. If people really start buying tea to toss into the harbor, stream, river, or nearest puddle, they will likely buy the 300 count packs on the bottom shelf of the grocery store (an appropriate position for tea that was previously dust swept from the factory floor).

In all sincerity and with all political motives behind, I once again call you to service to reach out to your local newspapers and media outlets to present the case for tea. Our country does need a tea party to restore community, conversation, and compassion. Our country needs to slow down and enjoy the agony of the leaf; to reflect and meditate on our future. Our country needs the nourishment of tea’s health benefits to roll back decades of double cheeseburgers.

Take the lead from Bruce Richardson and have tea with the local Tea Party in your area and invite the local media. And if the conversation turns sour, just use a lot of big words until they call you a socialist or fascist…

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The past decade has seen sweeping changes in the development, delivery and consumption of news and content with the continuing digitalization of media.  But stay tuned; the most significant changes will be taking place over the next 12 to 24 months.

Just a few decades ago, most major U.S. cities had two, three or even more newspapers keeping communities apprised of relevant news and information (and each other honest).  Unfortunately, the traditional newspaper model has come under attack as Internet sites like Craigslist have devastated their classifieds (a major source of most newspapers’ revenue), and advertisers have shifted marketing dollars to online and other media.

Print trade publications are becoming a dying breed as ad revenue continues to deteriorate, and more and more people get a majority of their news from online sources.

The solution would seem simple enough, that publishers and news organizations could simply deliver the content to their readers through their preferred platform, mostly electronically.  But then how do they support their business without the advertising?  Could you imagine if, when you clicked through to a Web site, you had to view 3,000 classified ads first?

Publications usually derive revenue through two main sources; paid advertisements and paid subscriptions.  With the massive declines in paid ads in recent years, publishers will look to support their operations through subscription revenue.  The problem is that when the Internet was developing, everything on it was free.  It is always difficult to get consumers to pay for something when they have always gotten it for free (try charging your kids for room and board sometime!).

The reality is that developing content, reporting news and distributing it, regardless of the medium, requires people, time, and resources.  If it is valuable and unique, then subscribers will support the product.

And this is exactly what we will be doing with the World Tea News in the next two to three weeks.

It is more than four years ago now that we began publishing the World Tea News e-newsletter as a bi-weekly aggregation of important industry news from around the globe for a few hundred subscribers.  We didn’t write or break news, but instead filtered through the news feeds to offer a single list of top stories, very similar to the model NASFT (the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade) uses in publishing their Specialty Food News.

When we decided to become a true news publication and not an information aggregator, we brought on a seasoned news editor and talented investigative journalist, Heidi Kyser as editor of World Tea News. The first two decisions we discussed were whether to print or not, and whether this be an independent news publication or a marketing arm of the Expo.

As a reader, you know we choose to publish online. We already saw trending away from print due to huge waste and inefficiency, as well as the inability to deliver news in a timely fashion. We also decided to have WTN maintain an independent editorial voice and objectives separate from the Expo, because the industry will always be larger than the Expo and people who drink tea are usually smart enough to know the difference.

As we near 7,000 (albeit free) subscribers globally, we still believe these to be the right decisions. But, we are faced with the reality that to continue to provide quality and timely content to the industry, we need to support it through a combination subscription- and advertising-based revenue model.

As a reader, you will still get the weekly e-news with the top headlines and access to a number of areas of WorldTeaNews.com for free.  Those who choose to use the site fully will pay a nominal monthly subscription fee and get the rest of the story, so to speak.

Prior to the transition, we are redeveloping the site to take advantage of ongoing advances in technology. Before the end of the month, we will welcome you to the NEW AND IMPROVED World Tea News. Here is what you can expect from it:

Timely news, interesting feature articles, and great blogs by a small selection of top industry thought leaders

Significant improvements to the delivery of video content, the business directory, and the calendar of events

New tools and features, such as a new product launch pad and an open forum to create user-driven discussion on hot topics

Regular polls on the site with instant results from users

More educational webinars

A commitment to continually add the resources necessary for our industry growth

Here is what you can count on the site NOT being:

A marketing piece for the World Tea Expo. Some event organizers think publishing a newsletter means just e-mailing information about their event. While these are valuable updates, they are not news, they are marketing pieces.

A cute flip-the-page version of a magazine. Older magazines with their roots in print often use this as a transition from old to new, and rarely successfully. If you really wanted to turn pages, couldn’t you do this when they sent you a print copy?

We firmly believe in our tag line, Industry Coverage You Can Count On, and take very seriously the trust placed in us as the leading online tea news resource in the industry.  We look forward to continually developing our content for the industry and strengthening the voice of our community.

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We have all heard of the many amazing health benefits of tea, from improved dental hygiene to reduced cardiovascular disease, but would you believe that tea also protects against gun shot wounds?

In one of the most bizarre and certainly sad stories that I have seen come across the news wire about tea, a woman’s estranged ex-husband came to her house and shot her squarely in the head.  The bullet miraculously passed directly between the two lobes of her brain without causing extensive damage.

So what to do when you just had a .38 caliber slug shot through your head?  Make some tea!  Seriously, the woman made her self some tea and even offered the police a cup when they arrived.

Fortunately, the woman is expected to recover fully and for better or for worse (until death do we part?), her assailant killed himself after attempting to kill the woman.

I honestly could not make this stuff up.  Read the story in the AP here.

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The Boston Tea Party was only one of 16 organized demonstrations against the tyranny of England and taxation without representation. I recall seeing an obscure and small placard on the side of a building in Providence, RI commemorating the burning of tea over 200 years ago. The event in Boston, for all its theatrics is the most widely known event from our history. For those unfamiliar with this amazing historical event, there is a great summary on Wikipedia.

And why did they dress like Indians? What, stealing their land wasn’t enough; we needed to make them seem criminal? And why do we as a nation continue to deny the fact our ancestors committed one of the largest acts of genocide in modern history?

Okay, I am digressing, back to the point.

While the Boston Tea Party represents a collective effort and good intentions of the brave men and women who founded our country and conjures images of a common belief of a government by the people for the people, it is one of the main reasons the U.S. is significantly deficient in its tea consumption. Not only was there a movement against the government of England, there was a rejection of the cultural identity to the motherland.

With our current scientific understanding of tea, it would make far more sense for people to drink tea in protest, yielding a calming effect and clarity of mind to rationale make decisions that would have not put our economy in this current quagmire.

Maybe we should petition our representatives to earmark an allocation and mandatory tea service for Congress prior to each session?

The resurgence of using the theme of a tea party is extremely damaging to our industry. I am not just referring to it allowing people like Newt Gingrich to get media coverage, but it associates the consumption of tea to the negative emotion towards the inefficiencies of government. It conveys that tea is not precious and can be easily disposed of.

This is almost as obnoxious and belittling as the constant media references to “Reading the Tea Leaves” when referring to the financial forecast of companies. Will our industry suffer from these irresponsible journalistic affiliations as well? How come no one wrote, “Reading the Tea Leaves: Our Economy is Failing?

Websites have been set up to organize these demonstrations and encourage people to waste tea and send to the White House. For the record, none of this will actually enter the White House as all the mail is screen at Post Offices and any food or consumables are discarded.

www.newamericanteaparty.com

www.reteaparty.com

www.taxdayteaparty.com

So I have decided to secured the domain, www.RealAmericanTeaParty.com (no its not live yet) and think we as an industry should start our own rebellion against journalists and any organization that assimilates tea to bad governance. It is time we fight back not against broken government, corporate bailouts, or criminal acts of people who are supposed to be looking out for us, but for the virtues of tea.  If we don’t make a stand for tea, who will?

I encourage your comments and pledges of solidarity! Tea Drinkers unite, you have nothing to loose but your bags!

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Countless articles, research, and experts have shown that businesses that cut marketing expenses during a recession see a much higher corresponding decrease in sales and lose valuable market share to competitors who maintain or increase their marketing. It is simple and intuitive, if you cut back on the spend to create sales, you lose the vital revenue you need to maintain your business.  It is as if you stop watering a plant.   Depriving your business of something as critical of water (marketing) often sets off a downward spiral that too often companies never recover from.

This is all easier said than done. And we are all faced with decreased consumer spending that has already deeply dented our sales. Generating sales must be your top priority and this is only accomplished through successful marketing. It is more prudent to spend more on marketing and work with decreased margins than to cut your spending and lose vital revenue.

Exhibiting at trade shows has been documented by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (www.ceir.org) as the most cost-effective way to generate sales leads than any other marketing medium.

Other industry reports have documented that key buyers are still actively attending shows and the value propositions of trade shows actually increases during recessions.

While we realize your investment in the World Tea Expo is much more than your exhibit space with cost of travel, staff, meals, freight, site services, and more, there are a number of ways you can cut back expense without cutting the opportunity to meet with thousands of buyers.

First, the World Tea Expo offers a complete turn-key booth package. No other major food or beverage show in North America adds this value into your exhibit space fees. Your booth includes a full hard wall shell scheme, shelving, tables, chairs, wastebasket, carpeting and first-night cleaning. The costs for these items individually at other trade can often exceed the cost for a 10′ x 10′ space itself.

We have also worked painstakingly with the hotels to reduce their rates and have accommodations as low as $36 mid-week and $71 Friday/Saturday. All the hotels we have rooms blocked at are connected by a complimentary tram. Airfares are extremely low right now with airlines also looking to stimulate sales with reduced rates.

If you are forced to work on a shoestring budget, it is better to take a minimalist approach and be at the trade show than to not be there at all, or worse, come as an attendee. If you decide to just “walk the show” you will be announcing to people you see your business isn’t interested in capturing sales. You will also be subjecting yourself to watching thousands of potential customers walking by you as if you were invisible (you are if you don’t exhibit).

Rather than spend money on printing company literature and the costs of shipping, tell customers you are eco-friendly and to reduce your carbon footprint, you will send them a PDF of your catalog immediately following the show.  This also creates a opportunity for you to follow up after the show.  And for the record, it is estimated that close to 70% of literature attendees collect at shows ends up in the trash before they head home.

Another major expense you can cut is shipping and drayage costs. Bring only the essentials and pack it in a rolling suitcase. Union rules allow you to hand-carry in to the show, and while this policy is intentionally vague, usually it applies to only one per person. But it can be done.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Reduce the number of people you staff your booth with. While this will mean long days for you or those who come, it can be done. Be lean and mean!

Forego lead retrieval and electrical and other site services. For tea companies looking to offer samples, contact your neighboring exhibitors before the show to see if you can share the cost of electrical and a hot water heater. Or simply use a candle tea pot. Lead retrieval is important and I encourage this not to be cut, but good old fashion business cards and a note pad for those attendees who run out can accomplish the same results.

You can run up hundreds of dollars in meal expenses if you use room service or dine out every night. Take advantage of the market. Vegas is back to offering ridiculously low promotions at their restaurants. While you might have to search for the $1.99 steak & eggs, the Excalibur is offering an all-you-can-eat-all-day for $25! Yes, a flat fee for all your meals all day at their buffet! Or even stock up at the local grocery store for your breakfast and lunch meals.

While we know many businesses are fighting to survive, you won’t get a return if you don’t invest. Exhibiting at the Expo gives your business the vital sales opportunities you need. Being frugal and planning ahead can minimize your out of pocket expenses that don’t directly contribute to sales generation.

We look forward to working hard for your business and delivering you buyers at the 2009 World Tea Expo.

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Business is not like golf where every shot makes someone happy and someone else sad.  Far from it. An unsuccessful exhibition is bad for everyone (other events, exhibitors and attendees).

This past year, I have seen several trade shows, some for the tea and coffee industries, that were poorly executed and, in some cases, even failed miserably. Exhibiting companies at these shows probably didn’t realize a return on their investment, so they will be unable to reinvest the lost dollars in their future marketing spend. This decreased marketing spend will, in turn, result in significantly lower immediate and future sales for these companies, putting them between a rock and a hard place.

When an event organizer delivers a poor product, regardless of the root cause, it can diminish the perceived value of all trade shows.

The same is true for all markets, including tea. If your competitor sells a low quality product, it can cause consumers to lose confidence in the quality of all tea. If they have a bad experience with one tea brand, they are less likely to try others. When a company sells an RTD that is basically tea-flavored sugar water, contributing to weight gain and even diabetes among consumers, tea loses its perceived healthiness. When a company like Dr. Lee’s Tea for Health makes health claims on its labels without first getting proper regulatory approval, the media picks up the story that tea isn’t really good for you.

There are positive examples of how your competitors’ success helps your business.  Lipton is viewed as the evil empire by many small tea brands, but in reality, it is helping rising stars succeed. Lipton’s introduction of higher quality RTDs (Pure Leaf brand) and their whole leaf pyramid bags are allowing consumers on a massive scale to explore premium tea. Twinings, Lipton and Snapple have all made major investments in radio and television advertising meant to increase awareness of the category.

The case can also be made that the more successful tea rooms there are in your community, the more successful each of them becomes. And if one tea room is misinforming, mistreating or misleading tea drinkers, it hurts everyone.

So whether your business is a trade show, a tea brand or tea room, you want your competitors to do well. The challenge becomes how we elevate the standards for the industry, to make sure that the rising tide does lift all boats.

For wholesalers and tea brands, one way is through trade shows. When buyers are allowed to make direct comparisons in person, competitors are forced to improve their product, messaging and promise. A handful of major brands no longer exhibit at World Tea Expo because their product doesn’t stand up against others.

Another way to elevate industry standards is through an independent rating system for tea. This is the ultimate goal of the World Tea Championship and World Tea Ratings, which were launched at last year’s Expo. The impact of this initiative is already apparent in companies’ including their ratings or winners seals on packaging, showcasing their awards at events and in print ads, and, in one case, featuring the “award-winning” tea in a QVC promotion.

I have listened to an ongoing discussion in our community about setting standards for tea. Within the RTD category, in particular, some have proposed requiring any product labeled as ”tea” to have a minimum of dissolved tea solids. For a recent article in Men’s Health, Chromadex conducted a blind analysis of some leading RTD brands to measure antioxidants, caffeine and calories. The results were interesting.

I believe defining quality is an important step for the industry to take. Setting standards is often the work of an industry association or coalition of leading manufacturers. Unfortunately, the leading manufacturers often have the most to lose in the implementation of such standards. As for an industry association leading the way, this is usually the result of constituents voicing their concern, which, in our case, would require greater participation in the tea association.

We could take many different paths to defining standards identifying products of integrity and quality, but they all require that this issue become a key discussion in our community. I encourage you to post your comments and thoughts to this blog post.

Ultimately, it is everyone’s job to not only make sure his or her business is successful, but that the industry is, too. I don’t suggest you call your competitors and tell them what they’re doing wrong, but for the tide to rise for us all, we must hold ourselves accountable and make sure we deliver high quality, innovative products.

Together, we can flood the world with tea.

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A strong value proposition is the message that conveys to customers the benefits of doing business with you and buying your product.  It is concise, factual, immediately speaks to customers’ needs and offers a solution.  A strong value proposition will sell your product when no one is buying. 

With so much to offer, it is understandably the most difficult message to draft properly and typically the weakest link found in marketing plans.  Try to find a strong value proposition, and you’ll be looking for awhile.  Many companies don’t have them. 

Typical value propositions may look like this:

“We offer high quality tea at discount prices.” 

“Our teas are organic and fair-trade.” 

“Our teas are direct from the garden.” 

“We have the largest trade show in the world for tea.” 

The number one problem with the statements above is that they describe the product’s features.  When no one is buying product, (read declining consumer spending) don’t waste time declaring what the product has or is.  No one is listening.    

In order to capture customer attention today, value propositions must go beyond features.  They must even go beyond benefits.  The strongest value propositions convey what need the product satisfies of the intended audience and has a zero “So what?” factor.  Strong value propositions are based on real data and have Motive.  Motive, in marketing terms, determines the one message that compels customers to buy. 

Let’s go back to our weak value propositions for a moment.  We’ll use the one relevant to WTE exhibitor prospects:

“Exhibit at the largest trade show in the world for tea.” 

Today it looks like this:

“In three day’s work, increase your sales by 20%”. 

Once you’ve captured prospects’ attention with a benefit of your product that meets their current need, you can then support your message with appropriate copy.  But the sale begins and sometimes ends with the one-line value proposition you offer. 

To determine a strong value proposition that conveys the benefits of doing business with you and buying your product, start with the exercise below.

Write down any and every thought you have.  Do not edit yourself.  Start with one service or product at a time.  Once you have your thoughts down on paper, you will begin to see patterns, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities among your offerings.

Upon completion, you will discover that you need to talk to your customers.  You will need to ask them what the benefits are of doing business with you and may be pleasantly surprised to realize you hadn’t thought of half of them.  You need to verify benefits to make sure they are true and relevant.  You will also need to determine what your customers’ needs are and compare those needs to your motives.  Finally, you will have significant data and content to develop a strong value proposition, conveyed all in one line. 

This isn’t easy but absolutely essential and rewarding.  Going through the exercise above forces you to dissect your offerings and determine their value.  In the end, you will have developed a strong value proposition- one that will sell your product when no one is buying because it is meaningful.    

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 A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.
 A depression is when you lose your job.

Please note that economists are considered the third least humorous profession, only slightly ahead of high school lunch ladies and IRS agents.
If there is anyone unaware of the serious economic crisis America is facing, I would like to buy some of the tea you are drinking. Ultimately, the macro-economic forces are beyond our control (with the exception of the hopeful major change in our government policies following the November elections). So as prudent stewards of our industry and as individual business owners, we must decide how to best weather the storm. And I believe there is strong hope.

I recently visited the trade show I used to run for the discount apparel industry. The show was packed and the exhibitors gleaming. This was a stark contrast to the activity and enthusiasm at the other apparel events being held concurrently. The underlying economics are simple: when times are tough, buyers increase their opennes to buying discounted goods, and when times are good, buyers are buying more merchandise in all categories.

I also recently read that Nevada’s state tax revenues from gaming and hotels were down but state alcohol tax has risen almost 6%. The article went on to say that alcohol is recession-proof, as when times are good, we celebrate with it and when times are bad, we cry into it.

There exist industries and business models that perform well in good and bad economic times. I believe that tea has some of the recession-proof armor of both of the above examples, but ultimately it will come down to positioning.

Tea (in most cases) is not a “discounted item” as with the case of the apparel show, but is an extremely affordable consumable. Bill Waddington, a very successful tea retailer in Minnesota, has trademarked the phrase “Tea the World’s Most Affordable Luxury®.” This insightful tag line is ingenious positioning for tea. While consumer spending is tightening, people still seek to indulge, in order to feel they are working for more than just to get by. Tea can fulfill this need without buyer remorse.

In the case of alcohol’s recession-proof traits, again, tea can also position itself to be the beverage for the good times and bad. Tea has long been a beverage of comfort and solace amidst the chaos of our day. It is also serves to gather people to commune over our accomplishments.

Certainly being adaptive to your customers and your specific market will be essential. I do not propose you go out and advertise “Your retirement is postponed, drink tea to increase the alpha-waves in your brain for a euphoric state of denial.” But do position your tea room marketing to an affordable and unique dine-out experience.  Offer community forums on the election, on the economy, or the surprising success of the Buffalo Bills.  People thirst for social interaction in troubled times.

Successful businesses will need to be more savvy with the marketing dollars, but whatever you do, don’t cut your marketing efforts.  Major studies have shown maintaining or increasing your marketing in tough times results in significant gains in market share as the economy improves.  And it will.

Larger consumer trends will impact some businesses favorably and others negatively, such as shifts away from out-of-home consumption towards in-home. Stores retailing dry tea and brands sold through grocery channels will benefit. While there will certainly be challenges for all segments of the economy, positioning tea to be an affordable indulgence and a cup of compassion and hope in troubled waters will help keep tea sales soaring in light of the economy.

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