Do you think T is promoted enough???

Something old cannot be made new without changing what it is, and therefore it would indeed be “new”.
I see what you’re trying to do, and recognize the marketing initiative as earnest, yet in some ways misguided.
The history of tea is fascinating, so perhaps a better idea would be to put a trendy spin on that, instead of inventing an entirely new culture around it?
That said, people like what they like. Tea will never replace coffee or coke. Only those who are open to trying tea will invest themselves in it unless there is a paradigm shift in the societal psyche. One tea company is unlikely to achieve this… not until it’s a much larger, more powerful influence in the field. Even then, it would take a long time, perhaps a decade for this evolved way of thinking to take hold (and at this point, I’m still uncertain of what you mean that to be)
Your idea of pitching free tea to draw customers in is brilliant though. Good luck, and I do mean that- just be careful about it!

Please feel free to state your opinions as you have, and stay to whatever corner you choose. I welcomed opinions by creating the discussion. You may view this as promotion for my company, and that’s alright. At the end of this all, you will cotinue to enjoy the T’s you like, as I will also, that’s the most imortant part.

This is an interesting thread. At first I wasn’t going to kibitz, but as the proud owner of a tea-related blog that strives to promote independent tea companies as well as offer insight into the history and culture of tea, I have to put in my two cents.

First off, I don’t think “T by Daniel” was trying to promote his tea company – at first anyway. It’s an interesting topic to discuss, the promotion of tea. I rarely see ads for tea, but I’m one of those snobby Americans you’ve referred to – I have TiVo and other modern conveniences, so I don’t have to watch commercials. ;) In all seriousness, though, the fault of lack of promotion for tea is on the tea companies themselves. They can advertise all they want to in magazines, even those tailored for tea readers (such as Tea Time) or general topic magazines (Good Housekeeping, Redbook).

Second, though, I’ve got to agree with Rita – it seems that there is a bit of self-promotion here in the long run with T by Daniel, intentional or not.

Third, let’s get something straight. Good/great customer service will always prevail in any company. For example, I shop at Wegmans not just because my family knows their family, but because the cashiers are always friendly. I shop at Adagio, even if their teas aren’t the highest quality, because I always get great customer service.

And if a tea buyer doesn’t want to read all the history of tea while making a purchase there is a wonderful thing called “free will.” Just skip that info, buy your tea and move on.

Bottom line: tea time is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. Let’s try to keep it that way here, too, shall we?

That is exactly the road I was heading down….since a lot of people aren’t interested in history and culture of T, why not promote T differently, get people to fall in love with the beverage, then they will be a lot more willing to learn and maybe take on the culture. That is how it happened for me as a T drinker, and it worked perfect!

If you read my previous post you’ll know that I think the history and culture is as much a part of tea and the drink itself. However let me be more objective and hopefully briefer to.

First off, personally I object to your business model, your promotion methods I even dislike your youtube, commercial, and whole-heartedly despise your trying to change the culture of tea and seemingly ignoring its history. That doesn’t mean its bad, just means it doesn’t appeal to me, in as I think you can tell it doesn’t seem to appeal to many (if any) who consider themselves a tea connoisseur. But from your marketing strategy I don’t think that is your target audience, so what I think is neither here nor there.

So with that out of the way I find your marketing strategy intriguing. As many know I disagree with just about everything that Teavana is, however that doesn’t change two very important facts. One that they are a successful company and two that they introduce higher quality teas to many people who otherwise never would have been. I think you are more likely to appeal to a genre of people who may otherwise have never been interested in tea.

If you succeed this will provide you with your own successful niche and introduce more people to the wonderful world of tea, which is always a good thing. And for this I whole heatedly wish you well. I’ll be interested to see the results of your unique marketing and promotion methods.

A friendly piece of advice, calling your company T by Daniel, is a nice play, and I imagine your refer to your products or teas as T’s. However I will warn you that when you extend this outside of your own company to all tea, many people will find this lazy, disrespectful and offensive, and WILL turn away potential customers. Remember your trying to appeal to as many as possible, and as you want others to respect what your trying to do, by changing the spelling of tea to T (not referring to your own teas), your in effect being disrespectful to something that many of us are passionate about. I’m not trying to criticize you just offering some advice.

And lastly as Rita mentioned, please refrain from rating your own teas as it is a clear violation of steepster policy and does make the ratings biased.

Again best of wishes to you on your endeavor and I’ll be interested to see your response.

I like the tradition and culture surrounding tea. And I like the beverage itself. I think having the many years of culture and tradition as part of the whole package only draws me in more. For the casual drinker, the culture and tradition is there, but only if you really care to read about it. It is not like the tradition of tea is overly evident in the media that you are bombarded with it at every corner. I love that it is there if you choose to seek it out. It is like a treasure hunt of sorts.

My advice to Daniel…..if you are trying to compete over tea newbies with Teavana: Good luck. You will need it. If you want to appeal to real tea drinkers: You might want to try again. So far you have not done much but offend me.

Once again I appreciate all your opinions and personal thoughts and feelings about the topic discussion and the new topic “My company.” As a business owner, and optimistic person it would be wrong for me to take anything but positivity out of this forum though very minimal positivity can be found, I’ll do my best. It is important for me to see how T drinkers feel about the industry and different companies within. All of you have given me a great inside look at that. I can see what offends you, what intrigues you, what excites you, what turns you off etc… This will only help my research and marketing strategies in the future. I am well aware of my target audience, and therefore do not see the need to “try again” or change my method of promoting T. Neither will I ever consider changing T back to tea. If this offends you I am deeply sorry as my intension is to have peace among all mankind. Much planning has gone into my company and what we stand for, I say that to say this; I am not trying to be the next starbucks, or teavana, or any othercompany other than T by Daniel. That’s who I am, That’s who i will continue to be. If TBD hapens to fail (which I don’t believe in failure, but instead a successful attempt) Then I will “fail” as T by daniel. If I succeed in my measure of success (which is not winning every “tea drinkers” heart, but instead to create a new spin on T, Then I will succeed as T by daniel. Thanks for the comparisons but I’m sure you can understand that. I won’t comment on the “testosterone” remark as it may be funny to some but frankly not worth my time. I’m excited about my company, I’m excited about the delcious beverage T, and I look forward to embracing all challenges that come with this journey into the world of T. So, in a more positive light, have a great day all you T drinkers as I anticipate your responses.

Dear Daniel,
I am encouraged by your optimism. Please do not be terribly turned off by the forum. In fact, Steepster is one of the most positive and welcoming communities that I have found out there. I think for many of us, myself included, tea culture can be almost religious. Many of us view tea as an invitation to delve deeper into the beauty that life has to offer, and as a conduit for respect and cultivation (see the Tea Etiquette discussion). Your experience with criticism here is uncommon, and from your perspective as a market researcher, very interesting to note. If you consider that many might feel like an attack on tea culture is personally belittling, it is easier to understand reactions on the forum. People here don’t really look down on anyone. In fact, I love this forum because not matter what you are drinking , people are excited to hear about it, flavored or unflavored.

I would like to respond to your initial question about marketing tea. It is not promoted well enough, true. However, I think that with tea we really need to think outside the box. Culture and trendiness are not an either or choice. Starbucks has been brought up as an example. In fact, they market their coffee as the ethical alternative, a connection back to the farmers, and ultimately, the culture. I think they successfully use coffee culture to make coffee even cooler. My experience as a tea importer is that people truly enjoy and appreciate hearing stories from the farm. I can tell them the name of who picked their tea and that farmer’s favorite folk tale about tea. Pictures and stories can help you sell tea, because as a reseller you are ultimately no more than a bridge between producer and consumer. You can either deny that, covering up the origins of your product, or you can embrace it and help strengthen the bridge. How about commercials and videos about the farmers themselves? How have they used tea for their health? There are also some crazy stories out there about tea. (Iron Goddess, Big Red Robe) That are just off beat enough to be cool.

Before starting a business, I worked at another tea shop, and too often I would see customers that looked terrified of all the teas, like an explosion of culture. That is probably what you are trying to communicate as the problem. My job was to encourage them, embrace the steps they took towards learning and tell then as much as they wanted to know. Most people wanted to learn more, and ended up enjoying their tea, and buying more of it as a result. Some people just wanted to be out the door with a bubble tea. Even for them, I might suggest an iced chai and tell them just a little something while ringing them up. Nobody ever objected, and most of them would be back in a day with friends.

I am not trying to tell you to do something differently. The tea world is a diverse one and there is room for everyone. Right now, the more people fighting for tea, the better. All exposure helps. Many customers begin with something easier to palate and then feel inspired to work their way towards the crazy teas that are out there to discover. I just want to suggest that in all of our work (tea company, blogger, drinker, etc) we all remember that tea does have a strong culture and history whether we like it or not, and that it may be to our advantage in achieving our common goal to use that history to engage people.

Thank about it anyways. And try to have fun on Steepster!

I wasn’t going to comment here, because I don’t wish to help “D” promote his “T”, but I find myself needing to ask a question. Here goes:

If those who love tea are not your target audience, and you are actually looking to expand to people who think they don’t like tea and hoping to open their eyes to my favorite beverage, then, why did you come to a forum like this that is frequented by those who love tea for feedback?

You’re obviously looking for exposure and a potential customer base, otherwise, you wouldn’t be here asking your questions about your product.

I wasn’t going to comment either, but I just find this entire chat to be hilarious. It’s one thing to call your company “T”, but referring to “T” instead of “tea” is a bit excessive. I’m not one for snobbery and pretentious behavior that pervades the tea world from time to time, but tea’s history and culture isn’t elite. Learning about other cultures is one of my favorite things to get from tea. Like food and art, drinking tea is an accessible way to go about it.