Bags of tea look more and more like.
Photo Source: Nai Xue’s tea (left), Hi Tea (right) Nai Xue’s tea and Hi’s tea bag tea products
Nai Xue’s tea “good tea of the week”, “tea of the week” gift box, not only used a box of 7 bags of specifications, publicity focus on “daily tea drinking”, the cultivation of tea drinking habits, taste is also similar, such as peach oolong taste gradually become the standard bag of tea.
Photo Credit: Little Red Book, Macau Bone Master Hot Pot Bag Tea Products
Little Red Book there are bloggers on the market common tea bags organized by type, enough to let the choice of phobia patients on the spot autistic, these products from packaging style, raw materials, to product names are “silly and unclear.”
Data show that from 230 million yuan in 2015 to 5.03 billion yuan in 2019, China’s bag tea online market is growing rapidly. China’s online market for tea bags is expected to reach 12.87 billion yuan by 2020, an increase of 156 percent. [1]
In this market full of potential, bags of tea are becoming more and more like, so what are the development opportunities of bags of tea? This article will be discussed with you.
01 How do bags of tea grow longer and more like it?
Last September, small cans of tea in the interior hatched the main bag of tea sub-brand “tea pot”, the main 0 sugar 0 card 0 added bag of tea, last November, the establishment of six years sold 300 million bags of tea, daily sales of more than 500,000 bags of tea bag brand CHALI tea has completed a billion yuan level of financing. New brand tea small empty, a pack of life is also on Tmall’s new brand list.
Photo Source: CHALI Tea In Tea Peach Oolong
Bag tea is popular because of its convenience, and the scene of the epidemic house and the expansion of the number of “lazy house people”, together to bag tea this track added fire.
Live heat and lifestyle bloggers, but also to the bag of tea added a red halo, in Li Jiaxuan’s live room, tea peach oolong tea sold 60,000 units in 2 hours.
On a track that looks bright, the longer the tea bags grow, the more like they look.
From the packaging point of view, square membrane bags, small fresh color matching, printed in the middle of the brand name and logo, seems to have become a bag of tea packaging “three-plate axe.”
Photo Source: Nai Xue’s Tea Tmall Flagship Store (left) and Chabiubiu Tmall Flagship Store (right) bag tea packaging
Many surveys abroad have pointed out that consumers are sensitive to the shape of tea bags, the shape of different tea bags can enhance the interest in buying. Unfortunately, most of the tea bags we can buy now are triangles, few creative shapes, tea-like ear-mounted tea bags and Chabiubiu wrapping paper to allow consumers to stack their own tea bags, has been a creative approach.
Photo Source: Chabiubiu Tmall Flagship Store can stack its own packaging
Tea bags contain things are similar, in Tmall search for “peach oolong tea bag”, search results can reach 15 pages, a total of 841 related products, peaches or grapes plus oolong tea, seems to have become synths for bag tea.
Photo Source: Tmall Screenshot Peach Oolong Products Are Very Much
So why do the bags of tea grow longer and more like it?
1, by the supply chain stuck in the throat
Industry insiders share with us: “Tea entry threshold is not high, many new arrivals, most of them do not have deep experience in the supply chain, so in the selection of products, the lack of independent research and development capabilities, mostly to take the ism, and lack of capacity to optimize the taste, will also lead to product varieties are more similar.” ”
So give us the feeling that bags of tea more and more like, not only packaging looks like, even the product is similar.
2, bound by the restrictions of raw materials
Tea is difficult to innovate, a single variety of natural tea will be a single taste of disease, tea, flavor tea is also difficult to make a breakthrough in taste. For example, the popular peach oolong, the bottom of the tea already has the taste of peaches, other fruit raw materials taste is difficult to highlight.
And the taste of tea will be affected by the number of brews, water temperature, water consumption and other factors, but if consumers “strictly” in accordance with the recommended way to brew, it lost the convenience of tea bags.
3, marketing methods lack of soul
Many tea bag brands in the production and sales showed blindness, did not belong to their own brand’s unique personality, also did not find a sustainable way of drainage, we are all emphasizing “convenience”, are emphasizing “suitable for young people”, but into the dilemma of a thousand people.
And because of the need to cater to the market, cater to the channels, the brand not only failed to lead the new consumer trend, but also became the party that was led by the nose, such as peach oolong selected Tmall hot words, a time the tea industry set off a “peach oolong wind”, each brand is introducing peach oolong, even if there are differences between them, consumers are difficult to perceive.
02 The five issues that consumers are most concerned about may be ways to break homogenization
Perhaps the answer lies in the question, 2020H1 China bag tea industry development data show that in the bag tea industry development process, consumers have been aware of some problems.
Photo credit: AI Media Consulting bag tea development issues
So what are the solutions to these problems? We’ve selected a few cases to discuss with you.
First of all, the first, 42.5% of consumers think that “tea quality is not good”, and according to Ai media consulting statistics, the quality of tea bags in China has been greatly improved, but many consumers still have a “poor quality” of the inherent impression of tea bags. This impression is not related to the bag of tea itself, but more from our tea culture.
Chinese tea selection pay attention to single buds, single leaves, observe the process of tea is blistered, but also a kind of elegant. And the tea bags filled with CTC tea (referring to artificial crushing of Crush, tearing Tea, tea powder after kneading Curl) are, in the eyes of heavy fans of tea culture, the process of making tea loses its soul, and makes people doubt the quality of tea.
Bag tea brands have also made improvements at the product level, such as this red bean rice tea in tea, can clearly see through the tea bag a clear rice and red beans, you see what you get.
Photo Source: Red Bean Rice Tea in Tea Tmall’s Flagship Store
Health tea brand T FUN also launched a large piece of freeze-dried fruit tea, each piece of freeze-dried fruit can reach 1.5g, not only to make raw materials truly visible, but also enrich the taste.
Photo Source: TFUN Tmall flagship store freeze-dried peach oolong tea
Photo Credit: TFUN Tmall Flagship Strawberry Black Tea
While 35.8% of consumers think that product design is poor, such as labels and tea bag lines easy to flush into the cup, this we may be able to absorb some foreign experience, the Japanese tea brand minorien sent a cute kitten to help tea drinkers fixed cotton wire. It’s fun, it’s zen.
Photo credit: Minorien’s official website, Cat Fishing Tea
The brand also has a tea bag label design is also very interesting, the process of making tea is simulated as the process of small animals bathing, and, caffeine content is less, suitable for drinking tea at night, small animals or closed their eyes, or wearing a night cap, the state can be sloppy. And suitable for the daytime tea, are open to the small eyes of the round look at you, very cute.
Photo credit: Minorien’s website, Animal Tea Party
Suzhou Museum has also launched a similar design, so that you can drink tea while “soaking” Tang Bohu, feel Jiangnan talent and taste.
Photo Source: Tmall’s flagship Tmall store in Suzhou Museum
Japan also has a brand called ocean-teabag, because the founders like marine life also like to drink tea, the combination of the two, tea bags directly designed to shape marine life, making tea is like sending marine life back into the water.
Photo Credit: ocean-teabag.com
VIASA, a Japanese tea bag brand, designed the packaging of tea bags as postcards. Wouldn’t it be beautiful to make a packet of tea and write a postcard to a friend?
Photo credit: VIASAVIASA Tea Bag
As for 33.8% of consumers think product innovation is not enough, we are also concerned that there are already many brands in the efforts, such as positioning is “to create young people’s light luxury tea” Yin small tea, the use of a relatively rare pyramid-type tea bag packaging. The price per gram is about 3 to 4 yuan, while the general price of tea in the market is 2 yuan / g.
Photo Source: Aoyama tea bag in Yin Xiao Tea Tower
There is another day sales of more than 100,000 new brand tea small empty, joint tea academic and industry experts in Hangzhou set up a tea research institute, joint research and development of “super-extracted tea” project, through pure physical processing technology, so that raw leaf tea in cold water can quickly out of tea, so as to achieve “unlimited water temperature, that is, drink-and-drink” effect. [4]
Photo Source: Tea Small Empty Tea Small Empty Super-Extract Tea
There is founded in 2014 UMEA beautiful tea, the main “pure flavor, safe flavor” concept of Western-style tea, natural flavors and tea with together, according to the founding team, tea flavor similar perfume, there are front and back tone, tea bag itself smells is a flavor, drink to the mouth, you can feel the main tone and other flavors, flavor is layered.
Photo source: UMTEA Beautiful Tea UMEA Beautiful Tea
I believe that through continuous innovation, bag tea can conquer the hearts of more and more consumers.
03 Bags of tea, a 156% jump in track, how else can I “bubble”?
In 1992, Leighton entered the Chinese market with tea bags, redefining the tea unit as a “bag” that made the tea industry more standardized and industrialized, similar to Ford’s introduction of its first production line for the automotive industry. After the emergence of tea bags, tea drinking more convenient, consumption scene is also more yuan.
In 2019, China Supply and Marketing Co-operative Corporation issued the industry standard for flavored tea, which also shows that the bag tea industry is becoming more and more standardized.
So what other opportunities are there to be tapped on this rising rising star track?
1, precise positioning, to find sub-groups of people
Brands can target the right products around a segment of the consumer population.
Photo Source: Hottea Mama, a British tea brand focused on women’s tea
There is a British brand dedicated to women’s tea, Hotea Mama, products such as pregnant tea, breast-feeding tea, menopausal tea and so on. In the tea market competition in the United Kingdom, through their own unique, targeted positioning, firmly occupied a place.
Photo Source: Teapot TeaPot Powder BUFF Sugar-Free Black Tea Combination
There is a tea pot this group of black tea as the tea base of the fruit tea, also aimed at women, not only packaging color bias to women’s preferences, the product itself is also with black tea tea bottom with freeze-dried lychee, laurel red dates, pineapple, raspberry roses, these are preferred raw materials for women. Can be said to be around the user, targeted to create a product.
In addition to women, there is also a group worthy of tea brands to pay attention to – workers.
According to iiMedia Research, 44% of China’s white-collar groups will drink tea in bags once or more every day in 2021, with 35.6% of white-collar workers drinking tea in bags more than once a week, and 62.4% of Chinese white-collar groups most interested in making tea in the fire-clearing series.
Photo Source: Ai Media Data Center White Collar’s interest in different bags of tea
After all, for workers who often need 996, stay up late at the fire, the pressure will also be on fire, this time a bubble can drink, but also “said” has the effect of clearing the fire tea bags, can be said to be the best comfort for white-collar workers.
2, emphasize functionality, open up more drinking scenes
Capturing the pain points of a user in a particular scenario and constantly reinforcing the impression that “my brand can help you in this scenario” is a great way to expand your brand’s reach.
So what drinking scenarios can be developed?
According to the investigation of Ai media consultation, the main drinking scene of tea bags is home drinking and drinking in the office. Most of the products on the market are also targeted at these two scenarios.
Photo source: AI data center bag tea consumption scene analysis
For this generation of consumers who eat heavy oil and love “bubbles in the insulation cup”, they have many more specific, more subdivided scenarios waiting to be met.
On a sleepless night, for example, a purple Channing sleeping tea bag may give them some comfort, containing chamomile, fennel, apples and vanilla, and lowering the amount of caffeine.
Photo Source: Twinings Channing Functional Series Tea Bags
There is also a tea brand called OFFBLAK in the UK, which is mainly functional.
Photo credit: OFFBLAKOFFBLAK Tea Bag
In the brand website, products according to raw materials, consumption scenarios, caffeine content three ways of classification, so that consumers can according to their own needs to buy their own products.
Photo credit: OFFBLAKOFFBLAK Tea Bag
And there are more practical benefits for brands from the expansion of the scene, with data showing that the market for functional beverages for sleep, stress reduction and attention is growing, with the functional beverage market exceeding 50 billion yuan in 2019 and expected to reach about 81.24 billion yuan by 2024. [7]
Let’s look back at the market size of tea bags – 5.03 billion yuan in 2019, the gap between the two ten times contains countless opportunities, and from the expansion of the scene, perhaps bags of tea to eat functional drinks this “fat meat” a good opportunity.
3. Young people may be afraid of trouble, but like the culture and sense of ceremony
Young people may hate the cumbersome brewing process, but they are keen on the culture of the tide and are willing to buy domestic brands, with sales of more than 37,000 Chinese brands up at least 100% year-on-year on the first day of Tmall 618 sales in 2020. The tide has also become a hot topic in the consumer market.
Many bagged tea brands will emphasize: “We save the traditional tea tedious brewing process, we are suitable for young people’s convenient brewing.” “Hopefully it will appeal to young people.
But these brands seem to ignore the fact that there are also parts of traditional tea culture that young consumers like, such as the elegant atmosphere, the projection of the identity of a “cultural person”, and the experience of watching tea slowly bubble in the water during the brewing process.
No one likes trouble, but tea culture is not just trouble. There’s a lot of good stuff to keep and something young people can feel. Perhaps all brands need is a better way to communicate with young people.
Tea-colored pleasant color will often put their own products and Changsha local characteristics, as well as a variety of creative IP combined. Attach cultural attributes and geographical attributes to your brand, and bring them closer to the psychological distance of consumers.
Photo Source: Tea-colored Tmall flagship store Tea-colored bag tea products
As consumers have accumulated a certain amount of awareness of these creative IP, the brand can through this joint way, the consumer of creative IP psychological assets transferred to their own body, so as to achieve the goal of rapid rise. Getting close to young people in this way may be a better way to spread tea culture than indoctrinating and emphasizing your high-end positioning.
The emerging tea brand HASHTEAG is playing with young people in a way that invites consumers to create together. The brand’s tea bags are all designed in the form of small clothes, JK uniforms, Lolita dresses and Chinese clothes, all made into the shape of tea bags.
Photo Source: HashTEAG Bag Tea at The Child’s flagship store
The box is a small wardrobe, take tea bags like picking clothes, full of girl’s heart. Brands have also linked their products to the now-popular OOTD (Share Today wear) campaign. In Weibo and Xiaohong book, there are many people involved in the creation of works.
Photo Credit: Weibo/HashTEAG Consumer Creations
There is a lot of potential in the tea market, waiting for brands to tap.
04 Conclusion
According to the survey data of AI media consulting, the average proportion of global tea in total tea consumption is 23.5%, 80% in Europe and 90% in the United States and britain. This figure is only 5% in China, and only 15% of Chinese consumers say they regularly drink tea bags.
The market for bag-made tea is undoubtedly full of potential, and many in the industry have mentioned that in 2019 the market for bag-making tea is showing a rapid ups and downs, and that’s just the beginning.