Problem
As tea drinkers ourselves, we’ve found that high-quality, customized loose-leaf tea is not easily available for consumers. Also, many loose-leaf tea options are expensive and customizing tea is not a common practice. While hot tea once was primarily the drink of choice for consumers in many nations overseas, it has recently become a trendy beverage for a significant portion of the American population. Companies such as Teavana have proven that the specialty tea market is a very profitable one. We believe that we can offer similar services to Teavana, but offer them exclusively online, and with a bit of a twist.
Solution
Our solution is an online store for tea-lovers. It is fully customizable and offers tailored recommendations for consumers. If the customer is a musician, or has a sore throat, needs a good detox, or some other circumstance, there is a tea for him or her. Tea for Tu offers endless combinations and unlimited customization. The name of our brand has a dual meaning. It’s first a reference to the Doris Day song “Tea for Two,” but it’s also a reference to the casual, informal version of “you” in the French and Spanish languages. Those familiar with the business model employed by the online cosmetics company Birchbox might know that the key way that the company knows what products to recommend to subscribers is by having them fill out a survey when they register. Our company will use a similar tactic. While we will have all of our teas (which we will manufacture on our own) listed on our website by category and available for individual purchases, we also believe that it would be beneficial to have our customers fill out a survey so that we know more about their tea drinking and lifestyle habits. For instance, do they drink tea to relax? Do they drink it for health reasons, such as speeding up metabolism? Do they consume it before bed, or as an energy booster? By answering these questions and more, we will be able to create a “Teafile” for each consumer, which will in turn help us know which leaves and blends that we should recommend for them. So if the customer doesn’t want to purchase boxes of tea individually, Tea for Tu can craft the perfect tea selection and send them each month. These recommendations will be our most powerful differentiation strategy. Rather than simply having lists of our blends and flavors on the website, after customers fill out the survey, they will be directed to the recommendation page based on their answers. There, they will be exposed to different types of tea that they may not have ever even heard of, in addition to their old favorites. The page will also feature recommendations for blends based on personal preference; for example, “If you like green tea, you should try our light and sweet pomegranate mango blend, a perfect way to jumpstart your day”, with a link to the blend’s page. We will also give customers the option of creating their own blends from our selection of tea leaves, as well as buying leaves and tea bags by the container. By creating their own profiles and logging in, customers will automatically have a virtual tea card (similar to a coffee punch card), that will allow them to receive special product promotions for every certain number of teas ordered.