More than 2,600 booths are famous for their tea, and more than 70 brand promotion conferences are splendid... The 2nd China International Tea Expo held recently is not only a world-class tea event, but also a window to observe the tea industry.

China is the world's largest tea producer and consumer, but the tea industry is “big but not strong”. Ten thousand Chinese tea companies have less profit than a Litton. How to change this situation? The reporter interviewed some experts and industry insiders at the tea fair.

Good tea still needs good brand leadership

"China's tea industry is big but not strong. One of the key reasons is the lack of strong brand leadership." Tang Hao, director of the Department of Marketing and Economics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that there are more than 900 counties in China producing tea, each with its own quality and very good quality. The total area of ​​tea gardens and total tea production ranked first in the world for 13 consecutive years, but there was always a lack of big brands.

According to the report “Tea Branding Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy” published by the Industrial Economics Research Institute of the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in terms of brand loyalty, only 11% of the 10,000 tea consumers from 10 cities The purchase of tea is clearly from the same enterprise, which reflects from one side that China's tea enterprises brand still lacks sufficient influence.

“The success of Lipton lies in the fact that the company puts the product brand and communication with the users first.” Xing Wei, chief operating officer of Dongdao Brand Creative Group, said that there are some phenomena-level “explosive models” tea brands in the domestic market. These tea brands tend to pay more attention to communication with young consumers, but the brand is weak and the production capacity is small. On the other hand, “redesigning and re-promoting, making the brand become a super symbol in the short term, this is the tradition. The advantages that tea brands do not have."

“A large number of domestic tea brands still remain at the physical level of color, fragrance, taste and shape in terms of promotion.” Hu Xiaoyun, director of the China Agricultural Brand Research Center of Zhejiang University China Rural Development Research Institute, believes that cultivating and shaping tea brands and physical values The presentation is not enough. “Spicy, delicious, and safe, these are the most basic needs of consumers. There is still a huge potential for brand demand in terms of culture and spiritual level to be tapped.”

Transforming industrial advantages into brand advantages

"If you can treat West Lake Longjing as a brand, it should be very bullish. Obviously, what we lack is not a tea brand, but a commercial brand." Jiang Aiqin, a scientist at the national tea industry technology system. Then, under the rich category structure, China has not yet "growed" a world-wide tea business brand. What are the reasons?

Jiang Aiqin analyzed, first, China's tea industry has long been dominated by smallholder production, and it is difficult to obtain capital support for brand creation. Second, the entire tea industry is weakly organized, and it is difficult to implement unified management of the brand. Third, tea products have standards, but they still stay at the industry level, and there is no consensus with consumers, so it is difficult to create a commercial brand that consumers trust.

How can we achieve a leap from industrial advantage to brand advantage?

—— Take the road of industrial scale, attract capital, build standards, and strengthen the market. For example, in 2016, the former Ministry of Agriculture initiated the construction of a national-level Xinyang tea market, aiming to build a national tea brand cultivation center and promote the transformation and upgrading of the tea industry from the traditional agricultural product management mode to the modern commodity marketing model. At that time, more than 600 domestic and foreign tea enterprises were stationed, and they are gradually becoming an important platform to promote “Southern Tea North Sales and National Tea Export”.

—— Take the road of quality differentiation and create brand premium. Wang Wenli, chairman of the Eight Horse Tea Co., Ltd., believes that it is necessary to innovate in taste and create a healthy selling point to attract customers with healthier quality by improving pesticide residue and microbiological testing standards. Deep processing is a major direction to create brand premium. Lin Zhi, a researcher at the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that China's tea deep processing technology is at the international advanced level, but it cannot compete with foreign advanced level in terms of commodification and industrialization. Most deep processing enterprises It is still mainly used to produce intermediate materials such as tea extracts, such as tea polyphenols, theanine, tea polysaccharides, tea pigments, etc. The main end products are also limited to tea beverages.

——Taste the brand connotation with traditional tea culture. Zhou Guofu, president of the China International Tea Culture Research Association, said that Chinese tea has the characteristics of geographical environment, human history, and diversity of species, and it is impossible to completely apply the Lipton model. Chinese tea culture has a long history. In the process of brand building, it is necessary to fully play cultural cards.

Of course, the formation of the brand takes time, especially forging world-class tea brands. Tang Wei said that the international market is more accepting the fast-drying way of British Lipton tea. The consumption of Chinese tea is about utensils, water, and tea, which is difficult to promote. In fact, the Tea Fair is an excellent platform to allow foreign consumers to recognize and accept our tea culture by promoting Chinese tea “tasting” consumption. (Source: People's Daily)