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[ Brand Ideals ]
Harney & Sons
Harney & Sons is the only high-quality tea brand steeped in tradition, providing refined teas to warm your heart. Our masterful teas conduct an ornamental atmosphere, emanating honor, poise and elegance.- Vision: Elegance. Enables an ornamental atmosphere.
- Authenticity: Mastery. Conquering tea technicians.
- Meaning: Stability. Grounded process, products and expectations.
- Differentiation: Refined. Sifted to reveal purity and alleviate waste.
- Flexibility: Poised. Balanced, assured and well-prepared.
- Coherence: Tradition. Aids in continuity and historical relevance.
- Value: Honor. Acting out of integrity and respect for people and procedures.
The Republic of Tea
The Republic of Tea is the only high-end tea company that creates healing through tea for your active lifestyle. Highly energized, we seek to increase health, wellness and immunity naturally, by providing restorative products and vital information to help heal the world.- Vision: Healing. Focused on curative, restorative ends.
- Authenticity: Active. Energized and in-motion.
- Meaning: Wellness. Devoted to increasing life quality and prolonging life.
- Differentiation: Immunity. Promoting natural disease resistance.
- Flexibility: Natural. Formed organically, highly in-tune and adjustable.
- Coherence: Informative. Imparting knowledge through intelligent products.
- Value: Purveyor. Seeking out the finest teas in order to share them and heal the world.
Tazo
Tazo is the only tea brand that uplifts you into an ethereal, whimsical world of possibility. Unfurl and immerse yourself in our highly emotive world of tea, where possibility meets simplicity, and dreams grow gossamer wings.- Vision: Possibility. Increases the likelihood of manifesting your dreams.
- Authenticity: Whimsical. Whirlwind of playful imagination.
- Meaning: Blossoming. Unfurling you, revealing inner truth.
- Differentiation: Ethereal. Flowing, airy and delicate in nature.
- Flexibility: Immersive. Involving senses deeply and altering states.
- Coherence: Simplicity. Unfettered by complexity.
- Value: Uplifting. Eliciting hope, excitement and inspiration.
Numi
Numi is the only organic, fair-trade tea brand that is as conscious of our community, footprint and social impact as we are of what goes into our tea. We’re devoted to consciously creating a culture of purity through 100% organic ingredients, adequate wages, sustainable practices and community roots.- Vision: Community. Devoted to common culture.
- Authenticity: Earthy. Rooted in robustness and nature.
- Meaning: Purity. Free from contaminants and pollution.
- Differentiation: Organic. Derived exclusively from unfettered plants.
- Flexibility: Fair-Trade. Assuring workers are paid fairly, freeing from poverty.
- Coherence: Concern. Cares for people, planet, ingredients and sustainability.
- Value: Conscious. Aware of ingredients, impact and affect on surroundings.
Teavana
Teavana is the only tea brand that invites you into a heavenly world of tea, and encourages you to sip your way to bliss. Transcend restraints, honor your inner authority and enter a lofty, transcendent world of freedom, where satisfaction and peace reign.- Vision: Transcendent. Ushering you into an extraordinary other-world.
- Authenticity: Bliss. Inviting you to enjoy contentment.
- Meaning: Satisfaction. Exemplifying gratification.
- Differentiation: Lofty. Exalted, elevated and extending into air.
- Flexibility: Freedom. Enabling unrestrained action.
- Coherence: Peace. Initiating a state of inner and outer harmony.
- Value: Supreme. Rousing your ultimate, inner authority.
Images:
http://www.harney.com/?___SID=U
http://www.harney.com/blog/
http://blog.englishtrackers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Cream-tea.jpg
http://www.republicoftea.com/
http://res.mindbodygreen.com/img/ftr/herbs-glowing-skin-330.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m960cslI4s1rcwtu5o1_500.jpg
http://www.tazo.com/
http://tiogadentalnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/young-woman-drinking-green-tea.jpg
http://www.numitea.com/people/celebrating-people
http://www.numitea.com/pure-tea/100-real-ingredients/
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9z5QpmcXOQg/TFA3eI_et2I/AAAAAAAAAq0/A-L9mYjjpFk/s1600/1952947_med.jpg
http://vitamincenteragourahills.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/tea-29712rxuyzzok6j.jpg
http://www.gnet.org/wp-content/uploads/girl-drinking-yerba-mate.jpg -
[ Market Sectors: Teavana, Yoga Journal and Earth’s Best ]
1. Given the market sectors and the companies that you identified within each sector, what client needs can you identify to justify each project? What benefit to consumers would be gained by pursuing the project? Provide at least one direct quote from this weekʼs readings or videos with a citation to relate your answer to the research assignments.
Teavana
While Teavana’s brand is good, it could be great, and it could be branching out into other markets. They’re got a great product line, that I feel, could be communicating to more people more effectively. Teavana needs to branch out from their very traditional, high-end tea store status, and become a more casual place where everyone feels welcomed, soothed, satiated and blissful. After all, their name means heaven of tea. I’m also imaging an additional line of packaged teas, to sell to third-party vendors, like grocery stores. They need to expand their audience and simplify the realm of tea for the average tea consumer. The benefits for Teavana could be huge- imagine a modern, soothing, lounge-like atmosphere where people feel comfortable to sit, talk and work on their laptops while they sip their way to bliss. So many people are suffering from heart disease, stress, anxiety and caffeine addiction, the consumers could really benefit from a slower-paced atmosphere as well as beverage. Imagine the new Teavana as a serene social Mecca. These are all great benefits for consumers. It’s so much more than a tea store, and with an additional line of packaged teas, they would be making their products more affordable and accessible to their potential audience.
Yoga Journal
Yoga Journal’s brand has done really well, but I think that it could be doing better. As yoga has become more and more mainstream in the West, I think the average yoga practitioner is more savvy and educated than they were when the current campaign was imagined. Yoga Journal has been around for more than 35 years, and I feel that the current media could be better suited to communicate to the modern audience and also explore yoga’s deeper roots to gain more authenticity. Yoga Journal needs to revitalize their image in order to gain their credibility with a new audience, who are more yoga and spiritually savvy than the previous generations. I think that also means they could really benefit from integrating the history and tradition of yoga into their image more, since the younger audience is primed and ready, and the older audience is experienced and educated. Consumers would be able to take their yoga practices deeper and feel that they are more connected to the lineage of yoga.
Earth’s Best
Earth’s Best image is wholesome and heartwarming, however they really need to bring more elements into their image. Some of their competitors have more suitable images, and I think that they would be able to gain more market share if they followed in suit. Earths’ Best needs to communicate to health-conscious parents and young children. I think this also would be a huge opportunity to expand product lines, perhaps a line of baby and child super foods. More than just a wholesome farm, this brand needs to speak to health-conscious parents who are probably themselves, also fans of organic eating. Consumers would benefit from expanded product lines, and also from a brand revitalization that would communicate to their senses and esthetic preferences better.
In all of these options, my focus is on creating more perceived benefits for customers, so in undertaking these projects, I need to make sure to really deliver on these benefit expectations, or the consumer base “will experience dissatisfaction with the brand and probably will not buy that brand in the future.” (Levens, 2010) The expectations are high, and a lot is at stake, so the new campaign will really need to deliver to its customers.
2. Considering the competitive landscape in each sector, why would it be important to go beyond a redesign of the current brand identity of your selected companies? Provide at least one direct quote from this weekʼs readings or videos with a citation to relate your answer to the research assignments. Provide at least one outside reference with a direct quote.
It is going to be vital to go beyond a redesign of the current brand identity of these companies, because they’ve all got a huge following, marketshare and loyal customer base at stake. Plus, all of these brands are good, but they could be better. I intentionally chose these big names with much at stake, because I wanted to challenge myself to do something really in-tune, innovative and that communicates clearly to their moderns audiences. Redesigns can’t just be so-so, they have to be exactly on-point and overcome their past stigmas in order to chart new waters. Surpassing needs is so important, because “everything is driven by desire.” (Curtis, 2011) There is a big difference in fulfilling a need and exceeding those needs- that’s how you build a relationship with your consumer and create brand loyalty. We innately feel loyal to those who not only meet our needs, but surpass them. It makes us feel loved. Frank Chimero says that “people ignore design that ignores people,” and conversely, will certainly notice design that notices, understands and cares about people.
3. What are some of the more obvious features or services that are shared between the competing companies in each sector? What are some potential strategies for differentiating your selected companyʼs brand from the others? Provide a direct quote from this weekʼs readings or videos with a citation to relate your answer to the research assignments.
Teavana
Some of the obvious shared features or services shared among competing companies in this sector include: loose tea, boxed tea, a social gathering place, tea cups, pots and accessories. I think a Teavana store redesign would be huge in differentiating Teavana from its industry peers. Utilizing strategic media that communicates the healthy, peaceful and blissful nature of tea will help differentiate this brand. Adding a whole new market for boxed tea to sell to third-party vendors is also a great opportunity to diversity as well as differentiate.
Yoga Journal
Some of the obvious shared features or services shared among competing companies in this sector include: a print magazine, online magazine, videos, yoga mats, yoga bags, clothing, accessories, workshops and events. I think that revamping the image to speak to a more savvy user base and utilizing technology, like mobile apps, video downloads, video steaming, and even internet radio could really help reach the brand differentiate itself and reach more people. This would highly benefit the consumers who would have a more relevant brand, and increased access to yoga education, exercise plans, videos and more.
Earth’s Best
Some of the obvious shared features or services shared among competing companies in this sector include: baby formula, infant formula, baby food, infant snacks and toddler snacks. I think that by really tapping into the needs of busy, health-conscious parents and diversifying their product lines would help diversity it from industry peers and also meet the needs of parents who want to feed their children well, but don’t have much time to cook. Many competitors are already doing this with small toddler meals, so Earth’s Best really needs to do this just to keep up with that part of their market. Consumers would be thrilled to have more healthy options from this brand they know and trust.
In each of these cases, the crucial first step is to place yourself “in the shoes of your client’s target customer; you need to involve yourself with the product personally.” (Curtis, 2011) Only when you have a thorough understanding of the customer and their needs, can you even begin to design a campaign that suits them. This knowledge aids in differentiation, too, because you’re in a position to understand the nuances that will make them feel understood- and that makes for satisfied, loyal customers.References
Levens, M. (2010). Marketing: Defined, Explained, Applied. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Curtis, H. (2002). MTIV: Process, Inspiration, and Practice for the New Media Designer. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Jayce-O-Yesta. (n.d.). Top 150+ Graphic Design & Artist Quotes. Retrieved January 23, 2013 from:
http://jayce-o.blogspot.com/2011/07/top-150-graphic-design-artist-quotes.html
