The premium product marketer’s task. Persuading new customers that what you create is the best. Informing your website visitors that your product deserves the price tag you’ve placed upon it because, well, put simply, it’s better than the competition’s offering.
How do you let your quality shine?
Years ago we would have chanced our budgets on the premium quality brochure. Investing in quality photography. The thickness and texture of the paper. Going the extra mile. Making our products as touchy and feely as we can in the two dimensional world. In the dot com world, that task remains.
To persuade your audience that they no longer have to ‘make do’ with the default offering of the competition. You’re no longer marketing a product, you’re creating a mission. That’s what TeaPigs are doing. They’re this week’s market makers.
LEAD A MISSION
Nothing supports a differentiated product like a meaningful mission. To lead your customers. To instil a sense of camaraderie. We’re in this together. To say ‘enough is enough!’
TeaPigs are a UK producer of premium tea. A startup (backed by TATA – which also owns Tetley) launched just under 10 years ago by Louise Allen (tea taster) and Nick Kilby (tea evangelist). Two ex-Tetley Tea workers who know their product inside out. They also know their market. Premium products in the tea industry are often associated with tradition. Think Earl Grey. Nick and Louise’s mission was to make premium tea available through the creation of a more approachable brand. A brand that shared the value of their insight into their market and their consumer. At a premium price.
The mission is summed up nicely on their mission page:
That’s right – we have finally had enough of the flavourless slop that is crushed into dust and crammed into the nation’s teabags. Tea drinkers deserve better – real whole leaf tea. So here we have it – a real tea mission!
It’s easy to state you’re ‘on a mission’. We create businesses because we spot an opportunity. Not to compete, but to thrive. That’s the purpose of product as well as brand differentiation. If we don’t believe our product is any better, or any different, the ‘mission’ proposition appears fake and meaningless.
Your task is to outline why that mission is meaningful. Throughout the TeaPigs website you’ll find product comparison against ‘the norm’… ‘Because we use whole peppermint leaves, you’ll find the flavour of this blend much stronger and fresher than regular dusty paper teabags.’ Constant reinforcement of the TeaPigs value proposition. A proposition we should be prepared to pay for.
A MISSION REQUIRES LEADERSHIP
You can’t simply state ‘hey, we’re on a mission, so buy from us’. It doesn’t work. A mission requires a leader. Co-founder Louise has taken that role. Each product description leads with ‘what Louise the taster says‘. We learn about Louise’s experience on the TeaPigs about us page.
When you believe the mission leader, you believe in the product. Louise’s message carries from the product page to the product itself. The product description on the back of the packaging. If you have a question? You guessed, you write to Louise the Tea Tester.
You know how marketers like to talk about humanising the brand? TeaPigs are a prime example. This is Nick and Louise sharing their insight and experience to present us with a better product to consume. Not just an alternative to try.
TAKING PRIDE IN THE PRODUCT
TeaPigs don’t sell tea bags. Oh no. They offer tea temples. Nick and Louise go into great detail explaining the difference between the two. A tea temple? Why? ‘We think the leaf should be worshipped, not crushed’ I just love that sentiment.
It’s easy to go the route of the dot com equivalent to the premium brochure. You simply spend more on presentation. With TeaPigs, the passion for product shines through. It creates intrigue. Just how different are TeaPigs tea temples?
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE BRAND LESS ORDINARY, TEAPIGS?
Just like Typeform last week (and DeathtotheStockPhoto the week before) there’s a shared identity between the brand and the consumer. Brands that inform us that we don’t have to settle for average. Yes, there’s a cost associated to the premium brand. Each market maker leads with their own unique purposeful difference. It’s clear that there’s a value associated with that additional cost. That’s your purposeful difference.
We’re consumers. We indulge. We don’t mind paying a premium if that value is identifiable. Not simply in the marketing, but in the product itself. I found out about TeaPigs last month by accident. A product nestled alongside Herbal tea leader Twining’s on the shelf. It was the packaging that sold the product to me. The boldness by which they use see-through packaging to show off the product. It tells you that this is no ordinary product. You can SEE the peppermint. The product itself is way beyond comparison with the traditional teabags we’ve come to expect. They really do practice what they preach. I’m an advocate.
If you genuinely believe your product or service is better and firmly believe that the value of your product requires your consumer to rethink the price tag (TeaPigs are more expensive than the traditional brands) you need to present why. That’s the power of the humanised brand. You earn the right to talk to your audience one-to-one.
Nick and Louise have done the hard work. They’re worked the fields (literally) to bring us (the tea consumer) a better product. That message shines throughout their website and product. It also shines in the 100 or so customer reviews attached to each tea product they’ve created. The 200+ reviews in the TeaPigs Facebook community.
As the competitors talk about what the product is ‘the perfect depth of flavour: sweet strawberries, tangy raspberries and the noble loganberry, with its distinctive raspberry-blackberry taste.’ TeaPigs offer the ‘why’… ‘You may have noticed most other chamomile teas are made from dusty little bits – this is the crushed flowers, which, in our view, is a plain nasty thing to do.’
Saying you’re better than the rest and offering a premium price tag is one thing. Separating yourself from the rest and explaining why? That’s the key to marketing a premium product.
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