Tea- experience to let us know what we like!

Some nice, tea sommelier ladies tried to catch my attention in mid-October, when we still believed that winter was coming. They succeeded and I was soon heading towards the cash register with my basked full of fruit and winter tea specialities. Using a wide variety of advertising and in-store tools to promote tea sales is a worthwhile effort, as we can see from the success of Milford teas. Regarding price, packaging and quality, Milford teas belong to the premium segment. The primary objective of the promotion was to get as many consumers acquainted with tea drinking and Milford tea in particular, as possible using “tea sommeliers”. Of course, generating sales was also an objective as well as finding out more about the target group. The aim was not to to do a sampling promotion, but rather to educate consumers. Promotions were held in 30 Tesco, 21 Interspar and 10 Auchan stores. Hostesses from Promo Power Trade Marketing Agency were employed for the in-store activities, who attended a course about tea organised by Cerbona Zrt. and who had to take an exam after the course. Tea sommeliers wore costumes designed specially for the occasion, which helped to make the promotion more exclusive. Other in-store tools and ads placed in leaflets were used to support the campaign, while a nation-wide marketing campaign also took part. In addition to these, product samples were enclosed in 54 thousand copies of a women’s magazine. During the promotion, over 40 thousand consumers were reached, who welcomed advise from the sommeliers and the gifts. In many places, sales expanded to 6-10 times of their original volume. Though consumers were missing classic sampling in the beginning, they understood why a crowded, big store is not the ideal location for drinking a premium quality tea. Consumers were satisfied with the price/vale ratio and liked the design as well. It was found that tea sales do not depend so much on the season as it is usually assumed. Last summer, a successful Milford promotion was held using ice cube holders as gifts accompanying two fruit teas.