The Tea of it all
All about tea while you sip one
Welcome
From a hot beverage to a lifestyle product
A big hype about an old and historical product: tea. Over the years, tea has increasingly developed into a modern lifestyle product. Especially the brand Kusmi Tea has managed to create a premium product and rejuvenated the image of tea in the consumers mind.
The origins of Kusmi tea are traced back to the year 1867 when Pavil Kousmichoff founded the tea house in Saint Petersburg.In 1917 the Kousmichoff family escaped the Russian revolution and set up their tea house on Avenue Niel in Paris. Sylvain and Claude Orebi recognized a rough diamond in Kusmi Tea and decided to buy the company in 2003 and manage the fortunes themselves.
Tea has a certain aura because it tells us a story. Its origin, its values and its traditions unfold through the different aromas. In the year 2006, the Orebi brothers transformed the brand and succeeded in combining tradition and history with modern trends and lifestyles. Kusmi tea revolutionized the tea market and modernized its image. It shifted from a hot beverage to a lifestyle product of wellness and beauty. “The brand is a subtle association of an ancient, privileged and secret spirit (referring to Russian Tsars and the French Empire) with a more modern, trendy and well-being one.” (Estellelouis, 2014).
In contrast to other tea brands which focused on having contacts to the F&B Industry for communicating the values of the brand to its customers, Kusmi tea employed a PR agent specialized in the beauty industry to work on their image. The brand followed the current trend of well being and healthy living and adapted their marketing strategy and product range to meet the values of this target group. By doing that, the brand started to attract more adventurous customers which can be classified as trendsetters.
A further strong brand asset is their focus on the artisanal characteristic of the fabrication process and their “savoir-faire” since the creation of the brand in 1917. Especially nowadays, it is vital for the consumer to know the origins and ingredients of the products they are buying. Kusmi teas roots are in the mother lands of tea, as for example India, China and Ceylon where it grows naturally and where high quality is guaranteed. Placing the focus on the teas origins does not only upgrade the brand image but simultaneously makes the customer believe that they are buying a tailor made product which goes “across oceans” to ensure high quality for the end consumer.
Kusmi teas main target are dynamic and upper-class women who care about their health and well-being as much as about consuming trendy products. The brand has a worldwide perspective and is represented in more than 300 boutiques in France as well as in Montreal, New York, Hamburg, Copenhagen and Lyngby. Their production site is located in the Normandy and its headquarter is based in Paris. Mentioning Paris below the brand slogan “Kusmi Tea” adds further value to the brand in terms of inducing the imagine of an exclusive and premium product in the consumers mind. Especially for foreign countries, Paris has something magical and is associated with luxury, exclusivity and high class.
What is more, they changed the perception in the consumers mind that tee has to be consumed at a specific time during the day. Kusmi tea is timeless and thus they created various types of tee adapted to different times of the day. To illustrate this with an example, Kusmi tea has made a partnership with Evian and created iced tea recipes that combine natural water, tea infusions and a mixture of fruit, floral and herbal aromas. Besides that, they invented the Kusmipolitan based on vodka which can be consumed as an evening drink.
Strong partnerships with renowned brands and the very colorful and trendy packaging led to a unique positioning of the brand and allowed them to differentiate itself from the mass.
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Alain Ducasse, Ines de la Fressange, Evian X Kusmi
You can not do good marketing without a good product and without knowing your customers.
The following article will analyze some of the marketing strategies used by Kusmi Tea to develop their brand image.
Thanks to their e-commerce website and numerous boutique stores, Kusmi Tea has direct access to its customers and is able to gather data about buying habits and preferences from various sources. Their loyalty program KusmiKlub with more than hundred thousand KusmiKlubbers is a further valuable source to interact with their customerbase.
To meet customers needs and expectations, Kusmi tea collaborated with the famous brand Evian and introduced “Evian infused x Kusmi”. The outcome was a refreshing, natural low sugar tea infused beverage based on 96% Evian water. The drink was a response to the consumer trend of healthy living and promoted a more natural hydration with flavour.
In terms of partnerships, celebrity endorsement has been one of their strategies which led to huge success. Kusmi Tea teamed up with chef Alan Ducasse, a renowned French cuisinier and hotelier, to launch its first white Tea. The collaboration enabled Kusmi Tea to be offered at the Ducasse group’s establishments and get access to the Châteaux & Hotel Collection network. The brand has profited in terms of both image and international development.
The most recent collaboration with the fashion icon Ines de la Fressange helped to point out the beauty and modernity side of the brand. The icon of Parisian Fashion is one of the most recognized women in France. The campaign “Voyage, voyage..” takes the customers together with Inès Fressange on a journey to different places all over the world accompanied with the best organic tea selection. Waking up in England with a classical “Earl Grey” Tea and a view sips later you find yourself in Russia with “White Anastasia” before Ines takes you into her house in Provence with an “AquaSummer peach-apricot” herbal tea. To bring the Parisian flair closer to the customer, an organic cotton scarf designed by the icon herself is added as a gift to the box.
One of their most famous and creative marketing campaigns was “La beauté des mélanges” created to introduce the new emblematic blends: Prince Wladimir, Sweet Love and BB detox. The campaign reinforced Kusmi teas image as a glamorous and innovative brand by combining sensuality, poetry and beauty in three short videos. In each spot, the flavours are represented as two characters swimming in a flat full of water, attracted to each other, seducing each other and ending up together illustrating the perfect fusion of flavors.
With campaigns like “La beauté des mélanges” and “Voyage,voyage..” Kusmi Tea catches their customers with the use of story telling. There is a story or a message behind their marketing which give the customers the freedom to dream and connect with the brand, even on an emotional level.
Furthermore, the physical location of the brand plays a crucial role and automatically reflects on the business and the brand image. Place is one of the four P’s of marketing. Choosing the right location is a way of marketing without doing actual marketing. Having a Kusmi Tea store on the Champs Elysée in Paris, where some of the most prestigious brands are represented, positions Kusmi Tea as a strong brand with the capability to expand internationally.
Innovation helps companies differentiate themselves and foster competitive advantage. As already pointed out in the Article “From a hot beverage to a lifestyle product”, the brand is able to adapt quickly to current trends and keep up with the rapid changes in the environment. As technology and digitalization are key to stay relevant in the market, Kusmi Tea launched 10 vending machines called Kusmikiosk with a surface of 2.5m², inspired by the shape of their tea boxes. Besides establishing another point of sale, the Kusmikiosk is an element of visual communication which contributes to the notoriety and modernity of the brand.
All in all, one can say that the brand successfully integrates innovation, storytelling, celebrity endorsement and country of origin markings into its overall global marketing strategy.
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Kusmikiosk
What makes a good retail experience?
Engagament
Feeling acknowledged and welcomed
Executional Excellence
Competent staff
Brand experience
Seamless, wow worthy instore experience
Expediting
Time spent in store is efficient
Problem Recovery
Quick and patient resolution of problems
Instore Experience
An instore experience can make or break a company.
Being able to create a wow effect for your customers when they enter the store and knowing how to engage them will have a positive impact on sales, referrals, the brand image and the long term profit.
Going into a Kusmi Tea Shop is a real experience for the customer. Kusmi Tea plays with all the 5 human senses when it comes to selling their products to its customers. The representation of the stores is a mixture of contemporary design with baroque and historical elements of the tea culture.
The beautiful shining colors in the stores let the customer dive into a different world of tea. Into a modern, fancy and exclusive one. To strengthen this feeling and simultaneously help the customer decide which product fits best their needs, some Kusmi stores have a “smell tree” where one can sniff the different blends. Accompanied by a tea bar, the customer can proceed with actually tasting his/her favorite flavor. This in store experience is especially valuable for potential future clients who are unfamiliar with the brand as they can see, smell and taste the product before making a first purchase.
When I passed by the Kusmi Tea store on the Champs Elysees, I immediately felt the urge to go and visit the store due to the welcoming and shiny Christmas decoration from the outside shopping window. Not only the Christmas decoration caught my eye, but also the presentation of the products. To give everyone a unique sensorial experience, the Kusmi Tea staff offers you a warm and personalized welcome when entering the store on the Champs Elysees. This is a great idea as you get excited to discover further flavors and it makes you forget about the freezing temperatures outside. There may is a slight feeling of being overwhelmed as you see so many colors and different products and you do not know where to go first. However, there are skilled people around which have been willing to help in case assistance was needed. I was positively surprised and left the store on the Champs Elysee with a smile on my face.
To see whether I have the same feeling in another Kusmi boutique, I continued my adventure and visited the Kusmi store in the 4th district of paris.
As already mentioned above, brand experience is one of the 5 pillars to create a memorable retail experience. As my first experience was really delighting, I expected to feel the same in every Kusmi store. However, that was not the case. I was kind of disappointed as the store in the 4th district was the total opposite from what I experienced at the Champs Elysees. I did not receive a welcome tea when entering, all the products were lined up close to each other with no space in-between and the staff was occupied with unwrapping products in cardboard boxes. Instead of feeling welcomed when entering, I rather felt I would disturb if I would wanted to ask a question. Furthermore, the store was too small and you were not able to move freely if more than 5 people were inside.
What I conclude from the 2 offline experiences is that it is of vital importance for a brand to be able to create a seamless, omnichannel experience. Whether it is an online or an instore experience, it should be the same regardless of the location. One bad experience can have a negative impact on your overall feeling towards the brand.
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Little steps towards a better future
A brand with purpose
The changing consumer landscape made us familiar with the buzzword „brand purpose“. According to Accenture, for more than 60% of consumers, the culture of a company and their stance towards social issues and the environment is a crucial purchasing argument. Nowadays, it is not all about making money, it is about creating identity and meaning.
The question is when is a brand eligible to be called a brand with purpose?
In the researchers opinion, a brand does not need to change the world in order to be classified as a brand with purpose. Little efforts which contribute value to society and the environment are already significant to reach the bigger goal of a better future and planet.
Kusmi Tea is on a mission towards “Zero Waste”. The brand uses cardboard packaging and their loose teas are packed in cans made of metal, an endlessly recyclable material. They replaced the plastic on the inside and outside of the tea boxes with a metal lid system. Thus, the box can be refilled with loose tea or even turned into a DIY project. Inspiration on what to do with the empty boxes can be found on Kusmi Teas main website. Until now, their packaging managed to obtain the Ecocert certification, the AB logo and the Eurofeuille logo.
Besides that, Kusmi tea turned to green electricity. In 2020, the French green electricity provider Plüm Ènergie and Akuo Engery, a producer of renewable energy, teamed up to provide Kusmi with locally generated green electricity.
The partnership with the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) is supporting Kusmi on their way to a 100% organic and ecologically sustainable tea range. In return, Kusmi serves as a sponsor for one of the most important initiatives of the WWF: to fight against the extinction of the tiger, who is highly symbolic in the tea growing regions. In the year 2020, Kusmi launched the “Tchai of the Tiger” in collaboration with the WWF France. For each purchased tea can, 1€ is donated to the project.
This year, Kusmi is supporting the “We demain 100% Ado” Magazine. The project is inspired by the Greta movement and educates the younger generation about our planet and how to actively contribute to protect it. For each purchased herbal tea can, customers receive a digital edition of the magazine.
Besides that, Kusmi has a partnership with Arrondi, which is a solidarity programme and supports a number of projects. Kusmi customers have the possibility to make a small donation (online or in store) to an organization of their choice. Kusmi supports organizations which:
Fight against plastic pollution in the oceans (Plastic Odyssey Community)
Encourage education (Saibaba path municipal school)
Fight to safeguard pure water and glaciers in Europe (Water, Snow & Ice Fondation)
Support the prevention of food waste and the progress of organic farming (Maud Fontenoy Foundation)
Support children with life threatening heart desease (Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque)
Support hospitals in Crisises like Covid (Foundation Hôpitaux de France)
It is also worth mentioning that every year during the month of October (Pink October), Kusmi raises awareness about women’s health and breast cancer. 100% of the profits made from a limited series of tea called “October Rose”will go to the “Ruban Rose association” which fight for the prevention of breast cancer.
To sum it up, Kusmi serves as a perfect example when we talk about little steps towards a better future. The portfolio of organizations they support is growing every year. The broad selection of organizations enables the brand to cover a multiple range of nowadays problems which simultaneously increases the reach to a wider customer audience.
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Social Listening on Digimind
What does the web talk about Kusmi Tea?
Lets assess the relevance of Kusmi Tea on the social web between October 2020 and October 2021. The platform Digimind was used as a tool to gain insights into some KPIs.
Kusmi Tea has a strong presence on the social web. The brand engages with its customers on all social media platforms. The most mentions from 30.10.2021 – 30.10.2022 have been on Twitter (7k). Overall, the content posted on the web is associated with positive sentiments. Kusmi Tea reaches the biggest part of its audience on Facebook. All the posts have reached 19 Million people only on Facebook, whereas all the platforms combined, the brand reached 36 Million people in total. When observing the trend curve, one can see that the peak of the year has been in January 2021 with more than 2000 mentions. The reason behind is that personalities like Kendall Jenner and Megan Markle claimed to drink Kusmi’s Detox Tea on a daily basis. This led to numerous shares and online websites mentioning Kusmi Tea in their articles.
Key concepts in which Kusmi Tea was mentioned in form of a hashtag are related to: tea, food, relaxation, boutique stores, paris, infusions, advent calendars and gifts. The top 5 hashtags on the web were #kusmitea, #tea, #teatime and #kusmiteaparis. On Facebook, renowned brands such as Villeroy & Boch, Sephora or Occitan en Provence mention Kusmi in their posts and collaborate with the brand to give some gifts to their users in form of lottery games.
When observing the world map, one can see that the biggest number of mentions originated from countries in France (26%) followed by small percentage numbers from foreign countries.
The overall trend on the social media websites can be classified as positive as the content posted is associated with positive sentiments. People talking/posting about Kusmi have something nice to say which is beneficial in terms of referrals. However, Kusmi tea is predominantly mentioned in the context of lottery games or as an add on in combination with other gifts. They should work on spreading more content about the brand itself, their values and the extra activities they perform on the social web. All this information can be found on their website but it should also be present in the social media feed of the people engaging with their content.
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Brand resonance of Kusmi Tea
Salience
trendy and modern mixed with tradition
colorful and appealing brand
high quality
easy to distinguish from other tea brands
Performance
high quality and biological products
natural ingredients
new mixtures of tea flavours
tailor-made offers
sophisticated design and packaging
Imagery
modern trendy upper-class target
product from Paris (luxury and high quality)
magical and beauty product
Judgements
unique in terms of visual appearance
trendy
too expensive
Feelings
special
dynamic and fashionable
exciting because of the different blends
Resonance
product for special occasions
loyal and privileged community
Each brand, whether we are aware of it or not, is trying, with the use of different marketing strategies, to induce their well-designed construct of values in the consumers mind. They give us the direction of what to associate with the brand. With the use of Kellers brand resonance model and based on research, the researcher will assess how well customers resonate with the brand. The model goes from identity to meaning, to responses and finally to relationship. It is not possible to create a meaning without creating an identity, or to create relationships without inducing feelings and emotions for the brand.
Based on all the papers examined and the above analysis, Kusmi tea is pretty strong in how they portray their products and the feelings they want to evoke. One of the strongest point in their marketing is the outstanding visual representation of their products. On top of that, the tea is sold in stylish boutique stores in carefully chosen locations. Kusmi tea is easy to distinguish from other tea brands. They really managed to position their tea as a trendy and premium product associated with beauty, modernity and luxury. They are unique in their composition of tea flavors and try to market them in a modern way which diverges from the traditional representation of tea. Hereby one can mention the Kusmikiosk, which is an innovative digital installation set up in some shopping malls and train stations. If you like tea and trendy lifestyle products, it is almost inevitable to not try Kusmi Tea as their visual representation and marketing literally makes you feel you have to, otherwise you are missing out on something. In terms of positioning, Kusmi Tea did a good job as even foreign people or the ones who are not that familiar with tea brands immediately associate the words trendy and premium with their products. This has also a lot to do with the fact that Kusmi comes from Paris. We can conclude that the brand has built a stable salience, performance and imagery. Also judgements and feelings towards the brand are positive which has been the outcome of social listening on Digimind. However, when it comes to brand resonance, there is room for improvement as the products are rather seen as something for special occasions or something that needs to be tried once due to the trendy aspect. Therefore the connection or the bond to the brand can be questioned. Maybe this can be further developed by focusing on the brand purpose in their communication in order to make people feel more connected to Kusmi Tea.
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