"Small pots of tea, masterpieces", this slogan was once broadcast on the CCTV platform for a long time and at high density, becoming a well-known advertising slogan, and also launched the name of the small pot tea brand. But at the same time, the market has never stopped questioning the authenticity of the "masterpiece".
On June 25, at the 12th anniversary press conference of small pot tea, Du Guoying, the founder of small pot tea, responded to the advertising slogan, saying that "the corporate advertising slogan has caused trouble to everyone, and I have reflected on it for many years and solemnly apologized to everyone", and said that small pot tea will no longer promote "masterpieces".
Subsequently, the entry "The founder of the small pot of tea apologized" quickly appeared on the hot search on social platforms, and netizens had mixed opinions on the matter. And the small pot of tea that starts again also needs to think about a new question - what is left of the brand that "swims naked" in the market after fading the marketing halo? And how to recover the lost consumer reputation?
1. The "masterpiece" of the overturned car, the founder of the apology
Du Guoying said frankly at the meeting, "We are well aware that the slogan of the masterpiece may cause consumers to have unrealistic expectations." He also emphasized that the small pot of tea has always adhered to the ultimate pursuit of product quality, rather than relying on any personal name or title, and "masterwork" is the work of the work, not the work of the verb.
However, after checking the information of Tianyan, Bedo Finance found that there is no shortage of word games played by small pots of tea at the level of "works" and "handmade" interpretations. As early as 2015, it began to register the "master handmade" trademark, and applied for registration again in January this year, with the international classification as convenience food, and the current trademark status is "pending substantive verification".
"The Advertising Law clearly stipulates that advertisements shall not contain false or misleading content, and shall not deceive or mislead consumers," said Mao Weilu, a senior partner at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, in an interview with Red Star Capital.
Since the brand's inception in 2014, Xiaocan Tea has begun to deepen its high-end image through marketing. In the brand's promotional video, it emphasized that it lasted three years, traveled more than 40 million kilometers to inspect and screen the core tea production areas, and finally met 8 national treasure-level tea masters, and finally joined forces to create a brand story of high-quality small pots of tea.
But it is precisely the marketing method with authoritative endorsement that makes small pots of tea controversial. In 2019, some netizens calculated an account for the "masters" of small pots of tea, saying that "8 tea masters make it by hand, a master frries 250 million tea a year, and each person has to fry 1466 catties of fresh tea leaves a day, and the masters of small pots of tea are not tired."
In this regard, the small pot of tea issued a statement saying that "masterwork" refers to works that represent the master's skills, not the master's hand-fried tea. As the "chief product manager", the tea masters work with small pots of tea to formulate tea product standards, check the raw material picking and production process, and more hard work and tiring work are gradually being solved by modern equipment.
It was also from this response that the marketing loopholes of small pots of tea had nowhere to hide. Although after that, Xiaocan Tea low-key changed its slogan to "Distinguished guests arrive, small pots of tea", but the brand has not given up using masters as a marketing gimmick, and even increased the master lineup to 10, and the name of "master" has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
As for Du Guoying's apology for the small pot of tea this time, some tea industry insiders revealed to the Red Star Capital Bureau that these measures are likely to mean that the small pot of tea is facing problems such as declining sales and poor feedback on its price from the market side, and the brand may want to take this opportunity to regain some reputation.
2. Can notarization and fidelity traceability open a new game for small pots of tea?
It is worth noting that after the public apology, Du Guoying immediately announced the future development strategy of small pots of tea. It is revealed that the small pot of tea will give up the controversial slogan of "masterpiece", and shift the focus of business to the improvement of tea products and brand service quality, with the intention of "imploring everyone to re-understand small pot tea".
At the press conference, Xiaocan Tea launched the "Dare to Fidelity" plan, entrusted its full line of products to a notary office, carried out "safety fidelity, mountain fidelity, year fidelity" notarization, and promised free tasting, 7 days of free returns, fake one pay ten, become the first tea brand in the industry to accept the supervision of all tea products by a notary public.
According to the introduction of the small pot tea signing method letter notarization cloud (Xiamen) Technology Co., Ltd., it will be transparent and open about the origin, year and testing information of tea raw materials through the "whole process + blockchain" model, and consumers can directly scan the code in the outer packaging box with one click to view the whole process of notarization and supervision of tea production.
Xiaocan Tea also launched the "Patent Open Source" plan, announcing that it will disclose 135 tea-making patents to the public free of charge, covering the core technologies of the whole process of tea production, packaging and preservation, warehousing and logistics. The new tea brand Bawang Tea will become the first enterprise to grant the patent of small pots of tea.
A few days before the press conference, Du Guoying launched a live dialogue with media person Sima Nan, criticizing the phenomenon of false vintage tea and origin tea seriously deceiving consumers and disrupting the reputation and order of the tea market, and used this to build momentum for the fair model of small pots of tea and the digital technology of intangible cultural heritage skills.
All measures seem to indicate that the small pot of tea will abandon the overwhelming viral marketing methods, and move towards the direction of science and technology and standardization, intending to reshape the brand image with the transparency and integrity of tea quality, and show the social responsibility and responsibility of small pot tea.
But can a small pot of tea, which is eager to transform, really win the reputation of consumers? Facts have proved that in the face of the belated apology of Du Guoying, a marketing expert who brought out well-known brands such as Beibeijia and 8848 mobile phones, most netizens did not buy it, and thought that this move was a last resort after his "overturning", and it may even be a new brand marketing method.
On the other hand, although the small pot of tea, which focuses on the aesthetic ideology of "small but fine", has been determined to transform, its high-end price pain points still exist. Especially after losing the biggest selling point of "masterpiece", the "clear price marking" and factory production mode of small pots of tea are not enough to support its high pricing logic.
At present, the online stores of small pots of tea have removed all the slogans related to "masterpieces", but their prices are still high. Taking the "Morandi Color 24 Cans Gift Box" as an example, this product covers four categories: Tieguanyin, Da Hong Pao, Jin Jun Mei Black Tea and Jasmine Tea, with 4 grams per can, and the price is 450 yuan after discount, which is equivalent to about 2343 yuan / catty.
It is true that the small pot of tea standing on the cusp of the storm is implementing the brand transformation strategy with practical actions. But if we want to tear off the long-accumulated "IQ tax" and "over-marketing" labels, and use technological innovation to convince consumers to pay for the added value of their products, small pots of tea need to make more efforts.