A famous tea expert in China, graduated from the Tea Department of Anhui Agricultural University, and was the former Secretary-General of the China Tea Circulation Association. Not long ago, I attended an event where all the well-known cardiovascular experts in the country were present, and they were all very interested in tea. During the chat, what they asked most was how to identify the quality of tea, because every year, experts receive a variety of tea leaves, and the person who delivers the tea tells them every time: "This is the best." "You should keep the tea for yourself and never give it away." In fact, experts can't drink much themselves, and they can't tell which teas are worth keeping, so over time, the tea leaves have accumulated and many of them have expired. . In reality, there are not a few tea drinkers who encounter this problem, because my country has many varieties of tea and a dazzling array of tea products. Among the many products, there is a lack of well-known tea brands, making it difficult for consumers to make a choice. This is the embarrassing reality that my country’s tea industry currently faces: “famous tea but no famous brand”.

1. The embarrassing current situation of my country’s tea brands

In the past decade or so, my country’s tea industry has developed very rapidly, driven by the support of governments at all levels and good economic benefits. As of 2011, my country's total tea production was 1.62 million tons, an increase of 145,000 tons from the previous year's 1.475 million tons, with a growth rate of 9.9%. According to estimates from the agricultural department, my country's tea agricultural output value reached 72.89 billion yuan in 2011, an increase of 37.5% over the previous year. The average unit price was 45 yuan/kg, an increase of 25.3% from the previous year's 35.9 yuan/kg. According to this calculation, the domestic sales of tea in my country have exceeded 150 billion yuan.

As the development scale of my country's tea industry continues to grow, the brand awareness of tea companies continues to increase, and the brand building of the tea industry has also achieved certain results. At present, there are nearly 100 tea brands that have been recognized as well-known trademarks in China by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, including Tianfu Tea, Huaxiangyuan, Zhuyeqing, Dayi, Wuyixing, Wu Yutai, Zhang Yiyuan, Pinpinxiang and other brands. They have a high reputation in the market. But generally speaking, most of the tea corporate brands are still very weak, which is mainly reflected in the low concentration of the tea industry, most of them are regional brands, and the brand influence is weak. At present, the sales volume of my country's largest tea company is only about 1.5 billion yuan, with a market share of less than 5%. Therefore, tea brand building is still in its infancy.

In a situation where tea companies are generally relatively weak, most of the "public brand" construction promoted by the government are named after the main local tea products, and tea promotion is still limited to "famous tea" In terms of promotion and cultivation, it is difficult for corporate brands to make a difference. Due to the deviation in the direction of famous tea, coupled with the over-reliance on manual production and processing of famous tea, companies over-emphasize "authenticity" and "culture" in publicity, resulting in the hype of famous tea.

2. Main problems in tea brand building

In addition to the above-mentioned problems of scattered business operations and weak strength, I personally think that there are also problems that lead to the lag in tea brand building in my country. The reasons are as follows:

1. Lack of standards and difficult to judge quality

my country’s tea is divided into six categories, with thousands of varieties, and each variety is divided into different grades. , as a result, in such a large and complex product system, professionals all lamented that "the names of teas can't be remembered even after learning", let alone ordinary consumers? At the same time, most of the tea standards we set are sensory standards, except for hygiene and heavy metals, which are physical and chemical indicators that can be detected with instruments. The terminology in sensory standards makes it difficult to accurately describe the quality of tea. These standards are difficult to play in actual transactions and pricing, resulting in a lack of standards for judging product quality in the market. Due to the lack of standards, consumers have no way of knowing the quality of tea when buying tea, which provides an opportunity for some unscrupulous merchants to take advantage of, causing the market to resort to substandard quality and falsely high pricing, causing consumers to be confused when buying tea. Doubts and fear of being cheated suppress the consumer demand for tea, which is not conducive to the establishment of the brand.

2. Lack of integrity and eagerness for quick success

In the absence of an effective self-discipline mechanism in the industry, market management relies more on government functional departments, and currently it involves the tea market Although there are many management departments, including quality inspection, industry and commerce, food hygiene and other departments, due to their respective responsibilities and unclear responsibilities, they cannot effectively monitor the market, resulting in a lack of market management.

Under such circumstances, integrity issues will inevitably arise when many companies with different ethics participate in the tea business. Therefore, there is a phenomenon in the market that "the flat ones are called Longjing, and the rolled ones are called Biluochun". In other words, whatever is popular in the market, everyone produces whatever is popular in the market, regardless of the place of origin or quality, and there is a mixed bag of good and bad. The existence of these phenomena directly affects the establishment of trust relationships between merchants and consumers, thereby hindering the establishment of tea brands.

3. Unfavorable speculation and excessive packaging

At the beginning of the launch of spring tea this year, individual companies used auctions or manufacturing concepts to artificially push up the price of tea. Among them: 500 grams of West Lake Longjing in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, sold for a sky-high price of 180,000 yuan; 500 grams of Xinyang Maojian in Xinyang, Henan sold for 130,000 yuan; 500 grams of "Panda Tea" in Sichuan sold for 220,000 yuan, with a price comparable to gold, and was jokingly called It is called "exorbitantly priced tea". The frequent appearance of sky-high prices for tea has triggered widespread controversy in society. Judging from the current situation, the impact is basically negative. Not only is it not recognized by society, but it also seriously damages the reputation of the industry and affects the increase in tea consumption. The concept of speculation and popularity is a misunderstanding of brand building by enterprises. In fact, in addition to popularity, brands need to build their long-term reputation and consumer loyalty.

Since tea is a traditional gift, companies attach great importance to the development of product packaging. In fact, moderate packaging can indeed promote companies to establish their brands and increase the added value of their products. However, the situation we are currently facing is that under the combined influence of the profit-seeking impulse of producers and operators and the face-saving consumption of consumers, the current situation of over-packaging in the tea market is relatively serious, mainly manifested in excessive packaging consumables and excessive weight. Heavy, too bulky, too high cost, too gorgeous decoration, too flattering words, etc. Using packaging to deceive consumers not only harms the interests of consumers, but also damages the long-term image and reputation of corporate brands, ultimately endangering the healthy development of the tea industry.

3. My thoughts on future tea brand building

It can be said that the brands in the Chinese tea industry are still very weak, and the Chinese tea industry is still in the initial stage of brand development. But if you look at it from another perspective, there are also huge opportunities in China's tea industry. In the absence of market supervision mechanisms and lack of integrity, consumers' brand awareness is increasing. Therefore, whichever company can truly understand the meaning of the brand and vigorously build its brand will likely win in the Chinese tea industry in the future. favorable position. In view of this, I would like to put forward some immature thoughts on the construction of tea brands in the future.

1. From "price-oriented" to "value-oriented"

Not long ago, I participated in the "Return to the Origin: Return to the Origin:" jointly organized by Anhui Agricultural University and Xiangyuan Tea Co., Ltd. in Hefei. The Brand Journey of Chinese Tea—2012 China Tea Brand Theme Forum”, this forum focuses on the value of consumers. In the past few years, my country's tea has effectively expanded the domestic tea consumption market through the construction of famous and high-quality teas. However, there has also been a deviation in the orientation of famous and high-quality teas, leading companies to pay too much attention to the development of the gift market. The so-called "what you buy does not drink, you do not drink." "Buy", tea relies on relationship sales, and ignores fundamental issues such as "safety, convenience, value for money" that consumers are concerned about during the tea consumption process. Since tea is a healthy drink, consumers will only have more and more stringent requirements for tea quality in the future. Therefore, quality and safety are the basic requirements for brand products.