Tea (Chai), one of the world’s oldest beverages, is a highly and widely consumed beverage. But, before we opened my tea shop, we spent countless hours consulting with lawyers, accountants, and other business owners to figure out the next steps for your tea business. Save yourself countless hours – and the potential headache of making a major foundational error – by getting the following seven things straight before you begin.
Camellia Sinensis- The Mysterious Plant
The entire tea industry is based on the magical plant Camellia Sinensis, which produces over 1000 different types of tea. Anyone who wants to work in the industry should learn about the plant. It yields a variety of teas including Yellow Tea, Green Tea, Black Tea, Puer Tea, Oolong Tea, and White Tea. The processing method used in their production is what distinguishes them all. The most authentic way to learn about this plant is to visit tea estates and interact with the farmers.
Make Your Core Competency a Reality
After China, India is the world’s second largest tea consumer. Naturally, with the ever-expanding tea culture, a plethora of brands are springing up. A critical first step is to determine how your tea brand differs from the competition. Aside from that, other important factors such as the potential of the premium tea market, expected profit margins, and price points all play a role.
Determine Your Target Audience and Marketing Strategy
Tea is consumed in 90% of Indian households, but does this mean that everyone in your target audience is a tea drinker? Wrong. Your audience, and thus your marketing, is entirely dependent on your brand’s offerings. The ease with which tea can be made, disposable income, increasing health awareness, willingness to experiment, and aspiration to stay fit are all factors that drive premium tea consumption in India.
Packaging of the Product
A critical component of both logistics and marketing, your product’s packaging can have a significant impact on consumer decisions. Packaging directly affects a person’s five senses and can significantly increase sales for your brand. It should come as no surprise that manufacturers today spend more than $150 billion on product packaging globally each year.
Tea Purchasing and Storage
To ensure the success of your tea business, a significant amount of backend work and logistical support is required. While it is critical to find the right teas from the right estates, obtaining them and having them shipped to India can be difficult. Green tea, for example, is subject to a 110 percent duty. Furthermore, customs officials in India are unfamiliar with the various types of tea. This makes them suspicious, and the procurement process becomes all the more difficult as a result. Once the teas arrive here, it’s critical that they’re stored properly to avoid insect infestation.
Internal Audience and External Audience Education
As a founder, it’s critical to be aware of the aforementioned points, but it’s even more important to educate your team as well as your customers. Agriculture business ideas allow them to share your vision for the brand. Tea education, whether it’s about how they’re grown, brought home, stored, brewed, and consumed, etc.
