Stirring Things Up

I love when marketing stirs things up.

That’s why when I learned about Serengeti Tea Company I knew that a friendship would be brewing. Their product is tea; noble, humble, ancient tea.

What they do so differently and incredibly well is to provide a new way to experience a 500 year old beverage. The have created a proprietary stirrer that is filled with the tea. So the tea is in the stirrer with small holes for delivering the flavor into the water. The stirrer is the infuser. Brilliant.

It is smart on several fronts because it uses design thinking to re-imagine the category. Instead of putting the tea into a bag, sachet or loose, it looked at another way where the infusion could occur.

Do you sell a product or service that needs a strong point of difference? 

Ask these three questions.

1. What does everyone else do who is your competitor? What can you do differently that is helpful? 

2. Can you innovate in a corner of your category that no one is paying attention? Maybe a small aspect of your category could become your core competency. Maybe you can find a new way to deliver your service or product to customers. 

3. Is it possible that you could deliver your benefit in a form that is something you can own through patent or a protected process? Being able to say that you can only buy something from my company is powerful and wonderfully exclusive. 

Floating Cup from
Serengeti Tea

Tea Differently

Part of the challenge is you have to see your business differently and learn where potential customers are under served, taken for granted or stuck in a time warp. 

The Serengeti Tea Company also has coffee for infusing in stirrers too. I am not a fan of these type of line extensions or brand stretches because it dilutes from their main message about tea. But even the great and mighty Starbucks is now heavily invested in a new chain of tea shops called Teavana.  Serengeti is leveraging their unique delivery system and bringing a new wake up call to java. 

So a tip of the hat (or cup) to Serengeti. Even their name has a call to action. (Seren Get Tea). Clever.

As for you and your brand, go ahead. Stir things up.

What do you think of this brand and their differentiation? Have you ever created a product with this type of unique point of difference. Please comment. 

Notes: If you enjoy my posts, would you share it with your marketing friends? And check out my new book on Amazon. At $2.99 it is a great value. 21 useful lessons based on my marketing experiences. A paperback version will be published in a few weeks for those who like to hold a book in their hands. 
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