The "Listening" Tea Kettle

I was instantly intrigued by Adagio Teas when I read about them in our textbook, The New Rules of Marketing & PR. I had never heard of them before. Writing this blog has given me the opportunity to really look into the company, explore the website and snoop out what products they sell. But, most importantly, discover how they have creatively taken something as general as selling tea and turned it into something remarkable; and of course, to hear the gossip about Adagio and their tea from avid tea consumers. Located at the bottom left corner of their website, is a tiny pop-up of Google Reviews. If you click on it, it shows over 4,000 reviews, with over 90% of them being positive. Wow. 

 

 

To me, tea has a very old fashioned feel to it. When I think of tea, I think of European “tea time” and little ladies sipping tea out of porcelain tea cups with their pinkies sticking up. But, Adagio has made tea fresh, fun, adventurous, accessible, and interesting. They haven’t just developed a website with a list of teas to order, but rather a consumer involved, interactive space for people to create and share their love of tea with people all over the world! They don’t just offer the basics, either, like English Breakfast and Chamomile. They offer tea from all over the globe. They provide the opportunity for customers to concoct flavor combinations and give their tea creations names and their tea can be considered by others for purchase. How cool is that? For example, here is a blend titled "Captain Mal" from Firefly, a unique tea combination created by Amy Zen.

 

 

From what I can see, Adagio’s value proposition is that they don’t just sell tea via the internet. Instead they have brought a “communiTEA” together; an interesting creative outlet for some and way for a new love of tea to “seep” into others. Ilya Kreymerman, a member of the family that founded Adagio Teas shares, “…the idea of having people create these unique blends was second nature to us. We found a way that people can not only make it, but also share with friends, the same way that my mom would share it when people came over. The idea is not just making it for yourself, but making it for yourself and a large community.” 

   

           

             This is an example from a discussion forum that Adagio has on their website, it’s called The CommuniTEA (pun totally intended). Adagio sent out free samples to some lucky recipients with hopes of promoting new teas and gaining input from those trying them out. I was happy to see that it wasn’t just a one way conversation. The responder heard what the customer was saying, was appreciative and offered advice. As a side note, I think it’s neat to see under Bridgettes’s name there is data based on thankfulness. I’ve never seen that anywhere before. She has thanked others 421 times and has been thanked 44 times. That’s so cool. 

 

 

In addition to the CommuniTEA forum, their website also has several other avenues for discussion and customer feedback on their website, such as teachat and teacritic listed above. There’s that Google Review box I mentioned earlier for reference. The website also shows the social media networks that Adagio participates on. From what I can tell, they are mostly currently active on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. I don’t use some of these social media platforms myself, so it’s cool to see how Adagio is interacting with customers through these mediums. I appreciate that Adagio replies to more than just customer questions or complaints, they respond to random comments like this one from Twitter. I also noticed that this was a very recent “Tweet” and a reasonably timely reply, too.

 

            

             I also checked out their Facebook and YouTube because those are social media sites that I use. Their Facebook page has almost 80,000 likes and followers as well as a private group for people to talk all things tea. I was a little disappointed in their YouTube channel; it only had a handful of videos and only 400 subscribers. I think this is under utilized by the company. I love to watch tutorials; I know that many other people enjoy them, too. Adagio could maybe create how-to videos showing how to properly brew a cup of tea or how to use some of the other products they sell or they could tell stories about where their tea comes from.

On that note, they do have a “travel blog” on the website that is pretty interesting. It’s a lot of photos of tea farms that a few representatives from the company visited and some shared info about their experience. The blog received a lot of comments from people, but there doesn’t seem to be much interaction with them from author(s). This could be considered a missed opportunity. But, I do really like the travel blog from a marketing perspective. Adagio is definitely “telling, not selling” with all the beautiful photos and commentary about the trip.

 

 

I think that Adagio’s marketing efforts are impressive. They really have “poured” a content rich website that even serves as its own social media platform. David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, says about Adagio Teas “creating blends via crowd sourcing is a brilliant strategy for driving social interaction, because people are eager to share their creations on networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumbler.” And these tea enthusiasts have shared; I feel Adagio has used most of their social sites relatively well and actively communicate with their followers.  

If I were a part of Adagio’s team, I would maybe encourage the use of Tik Tok and/or improve their YouTube channel, as I mentioned earlier. Tik Tok could be another great way to have tea consumers interact with Adagio and each other by creating and sharing videos to bring to life their love of tea. Also, even though years have passed, I would have liked to see the author’s of the travel blog interacting more with the followers. All in all, in a market that is competitive and common, I think Adagio has really created something remarkable and special with their approach to selling tea, they’ve established a “communiTEA.”

I have learned that you can take something ordinary, like tea, and make it something extraordinary by thinking outside the “pot.” Just having a willingness to share with others; people are always looking for ways to connect, create, and be a part of something more. People desire to be heard and in order to be a successful business, you have to be willing to listen and respond.