As you sip your cup of tea this morning with a newspaper or a digital device in hand, Assam tea is celebrating 200 years. Events in Guwahati have been raising a cheer to this occasion. Assam is ecstatic, as is the state’s tea community. And rightly so.
Who hasn’t cherished a cup of tea? Those who have partaken of this beverage will swear by its taste, aroma, strength and aftertaste. The zest of tea as a wholesome beverage of choice is a time-tested one. Tea today stands tall in the hall of fame of beverages worldwide. It’s a staple beverage of choice, with staple being defined as something that grows on a plant and is as natural as it comes. A beverage that is not made in a laboratory. A beverage that is not a concoction of artificial additives and flavours. A beverage that is as wholesome as every dried, processed and cut leaf is. A beverage that is typically made at home and consumed with relish. With milk and water and sugar to top the taste experience. Tea is ubiquitous.
Let me look keenly, but differently, at the tea industry of India. The way we look at tea needs to change. We need to build a perspective and narrative for the next 200 years, with Assam tea as the lead player, with its cousins from West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka in tow. If Indian tea needs to lead in the world of consumption, we need to take steps that are different. Different from what we took in the last 200 years. Let me examine it from five perspectives of change.
First, Assam tea is 200 years young. Not old. Two-hundred years gives us heritage and lineage. Keep that as a status, but don’t think old. Think young. The market is young. We have only taken the early baby steps in the evolution of this industry. This industry today offers largely commodity value realisations. We need to aim at higher end realisations that climb the value chain of being a deeply-dependent commodity (a quasi-brand status of commodity) for international blends. We need to climb higher still, by offering value-added brands and big consumer brand propositions. And I take one step further. We need to attain the status of a cult beverage for the young, craved for across the world. Is this possible at all? I do believe it is. In sum, we need. A business plan for the industry to morph its approach to the market altogether. It is time to up the ante on price realisations and margins and tap the great big consumer market out there.
Second, the tea industry of India is very close to the product. It is quality- and R&D-centric. The Tocklai Tea Research Institute at Jorhat is the world’s largest and oldest such research station that was founded in 1911.
How close is the industry to the consumer though? I do believe this is the distance that India’s tea industry must bridge to make big strides. In this guarded distance lies the weakness. While proximity to product is good, at times we are so close to the product that we don’t read it well enough. We are too close to the book to read it correctly. The consumer of tea is changing rapidly. It is time to understand him, her and them. Correctly. With precision. And ahead of the curve. Not behind. Not after the consumer has changed and bolted.
Third, there are three avatars of tea. There is the solid (the leaf), the liquid (the brew) and the gas (the zany beverage consumption micro-movements that are new and fashionable). Assam tea has focused on the solid with great passion and perfection. It has focused on the liquid at the backend of production, but not enough at the front end of consumption. As for the gas, I do believe there are miles to go before the tea industry sleeps with satisfaction.
Fourth, generations of tea consumers have changed, but tea has not. The evergreen ability of tea has been taken for granted. Tea’s quality has been taken for granted, just as consumer consumption patterns have been. It is time to sit up and smell the tea. The Gen Z is well-nigh done and dusted. The Millennials are a rage, but the Alpha Gen ahead is the future. The tea industry needs to gear itself up to the needs of this new generation. A generation that is turning consumption formats into a tumult. Tea must be able to live up to this expectation and deliver.
Fifth, the tea industry does the mass-play well. Indian tea is good at the volume end of the game, and not at the niche end. The market today is turning niche. Consumers across the world are going niche. There is a craving for the different. There is a craving for a small plantation produce and products that have a story to tell. That estate-tea that talks of being plot specific and specific to a type of soil, flora and fauna is making a big hit in terms of premiums. Consumers are looking for the new. Tea must not get lost in the woods of the old.
As I list the top five issues to tackle—among 11 on my long list—I do believe the industry needs to do ‘the new’. Even the completely new. If I am to talk about just one, my big issue is the way the tea industry defines its competition. The competition for Indian tea is not Chinese, Sri Lankan or Nepalese tea. The competition of tea is not tea at all. It is water. The beverage with the biggest draw and the biggest positive. If tea can think of this, if tea can position itself to be that “infused water” of choice, it can win. The bleeding-edge youngsters of today are shunning tea altogether. They shun the milk and, even more so, shun the sugar.
Tea in India today is milk, water, sugar and tea leaves boiled together. Milk and sugar mask the taste of tea. If tea must stand out in the long run, it needs to think of itself as not a flavoured milk and sugar concoction. Instead, the big and powerful route is that of being an infused water. A “water additive”, an “enhanced water”. A healthier option even. It’s time to reposition tea as tea in India and indeed across the world.
There are 64 tea-producing countries in the world. China leads and India follows. It is time to up the game and Assam tea is the best placed to do this. Starting today, the 201st birthday of Assam Tea. Hapy birthday!
Harish Bijoor
Branding guru and founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc
(Views are personal)
(harishbijoor@hotmail.com)