http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ Seven Cups Tea Forum Topic: the weakening dollar. en Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:23:58 +0000 http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/29#post-125 Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:59:16 +0000 admin 125@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>Hi Fred<br /> You were not being presumptuous at all, I hope my answers are not making feel defensive. I appreciate your thoughts.<br /> Austin </p> http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/29#post-124 Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:17:04 +0000 fpfaff 124@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>Hi Austin,<br /> Well one thing's for sure, the quality certainly speaks for itself. Please excuse me if I was presumptuous, I guess I became overstimulated.</p> <p> - Fred </p> http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/29#post-123 Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:42:29 +0000 admin 123@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>Hi Fred<br /> This is exactly our model. Since you mentioned South America I just wanted to mention that the US imports more tea from Argentina than any other country by a very large margin. It not not well known that most of the commercial tea available in the traditional international market comes from South America and Africa. There is almost no handmade tea produced outside of China, even Japanese tea relies heavily on machine based production.</p> <p>Marketing artisanal teas is difficult in America because the difference in price between these kind of tea and the commercial grades of tea is a lot more that a couple of dollars, even at the source, and the Chinese market is a lot better because they know this kind of tea and are happy to pay for it if they are lucky enough to find some, theis level of tea not being available on the open market. That is why we are opening a tea house in China this year, and addressing the gift market there. We did a price survey across China this year, and all of the prices there are higher that we can charge here. We don't need to work so hard on educating people in China or Asia for that matter in order to sell our tea.</p> <p>We are glad to have you as a customer. We are sorry that you had to work so hard to find us. We are a small company and chose some time ago to let our tea speak for us and depend on work of mouth marketing. We have rather devoted customers in 35 different countries. We haven't spend a lot on market but instead have invested heavily in providing information online, and developing our sources. We are also better known in tea circles in China than here, and I will be published this year in the Chinese Tea Culture Institutes Journal, for which I feel very honored.</p> <p>We are also hoping over time to help promote the expansion of the market for tradition tea making. It is a remarkable cultural agricultural treasure, requiring a skill level that often surpassed wine making, and very often can be very costly. We hope that other Westerners discover this kind of tea. The English did such a good job at turning tea into a commodity, that it will take a while to undo.</p> <p>Austin </p> http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/29#post-122 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:20:59 +0000 fpfaff 122@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>I just quit coffee for various reasons and am now very interested in the artisanal teas Seven Cups sell. Some of the things I learned from the coffee world may be relevant to this discussion thread.<br /> There is a movement in the US that is gaining momentum for artisanal coffees. Peet's started this, and there are now a dozen or so businesses that sell artisanal coffee. Their business model is to travel to the coffee farms, develop relationships with the owners, and pay 2 or more times the usual going rate for coffee grown and made under strictly controlled conditions. Farmers who do this soon learn they can make a lot more money by emphasizing quality over quantity, plus their workers get paid more and are happier with their lot in life.<br /> I'm sure China is different from Latin America in many ways, but the relevence here I think is in the marketing within the US. The success of these businesses, and many others, is proof of people's willingness to pay more for something exceptional. The challenge is to communicate the product and its qualities to potential consumers.<br /> No I'm not a marketing guy -- I'm a chemist, actually -- but it took me a while to discover Seven Cups. A Google search for Chinese tea brought up Seven Cups on the fourth page of search result listings. Most people would stop at page 1 or 2.<br /> I think there's a real market for your product, and now that I've discovered you I definitely want to see you succeed. Maybe there's a way to slipstream behind some of the market penetration the artisanal coffee folks have made.<br /> Just a thought, well intentioned.</p> <p> - Fred </p> http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/29#post-95 Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:41:24 +0000 admin 95@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>Hi John<br /> I appreciate your interest. Our biggest cost which really doesn't get factored in is the money we spend searching out these teas. It is not enough to just go once and then you have a source for life. Conditions change rapidly inside of China, and Chinese culture is a relational culture. Relationship need to be maintained over time, and that only happens face to face. That is complicated by the the privatization that is happening in the countryside, the growing economy, the increase in disposable income within the middle class. I didn't buy any puer last year because of the spike in prices because of the expansion of puer buying inside of China. The price would have been too high for American consumers. This spring we plan to start selling tea inside of China ourselves because our quality is competitive and the retail prices there are higher than what we can sell here. It is hard to find the quality of tea that we carry, and Americans and Europeans haven't the experience to recognize it. I China we don't have to educate people, and this level of quality is not openly available on the market except for government buyers. </p> <p>It's hard to be profitable in a chaotic market. The business model set up by the East India Company, which is the prevailing model in the international tea business is slowing collapsing. That model is based on cheap labor, quantity over quality, and deceptive marketing. All of the existing distribution channels or locked into that model, and are not supportive of a level of quality that is not produced within that model. Chinese tea is very maligned in the international market for that reason. It is not the industry that promotes better quality tea, but the demands of consumers that have been educated, and sometimes poorly, through the internet. It is information that makes the difference.</p> <p>For us, we believe that if we can maintain our levels of quality, and not buckle under to the market pressure to compromise our quality for a price advantage, we will survive over time. It's a hard way to do business but we think that is the way to navigate through the chaos.</p> <p>Tea is really the first global industry, and it is an interesting industry to watch as the global economy struggles against the old imperial global forces to find sustainable business models. We hope that we can add a small piece to that process.</p> <p>Austin </p> http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/29#post-94 Sun, 11 Nov 2007 07:44:47 +0000 johnemiba 94@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>Constructive whining is always a good thing. You're welcome and thanks. I'm fascinated by the commercial side of the tea industry and outside factors. </p> http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/29#post-93 Sat, 10 Nov 2007 21:45:13 +0000 admin 93@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>Sure it affects us, as does the rising cost of shipping, the competition within China for high end tea, the lack of knowledge of quality and price in the US, the tea suppliers though various means are able to circumvent the FDA and the Chinese exports testing and that costs that coincide with that process, all of the deceptive marketing in the tea industry, and the focus in the industry in price over quality. It the long run, we will keep at it. Thanks for a question that gives me the chance to whine.<br /> Austin </p> http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/29#post-91 Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:08:59 +0000 johnemiba 91@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>Hello,<br /> With the value of the U.S. dollar dropping, I was wondering if that has had any impact on buying tea. </p> <p>Thanks,<br /> ~John </p>