Gaia’s new business strategy to kick Green Tea sale in market

Changing lifestyle and peer group influence has improved sales of Green teas in India for a good period and encouraged many herbal product brands to introduce green teas in the market, raising the bar of competition in the segment.

However, after some time, it was difficult to convince the consumers to stick to the regular consumption of Green Tea, which simultaneously affected the sale and market demand of the product.

With an aim to keep up the demand and daily consumption of Green tea, which indeed contains multiple health benefits, leading herbal products manufacturer Gaia has introduced  a new business strategy for  introducing Variants of Green Tea.

“If one were to go back in time when green tea was first launched in the Indian market, it took the Indian audience a long time to get accustomed to the taste of green tea itself. With Gaia introducing new flavours, green tea has been made more palatable and  adaptable to the Indian taste buds,” said Dolly Kumar, Director, Gaia.

Variant pushing sales
The exercise of introducing variants of existing products to cater to the specific category of consumers with their choice of flavours, that equally compliments the climate around them (in any region of India) and encourages in best way to develop health consciousness among them, leading to improved sales.

Rather than going in for new brand launches, introducing new variants and creating a buzz about it in the market, which may or may not be the same product category as the mother brand, is the best strategy taken up by Gaia.

“I do believe that our new flavours in Green tea would be an interesting move in our current market presence since new flavours always tend to attract a larger consumer base and more importantly, a more wide-ranging one too. Further on, this move has already led to higher sales, better distribution but more importantly, it has been advantageous for our brand presence in the market,” noted Kumar.

Elaborating on the brand’s retail presence in the market, The Gaia Director added, “At Gaia, we don’t believe in spreading ourselves too thin. We have selective distribution when it comes to our products however; we make sure that our distribution is never fragmented. Since our target groups are devided in sec A and  B, , all our products are available in metros and semi-metros. At Gaia, we strive to give our consumer the healthy lifestyle they are looking for through our products.”

Assorted packaging
To give that extra push to the newly introduced variants in the market, packaging ‘must stand out from the crowd’ and be extraordinary then the competing brand. By introducing the Green Tea in assorted pack, Gaia aimed at fulfilling six functions that includes; unique, functional, safe, easy to use, promote product benefits and reinforce the brand.

“Since giving variety to our consumer was of utmost importance, we then introduced the Gaia Green Tea- Assorted Pack. With a collection of five variants from our popular line of green tea, our assorted pack of green tea gave our consumers the opportunity to indulge in different flavours and experiment with their green tea on a daily basis. Furthermore, it also gave us the chance to interact with a much larger audience of green tea drinkers,” said Kumar.

Product pricing
Significantly, with the introduction of multiple flavours and assorted packaging, Gaia made sure that there won’t be any change in price of the product, thereby, making its Green Tea variants priced moderately as before.

“With Gaia being a national brand and our distribution being pan-India, our vendors have always offered us optimum prices. Further on, our innovative packing also helps us in keeping our costs low so that, we can focus our efforts, time and money on launching innovative products of top-most quality,” added Kumar.

Overview
Traditionally, the variant strategy worked better for the top notch players of FMCG product category, where consumer needs were narrower. However, with the growing rage of natural and herbal products, in the country, renowned brands like Kama Ayurveda, Forrest Essential, Patanjali and Gaia has re-introduced the ancient strategies in the market to improve the number of health conscious consumers and market demand.

In India, Green Tea consumption has been rising at a rate of over 10 per cent annual. Being the second largest producer of tea, on an average, the country produces 9-11kg of green tea, out of which, half has been consumed domestically in a year.