A startup business typically struggles gathering anecdotes and stories that make interesting reading within their blogs. Where there’s a lack of brand history, a startup business will tend to rely upon the stories of it’s founders, or the day to day conversations which take place with colleagues, customers or suppliers. All to assist with setting out their own vision. The future.
So, what if your brand story started out with ‘Our story started in 1706‘? You’d be looking at parchments to gather the wonderful stories that make up 3 centuries worth your company’s history, correct?
From the story of one brew, to the story of another. Here’s a little known fact, Twinings’ holds the record for the longest continuous use of a commercial logo, dating back to 1787. That’s a logo that’s just a little bit younger than the United States of America. Are you starting to get a sense of the rich history that’s engrained into a company that can pride itself on 300 years of trade? A company that is named after it’s founder, Thomas Twining, who, by all accounts is the forefather of the traditional ‘cup of tea’?
A Brand Advocate In Waiting
Prior to the past few years I was a big coffee drinker. Can you be a coffee addict? I’m guessing so based upon the series of headaches and jitters I had as I gave up drinking coffee a couple of years ago. Likewise, I gave up drinking caffeinated tea too. Slightly strange timing as this coincided with the arrival of two Rhodes Jrs. Call me a glutton for punishment.
So, I turned to the lighter ‘fresher’ world of herbal teas. A world dominated, particularly in the UK, by one brand: Twinings. As you’ll know, you can pickup a box of Twinings at any supermarket or convenience store. It retains a staple presence alongside the likes of Tetley, Yorkshire Tea and PG Tips as an alternative to the standard cuppa.
I’d been through the green teas, the ginger teas, the camomiles, the peppermints and the strawberry and mangos (I’m pretty sure there’s a box of that left at the very back of a cupboard somewhere). I craved something different. I wanted to indulge myself in the world of herbal teas.
Naturally, I headed to the Twinings website and placed an order for a concoction of weird and wonderful flavoured teas (even sampling the liquorice tea.) When my big box of teas arrived I was like a kid in a sweet shop, or more appropriately a middle-aged man in a tea shop. Every hour for a week I tried a different flavour, some good, some indifferent and some plain awful. But you know what? I was a happy advocate for Twining tea.
Fascinating Ian, what has this to do with Marketing?
Allow me to explain. Bar the standard email order confirmation I was never to hear from Twinings again until a month or so ago. Twinings. A brand with 300 years of history simply ignored the opportunity to allow me to be part of their story. Did I hunt Twinings down on Twitter, Facebook and other social channels? Could I have pushed myself to go out there and find the story for myself? I guess so. But, how many of us seek a story, or search for a brand to join their community? Our time is too precious.
Just think about this situation for a moment. A brand whose products are within easy reach across the UK and beyond. A brand who operates their own online shop. Clearly, I wasn’t purchasing on the two key assumptive aspects of online ordering – price and convenience. I purchased through their shop because I was looking for more – new tastes, new offerings aside from the products I would typically find on the supermarket shelf.
So why wasn’t there an email a few days later incentivising me to purchase their latest herbal or fruity tea offering? Maybe a quick story of how the leaves are chosen, or how the flavourings are added? Again, this is a company with 300 years of history – why would this be simply ignored?
…and my email box ‘pings’ with a message from Twinings
Finally, here we go, the cupboard is looking bare, 3 months after my purchase they’ve come to tell me about a lovely new concoction (I was praying this wouldn’t involve liquorice).
Here we go… the credit card is at the ready for…. ‘Free UK Delivery On All Orders This Week’. Yes, that’s right, I’ve just been rewarded with a promotion code entitling me to Free Delivery. Seriously, I have not got a clue as to how much the delivery costs were on my order. It could have been £2.50, £5.00, £20.00. I didn’t notice. I’m not trying to sound flash, but my purchase was based on the new taste sensations, not on the wonderful costs of delivery. Did I click? What do you think?
There’s a Tea Party Going On and I Didn’t Receive An Invite
But… this was the start of an avalanche of email. Okay, comparatively speaking, this was an avalanche. Fancy reading some of the subject lines?
- It’s been a while, 20% off your next order
- 3 for 2 on loose leaf pyramids
- It’s been a while, free delivery on your next order
- Free gets you back to you gift (huh?)
- Secret sale
The crazy thing is, Twinings appear to be doing an okay job through other channels. Their Twitter channel, @twiningsTeaUK , attracts 21,000 followers and their timeline includes recipes and conversations around their range of teas. Their Facebook page has 120k+ likes with a series of shares of customer pictures and daily updates and a real sense of community.
Why such a huge disconnect with their audience through email? I have my own ideas. Is it purely down to the social fixation? A fixation on developing brand awareness and customer ties through Facebook and Twitter to the extent that email is the forgotten channel? I’m guessing so.
It simply takes one email to welcome new customers, brand advocates, to their social world. They don’t need to thank me for my custom, they simply need to open their arms and welcome new customers and invite us to share our own Twinings stories. A free delivery offer? 20% off of my next order? No, I’m not here for the discounts, I want to sample your new products and hear about the history that draws people to your brand. That’s social marketing. And social marketing includes, the age old warhorse of email marketing.
What could Twinings have done better?
Firstly, the 3 month delay in email correspondence. Any other industry and I could easily have been swept up by another competing brand. Maybe the industry I’m in does lean towards a tendency to over-examine the relationship between brands and consumers. However, the simplest of email automation tools could easily have lifted the brand-consumer relationship into their social channels where they were placing their marketing effort.
Point two – why assume that price was the trigger for my purchase? I’ve already opened up to you, the reader, about my new nerdy tendencies towards herbal tea. Clearly there’s more to the purchase, as I expect would be the case for a large percentage of their audience, than simply pricing.
Point three – where’s the story? Just who was Thomas Twining? What has filled the archives of Twinings’ history books for the past 300 years that makes their brand stand the test of time and thrive in such a competitive market? What makes a Twinings tea so different?
Something to Stew On…
Your brand is an exceptional rarity if you have 300 years of history to indulge upon. Twinings’ story is an extreme case. You don’t need 300 years, 50 years or 6 months of brand history to help you turn your audience into an audience of brand advocates. You just need to understand what it is that makes them tick and what it is that will help them to be apart of your story and to share your story.
If you were entering the herbal tea market today, how would you be interacting with your newest customers?
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