How French people drink tea?

Looking at some statistics on the web, we can say that Tea is nowadays a trendy drink, well known for it's detox values. Tea is becoming the new coffee, and new specialized stores are emerging from it.

With my teammates, we have decided to elaborate a survey in order to understand how people are consuming tea in France. Is it allocated to a special moment, is it a drink to consume with food, what is the profile of a proper tea consumer? All those questions that I am going to treat in this article.

First of all, women are the one that are consuming tea the most, and it has been well verified in our survey.  Indeed, among all surveyed women 87% are drinking tea against 50% of the men.

We were impressed to see that a third of the people surveyed assimilate tea as a moment of the day more than as a simple drink. In fact, like our English neighbours “Tea time” is an important habit in France, 61% of respondents are drinking tea for the “goûter”.

Even if French and English people are drinking tea at the same moment of the day they are certainly not drinking it the same way. In England how to make a proper tea is a religion. The humorist Doc Brown even wrote the song “my proper tea” to make fun of how important it is for them.  62% of French people surveyed are drinking their tea without adding anything else, although more than 50% of English people are adding milk and a third of them are also adding sugar. In the same way there is a big debate in England on how to add those elements in the tea. Do we put milk before water, do we put sugar after milk and water, etc. It has, at the contrary no importance for French people.

Regarding brand awareness, French and English people have very different brand preferences. While 88% of French people surveyed are drinking Lipton and Twinings teas, English people are most of the time buying Yorkshire teas.

Even if specialized brands are promoting brew tea without bags, tea bags own still a very strong market share. But we can notice an emerging consumption of tea from specialized stores. Thanks to our survey, we can say that Mariages Frères and Kusmi Tea are among the most famous teahouses in France.

Moreover, a study showed that for tea consumers price is not very important and that is why teahouses are making the most of it by offering high prices range.


We can finally describe a French tea consumer as a women, drinking straight black tea during the afternoon, using a mug and a teabag, more and more incline to buy her tea in specialized teahouses.

Sources:

http://www.lsa-conso.fr/le-the-en-pleine-ebullition,115536

http://hellogiggles.com/drinking-tea-the-british-way

http://www.worldoftea.org/british-tea-culture/

Survey: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15TOsci0pPrsICifuPYUGBkxzG6Kyjl7oYmHTktt_izI/viewform

Results: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15TOsci0pPrsICifuPYUGBkxzG6Kyjl7oYmHTktt_izI/viewanalytics#start=publishanalytics

The French Tea Market: 2 main distribution channels

In France, the tea market doesn’t know the crisis.

Indeed, tea grows in popularity and French consumption is constantly increasing, it has even tripled in less than 25 years.

The purpose of this article is to learn more about the various distribution channels that exist for this product.

Like most food and beverage products, tea is distributed through two major channels:

Mass-market retailing (such as Auchan, Carrefour, Leclerc…)

Or Specialist shops.

In large retail stores, consumers can find industrial products owned by large group.

Major players in this market are:

- Unilever with Lipton, Elephant or Tchaé

- Tata with Tetley

- Associated British Foods with Twinings

- Or also Retailer own brand products.

Tea players in supermarkets

Regarding specialty stores, major players in France are:

- Mariage Frères

- Dammann Frères

- Kusmi Tea

- Lov Organic

- Palais des Thés

- Betjeman & Barton

Betjeman & Barton Shop

A large majority of French consumers buy tea in supermarkets; indeed, this distribution channel represents 80% of sales in France when specialty stores represent only 20% of tea sales. And Lipton is the undisputed market leader, the brand alone holds more than 45% of market share.

However, recently, new trends are emerging on the French market.

The tea market is one of the most valued, and in terms of price sensitivity, tea is one of the less sensitive markets (it ranks second, just behind the champagne).

Teas consumers are evolving and are looking for high quality products with high added value. They are no more seeking for low prices and begin to make their purchases outside supermarkets. And it's for that reason that specialized networks know a strong growth (more than 10% per year) when sales of industrial teas decline for few years.

These brands are very successful because they are able to differentiate themselves from large multinationals with premium teas and original flavours. Moreover, they can offer a new kind of customer experience with the decoration, the music or the colours of their stores.

This sales channel is in full expansion and seems to be more and more efficient in attracting new consumers.

Finally, we will talk about the last distribution channel that is increasingly appreciated by consumers: the online sale.

Most of the major players of this marketplace have understood the importance of the Internet and are already present on this segment. It seems that this distribution channel has a promising future...

Sources:

http://www.lsa-conso.fr/le-the-en-pleine-ebullition,115536
http://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/beverages/teas/tea_distribution_chain.html
http://iloveinternationalbranding.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/the-tea-market-mostly-in-france/
http://agritrade.cta.int/fr/Agriculture/Produits-de-base/The/Note-de-synthese-mise-a-jour-2012-Secteur-du-the

Tea in a dematerialized world

The era we are in can be summarized in one word: “dematerialization”.

Everything is on the Internet: books, shopping, movies, groceries, board games, etc. Our relations are built through various screens such as tablets or phones. This has changed the way brands communicate with their consumers but also changes consumers’ expectations.

Tea brands create their relationship with their customers by selling something that can be shared, something material in this dematerialized world.

Recently, Nescafé launched a campaign called “Really Friends” asking a net surfer called Arnaud this question: “Are your Facebook friends your real friends?”. Arnaud went to visit each of his Facebook friends (1200) to see if they are really friends and engages the meeting with a cup of coffee. This operation clearly highlights that coffee is a pretext to create relations, physical relations, and not virtual ones.

For tea it’s slightly different, they go even further in the construction. Unlike coffee, where 1 capsule=1 cup=1 consumer, tea made in a teapot can be share with lots of people. Often, choosing the type of tea can create discussions, when deciding together which type of tea you are going to drink and comparing which ones you have at home.

Brands such as Mariage Frères and Kusmi Tea sell loose tea that can be made in a teapot and allows customers to have the opportunity to create even more real moments of exchange and happiness.

 “Really Friends” campaign :

Sources: 

http://trophees2014.netineo.com/solutions/d10-nescafe-really-friends/