CHINATEA (China Tea Co., Ltd.), established in 1949, is the earliest national specialized corporation founded in New China. As an integrated enterprise encompassing tea plantation, production, processing, research, sales, and cultural promotion, CHINATEA operates multiple modern tea processing factories and nearly 100,000 mu of tea garden bases across key tea-producing regions in China, including Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Yunnan, and Jiangxi. With a marketing network extending both domestically and internationally, it is one of the few "China Time-Honored Brands" in the Chinese tea industry.
Since the founding of the nation, CHINATEA has been responsible for China's tea exports. However, starting from the 1990s, influenced by the global economic climate, its foreign trade export volume continuously declined. By 2000, CHINATEA shifted its strategic focus to the domestic market. Leveraging its strong resource advantages and market expansion strategies, it achieved domestic sales exceeding RMB 300 million by 2008. In 2009, following the merger and restructuring of CHINATEA, China Native Produce & Animal By-Products Import & Export Corporation, and COFCO, COFCO committed to building and strengthening the "CHINATEA" brand, aiming for leapfrog development in the domestic market.
Focusing on Core Priorities and Identifying the Breakthrough Point in Marketing
Through analysis of the industry's competitive landscape, consumer trends, and marketing models, we identified that the tea industry was undergoing transformation and upgrading, with chain specialty stores emerging as the primary competitive arena.
Conversely, CHINATEA's channel strategy predominantly relied on traditional distribution through tea market wholesalers, which presented significant challenges: declining sales from key distributors in major tea markets; limited market control hindering sales growth; inability to build genuine brand equity; and ineffective implementation of consumer policies.
Simultaneously, we observed the rise of tea chain specialty stores in a highly fragmented market. After a decade of development, Ten Fu's Tea had only about 900 stores, while brands like Wu Yu Tai and Zhang Yi Yuan operated on a scale of roughly one hundred stores each. Tea chain enterprises had not yet fully demonstrated their brand potential. Furthermore, most competing brands focused on single tea categories, leaving a gap for a truly full-category chain specialty brand.
Based on these insights, it was imperative to transform CHINATEA from a "distributor brand" into a "consumer brand," establishing CHINATEA as a chain specialty channel brand.
Leveraging CHINATEA's Core Strengths to Build Chain Brand Value
As a time-honored enterprise in the Chinese tea industry, CHINATEA held a perception of industry leadership based on its corporate strength, scale, and history. However, in terms of market share, consumer awareness, and market leadership, it was not yet the de facto number one brand. The key challenge was to transition CHINATEA from a positional leader to the actual market leader.
We reassessed CHINATEA's brand advantages and, aligning with consumer needs, defined the positioning for its chain specialty channel brand: The Epitome of Globally Sourced Premium Teas. Based on this positioning, we named the chain brand CHINATEA World Tea Garden, creating the brand slogan: CHINATEA, My World Tea Garden.
CHINATEA World Tea Garden centers on the core value proposition of "World Tea Garden," ingraining this perception of global quality and international standards into the consumer's mind. It authentically communicates CHINATEA's premier brand status.
Implementing "CHINATEA World Tea Garden" and Launching Rapid Expansion
Specialty stores serve as integrated platforms for product display, sales, and brand communication. In designing the CHINATEA World Tea Garden stores, while ensuring standardization, we placed greater emphasis on the consumption and experiential behaviors of tea drinkers and buyers.
The store layout was divided into distinct zones: Sales Area, Tea Tasting Area, Brand Image Area, Promotion Area, and Display Area. Each zone functions as an individual thematic space, yet together they form a cohesive experiential journey, encouraging customers to enter, explore, and engage with each area.
We optimized product merchandising within the consistent functional layout. This flexible yet standardized approach to product display allows for adaptable arrangements across different regions, whether in tea-producing or non-producing areas, ensuring national consistency combined with local relevance.
Following successful pilot implementations in test markets, CHINATEA World Tea Garden stores entered a phase of rapid expansion, opening at an average rate of five new stores per day.
Innovating with Star Products to Continuously Lead Consumer Demand
Aligned with the channel value of CHINATEA World Tea Garden and the philosophy of "meeting diverse tea drinking needs," we re-engineered CHINATEA's entire product portfolio, focusing on different consumption occasions and channel characteristics.
Guided by principles of standardization, systematization, innovation, and extensibility for the specialty store product line, we introduced the grading concepts of "Harmony, Fusion, and Essence" to embody the core brand values. We implemented a system using color coding to distinguish tea types, packaging forms to indicate product tiers, and labels to identify specific tea varieties. This approach reinforces a unified brand style while highlighting individual product attributes and significantly reduces packaging costs.
CHINATEA World Tea Garden launched advertising campaigns on CCTV and in key strategic markets, rapidly boosting brand influence. Concurrently, a nationwide franchise recruitment program was initiated, leading to swift expansion. Within two years, CHINATEA achieved strategic nationwide distribution.
Today, the time-honored brand CHINATEA boasts over 35,000 sales points and more than 1,600 specialty stores across China. It has established sales operations in 13 key regions—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hebei, Quanpu/Putian, Qingdao, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guizhou—and exports to overseas markets including Japan, Middle East-Africa, and Southeast Asia. CHINATEA has truly become a world-leading Chinese tea brand, propagating Chinese tea culture globally.
