Week 2: T2 Tea vs Lipton Tea

Entering the T2 store is a soothing experience as the entire store is covered with black shelves filled with bright coloured products. The bright colours are not over the top as they are toned down by the low lighting of the store. The soft smell of tea surrounds the store and the music adds to the atmosphere, as your eyes adjust to the low light. The store then becomes a dark abundance of tea for customers to scan the multiple black rustic wooden shelving in search for their preferences.

T2 using a basic packaging with emphasis on the cube shape to package their tea. The bright colours of the cubes create a bold statement combined with an easy to read logo, while the rest of the products are black with the coloured logo. The minimalist style for the packaging allows the bright colour to stand out against the black shelving and low lighting. The cardboard used for the cubed packaging is slightly glossy and feels high quality. The resealable tea bags are made of a sturdy glossy plastic and the tins are made out of metal that is cool to when felt and has a weight to it.

On top of the high quality packaging, they give buyers a free bright orange bags with the logo for people that by the product. The bags are a good quality glossy paper bag with a cardboard string handle, the bright orange colour with the large logo is easily noticeable and acts as a fashion statement. Furthermore the store offers free gift wrapping with a Japanese red wrapping paper with a sticker belt, ribbon and a button to finish. The amount of consideration used to package and present tea gives off the impression that the tea sold in the store is of the highest quality. Combined with free tea samples and tea laid out in small boxes for customers to actually touch and smell the tea helps to confirm their image of quality.

Lipton tea does not come with any special experience as it just sits out in the open with a low price tag and bright yellow box to draw people in.

Lipton tea sold in the supermarket consists of a bright yellow box with a large red logo wrapped in a thin plastic sheet to seal the tea freshness inside. Lipton does stand out with the bright yellow box when walking through the supermarket, as no other tea uses this colour. Lipton is one of the rare tea brands that wraps their entire box with plastic sheeting giving the box extra glossiness. Also the box itself is made with a sturdy good quality cardboard. This gives off the impression of what is inside the box is very fresh and good quality due to the excessive packaging. The price of Lipton tea is slightly higher than its competition, however due to more emphasis on packaging, the price increase does effect its sales negatively.

Overall T2 treats their products with the utmost care as their high quality packaging lives up to the expectation of holding high quality tea. Despite high cost for example $14:00 for 40 cups compared to the $6:50 for 100 cups from Lipton Tea, the good quality packaging and the experience of the store itself, leads people to buy the product as the packaging is valued equally as important as the product, which shows throughout the store. Lipton does still get sales by offering high quality packaging for a cheap price, through standing out with the glossiness of the plastic sheet covering. Considering the cost of Lipton tea, the packaging quality is equal to T2, however the graphical side gives off a different feel to the product. The graphics and T2 suggest a modern fresh type of tea that is only exclusive to their brand, whereas Lipton seems like a more improved version of any other generic tea brand.