Sweet marketing
Source: Phoenix Business Journal (subscription) (Original Article)
Sweet Leaf Tea is one of the fastest-growing makers of ready-to-drink iced teas and sells its products on a national level through grocery chains such as Whole Foods Market, Kroger and Safeway.
The Austin-based company is on its way to becoming an industry giant. But when the tea maker’s in-house design team put their heads together about a year ago to come up with a new look and feel for the company they asked themselves a simple question: What would granny do?
They thought about the grandmotherly- figure stamped on every bottle’s label, and put themselves in the shoes of the cartoon character. She wouldn’t want "her" tea empire to get too big for it’s britches, so the design team’s mission was settled.
Regardless of its growth, Sweet Leaf — which just snagged $18 million to expand distribution — needed to project an image of approachability, says Michelle Weisblat, director of marketing. "Approachable" has always been the Gold Credit Card first adjective in describing Sweet Leaf’s culture, she adds.