CHALLENGE
Australians love tea, but the ‘bubble tea’ explosion that took Asia by storm in the 1990s had never truly taken off in Australia – despite success in culturally similar markets like the US, Canada and Western Europe. To get more Australians into Chatime, Sphere was tasked with selling the range of drinks in a way that made them more appealing to a western audience used to drinking bottled iced tea from supermarkets and service stations.
THE BIG IDEA
To refresh the brand, Sphere worked with Chatime to examine every facet of their business. This included everything from redesigning their menu and simplifying the offering to building their franchise funnel. Next, we devised a strategy that would not only speak to the consumers’ desires, but also reflect the personality of the organisation itself. This led to ‘You’ve never had iced tea like this before’: a colourful, cheeky, ingredients-centric platform that celebrated the exciting and exotic nature of the drinks and importantly, positioned the product as an iced tea. Through in-store posters, menus, TV, radio, digital and social, we demystified Chatime’s offering for Australians who were never properly introduced to the products – and helped cement Chatime as ‘The Home of Freshly Brewed Iced Tea’.
RESULTS
In the first year of the platform, sales increased nationwide by 17%. In addition, franchise opportunity leads increased 210% in the first month and were consistently in excess of 300 inquiries per month over a 15-month period. This led to Chatime opening 40 new stores in the space of two years, making them one of Australia’s fastest growing franchises.
Following the success of the national brand platform, Sphere was appointed to reposition Chatime worldwide. We worked across the business, developing the international style guide, overseeing the brand and marketing channel plan as well as creating a modular global website that was rolled out across 80 cities around the world.
