A New Name for The Old

You Don’t Change the Culture with Glitter

Coca-Cola had grand ambitions for teas in Brazil. It bought the biggest and most traditional tea brand in the country, Leão, with the desire to revamp the category.

Brazil, however, is a country of coffee drinkers. The tea category (“chá”) was not meeting its significant potential. What most Brazilians drink as “chá” is primarily an “erva mate” infusion, served hot in the south estates and cold in Rio de Janeiro — yes, at the beach — plus some traditional herbs.

The two most common presentations of tea in Brazil.

Let’s rename the category!

Coca-Cola had a bold plan to change that. The company redesigned the Leão brand and brought a new portfolio of flavors that would be sold as a new drink: “Infusions,” which took the place of “chá” as a younger, more appealing name (according to Coca-Cola). The agency was invited to pitch for the opportunity to bring this idea to life.

This brief excited me. I’m an avid coffee drinker, but I’ve always had a soft spot for tea. I bought a book about the story of tea and perused its vast universe, delving into its history and idiosyncrasies. From what I could tell, turning tea into a “cool” beverage would be easy, given its potential.

As we evolved our discussions around the problem, something bothered us: replacing chá for infusions sounded odd. Creating a new category is a marketing tactic that often doesn’t consider whether people will play along.

The new category name looked cosmetic and superficial. It didn’t seem like it would solve the underlying problem — and could we even identify such a problem?

We soon realized we needed to define this core issue more clearly to solve it.

Unusual consumer segments

During our investigation, we discovered that, culturally, there were two types of tea drinkers in Brazil: hipsters and grandmas.

What both groups had in common was that they had a small potential to break out of their bubbles into popular culture. (In my opinion, however, the grandmas score better than the hipsters in this respect.)

For most Brazilians, tea is only for when you’re sick or old. Although some weirdos in São Paulo enjoyed it after their yoga classes, tea wasn’t the primary drink choice in Brazil.

The real problem

Our team decided to run a test. We asked a group of non-grandmas and non-hipster individuals to drink only tea for a week. We took notes about their experiences and the reactions of those surrounding them.

Every team member reported that the most common reaction was a question: “Why?”

The group had to explain such a seemingly unusual choice every time they ordered tea. Their social currency also dropped a few points after asking for tea.

Therein lies the underlying problem: In a country where coffee is the norm, drinking tea causes social embarrassment.

“A cup of tea, please!”
“Tea???”
“So strange!”

This exercise was inspired by the one developed by Jon Steel for Porsche in his Truth, Lies and Advertising. The difference is that here, people were asked to fill in how they see other people reacting to someone ordering tea in Brazil.

The real solution

No re-branding mumbo jumbo would suffice if the category’s core cultural problem was not initially solved.

“Popular people do not drink tea.”

Consumers were asked to split many famous people between tea and non-tea drinkers. They naturally saw that tea could not be consumed by the most famous people…

We presented a challenge to the brief. Let’s not run away from calling the product what it is: “chá.” We then proposed a campaign full of famous celebrities (soccer players, soap opera actors, etc.) who would take the general public by surprise with their tea-drinking habits. The underlying reasoning was clear: Leão would reap increased growth and take the lead by making the category more popular.

Folks at Coca-Cola didn’t quite like the campaign at first. But they loved the diagnosis. They were surprised and somehow resistant to it. It took a while, but they finally awarded the account to the agency.

Impact

• Helped the agency to win a new business and strengthen its relationship with Coca-Cola.

• The campaign later developed for the redesigned Leão Fuze brand won a Bronze Effie Awards in Brazil.