Tea Pick Me Up

By Tom Kerchiss, RK Print Coat Instruments

Perhaps the radical republican newssheet the Mercurius Politcus’s only claim to fame is that on the 23 September 1658 it announced that a Chinese drink known by the Chinese as ‘Tcha’ and Anglicised ‘Tay or Tee” would be available in the most prestigious City of London coffee houses. For the most part it became the beverage of choice for nobility, the landed and wealthy, mainly for reasons of cost and the perception that it was a drink for the cultured, educated and sophisticated. In time it became the drink of the middle class and of the colonists in North America. Viewed as a cash cow by Prime Minister William Pitt the taxes on tea became the catalyst for the American Revolution. 

As a point of note it wasn’t until the latter part of the 18th century that costs dropped enough for working class people to be able to afford it, elbowing out of the way beverages such as gin and ale. Tea became indelibly associated with the English, whereas coffee became the beverage of choice in North America – perhaps because of tea’s association with the revolution (Boston Tea Party) but in part also due to the blockade that was placed on trade with the American ports.

Bringing us more or less up to date the tea industry has experienced its highs and its lows but perhaps this is to be expected in the lifecycle of a 350-year product. Coffee is tea’s main competitor particularly when it comes to young adults and professionals, though the drink is still viewed as being a social anchor and as a refreshing drink.

A problem in the relatively recent past that may account for a dip in sales and prior to the inroads that coffee was to make was the lack of promotion and poor presentation of tea.

Although a few premium quality loose tea emporiums existed many tea and coffee aisles at supermarkets and convenience outlets looked fairly unimaginative, dominated as it were by a handful of brands. Certainly with regard to tea and the way in which it was packed depended to some extent on whether the tea was fresh leaf, high quality and loosely packed, or the more economical tea bags. Because tea bags were quick to use and were economical tea bags at one time virtually replaced loose-leaf tea on the shelves and tea per se became just another commodity item.

As a commodity item packaging design changes were few and far between and when changes did occur they often amounted to no more than coupon offers or the inclusion of in pack collectible picture series cards. From the brand owner’s perspective there was little reason to make changes. Lightweight cartons in one or two colours with a brand logo and a pack cellophane overwrap for freshness and tamper proofing was often more or less it on the packaging front.

A combination of factors from the 1980s onwards forced brand owners and their marketing teams to make substantial changes to packaging, presentation and product range, pruning some items and introducing new ones.

So what spurred brand owners, tea producers and others into taking action? To start with a new generation of younger people with an enthusiasm for American TV shows such as Friends, which often featured the characters in a coffee shop; the international marketing strategy of coffee shop chains, the Starbucks, Costa and others; and of course the marketing image, which associated drinking coffee with an on-the-go successful lifestyle and the way in which coffee is sold across many types of retail channels including the internet all had an affect on tea sales and for some changed the perception of tea drinking.

While sales of standard tea bags fell sharply in the 80s and 90’snew marketing strategies, the promotion of the health benefits of green tea, fruit teas and herbal blends plus a realignment of loose tea as a premium quality product has reinvigorated the market resulting in a resurgence of interest and an increase in consumption, especially amongst women. Indeed sales of tea have recently been estimated to be worth in region of around 40 million euros with Lipton’s and its distinctive yellow label carton the most widely sold brand.  Today, it’s generally agreed that there is a place for both tea and coffee in world markets with many consumers daily switching beverage consumption between coffee and tea.

Packaging serves to elevate the status of the tea product with many green and herbal tea blends retailed in the high street featuring distinctive graphics and colour imagery.  Packaging mediums range from simple carton board trays and single flap tuck in packs to ever increasingly complex formats, with stand up window style pouches beginning now to make a significant impact in the retail arena.

Packaging is critical with accurate and appropriate colour representation essential. Packaging has no influence on product quality, that’s down to the supplier, but it certainly grabs the attention of the consumer and undoubtedly plays a big role in moving the product from the retail shelf and into the shopping trolley.

So much ride on colour but it can be easy to get things wrong, even where brand owners and designers are involved.   Sometimes a product simply does not work when looked at in the cold light of day. Colour can be tricky. For instance, most designers and marketers want to employ colours that are associated with caring, friendliness and with style. The result, especially when colour selection is made in a boardroom rather than by the printing professional is that a few mismatches of tonal value can occur. Lets consider some examples.

A grey mixed with warm red or warm yellow with black: pharmaceutical blue (Pantone 072) with a light friendly red will make for a stand out product that will meet all of the subliminal and emotional requirements so approved of by colour psychologists. Or will it?

In practice one may well find that in our example the red suddenly appears defiant, the blue changes from reliable and commanding to looking cold and hard and the grey simply depresses anyone that looks at it.

Good design is essential but it can be let down if colour and other pack elements are not in agreement. When used appropriately a combination of colour and graphics, even shape help to build and reinforce brand recognition, and, providing the product contained within lives up to expectations, motivates the impulse shopper to become a regular purchaser.  It goes almost without saying that consistency from run to run is high on the processing agenda.

With so much riding on colour the packaging print buyer tends to be insistent that agreed colour standards are adhered too.  Colour communication or proofing devices such as the FlexiProof 100 and variants FlexiProof UV and FlexiProof LED UV enable printers and converters, and others, such as ink, coating and substrate manufacturers, indeed anyone involved with the flexographic process to more readily achieve quality and colour matching standards with minimal difficulty and offline.

Colour communication devices such as the FlexiProof family for flexographic users or the GP100 gravure proofer or for multi-print process shops the K Printing Proofer, which produces gravure, gravure-offset and flexo proofs enables brand owners and marketers to determine if a colour works or not.  

A number of purveyors of herbal teas and fruit blends have revamped their products introducing well being teas that are said to aid sleep or promote alertness. Many herbal teas are bought by women with some claimed to deal with issues such as the menopause; the tea bags are packed in highly decorative hermetically sealed sachets which are enclosed in cartons that are printed with the same attention to detail, often these depict intricate flower of herbal plant representations. For some of these products, which now include supermarket own labels such as Sainsbury’s in the UK, flexographic UV or gravure is chosen print processes.

Gravure and flexo as with other processes has its critics and its fans. In terms of quality technical advances in flexography have narrowed the all important quality and cost of runs but there will continue to be a market for both flexo and gravure. Gravure’s remarkable density range accounts for its popularity when it comes to printing items where definition needs to of the highest order, this includes items such as postage stamps, gift wrap, fine art prints and highly decorative packaging.

The GP 100 Gravure Proofer designed and developed by RK Print Coat Instruments facilitates the production of high quality proofs using gravure inks of press viscosity. Compact in design it can accommodate any flexible substrate and incorporates a microprocessor controlled servo drive, offering a high degree of controllability with variable printing speeds of between 1 to 100 metres per minute. It uses the same electronically engraved printing plates that are used in RK Print Coat Instruments high export colour communication system the K printing Proofer and are manufactured in exactly the same way as production cylinders.  

RK Print Coat Instruments Ltd
Litlington, Royston, Hertfordshire SG8 0QZ 
www.rkprint.com sales@rkprint.com

Source: RK Print Coat Instruments Ltd