Mrs. Tea steeps home brew.
Las Vegas - Mr. Coffee got married, and the bride kept her name. The woman of the house, Mrs. Tea, was formally introduced at last week's Gourmet Show here.Mrs. Tea, the first known automatic hot teamaker in the domestic market, could potentially create a new niche. Similar to a coffeemaker, users find Mrs. Tea with water, load the filter with either loose or bagged tea and flip the on button. Thirty six ounces of hot tea is brewed and steeped in a prewarmed china tea pot. The benefits to tea from this machine, versus kettle-brewed or microwaved tea, lie in 4-minute steeping and the prewarmed, china pot, according to Peter Howell, the chairman and chief executive of the combined Mr. Coffee and Health-o-meter. Because of its warming plate, Mrs. Tea also helps maintain the tea at a proper temperature after brewing.
Mrs. Tea - and her name - was the inspiration of an outside inventor and product designer who sought a catchy product name that would be easily identifiable in advertising and promotion, Howell notes.
"We're a company that has three brand names - Mr. Coffee, Pelouze and Health-o-meter. Our job is to maximize those brand names," he adds. "They each have distinct, compelling, competitive advantages. Any hot or cold beverage is an area where we should have a compelling advantage. Tea is a natural."
As retaining her maiden name would indicate, Mr. Coffee perceives Mrs. Tea as a crusader of sorts, righting the wrongs of the long-forgotten tea drinker: "The hot-tea drinkers that we interviewed felt that they had been discriminated against," Howell says. "In a hotel lobby, there's hot coffee and boiling water with a tea bag. People offer you coffee and waitresses give you a scowl if you ask for hot tea. Tea drinkers are not paid attention to." The numbers back Mrs. Tea's campaign to give hot-tea drinkers their own machine, Howell says. Mr. Coffee's research indicates that 72 percent of people drink coffee, 68 percent drink iced tea and 47 percent drink hot tea. "Tea consumption is the fastest-growing beverage in the country," Howell notes. The question in the minds of retailers, says one buyer, is what percentage of people drink only tea and, of them, how many will be willing to spend $50 for a machine that replaces their relatively inexpensive teakettles or essentially free microwave-heated water.
Howell, however, says that the price point allows both the company and retailers to make margins, a novelty in small electrics.
Mr. Coffee intends to take consumers' minds off price tag by promoting Mrs. Tea, in part, as a comfort product. "For a lot of people, partially ladies, tea drinking is a time out experience and a bit of peace and quiet in what is a frantic, hectic day," Howell explains. "They take afternoon tea, sit down for a few minutes and give a little time to themselves. That whole emotional thing was key to the design of the product. We wanted it to be more representative of that.
Initial art for Mrs. Tea, shown here, conveys an aura of Victorian placidness; the China of the pot and the white coloring provide an upscale look.
Advertising for the product will evoke an emotional response that says "this is for me, " Howell contributes. Products will ship Sept. 1. The full advertising campaign begins Nov. 1. It is geared toward print and highbrow TV.
Despite a national push, My. Tea is expected to be a regional product. Mr. Coffee expects the Northeast, upper Midwest and major cities to be strong markets. Howell explains that "the good department stores are realizing they can afford to have a separate tea section," a point picked up by one major buyer.
"Tea's an emerging catagory, but I don't know if that's hot, iced or both," says the department store retailer. "We do sell a lot of teas here. I think tea may be interesting. I don't know if a unit introduced would change the market, though."
Mr. Coffee has already proven its ability to electrify the tea category. The first full sales year - 1990 - following the introduction of Mr. Coffee's iced teamakers, the company sold 2.5 million units. Mr. Coffee has sold a total of close to 10 million units in five years. Just as Mrs. Tea will be backed by a comprehensive media campaign, Mr. Coffee has poured $22 million in advertising into the launch and growth of the iced teamaker market. The company hopes that any questions about its teamaker will be dispelled during the holiday season, when it plans to establish the category. "We've never gone out there and said this is a huge category from the start, but this thing is promising," Howell says. "Obviously, we dominate the iced teapot business and I think this could be as big. "
The company wants to make Mrs. Tea more than a niche product. "We don't want it to be a fringe item," he says. "We're tried to design the machine so it does tea well. "
As Mr. Coffee and Mrs. Tea prepare to celebrate their first anniversary next year, retailers could see the Mrs. spicing up her marriage with differently styled pots and accessories, such as tea cozies, tea balls and trivets.
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| Title Annotation: | Electrics |
|---|---|
| Author: | Abdeddaim, Michelle Nellett |
| Publication: | HFN The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network |
| Date: | May 8, 1995 |
| Words: | 869 |
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