Industry: Loose leaf tea
Role: Designer, Art Direction
Deliverables: Website, Marketing Assets
ClairThé is a woman-owned tea company built to provide accessible yet artisanal tea. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, they specialize in high-quality, loose leaf tea, which is hard to come by in the United States.
After their 1 year anniversary as a business, ClairThé approached me to redesign their website and create some new marketing materials.
After a year in a business, it became clear to ClairThé that the number of sales could improve and they needed help exploring how to define their niche to gain more market capture. While they wanted to appeal to long-time tea drinkers, ClairThé also wanted to introduce tea to people who were unfamiliar with it. This was a challenge as the client was hoping to seem high-end and respectable among tea connoisseurs but not too aloof and unapproachable to beginners. Since tea is not consumed as much in the U.S. as other countries, many people don't know how to prepare tea and what constitutes good or bad tea. As a tea sommelier, the client wanted to incorporate education into her business.
Solution
I first focused on speaking with the client about their goals and challenges. We worked on defining the basis of what ClairThé's ideal customer would look like and how we would appeal to them. Using personas, word association, and inspiration boards, we were able to define their target market.
I suggested refining the website to better appeal to a higher-end customer and use a well-designed website to convey the owner's emphasis on quality. With an emphasis on Buddhist and French design elements, the website furthered defines the ClairThé brand. In addition, we created a print brew guide to package with the tea, further adding premium details.
To help increase sales, I suggested they look to social media, like Instagram, to reach a wider audience, especially to attract younger customers. I created a set of Canva templates for a variety of uses that they could update on their own. I also developed a long-form infographic.
After the launch of the website redesign, ClairThé saw a 32% increase in sales. The client is now able to maintain and update their website on Wix with seasonal offerings and new arrivals while keeping everything on brand.
They were able to launch a new line of tea boxes that are especially effective as gifts or introductory sets for new tea drinkers.
The client was also able to increase their reach with new Instagram posts and gain customers outside of their local market. They now have more recurring customers and steady flow of orders.