Grassroots Marketing

Daphne Raj and Joe Gehrke are the owners of Teza Juice tea of Auckland, New Zealand. They have a great product, but in a recession climate, they did not have the marketing budget to get the message across using billboards and other conventional “interruption” marketing techniques. What do they do? Well, they “dared to be different” and covered their cars in artificial grass. Teza’s “grassy beast” is working. On November 28th 2008 they even had a full page article on their marketing ideas in the NZ Herald Newspaper under the Success in Business section. Their journey is an interesting one. Having worked in corporate business in London they visited St. Louis, Missouri, the city that made this drink popular in the 1930’s. By chance they had discovered a “Granny product” they could make “cool”. Iced tea is a norm in this part of the USA to this day, but it needed a new lease of life. Ray and Joe made this nostalgic drink cool by putting a mix of leaf tea, juices, root ginger, stick cinnamon and vanilla pod together. The result is that in a recession their business has grown by 50% month upon month for nine consecutive months. The next step is the international market. A great, cost effective, dare to be different marketing campaign.