In order to direct tea enterprises to conduct more effective marketing and promote tea consumption in the new media era, the Tea Research Institute of CAAS and Chinese Tea Industry Economic Research Laboratory of China Agriculture Research System collaborated with Horizon Research Consultancy Group completed the first Research Report of New Media’s Influence on Tea Consumption based on a questionnaire survey of over 1500 residents in 10 big and medium-sized cities. This report was officially released recently on the Fourth Seminar of National Tea Industry and Economy.

The report analyzes tea consumers’ acquisition, use and sharing of tea information, and depicts the pattern of new media’s influence on tea consumption. First, regarding to active information acquisition, nearly 60% of tea consumers would search for relevant tea information; pre-purchase, during-purchase and new tea season are the major timing for search of tea information. Potential consumers usually use more of mobile devices/pads than existing consumers to do such research, and their search is oriented toward the efficacy, price and taste. In terms of passive information acquisition, new media is found to have more influence on potential consumers and they are more interested in video and interactive game commercials; internet information and other consumers’ evaluations are the major ways for tea evaluation. Regarding information use, new media has played an important role in consumers’ decision making of tea purchase and has greater impact on female consumers than male consumers during the tea purchase. New media also shows greater impact on tea cognition of the 18-30 age group and greater impacts of tea cognition and consuming behavior on the 36-45 age group. Tea knowledge from family members, friends and internet as well as other people’s comments is the major channels for tea reputation. Generally speaking, negative comments draw more eyeballs than positive ones; while the quantity of positive comments is important, the content of negative comments is often paid more attention to. As far as information sharing is concerned, tea time, chatting time and post-purchase are the major situations for sharing behaviors; offline communication and online social media are the main platforms for sharing among family members, co-workers and tea-friends; their sharing is more about such tea attributes as taste, quality, and efficacy.

The report implies that tea enterprises change their marketing strategies to adapt to the new media era and integrate new media in tea industry. They may create a tea consumption mode consisting of online search, offline consumption and online-offline sharing mode. In addition to the design of text content and the way of promotion, the accumulation of internet reputation should be emphasized.

As one of CTIER’s phasic research outputs, this report is the first systematic research of new media’s influence on tea consumption. The findings provide scientific evidence for tea enterprises to accurately understand consumers’ use of new media and new media’s influence on consumers’ knowledge and purchasing behavior, and make marketing strategies. This research is forward-looking and in time and sets a milestone for Chinese tea industry to study new media marketing.