White2tea is good at running promotions and I find them
super interesting, fun, and pretty brilliant.
White2tea calls them a “Sale” but by definition a sale is a period during which a shop or dealer sells goods at reduced prices. The
interesting thing is that during these so called white2tea “sales”, puerh is
actually not sold at reduced prices-
the price of tea doesn’t change during these “sales” at all. When Paul sets a price on his puerh, it
rarely moves. It actually never is
reduced. Ever. But on the positive, if he does raise prices
on his puerh, it is usually only a very small yearly increase smaller than most
other western vendors, I think.
I can respect that he sets the price and sticks to it. But for a puerh company that is so concerned
about the language of describing puerh age and terroir, I find it interesting
that they are not as concerned about the actual meaning of words like “sale” or
“aged puerh”. The double standard
sure makes me chuckle and shake my head.
Can anyone else explain this to me? Am I missing something here?
I suppose you could consider free shipping an overall
savings but I don’t think free shipping, by definition, could be considered a
sale. Although, I think it is a reduction in the actual price of the tea.
Ok, enough of that… hahaha.
This article is supposed to be about those epic huge 3KG
puerh tea cakes that white2tea has pressed…
So this is how the story unfolds…
Back a year or so ago I wrote an article called The Xiaobinging of the Puerh Industry.
In that article I criticized the pressing of small 200g or smaller cakes
and the Western producers who perpetuate this trend. White2tea has not pressed a cake larger than
200g since 2014, so they fall squarely into this category.
At the end of that article I stated the following:
I like the big, chunky,
beefy, robust, old school feeling of these cakes and the industry that they
represent. The larger, the better! 1Kg, even 2Kg, cakes and bricks-
"bring'em on" I say. In fact,
I challenge vendors to release one of these big guys in response to the xiao
binging of the puerh industry. People
will buy- I’ll be the first one.
Then, on Black Friday, in dramatic fashion white2tea offers a sweepstakes giveaway of one 3Kg shu puerh cake, with a Neifi that offers a response to this criticism. If the Snoozefest cake was in response to tinklefor then this giant puerh must be in
response to this article, I think. So,
of course, naturally I want in on this giant cake. I literally stated (above) that I’ll be the
first one!
But it’s not so simple, I have to place an order to have a
shot at it. So, I do because I was
planning on getting this cake from white2tea anyways (and its price isn’t being
reduced anytime soon). So why not wait until Black Friday? At the very least I can save on the shipping,
right?
So, I really felt it’s my destiny to win this Qing bing 3KG
cake. I bet you thought you would win
too? I mean we have no idea what the
odds are at winning because that depends on how many people place an order over
the promotional days. So we are blind to
that. This type of marketing is new from
white2tea and plays on our susceptibilities in thinking that we somehow have a
greater chance of winning over others.
Darn, I didn’t win that 3KG shu cake…. Oh well wasn’t meant
to be…
But that sample cake I ordered was pretty damn good… I think
I would like a bit more of the puerh. I
need to re-order. But when?
It just so happens that in my first sampling of the cake
there is a white2tea New Year’s Sale and guess what? They have many more giant cakes to give away. The 3KG sheng puerh especially is calling for
me, but I need to place an order to be entered.
Well, if I didn’t win the last Qing Bing cake sweepstakes then surely this
sheng puerh version (which I primarily drink these days) is mine. So the old gambler’s fallacy probably got the
best of me. I re-order and…
Darn, I didn’t win that 3KG sheng cake (no crazy large white
tea cakes either)…. Oh well wasn’t meant to be…
In the end, I was empty handed so the jokes on me… hahaha
But man, did I ever order some nice puerh which I was
planning on ordering anyways. The whole
promotional side show was just a bit of fun layered on top. Thanks for the ride Paul (Twodog), it was glorious.
Interesting how sweepstakes marketing gets you…
It sure got me.
Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment