Family Influence on RTD Tea Usage

Families have emerged as a key demographic shaping the ready-to-drink segment of the $25 billion U.S. tea industry, according to a new report by market research publisher Packaged Facts.
Packaged Facts Logo. (PRNewsFoto/Packaged Facts)
Packaged Facts Logo. (PRNewsFoto/Packaged Facts)
The 5th edition of Tea and Ready-to-Drink Tea in the U.S.: Retail and Foodservice provides an in-depth analysis of adult and children’s use of RTD iced tea. Household penetration has grown 5% during the period 2009-13 to reach 47%. Penetration is even greater among families with children in the home aged 6-11 and 12-17. “While this clearly places convenience-minded parents in the crosshairs of RTD marketers, it may also speak to the influence their kids have on household tea purchasing decisions,” writes report author Daniel Granderson, a market research analyst at Packaged Facts. “Instant tea mixes, on the other hand, are losing their grip on American families,” writes Granderson. Usage penetration has declined among all household and they are declining more steeply among those with young children in the home—a central demographic for this product. “Marketers can win over the parent demographic by positioning tea as a replacement for alternative beverages: leveraging tea’s healthful properties and perhaps even juxtaposing these attributes against other popular sugary kids’ beverages (i.e., sports drinks, soda, juices), all the while underscoring ethical farming and production practices,” writes Granderson. “The opportunity exists for tea marketers to leverage Millennial moms as the gateway to increasing penetration and usage among the key family demographic by leveraging these types of social media marketing tactics,” he concludes. Learn more at Packaged Facts, a division of www.marketresearch.com.