Organic Green Tea

HISTORY:

Archeological evidence suggests that people consumed tea leaves steeped in boiling water as many as 500,000 years ago. Botanical evidence indicates that India & china were among the first countries to cultivate tea. Tea is the most commonly consumed beverage in the world after water. It is estimated that almost one billion cups of tea is consumed every day across the world.

Green tea has been consumed through out the ages in India, china, Japan and Thailand. In traditional Chinese and Indian medicine, practitioners used green tea as a stimulant, diuretic (to promote the excretion of urine), astringent (to control bleeding and help heal wounds) and to improve heart health. Other traditional uses of green tea include treating flatulence (gas), regulation body temperature and blood sugar, promoting digestion and improving mental process.

          Legend describes the creation of the tea plant to dareuma or Buddha dharma, the founder of the Zen sector of Buddhism. In course of his meditation near Nanking in china, the saint fell asleep. On waking up he was so angry that he punished himself by cutting off his eyelids. Where the eyelids dropped to earth, a strange plant comes up. And thus the tea plant was born & the tea beverage came into being. China is the first country to use it as a beverage.

          Today, India is the largest tea producing country & Great Britain as well as Ireland rare the chief consumers of tea. In Nepal, the tea cultivation started in 1920 BS.(1863 AD) & the credit goes to Badahakim shree Gajaraj Singh Thapa . He started the plantation of tea in Ilam tea estate for the first time in Nepal. Now, many tea estates have been established in Ilam, Dhankuta, Panchathar, Jhapa & Terathum districts of eastern regions of Nepal.

          All true teas- as distinct from herbal & flower infusions are made from the leaves of a magnolia- related evergreen tree with the botanical name of camellia senensis. Although reaching a height of 30 feet in the wild, on tea plantations (called gardens or estates), the plant is kept as a shrub, constantly pruned to height of about 3 feet to encourage new growth & for convenient picking.

          Tea plants grow only in warm climates but can flourish at altitudes ranging from sea level to 7000ft. The best teas, however, are produced by plants grown at higher altitudes where the leaves mature more slowly & yield a richer flavor. Depending upon the altitude, a new tea plant may take from two & half to five years to be ready for commercial picking. But once productive, it can provide tea leaves for close to century.

          Tea plants produce abundant foliage, a camellia-like flower, & a berry, but only the smallest & youngest leaves are picked for tea- the two leaves & a bud at the top of each young shoot. The growth of new shoots, called a flush, can occur every week at lower altitudes but takes several weeks at higher ones. The new leaves are picked by hand by "tea pluckers", the best of whom can harvest 40 pounds per day, enough to make, 10 pounds of tea.

1             Tea was used for over 4700 years ago.

2             2   Chinese emperor Shen Nong ben cao jing was the first person to drink tea on 2737bc & found useful for tumors & other health complications.

3             1760-1122bc Tea was used as a medicine

4             1368-1644ad-Green Tea WAS PRODUCED IN CHINA

5             Mid of 17th century-Tea reached to Europe.

6             The search for tea in Assam was started by the East India Company as an alternative source of supply to UK.

7             The first commercial effort in organized tea growing was started by the Assam Tea Company in 1839AD George Williamson was pioneer of manufacture in Assam.

8             By 1856, major tea production began in Darjeeling.

9             In Nepal, tea cultivation started in 1863 AD

10         1984 Ad – Kanchanjanga Tea Estate (KTE) was established at Ranitar in the remote hilly region of panchathar district of Nepal at an altitude of 800-1300 meter, covering 94 hectares of land to produce high quality organic green tea.

·        Japanese call tea as a "best beverage".

·        Chinese call tea as a "sweetest honey from heaven".

·        Ancient Chinese saying "better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one day".

             Tea in different languages

             Cha - Chinese word.

             O-cha  - Japanese word.

             Chai   -    Indian word.

             Chiya –   Nepali word.

Roses

There are over 100 species of the rose. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing or trailing with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers vary in size and shape and are uually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, NOrth America, and northwest Africa. The name rose comes from French, itself from Latin rosa.

Roses have been long used as symbols in a number of societies. Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. "Rose" means pink or red in a variety of languages.

A red rose (often held in a hand) is a symbol of socialism or social democracy: it is used as a symbol by British, Irish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, NOrwegina, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch, Bulgarian, Korean, and other European labour, socialist or social democratic parties, mostly adopted in the period after World War II. 

The rose is used as a symbol of love and compassion in many countries (e.g.USA, England, Spain, France, Italy). The meaning ascribed to the rose depends on  context; general examples in include the romantic love of roses given on Valentine's Day, as part of courtship or for an anniversary; filial love in the case of mother's day; compassion in the case of a funeral.

Relationship Marketing

We live in a society. We need the support of others and want to build a long term relation with different groups of the society. Without the help of others it is difficult to survive in the society. Tough competition is everywhere. In order to compete and achieve the success in any field, the warm cooperation of different groups or individuals is inevitable. 

In this scenario, Relationship Marketing is one of the emerging concepts playing a vital role in the modern marketing. Relationship marketing is the process of building loyal customers and winning back the lost customers. It is also the strategy to develop a long term relationships with customers. Building a satisfied customer is a challenging task which may involve costs but satisfied and loyal customers generate revenue which is higher and lucrative than those costs. 

Attracting customers is not important as the customers who made purchase may switch to competitors' brads at any time. Thus, it is most important to retain the customers by building a long term relationship with them. This can be only done through relationship marketing i.e. marketers may have to share responsibilities with the key parties in the market.

The process of customer building and retention is shown in the following diagram:

1. Suspects: Most firms start with suspects that constitute of every one who has the possibility to buy the product or service.
2. Prospects: Firms identify customer groups who are likely to buy the product or service. All the customers who are not likely to buy the product are recognized as disqualified customers. The firms concentrate its marketing efforts on the prospects only.
3. First Time Customers: this is a group of customers who can either be repeat customer or be defector. Here, the satisfied customers become repeat customers while dissatisfied customers go to the ex-buyer pool. 
4. Repeat Customers: This is a group of customers who has experienced satisfaction in the first time trail and more possibility to become loyal customers. Often customers may experience dissatisfaction in the second or third trail and may switch to competitive brand. Such customers also move to the Ex-buyer pool.
5. clients: This is a group that consists of loyal and satisfied buyers who stay with the firm for a longer period of time.
6. Advocate: The firm tries to convert clients into advocates. Advocate means a group of customers who praise the firm and its products and encourage others to buy the firm's products.
7. Partners: The ultimate challenge of the firm is to convert advocates into partners where both the firm and customers work together actively for mutual benefits.

 At the same time, some customers will inevitably become inactive due to several reasons such as bankruptcy, Changing location, dissatisfaction etc. The company's challenge is to reactivate dissatisfied customers through win-back strategies. Comparatively, it is quite easier to re-attract ex-customers than new ones.

The company has to invest adequate amount of money to build a greater customer loyalty. Development of customer loyalty, in any sense, is creative for the firm. How much should a company invest in customer relationship building so that the costs do not exceed the Profits. Here, we have to distinguish different levels of company investment in customer relationship building. 

• Basic Marketing: In this marketing, the Marketer simply sells the product. There is no call back system. Here, the smaller consumer items are sold where profit margins are very low. Thus, there is no effort to develop relationship with customer in the basic marketing. 
• Reactive Marketing: In this marketing, the marketer sells the products but customers are encouraged to report about their complaints and suggestions. There are numerous byers for the products but profit margin is moderate. Thus, the marketers just attempt to develop relationship with customers. 
• Accountable Marketing: in this marketing, the sales person phones the customers a short time after the sale to check whether the product is meeting the customer's expectations. The sales person also asks the customer for any product or service expectations.The sales person also asks the customer for any product or service improvement or any particular disappointment. This information helps the company to continuously improve its performance. In this marketing the profit margins vary with the number of customers and the company can build a good relationship with the customers. 
• Proactive Marketing: Here, the salesperson contacts with customers from time to time with suggestions about the improved product uses or helpful new product. This is only possible when number of customers is few and the profit margin may vary with number of customers. The marketer in this marketing may succeed in building friendly relations with customers.
• Partnership Marketing: In this marketing, the company continuously works with the customers to discover ways to uplift the customer saving or help the customer perform better. 

 Adoption of a level of investment in building relationship with customer depends on the number of customers and size of the profit margin. In this context, most marketing organizations try their best to build relationship with their customers. They try to make customers as their partners to assist them or discover new ways to satisfy unmet wants/needs. Without developing intimacy with customers, it is probably impossible to exist in the competitive market.

Few multinational companies in Nepal are operating under this concept.These companies share the accessory responsibilities with the major local companies so that they can get adequate local support and receive valuable information about the customers in order to improve the existing products or produce a new products. For example, Colgate Palmolive (Nepal) Pvt. Ltd only produces the paste but not the tube and packages required for the product. The company handovers the manufactures of tube and necessary packages to the local company. This is an attempt to operationalize the relationship marketing.