---
title: "Tea π Unveils Major New Packaging, Exclusive Insight into the Brand Story Behind 3 Billion in Three Years"
description: "Despite the beverage industry's slowdown post-2014, Nongfu Spring's Tea π achieved 3 billion yuan in sales within three years, breaking the myth that the era of blockbuster products is over. The brand's success stems from its youthful, imaginative packaging, strategic celebrity endorsements, and a new packaging redesign with a promotional campaign."
author: "FBIF"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2019-03-12"
language: "en"
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# Tea π Unveils Major New Packaging, Exclusive Insight into the Brand Story Behind 3 Billion in Three Years

> Despite the beverage industry's slowdown post-2014, Nongfu Spring's Tea π achieved 3 billion yuan in sales within three years, breaking the myth that the era of blockbuster products is over. The brand's success stems from its youthful, imaginative packaging, strategic celebrity endorsements, and a new packaging redesign with a promotional campaign.

Click 'Read Original' for details.
> Source: FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation
> (ID: FoodInnovation)

Since 2014, the beverage industry has entered a period of fatigue after rapid growth, with most categories still in decline. Companies that previously relied on blockbuster products for sustained growth have faced varying degrees of sales decline in recent years, leading industry insiders to believe that the era of blockbuster products is over.

However, one product broke through 1 billion in sales in its first year and created a miracle of 3 billion in three years against the market trend, defying the curse that the blockbuster era had ended. That product is Tea π, one of Nongfu Spring's flagship products. Why has Tea π been able to create the most dazzling sales miracle in the ready-to-drink beverage industry over the past three years? Recently, we exclusively learned that Nongfu Spring's Tea π has undergone a major renewal, with new packaging set to fully replace the old. The new packaging style is completely different from before. What product innovation strategy lies behind this? Read on for our exclusive interpretation of the new product and the brand growth story behind its counter-trend growth.

**01**
**Packaging Renewal, Unchanged Youthful Core**

Tea π is a fruit-flavored tea beverage launched by Nongfu Spring in 2016. The combination of Nongfu Spring's reputation, the unique product name, and distinctive packaging design made Tea π a topic of conversation from the moment it hit the market. Among these, Tea π's packaging attracted the most attention. **A consumer survey showed that over 70% of first-time buyers were attracted by its packaging.**

Tea π's series of illustrations are highly imaginative. Take the grapefruit green tea, for example: green tea branches fill the entire space, with people of different skin tones and costumes seemingly standing on a giant tea tree carrying grapefruits.

Upon closer inspection, one can discern features of civilizations that played important roles in the spread of tea culture from the characters' clothing.

The later-released rose lychee black tea packaging was provided by Dutch designer Marijke Buurlage, maintaining stylistic unity with the other four in terms of imagination.

However, when compared with the new packaging, significant stylistic differences emerge.

Unlike the abstract and symbolic nature of the original packaging, the new visuals enhance narrative quality; each image seems to tell a story. For example, in the rose lychee black tea packaging, the center features a woman dressed in Tang Dynasty attire with a characteristic hair bun, evoking the legendary beauty known for her love of lychees. On the right side, an elephant carries round lychees.

Based on historical records, it is generally believed that the lychees consumed by Yang Guifei came from the Lingnan region. Although there are no elephants in Lingnan today, Liu Xun's "Records of the Strange in Lingnan" from the Tang Dynasty notes that elephants once inhabited the area. Of course, these stories are not explicitly depicted but left for consumers to imagine and fill in, much like "a hundred people see a hundred Hamlets." Everyone's perception of the new packaging will likely differ.

Although the visual style has been significantly adjusted, the core of Tea π's packaging remains unchanged: **youthful and imaginative.** When asked why they decided to change the packaging, a Nongfu Spring spokesperson said that Tea π's positioning is youth, and three years have passed; young people's aesthetics and understanding of fashion are constantly evolving, so Tea π should also have a new image.

Compared with other brands under Nongfu Spring, Tea π's packaging changes are quite frequent. We interviewed a Nongfu Spring executive and learned that Tea π's packaging strategy is based on its role in the company's product line. In Nongfu Spring, Tea π is defined as the most fashionable product, tasked with communicating with young consumers. Therefore, it continuously innovates and refreshes its packaging to provide users with a sense of novelty.

So, how was this fashion-forward product born?

**02**
**The "π" in Tea π: The Birth of the Brand Name**

Tea π sparked much debate upon its initial launch: How is this character pronounced?

Since no product had ever used pi as a product name, many consumers thought it was "Tea Wu" or even "Tea Table."

Although the misunderstanding was quickly resolved, it became a meme that increased Tea π's visibility. A humorous video on Douyin deliberately mispronouncing "Tea π" as "Tea Table" and "honey grapefruit" as "honey sucker" received hundreds of thousands of likes.

This time, Nongfu Spring provided a more detailed explanation of the product name's origin.

Based on the product positioning, Nongfu Spring wanted this tea beverage to be fashionable and targeted at young consumers. Initially, it was named "Tea 2016," with plans to change it annually.

Due to various factors, this name was replaced just before launch with "Tea Pie," meaning "unique style."

Then, by chance, a young employee suggested replacing "Pie" with the number "π," an infinite non-repeating decimal representing infinite non-repeating possibilities. Senior management embraced the idea, believing the new name would generate more buzz.

This product name, with its rich interpretability, indeed aligns with Tea π's brand positioning. Slogans like "Unique Style" and "Infinite Non-Repeating Youth" gradually became popular and resonated widely among young people.

**03**
**Marketing Strategy: Tea π Continues the Music Idol Route, Red Packet Campaign Supports New Launch**

To establish Tea π's youthful and fashionable brand positioning, Nongfu Spring adopted a music idol strategy early on and achieved great success.

Shortly after launch, they chose the then-popular BIGBANG as spokesperson, directly helping Tea π break into the market.

After BIGBANG's endorsement ended, Tea π invited popular star Kris Wu as the new brand ambassador, injecting new vitality and speaking with music, coolness, and youthful attitude.

In January 2019, Tea π announced its latest spokesperson, rising music idol Lai Guanlin.

A series of moves precisely captured the trends of young people. With the support of the first two spokespersons, Tea π has grown into a super product with nearly 3 billion in sales.

With the new packaging, Tea π's marketing strategy has also been upgraded. Not only did they invite new-generation music idol Lai Guanlin to endorse Tea π, but they also plan to add independent musicians to enrich the spokesperson lineup, interpreting Tea π's unique brand personality from multiple dimensions. To accompany the new packaging launch, Tea π introduced a "Lid-off Red Packet" promotion:

**From February 20 to September 30, anyone purchasing new-packaging Tea π can scan the QR code inside the cap to enter a draw for WeChat cash red packets ranging from 0.3 to 6,666 yuan.**

Tea π's major Pig Year launch is a comprehensive combination of "product strength + fashionable design + popular new-generation idol + red packet promotion strategy." We believe it will continue to write a counter-trend growth story in the ready-to-drink beverage industry!

**04**
**Future Trends in Ready-to-Drink Tea and Nongfu Spring's Response**

Regarding future trends in the ready-to-drink tea industry, a Nongfu Spring executive stated that due to the continued decline of leading brands, the overall growth of ready-to-drink tea has slowed, entering a period of product structure adjustment. Adjustment means loosening and market opportunities. An important driver of growth in the ready-to-drink tea market is consumption upgrading. Unlike the situation a few years ago when 3-yuan beverages dominated the tea market, 5 yuan has gradually become the mainstream price point for ready-to-drink tea. The continuous influx of new products is another important factor keeping the market vibrant and driving growth.

Tea is a large category, and Nongfu Spring remains optimistic about this market. They have already positioned Tea Pie and Oriental Leaf, and are continuously developing other tea products, ready to enter when the time is ripe!

**05**
**Conclusion**

Tea π's impressive achievement of nearly 3 billion in growth over three years against the market trend is partly due to the product's strong overall strength, with outstanding performance from packaging to taste. It is also inseparable from the broader context of consumption upgrading in the ready-to-drink tea market. Consumers have higher and newer demands for tea flavor and quality, and Tea π's emergence just met those needs.

In recent years, under Nongfu Spring's leadership, there has been an increasing trend of packaging crossing into art and fashion in food and beverage products. Nongfu Spring is a product-driven company, and packaging design is a crucial part of the product. From Tea π's new packaging, we can see that Nongfu Spring has invested significant effort and expense in packaging design, which is why for a long time, many people felt Nongfu Spring was not a water company but a design company.

From successful cases like Nongfu Spring, we also see that the food and beverage industry is increasingly focusing on product packaging, and the industry's aesthetic awareness is continuously improving. Design power not only brings consumers better products but also becomes one of the core competitive advantages for beverage brands vying for the youth market in the future.

**-END-**


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