Part 1: Brand Audit

a) Target market of Gryphon Tea Company:

- High-end consumers who are willing to pay for exquisite tea flavours, tea connoisseurs
and those seeking new experiences when it comes to tea drinking

b i) Product offering:

- Variety of fine gourmet teas to relax and soothe consumers’ minds, its related beverage
and food products such as sparkling teas and coconut jams, monthly Gryphon
Subscription Program and tea training programs upon request

b ii) Value proposition:

Gryphon Tea Company offers a wide array of highest-quality gourmet teas and its related
beverage and food products for esteemed customers and those in search of distinctive taste
experiences due to their innovative blend of teas crafted with experimental ingredients from
finest tea leaves in the world, making them exclusively available on their online store and
various premier retail outlets.

c) Brand positioning:

Diagram 1. Perceptual Mapping for Brand of Teas based on price and quality.

From Diag. 1, it is evident that the brand is similar to TWG and ETTE in terms of
pricing, yet, it offers higher-quality tea products due to their unique blend and brewing of
ingredients. However, the brand has not strongly positioned itself in the local market as an

1
authentic tea retailer with a rich heritage of 100 years under Lim Lam Thye family tea-trading
business.

d) Brand image:

Our market research reveals that Gryphon Tea is best known for their premium and
exquisite tastes of tea selection and is aligned with their projected image, with words like “blown
away” and “very fragrant and potent” in their 4.6 out of 5 star rating on Facebook.

d i) Existing brand elements:

- Brand elements are rather lacking; its brand name, ‘Gryphon’, was not memorable
enough to facilitate recall among our interviewees as it does not allude to any information
about artisanal teas and instead, is confusing and difficult to read and pronounce
- Logotype, while a registered trademark, does not make a lasting impression as it is
neither fanciful nor bold

d ii) Brand attributes:

- Product-related: Exotic tea ingredients mostly inspired by Asia’s rich tea culture, and
localised flavours like Singapura Spice with coconut nodes and kaya coconut jams
- Non-product related: Prestige pricing, forming an impression of high quality tea products,
and their aesthetically pleasing tea packaging with food-pairing suggestions printed on
each Gryphon box, exhibiting the brand’s personal touch

d iii) Brand benefits:

- Functional: Relaxation and destress from aromas of tea, and attaining health benefits for
instance, boosting metabolism and aiding digestion
- Symbolic: The prestige of owning an exclusive tea brand products
- Experiential: Exciting and distinctive taste journey for consumers based on unique
concoction of flavours and potent aromas

Overall, consumers’ attitudes towards Gryphon Tea Company is a favourable one among the
niche market who interact with the brand, however, its image is not strong enough to make a
public impression and is mostly unheard of by many Singaporeans in light of 8 Google reviews.

e) Brand message:

- The brand is committed to producing the highest-quality tea products in exotic and
localised tea flavours, crafted from the world’s finest tea leaves, and promises “a
premium tea drinking experience with every sip” (Brand message)
- Their products are marketed on their website that is very chic, stylish and easy to
navigate, and selectively distributed in premier supermarkets like Cold Storage, thus
having more control over channels used to communicate with audience

2
 - Prudent in their marketing strategies; social media accounts are lacking in content
creation and visual appeal, garnering an average of 20 likes on Instagram account

f) Measuring Gryphon Tea Company’s brand equity:

Diagram 2. Measuring brand equity: Gryphon Tea Company’s Brand Asset Valuator (BAV)

Brand Esteem: High as several blends from their Artisan collection won the Great Taste Awards
consistently since 2008, drawing accolades from 400 judges and critics, and also well-received
by local market as their gourmet teas are served at high-end restaurants, cafes and luxury hotels

Brand Differentiation: High as the brand focuses on innovative tea blends inspired by different
Asian culinary cultures and launched other beverage products like their artisanal Sparkling Tea,
cold brewed for 12 hours, in 2017 that became one of their best-selling products

Brand Relevance: Relatively low as it only targets a segment of society, individuals of a higher
prestige or sophisticated tea drinkers, and does not have the same general appeal as other
competing brands like TWG Tea due to how exclusive their brand image is

Brand Knowledge: Dismally low among local consumers as most interviewees we spoke to
have not heard nor interacted with this brand, and those who did barely know of their diverse
food and beverage products and rich heritage, and thus not popular among individuals who have
little or no knowledge of gourmet teas

Despite being superior in quality, Gryphon Tea Company has low brand equity as it requires a
brand refresh through marketing efforts and does not resonate with the average local consumer in
Singapore.

3
Part 2: Issue Identification

The most prominent issue with Gryphon Tea company is that Singapore consumers have
little or no knowledge of their brand. Most interviewees we spoke to have neither heard nor
interacted with this brand, and those who did barely knew of their diverse product categories and
their rich heritage. It can thus be said that not every single Singaporean has heard about this
brand; this is due to the lack of marketing efforts as they only engage customers through their
websites and premier supermarkets, only targeting high-end consumers. As such, the brand
knowledge that a typical consumer of Gryphon Tea Company is very minimal and is not popular
among individuals who have little or no knowledge of gourmet teas.

Their prudent advertising efforts can be seen on their social media platform. On
YouTube, Gryphon Tea Company only has 20 videos, mostly teaching consumers how to brew
their tea. Their latest video update was 1 year ago, and it only had 65 views. There are no
advertisement videos on any Gryphon products that are enticing enough to make their potential
consumers tempted to own their products. Despite having 5,000 followers on Instagram, the
average likes for each post is around 30 likes. From this, it goes to show that Gryphon Tea
Company has a low level of brand awareness and knowledge as it is mostly unheard of by many
Singaporeans.

Even as Gryphon Tea Company expands its product categories like sparkling teas and
kaya coconut jams to widen its consumer base, it does not garner enough attention as people do
not have base knowledge of the brand. Thus, despite the brand having relevance in producing
innovative tea recipes in line with youths’ seeking experimental and new experiences, consumers
are not well versed nor knowledgeable of Gryphon Tea Company and their products due to lack
of promotional and marketing efforts.

Part 3: Recommendations

4
 To create brand awareness and base knowledge, Gryphon Tea Company can engage in
different marketing tools. For instance, the brand can engage health-conscious influencers by
giving them free products to share it with their established audience about the tea products.
Gryphon Tea company could also launch video campaigns for their products to form a
connection with potential consumers. An example of an advertisement can be a touching story
that uses the Hedonic, Experiential Model (HEM). This addresses Gryphon’s rich heritage and
also the brand image that potential consumers might have - a sense of family and care. This
evokes more emotions and makes consumers more likely to try/purchase Gryphon’s products.

Gryphon Tea company could also organise a campaign with fun activities related to tea
for potential customers to try and win attractive prizes of their very own company products.
These are great ways to create awareness about the brand and allow Singaporeans to have more
knowledge about what Gryphon Tea stands for. This can be done in the stores that carry Gryphon
Tea Company’s products such as Cold Storage and NTUC Finest. Ultimately, this will increase
awareness for the brand.

Gryphon Tea Company can appeal to a wider spectrum of consumers in the market by
constantly updating their social media accounts and also appearing as a sponsored post in the
feeds of the social media users.. For instance, Gryphon Tea’s YouTube channel’s last update was
1 year ago. Besides teaching their consumers how to properly brew tea, the company could have
a weekly or monthly update on the company’s culture by putting up behind-the-scenes videos,
introducing your staff and sharing real testaments. This will allow viewers to have a sense of
connection with the company and its brand.