When health-conscious consumers and passionate tea enthusiasts Jeramie Naser and Christine Melby were picking up their kids from school one day, they started discussing a local tea company that was up for sale—and they decided right then and there that they wanted to purchase the company and become business partners. Together, they revamped the Wisconsin-based Cedar Lake Teas, and are now on a mission to make tea fun, exciting, and accessible to all types of customers. Learn how this RangeMe Verified™ brand is using RangeMe’s Profile Insights to track their visibility on RangeMe and see how new products are performing with buyers.
Brewing up tea blends with creativi-tea
Cedar Lake Teas is determined to change the perception of tea as being “complicated and sophisticated,” Melby says, “to tea being fun, easy to make, and approachable for everyone.”
With this goal in mind, Cedar Lake Teas has developed multiple creative lines of tea, including their “Gimme Sunshine” mint and basil flavored tea, “Wild Child” lemon and hibiscus flavored tea, and their “Tea Party” line, which offers a variety of flavors in convenient pouches with recipes included to make fun cocktails or mocktails using the tea. Offering such unique tea blends and packaging types also means that retailers have more options of where the tea can be placed in stores.
“Our goal is to make what seems really complex with tea very easy to do,” Melby explains. “We’ve found that people are really excited about these blended tea drinks, especially when they are easy to make, and there’s really nothing else like it on the market right now.”
To gather customer feedback on their Tea Party line, Cedar Lake Teas tested out the new products at various expos across multiple states. “We’ve gotten incredible approval ratings—it’s a hit,” says Melby. “The pouches make it really easy, really fun, and appealing to a wide range of ages.”
Gauging product performance with Profile Insights
After getting such great feedback from customers at farmers markets, Naser went ahead and uploaded the new product line to RangeMe. Using Profile Insights, a RangeMe Premium feature that shows suppliers which retailers are viewing their brand and products and how long they are spending on their page, Naser has been able to track the buyer response to the new products.
“Within a few days of putting the new teas on RangeMe, we were able to see that this is exactly what the market is looking for based on the views and activity we were getting,” Naser explains. “In fact, after uploading those products, we had even more hits in the following few days than in all our previous time RangeMe.”
The brand is then leveraging data from Profile Insights to inform their sales strategy. “The value really comes from being able to see who is looking at you and what they’re looking at,” Melby says, as this information allows Cedar Lake Teas to tailor their buyer outreach based on how buyers are interacting with their RangeMe profile and products.
In addition to using Profile Insights to test out new products, Naser also uses it in conjunction with Retailer Submissions, a RangeMe Premium feature that allows suppliers to submit their products directly to relevant category buyers.
“If I see a retailer is looking at my RangeMe page through Profile Insights,” Naser explains, “it works well with submissions because I then have a channel where I can go and submit directly to them on RangeMe.”
Example of RangeMe’s Premium Profile Insights feature
Changing at-tea-tudes
Cedar Lake Teas looks forward to further expanding their creative product line, growing their retailer placements, and, ultimately, changing the way people view tea. “Tea has this reputation as being from an older generation, or if you’re sick you drink tea,” Melby explains. “We want to show people how versatile tea is by creating teas that are versatile, family-friendly, and fun!” Most recently, after noticing the limited healthy drink options aimed at kids, the brand has added a line of organic, caffeine-free teas for children, designed to help start healthy habits.
“RangeMe should be one of the tools that any business has.” Cedar Lake Teas is excited to continue using RangeMe to gain valuable data from Premium features like Profile Insights, as well as to increase their visibility make connections with retailers. “We have been able to get views from many companies that we would never even be able to talk to, so the reach is outstanding,” says Naser. “I think RangeMe should be one of the tools that any small business—or any business, really—has. You just can’t get to this many buyers on a day-to-day basis without it.”
