How Arizona Tea Became the Most Famous Iced Tea Brand

Most of the time, we see advertising as a vital part of the business when we want to sell a product.

We are used to seeing expensive TV campaigns where products are introduced to us by using carefully designed visuals and music that make us want that product.

Some companies like Chanel invested millions in a single commercial. You sure remember this 2004 TV ad.

It becomes almost unthinkable to make a brand famous without lots of investment in TV commercials, ads on social media, and such.

That’s why I’m going to talk about Arizona Tea, the least publicized brand in the world. And no, I’m not receiving any money from them by writing this, it would be the opposite of what they do.

Arizona Tea

A few years ago, when I was broke, I was walking through a local supermarket's aisles looking for something cheap to drink when I found Arizona tea. The bottle looked nice — I think it was green tea, and it was cheap enough for me, and somewhat big, so I tried it.

It tasted good, and after spending the afternoon sitting on a bench and drinking with my friends, I completely forgot about the brand for some days.

But in the following months, each time I went to any local supermarket, I started noticing the brand here and there. It was quickly closing the gap with Nestea, the most famous iced tea in Spain, and eventually, it surpassed it. After some months, everyone in my hometown was familiar with the Arizona brand.

Without running a single ad on TV.

No Marketing as a Marketing Strategy

Years ago, just one gallon of regular gasoline cost only $1.20. Today, that price has nearly tripled! Fuel prices, among other items, continue to skyrocket in price. Walk into any service station and see for yourself. But there is one item you can rely on, that is Arizona®.

Drinkarizona.com

Marketing takes lots of time and money to develop; you need to hire a marketing team, and they need a lot of time to come with ideas for the advertising, which later you must adapt to the different countries where you want to sell your product.

And to that vast amount of time and money, you must add the cost for running your advertising each time, which means more money.

That enormous money cost means that you have to raise the selling price of your product if you don’t want to lose money, meaning that your ultimate consumer will end paying not only your product but also the marketing costs.

More cost = less potential clients

Arizona uses instead the most powerful marketing tool that has ever existed: Word of mouth.

They base their model on offering a high-quality product in a large quantity at a cheap price.

And they’re proud of offering their big cans of tea at just 99¢ to the point they make sure that stores understand that the final price must be that.

Arizona Tea does not spend a single dime on advertising, they have social media, that’s all. And before that, they only relied on their reputation.

By doing this, they achieved to earn their customers and keep them satisfied over time because when we like a product; we talk about it to others like I’m doing right now.

In a Nutshell

A smart brand will offer a high-quality product to keep its clients satisfied and loyal over time, investing in commercials is important to draw new clients fast as it makes your brand known. But reputation finally draws in loyal customers, who will bring in more customers.

Did you like this piece? Consider leaving a little tip and sharing it with your friends, so I can keep writing. I would appreciate any kind of support.

JM is a Spanish writer who endlessly talks about cars, philosophy, and revolution when he's not playing guitar or practicing Yoga. You can follow him on Twitter to see more content: @jm_miana