Designing and Marketing Delicious Tea

Aaron Shinn is a former #IDEO design lead and the cofounder of August Uncommon Tea who has been a dear friend for many years. We caught up on the streets of Osaka to discuss #futurism, Japan, and the nuts and bolts of designing and selling #tea.

Links:

https://www.aaronshinn.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ashinn/

https://august.la/

https://www.instagram.com/augustuncommon/

https://www.facebook.com/AugustUncommon/

Table of Contents:

00:00 - Start

00:50 - Intro to Aaron Shinn

01:40 - Dontonbori is the Fisherman's Wharf of Osaka

01:52 - Japan Neon, the 80's Future, and a Newer Future in Other Places

03:47 - Aaron Shinn is one of Thomas Grové's Design Mentors

04:40 - KPT Bryce and 90's Art Tools

06:21 - Realtime Rendering, VJing, Cloaking, Crazy Monkey

08:21 - August Uncommon Tea

09:15 - Availability in Japan

10:16 - The Economics of Running and Scaling A Tea Business

16:01 - Acquiring Customers through Advertising: Retargeting vs Prospecting

19:46 - Why Did Aaron and Gina Get into the Tea Business? And Where August Fits Amongst the Different Types of Tea Markets.

28:36 - The Process of Developing a Tea Flavor and the Link between Taste and Smell

34:06 - How Are People Preparing and Drinking August Tea?

39:35 - Random People Join the Fun pt 1

41:38 - Aaron Shinn's Role at August

46:27 - This is a Record of This Conversation

47:20 - Neil Stephenson - Cryptonomicon - Tea and Why Oversteaping Tea Makes It Bitter

53:20 - Can You Cold Brew Flavored Teas?

55:27 - The Development Process - What Percentage of New Blends are Failures?

1:00:26 - Customer Service and Dealing with Negative Feedback

1:10:05 - Random People Interaction Pt 3

1:10:54 - Tools for Ecommerce Pt 2

1:12:05 - Aaron Shinn Says Japan is a Different World. And Hiking the Kumonokodo Pilgrimage Trail.

1:14:03 - Outro

This episode is also available to watch as a video: https://youtu.be/6XuDLZQvO9Y