Tea maker Garden Life bets on natural products to maintain customer loyalty

In an exclusive interview with Today's Zaman, Fethullah Aslan, the CEO and owner of Garden Life, has said his company is ready to expand into foreign markets as well, now that it has solidified its place in the domestic market. The appeal of natural herbal varieties of tea was a key factor in weathering the adverse impact of the global economic crisis, he underlined.

Today so many have to choose between health and pleasure since there is only a small range of products which can offer both to customers. Garden Life, however, successfully places itself among those few brands. Its mastermind, Aslan, says Garden Life is a strong and well-recognized brand among Turkish tea drinkers.

Garden Life is the trademark of Mavi Pazar Packaging & Marketing Co., which comprises 70 different kinds of herbal tea such as linden tree, carnation, cinnamon, daisy, ginger, broccoli, artichoke, and even cabbage, among many others. Explaining the reasons for Garden Life's success, Aslan said, “We are producing something long-forgotten here in this country, and we are marketing our products in a creative, low-cost and an effective way.”

Aslan started producing herbal teas almost 15 years ago in Konya, central Turkey, with only modest means and to a limited base of buyers at first. However, after only three years he had registered Garden Life as his trademark. By 2000 Aslan had reached the point where he was selling 40 types of herbal tea. In 2007 he changed his company's conventional marketing strategy to an impressively creative one after having negotiated a delivery and payment agreement with the Postal and Telecommunications General Directorate (PTT). In the same year he also launched the Garden Life Gold Form, a weight loss tea which immediately received a warm welcome from customers, not surprisingly from women in particular, and swiftly achieved a significant market share thereafter.

Old-fashioned marketing way too expensive

In 2007 investors and producers had their last opportunity to change direction before heading into the one-way tunnel of the economic crisis. After that time, it was an inevitable descent into a long journey with no light in sight and no possibility of return. Aslan said it was that year when he could no long stand to see his products being marketed in the old-fashioned way, which was too expensive and not secure. “What I did was pretty unusual. I went to PTT and asked them if we could sign a deal, me sitting on one side of the table and them on the other. They agreed to deliver our products to buyers door to door and collect the payments from them as well. That way, I would not need regional directorates, contact offices, delivery vehicles and tens of personnel to reach people in different corners of the country,” he said, explaining how he launched the new marketing strategy for Garden Life.

    For more than two years, Garden Life products have been distributed to buyers by PTT after they are collected from company's production center. Aslan told Today's Zaman that they had doubled turnover since then and increased profitability even more than that since costs have gone down dramatically. Employing only 40 people today, the Garden Life brand made a turnover of $2.5 million in 2008.

“All we have is a call center where 30 professionals work taking orders and making business connections. With the addition of five people responsible for production and the rest managing the system, including myself, there is a team of 40 men and women. It is small, efficient, and effective. What more could I pursue? In the old way, there was much ado but very few gains. We were producing millions of packages of tea, but there was really nothing left after all that effort. Look, I am telling you with a 100 percent certainty; if I had not made this shift two years ago, I [the company] wouldn't exist today,” founder and the top executive of the company said.

Garden Life has another unusual characteristic within its marketing strategy; its products are not sold in grocery stores or in supermarkets. People can only buy them from pharmacies or order directly from the company's call center in Edremit, Aslan's hometown in Balıkesir, northwest Turkey. Asked if they also considered having Garden Life-brand herbal teas available to customers in places other than pharmacies, Aslan said Garden Life has an enviable place on pharmacy shelves and that the company is happy with the present situation and is not considering a change. Garden Life products are currently available in about 20,000 pharmacies countrywide.

We aren’t doctors, we just make nature more available for people

Addressing and unfortunately exploiting people's desperation is a huge market in Turkey. People who cannot find cures for themselves or their loved ones for an illness within modern medicine often turn their attention to alternative medicine, and most of them are ultimately left disappointed with alternative medicine as well, since a large majority on the supply side of the market is trying to exploit these people's desperation. In every province in Turkey one can easily find those so-called alternative medicine products pledging to cure every kind of ailment with no label, no address and no phone number on the packages on the part of the producer.

Aslan talked about this reality and argued that more than 70 percent of the market's business volume is based on the circulation of such products which, he also argued, are not necessarily cheap. “In fact most of them are being sold for a very high price. There is even a herbal tea promising to heal Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and a small package of about one kilogram of this tea costs around $600,” he said, describing how much people are paying to be able to do, or at least to feel that they are trying to do, something against a disease tightening its grip over them. “This is so important. We are not doctors, nor are we writing prescriptions to overcome any kind of ailment. We only make nature more available for people's use, and we advise them to use Garden Life products only if they like the flavor and aroma. Nothing we produce has even the smallest amount of additives, unlike most of our competitors in the market. Our products are 100 percent direct from nature and keep their first day's freshness. That is why we only have them on pharmacy shelves,” he underlined.

‘I would recruit 500 white collar workers tomorrow but…’

Mavi Pazar's top executive criticized the present state of doing business in Turkey and the lack of qualified workers in the labor market. “Well, people love to complain. As it is said, a bad workman always blames his tools. So many people are still doing business with a 1960s mindset. No entrepreneurship, no risk taking, no aiming for new horizons. Fortunately, there are at least some on the supply side who challenge this stereotype and move beyond the present vision. But even then, they are not immune to some of the problems of the Turkish market. It is true that people are unemployed on the streets, but we employers are in great need of qualified workers. Let me tell you something; If I could find them, I would recruit 500 educated men and women tomorrow. I have the ability to produce and market, but what I don't have are qualified people,” he exclaimed.

Aslan was particularly critical about not adapting to the needs and requirements of the 21st century in order to be able survive and prosper in the market. “That the barber's son becomes a barber must change. The time now is for system and strategy. Entrepreneurship and thinking differently, but always realistically, is so important,” he said, adding that those doing business in Turkey -- even if they garner the required courage to take a step forward -- do so without first evaluating risks and opportunities there. “People are either non-entrepreneurs or they too entrepreneurial in Turkey. That is why so many are closing down their businesses after a few promising moves,” he stated.

Garden Life aims for a turnover of $10 million in 2010 after the launch of a new project, which Aslan said will reshape people's understanding of the benefits of natural products. He has already invested $200,000 in the project and has focused on research and development to perfect the end product. “Someone really needs to try really hard not to make money in Turkey despite some deficiencies such as that in its labor market. Our new project, which we prefer to keep secret for the moment, will certainly boost demand in our sector and create its own market without challenging other products. That is how we produce value for our customers and for our country as well as ourselves. Garden Life will continue to offer the favors bestowed on us by nature in a high quality and for a reasonable price,” he said.

Standing as a success story of creative marketing, and accordingly, considerable growth despite the adverse impact of the ongoing economic downturn, Garden Life seems to be growing even further with its responsible and enthusiastic way of doing business in Turkey. The only problem may be the complaints of pharmacists, whose workplaces are gradually being turned into greengrocers.

Foreign partners are welcome

Turkey has the largest number of pharmacies in Europe, with 25,000 throughout the country. Considering that almost 80 percent of them are in Garden Life's network, it is a tremendous achievement for the small team of 40 people. Asked if they are open to proposals from foreign investors about forming a partnership with them, Aslan responded positively and added, “If it is going to be in both parties' interest, I don't know why I should say no.”