When my client, Pak Budi Hananto of Gunung Slamat, Indonesia, invited me recently to join on Facebook as a “Fan” for the Tasseo Fine Teas, it brought back wonderful memories of one of my first projects in Asian branding and design. And that was almost 18 years ago, and one of my first attempt at creating an “Asian” brand with an unique flavour, reflecting the rich local culture and Asian touch.

The client then was Boh Plantations, one of Asia’s oldest tea makers. Caroline Russell, daughter of the founder, one of the most intelligent clients we have worked with, briefed me and my team at Addison Design (sadly this pioneer of branding and design agency in Asia has now been dissolved) to develop a range of fine Asian teas for International Export market. One of the first targeted retail outlets for the launch was Harrods, UK, and all the duty free shops at the best airports in the world.

Using a prioprietary Naming Programme, NameBreak, that I have developed, we decided on the name Seri Songket, a beautiful hand-woven fabric famously created by the indigenious Malays especially in the region of Sarawak. Inspired by the enjoyable tea tasting sessions (yes, we even helped to select the flavours to market) and the beautiful Songket fabric, the resultant packaging design turned out to be a piece of Asian art. Today, you will still find the exact same tea and packaging being retailed in all good supermarkets and specialty stores. Good design truly become an art that can stand the test of time.

Fast forward to 2008, time seems to have stood still when I was tasked to develop yet another range of fine Asian teas for another leading tea maker in Asia. It was one of my last projects as Managing Director at the brand union, Ogilvy/WPP, and I was as excited as ever — the same brief as one I received almost 18 years ago? It was truly deja vu.

In my (nearly) 20 years of developing brands both in Asia and for the global market, I’ve picked up one of the most potent tools in Asia - Feng Shui. It’s practically impossible to do branding and design in Asia if one does not understand this complex, intriguing yet a deeply embedded cultural phenomena that has even swept the west (just ask my clients in Vertu, UK). (More on that later when I write about Feng Shui and Branding in Asia).

With my knowledge in Feng Shui, I have learnt that Tasseomancy is one of the tools in Feng Shui — reading tea leaves for fortune telling. Tasse, in French, incidentally refers to a cup. The name was immediately obvious to me: Asian art of reading tea leaves (Gunung Slamat is an expert in picking the best leaves from around the world) + a cup (of quality fine tea) = Tasseo.

Needless to say, Pak Budi and his CEO loved it, as did customers when we tested the names and packaging design in a FGD. Once again, I asked the designers to use the patterns of Songket (which is incidentally also a locally produced fabric in Indonesia) for inspirations.

The resultant design output is almost strikingly similar yet different. Asian tea, Asian art and packaging design. And my pride and joy of being able to help our local companies become more global by creating world-class brands with a distinct and rich Asian flavour. I am now looking forward to Tasseo being on the retail shelves 18 years from now — 2026!

Tasseo is reproduced with kind permission from Pak Budi Hananto, the Marketing Guru of Gunung Slamat.

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