Is the Teapigs approach to branding effective (and ethical)?

As reported in Private Eye, when is a small business not a small business? At first glance, Teapigs looks like a small company on a mission to introduce quirky, premium teas to the mid-market segment. The company’s website tells a reassuring story of Nick and Louise who “met while working for a really big tea company”. What you won’t find out by reading the website is that the really big company is in fact…

…Tetley, who actually came up with the concept and finance to start Teapigs (and supported it through its first couple of tricky, loss making years). Even cheery Tetley itself is part of a bigger global multinational, Tata, who some critics mighty say have an environmental and ethical record which sits rather uncomfortably with Teapigs’ desire to appear Green and ethical.

So here is a case of a big company creating a smaller, new company who criticises and competes with the original, larger parent company! Interesting - and certainly not illegal - and this must be only one case from many possible examples. Teapigs runs a “Drink Real Tea” petition announcing, “We have finally had enough of the flavourless slop that is crushed into dust and crammed into the nation’s teabags. Tea drinkers deserve better”. They even invite people to “name and shame” the worst offenders. Could this include Tetley?!

Unusual? Perhaps yes. Unethical? That’s perhaps harder to answer, and is all a part of ways in which larger companies try to capture some the benefits enjoyed by smaller firms.