From Bluebird Tea co to Bird & Blend Tea co!
So why did we change?
Well Teabirds, the short story is: We were challenged by a big company who used Bluebird in part of their restaurant names. They own the trademark across a range of classes including the one covering dry packs of tea.
Now we did know, but it turns out some legal advice we were given at the very start of our journey wasn’t as good as it should have been. They do legally own the word ‘Bluebird’ and they made a case for customer confusion between our two brands.
Read on to get the whole story!
Some of you will be reading this outraged, others will be confused and some calmer folk might be thinking ‘well if that’s the law, it’s the law’ … trust us, we went through all the major stages of grief… anger, denial, sadness.
To us, Bluebird was never just a name. It wasn’t created by a trendy marketing agency, it wasn’t about where we were based or our surnames, it wasn’t even anything to do with tea. Our name was a representation and a reminder of our passion and commitment to bring happiness, positivity and freedom into the world and the people we touched. However small that impact maybe, even if it is just sharing a good old cup of tea with someone to make them smile.
We don’t want you to think we gave up without a fight. We spent a big chunk of time and resources trying to fight to keep Bluebird. We tried a lot of options including offering to become their tea supplier!
You will know by now that we have a very pragmatic approach to business and the bottom line is that we also don’t want there to be any confusion between our brand and another, especially as we grow further.
We also recognise that we created our original brand back in the early days when it was just Mike and I, working from a back bedroom (In fact we didn’t even realise we were creating a brand… we just had a great name, drew a few things and stuck them up on a website!) we had no idea what was ahead, how passionate and loyal our community would become, how our culture and identity would be evolved by you lot just as much as us.
We’ve realised that some of the most important elements of our brand ethos and culture are not represented as strongly as they could be in our branding so this if anything was a great opportunity. To refresh, to rethink, to re-mix and to re-imagine! Just what we love doing best!
And so Bird & Blend was born!
We worked with our customers and our team to really bring together what is special to us, keeping some of the old but bringing in a bit of new.
My favourite part of the new logo is the hand drawn bird which has an artist palette tail wing to represent our colourful and creative approach to tea!
Mike’s favourite part is the use of ‘&’ in our name to represent our blend speciality of mixing ingredients as well as our aim to bring people together into our CommuniTEA.
So a massive personal thank you to you all you new and old Teabirds! A lot has happened over the years and we wouldn't be here without you. We can't thank you enough for your love and support that keeps helping Bird & Blend flourish!
Love & tea,
Krisi, Mike & Team B&B x
1 comment
This is so very cool and such great values!