Arts
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