It ok for Tazo to have a crappy landing page because they have excellent placement at point of purchase (aka. physical landing page). They have placement and packaging that converts, and built in defaults that result in sales. (eg. if you order tea you're ordering Tazo at a large number of coffee shops)<p>They also have excellent testimonials by having a large chain such as Starbucks serve their teas. Tea is generally an instant gratification purchase, and not something you'd wait 2 days to arrive over the internet. (Yes, perhaps there is an opportunity for a Zappos of tea, but internet retailing is not a core competency of Tazo)<p>If you're ordering tea from the internet, it's probably specialty and not something you can pick up from one of the hundreds of coffee shops you can find within a few miles of where ever you live. Hence if you are 'really really obscure hipster tea' then you need a good landing page, Tazo does not.<p>In the world of people who buy tea Tazo has the #1 ranking in terms of 'google for tea' (aka. starbucks). Designing a proper landing page and website will add almost nothing to their bottom line where as changing their packaging would have a much bigger impact, or sweetening the deal for distributors so the local mom and pop coffee shop is more likely to carry Tazo. People often forget that 98% of purchases are made offline. No one is going to order Tazo tea from the internet, nor will they decide to order Tazo tea the next time they are at the coffee shop because of a landing page. Therefore from the perspective of their bottom line their landing page is as good as it needs to be.<p>Also it appears that their 'landing page' is: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tazo?v=info" rel="nofollow">http://www.facebook.com/tazo?v=info</a> and not tazo.com
All I get on my iPhone is a nice prompt to install flash, and no link to a non-flash version so I can't even comment on the horrible-ness of the landing page.
I know people who would think that is good ... (Based on the fact that they think flash pages with intro animations are good, because they 'clearly take more work, and are so much more unique.').
It just says my patience will be rewarded with tea... I'm on an iPhone. I'm going to have to be patient for a very long time to get this tea. And I'm thirsty now.<p>Is this how marketing is supposed to work?
As an amusing bit of background, the Tazo site was designed by Sandstrom, who have done some other doozies in their time: <a href="http://www.sandstrompartners.com/work/tazo" rel="nofollow">http://www.sandstrompartners.com/work/tazo</a>
It's even more poignant that Tazo hasn't changed much at all in the last four years...
Yeah, this website is bad. But I agree with the comments that say it doesn't matter, because it doesn't. You are not Tazo's customer; Starbucks and other coffee shops are. Presumably nobody googles for tea and finds Tazo, instead they see it at other coffee shops, see it at trade shows, etc.<p>It Just Doesn't Matter. (Why have a website at all? No idea. They wanted one, did a bad job, didn't see it affect their sales, and just left it. Or something.)
The message in that page reads: "this site appears in a popup. So, if you have a popup blocker, please turn it off while you visit".<p>Now, how am I supposed to know this information, if my pop-up blocker has already blocked this page? :P<p>This reminds me an old joke where one person writes a letter to his friend saying "Please write me back if you are not getting this letter". :)