The Dust Cutter Challenge

We’ve come up with an imaginary product, but we’re not sure how to market it in Eastern Europe.  We call it Dust Cutter Iced Tea, the tea that will make “your tonsils quiver and your toes shiver.”

We’re asking for your help, and if your proposal (keep to it 100 words or less) wins, we’ll offer up a prize that has more kick to it than even Dust Cutter - one that has long been known as Tennessee iced tea - a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey (We’re in a recession, so it won’t be a big jug of the stuff).

Now, everyone knows that after kvas, tea is probably Ukraine’s favorite drink - but we’re talking iced tea, not hot tea, which presents a marketer with what might be called a cultural conundrum.  Iced tea is not familiar to Slavic tastebuds, after all.

One can certainly ask for iced tea in a bar or restaurant, but more than likely you’ll be served cold fruit compote.  Even at places where iced tea is on the menu, it often is hot tea in a glass, topped with a couple of rapidly melting ice cubes.  It’s a rather tepid drink.

Dust Cutter comes in cans, and the object of the tiny West Virginia manufactured- and exported-product is to gain a foothold in the Slavic market - not as a niche expat restaurant drink. These are big-thinking hillbillies.

And remember, the makers of Dust Cutter feel it is important that each can of the stuff be poured into a tall glass with tons of ice added. Yeah, we know, ice is anathema to a large swath of the Ukrainian population.

Though not that popular in Europe, iced tea has been available in America since the mid-19th century. Its history pretty much parallels development of the icebox, and later, the refrigerator.

In the American north, iced tea is generally served unsweetened, though you add sugar to taste.  In the south, chances are tea is pre-sweetened, whether you want it sweet or not.

That’s just what Dust Cutter is: A delivery system for sugar in a 500 ml. can.

So, take the challenge:  Are you the marketing genius who will devise the solution that bridges the cultural divide between hot tea and iced tea?