Be true to one’s product – that’s the advice from Patrick Bennett, a director of Tevo, which specialises in sourcing and marketing innovative products. The last entrant into the direct response television marketing industry in 2004, it is one of the true success stories of this segment of retail.

Now celebrating 10 years of steady growth, it has built its business from just three employees to 490 and grown its three brands to a basket of 32 with 216 active products. 

Over the past decade, Tevo has remained low profile, preferring to push well recognised names such as shoX, DriBUDDI, Wazooka, VacBag, Blitz, bennett.read and Bissell, the world’s top floorcare brand. 

“The starting point was to build good brands and products with good reputations in their own right – a policy that would automatically benefit the Tevo brand as a whole,” explains Bennett. 

10 years down the track, though, Tevo has come full circle, according to Bennett. “We have built up a number of individual brands to the point where we’ve achieved critical mass. It has been a long road, but we have gained a great deal of traction. Now it is important for people to recognise the brand behind the brands.”

Since Tevo launched, its market has changed dramatically, according to co-director, Robin Read. “When we started, it was all telephone and post. They promised to get your product to you in six weeks.” 

Now around 99% of sales take place in retail outlets such as Game, Makro, Pick n Pay, Builders Warehouse and DionWired with a small number recorded via a call centre or on line.

When Tevo made its debut, competitors had been in the market for decades. The new kid on the block arrived with a completely new model that focused on growing credible, quality brands rather than launching one hit wonders and gizmos. In essence, its challenge was to gain credibility within the market. 

“South Africans are tough consumers. They are quality conscious and price sensitive. Building trust is a big factor. That’s why quality will always be the cornerstone of the Tevo brand which has been positioned as the adjudicator of quality behind the other brands,” explains Read. 

At the outset, Tevo elected to go back to basics, partnering with blue chip retailers and creating a store-within-a-store concept. “From the beginning, our focus was on retail. We wanted innovative products that did what they said, were well priced and offered value. We have been consistent over the past 10 years and it has worked well for us,” he adds. 

But quality doesn’t exclude that wow factor that is intrinsic to this form of marketing. Products are sourced at trade shows overseas. Tevo then works closely with developers and suppliers so that each offering is suited to the South African market. 

“Tevo will never bring a conventional product to market. The product always has to bring a new trend, make life easier or improve the lives of customers. Each has to be the first of its kind to be launched on the South African market,” explains Bennett who uses electronics brand shoX as an example. What started out as a small golf ball speaker at a Chinese trade show has evolved into the second largest mobile audio brand in South Africa after Apple. 

Brand support was next on Tevo’s list of boxes to tick. As Tevo had two high maintenance categories within its range (floor care products and electric scooters), after sales service was a given. 

This stood it in good stead when Tevo launched its own range of Zingo electric scooters. A number of electric scooter brands approached retailers but Tevo’s Zingo range won based on its history of world-class customer support. 

One of the most widely used barometers of customers’ satisfaction is the consumer complaint website Hello Peter.com. “I challenge you to find another company in our sector with a better rating. On a website designed for consumer complaints, of the vast majority of Tevo’s interactions are with happy customers. We have a better rating than many top retail brands and banks,” says Bennett.

Bennett says that although the company’s market probably started off as LSM 8 to 10, it has since moved to a far broader, value-based offering pitched at a wide range of LSMs. An example is the Clean Cut range of ceramic knives, which offers quality at affordable prices. 

“It’s a tough economy at the moment which makes offering good quality products at the right prices a good place to be right now. Tevo is now achieving what many would have thought impossible not too long ago – bringing in categories of goods as well as individual products that are positioned at the high end of the market at mid-market prices. It brings a whole new value proposition to the market,” says Bennett. 

Also critical to Tevo’s success is getting product to market quickly. This is possible because all marketing is done in-house. Facilities include its Umhlanga head office. The team is young with many designers and marketers having grown up with the brand which keeps it fresh, says Bennett.

For more information, visit www.tevo.co.za.