Research on the Innovative Service System Design for Herbal Tea Driven by Circle-Breaking Trend

Circle-Breaking means making something a widely known outside of the fixed circle. It has become a popular way of attracting more customers recently as it presents the product in a way that is outside the conventional perception. Herbal tea is a type of traditional Chinese beverage based on the theories of traditional Chinese medicine. Herbal tea has medical and cultural significance as an important part of Chinese medicine culture, and has been selected as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage in China. However, the herbal tea industry has been gradually declining, which has also affected the herbal tea culture, as its marketing methods are out of step with today’s experiential economy. Additionally, there remains a gap in current research regarding the improvement of its marketing ways or the preservation of the herbal tea culture. Therefore, this paper uses the service design as the theoretical basis, employs the double drill model and co-design as research methods to develop an innovative service system for herbal tea. The service system is driven by the circle-breaking trend, aiming to improve the competitiveness of herbal tea and protect its culture. This paper develops a new design mode based on the service design and the circle-breaking trend in the heritage conservation research for the first time, which provides certain reference for cultural heritage conservation and the interdisciplinary research in design and marketing.