Cole and mason

Case study: Cole & Mason

Move over Colonel Sanders: creating pack copy for 143 herbs and spices

0 min read, tagged in Writing, Consulting, Naming and in Brand & marketing.

Best known for their salt and pepper grinders, Cole & Mason made the move into oils and seasoning. And they needed help writing pack copy for their whole cubeb peppers, African pearl salt, dill tips, asafoetida and chardonnay white wine vinegar.

Perfecting the recipe

We put together a team of food-loving writers and came up with a recipe for writing the copy. Without a tone of voice to work to, we created a hack to help make all the writers sound consistent: channel British cook Rachel Khoo. Anything that fit her down-to-earth style was in. Anything too Nigella (read: a bit flowery and fruity) or Jamie Oliver (matey, bish-bash-bosh) was out.

That meant put, add, cover, grind, pile, rub, finish, tip, spoon were all on the okay list. But chuck, bang, drizzle, adorn, scatter and lace were not.

Recipe books piled high, we researched ingredient origins and came up with unusual recipe suggestions and food pairing ideas.

From test batch to Seasoning Library

After writing a test batch for six products, a team of four writers wrote copy for five products a day, over 30 days. A mega spreadsheet of content was managed, mothers and grandmothers were tapped up for tips, verbs were wrestled with and adjectives were edited.

The end result was point of sale cards and pack copy for 143 herbs, spices, vinegars, condiments, salts, peppers and oils. And a happy client. You can see the fruits of our labour in the Cole & Mason’s Seasoning Library

Appreciate the extra effort to turn these around and I’m sure the little flourishes will help differentiate the brand in a new crowded product segment.

Joe Brawn

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