Phase 1: Competitor intelligence

We began with a comprehensive analysis of Soufflet Malt’s competitive landscape. As with all our engagements, this was not a surface-level review. We examined language patterns, visual identity, colour usage, messaging claims, product positioning, and how each competitor presented themselves to their respective markets.

The findings mirrored a pattern we see across many B2B categories: significant sameness. Competitors clustered around the same themes, the same visual language, and the same broad claims about quality and sustainability. For a buyer comparing options, the differences were almost invisible.

This gave us a detailed map of where the white space existed — the positions and messages that no competitor had claimed, and that Soufflet Malt could occupy in a way that would be genuinely difficult to replicate.

Phase 2: Defining the position

Working with Soufflet Malt’s leadership team (across communications, innovations, and marketing), we identified where the company could credibly and distinctively position itself. This meant understanding not just what they wanted to say, but what the market would actually respond to, where competitors had left gaps, and what claims could be substantiated.

The positioning had to work across two distinct contexts: Soufflet Malt’s core brewing and distilling business, and the new adjacent market products. We developed a positioning framework that anchored the brand in its existing strengths while creating clear, differentiated messaging for the new malt-based ingredient line.

Crucially, we worked within the constraint that everything needed to be understood and deployed by non-native English speakers. Complexity and nuance were traded for clarity and directness — not dumbed down, but sharpened so that every marketing manager across every region could use the positioning confidently and consistently.

Phase 3: Product communication

The innovations team had created genuinely novel products: malt-based ingredients for hot chocolate, coffee, and gin. But innovation alone does not sell. Manufacturers needed to understand what these products were, why malt was a superior base ingredient, and what it meant for their own products and production processes.

We worked with Soufflet Malt to translate technical product specifications into clear, benefit-led messaging. This was B2B communication for physical products — not software, not services. The buyers are procurement teams and R&D departments at companies like Nestlé, evaluating whether a malt-based ingredient can improve their hot chocolate, enhance their coffee blend, or add complexity to their gin.

Each product needed its own messaging that spoke to the specific concerns of its target buyer, while sitting within the broader Soufflet Malt brand and positioning framework.

Phase 4: Tone of voice workshop

Positioning only works if the people responsible for communicating it can actually use it. We ran a dedicated Tone of Voice workshop with marketing managers from across Soufflet Malt’s regional teams.

The workshop had two objectives. First, to develop a tone of voice for the new product line that was distinctive, appropriate for a pan-European B2B audience, and achievable by non-native English speakers. Second, to give the marketing team the tools and confidence to apply it consistently, whether they were writing a LinkedIn post in Paris, briefing a copywriter in London, or preparing materials for a distributor in Munich.

This was not a theoretical exercise. The workshop produced practical, usable guidelines that the team took away and applied immediately to the Drinktec launch materials.