Wordland Design is a digital content strategy agency with talented team members across the U.S. We believe strategic content is essential to meeting business goals.
Wordland helps organizations decide what to say and how to say it.
Case Study: California Cotton Home
Discovering the voice of a new retail brand
“In the end, I got a great touchstone to go back to again to make sure our language, tone, visuals, and value props are consistent.”
Starting with big brand questions
When a husband and wife team acquired California Cotton Home, they weren’t quite sure how to talk about their company’s brand. What was their overall mission? How did they see themselves fitting into the competitive landscape? What did the voice of the company sound like? Wordland set up a series of workshops to uncover the answers to these important questions. We also got to work updating the company’s online presence.
Understanding the competition for better positioning
We started by researching California Cotton Home’s competitors to find areas in which the linens company could differentiate themselves from others sharing the same retail space. We analyzed competitors based on the language used to market products, the quality of the photography used, and their social media presence, among other features. This gave us a broad understanding of the market as a whole, what customers were looking for, what other companies were offering, and possibilities for ways in which California Cotton Home could position itself to stand out from a cluttered market.
Once we had a positioning strategy defined, we held a workshop to come up with attributes that could be used to describe the brand. These attributes helped us understand the company’s personality, which would come through in every aspect of its communications and online store.
From brand voice to social media strategy
Based on the new brand guidelines created during the workshop series, Wordland’s brand and content strategist Erin Nelson created content to reflect the new voice of California Cotton Home. Together, we wanted to tell the story of the new owners and acknowledge the hard work of the founders—all while creating a modern, elevated voice that reflected the company’s California home.
The last step, still in the process of being implemented, was developing a social media strategy based on competitor research, guidelines for best practices, and a clear publishing schedule. Once the strategy is in effect, the brand’s voice will be cohesive across all marketing outlets.
Final brand guidelines and strategy
