06 / Case studySORBOS · Startup brand-building
THE ORIGINAL EDIBLE STRAW

What do you do with
a brilliant product,
but not yet a brilliant brand?

As Marketing Director and Head of EU Sales, I turned an edible straw into a distinctive challenger brand with a voice, visual world and commercial story built to scale.

Startup brand-buildingBrand strategyBVIPackagingCommercialisation
The situation

SORBOS had a memorable product: an edible, flavoured straw that replaced a single-use item and made drinks more fun.

The business needed a sharper proposition, recognisable personality and a system spanning packaging, social and hospitality sales.

The brand had to be built
while the business was being built.
01 / The opportunity

DON’T MAKE
SUSTAINABILITY
THE SACRIFICE.

The category was crowded with products promising to be less bad for the planet. SORBOS could add something instead: flavour, texture, novelty and theatre.

Come for the experience.
Feel better about the impact.
IT STARTED
AS A STRAW.WE BUILT THE
WORLD AROUND IT.
Strawberry and edible straws bursting apart
Lime and edible straws bursting apart
A colourful range of edible straws
02 / Building the audience

ENTERTAIN
CONSUMERS.
REASSURE
CUSTOMERS.

A pink drink served with a SORBOS strawB2C / THE TASTE-BLAZER

Playful.
Bold.
Sensory.

Sip it. Lick it. Crunch it. The product experience became the language—made for people actively seeking something new and worth talking about.

SORBOS straws last over forty minutes in iced drinksB2B / THE CUSTOMER

Innovative.
Reliable.
Commercial.

Hospitality partners also needed integrity, consistency and supply value. Consumers buy the experience; customers need to trust the product.

Crunch illustration from the SORBOS brand world
THE CONSUMER VOICE

SIP IT.
LICK IT.
CRUNCH IT.

Sippable, crunchable, edible enjoy. Language built from flavour, texture and the joyful physicality of the product itself.

03 / Building the brand system

ONE IDEA.
EVERYWHERE IT
NEEDED TO WORK.

01

Proposition

Make sustainability the more enjoyable choice.

02

Voice

Playful and sensory for consumers; credible and useful for customers.

03

World

Pastels, neon, texture, flavour and the physical crunch of the product.

04

Commerce

A story designed to sell, recruit partners and accelerate decisions.

04 / The visual world

FLAVOUR
YOU COULD
ALMOST FEEL.

Chalky textures, pastel flavour colours, neon contrasts, retro references and playful illustration. Rather than hiding the product, we made the straw the hero.

SORBOS No Nasties brand artworkSlurp with purpose SORBOS artworkSORBOS straws in drinks with lime
05 / My role

There was no distinction between the brand problem and the business problem.

I joined in a genuinely entrepreneurial role spanning marketing and European commercial growth. With fewer layers and specialists, strategy had to be immediately useful: helping sell, recruit partners, clarify choices and make a small business behave bigger.

  1. 01Led the brand strategy and repositioning
  2. 02Defined the proposition, audience and messaging hierarchy
  3. 03Built distinct B2C and B2B voices
  4. 04Led the Brand Visual Identity and packaging direction
  5. 05Created customer-facing commercial materials
  6. 06Developed partnerships and routes to market
  7. 07Led European sales conversations
  8. 08Balanced brand ambition with immediate revenue needs
STARTUP REALITY

BUILD
WHILE
MOVING.

A major customer conversation in the morning. Packaging decisions in the afternoon. A sales presentation that evening. Production, pricing and distribution tomorrow.

The brand work could not live in a presentation. It had to help generate revenue, speed decisions and turn a product supplier into a branded hospitality experience.

Two colourful drinks featuring SORBOS edible straws
FROM PRODUCT TO PARTNERSHIPS

A branded experience—not simply an alternative straw supplier.

The stronger platform gave hospitality customers flavour, theatre and a sustainability story they could add directly to the serve.

06 / The impact

A SYSTEM BUILT
TO MAKE A STARTUP
LOOK—AND ACT—BIGGER.

ONE

Brand system from proposition to packaging, digital and sales.

B2C
+ B2B

One brand built to persuade two very different audiences.

EUROPE

Brand-building connected directly with commercial development.

REAL
WORLD

From guidelines into customer and sustainability partnerships.

What it taught me

Large businesses teach you how to use systems.
Startups teach you which systems actually matter.

Every choice had to help the business sell, communicate or move faster. There was nowhere to outsource the consequences of a decision.

Build the brand. Sell the brand.
Fix what doesn’t work. Repeat.
THE OPERATING SYSTEM

A BRAND ISN’T
A LOGO.

It’s the operating system for how a business shows up.

Project details
Brand
SORBOS Edible Straws
Project
Building a challenger brand
Role
Marketing Director & Head of EU Sales
Focus
Startup brand-building and commercial growth
Disciplines
Brand strategy, BVI, tone of voice, packaging, commercialisation, partnerships and European sales
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