The situation
A great product
without a clear home.
Umi Drink is a clarified tomato water — savoury, social, naturally umami, no sugar. The taste is distinctive. The concept is genuinely original. Bartenders love it. Chefs get it immediately. In the right rooms, the product earns its credibility within minutes — no long explanation needed.
The challenge: the brand had no clearly defined territory, no named tribe, and a channel strategy that was building volume without building visibility. In gastronomy and cocktail bars — the two strongest early channels — the brand almost never appears by name. The product was present. The brand was invisible.
"First volumes were being built. The brand needed to be built in parallel — before the product scaled without an identity to carry it."
The approach
What we worked
through together.
Rather than a strategic presentation, the work took the form of a modular toolkit — a working document the founders navigate freely and act from at their own pace. Built alongside them, not handed to them. Seven areas, each one the result of a conversation:
01
Honest situation assessmentWhat's working, what has a structural blind spot, and what needs solving now versus later.
02
Positioning & category territoryOne of the most energising moments in the process: clarifying what Umi actually is — and isn't. Not a wellness product. Not a compromise. A genuinely disruptive non-alcoholic aperitif in a category full of look-alikes trying too hard to justify themselves. Umi doesn't. It's savoury, social, unapologetic. Something you open with friends, at a table, as a shared moment. That confidence changed everything downstream.
03
Drinking strategy & territoryGoing sharp. Making real choices. Dropping the accessories and the nice-to-haves to own a territory clearly. Savoury hydration. The unapologetic non-alcoholic aperitif. We are Umi — no lengthy production justifications, no defensive positioning, no apology for being different. Not for everyone, and completely fine with that. That confidence is the brand.
04
Naming & digital presenceA concrete watch-out on discoverability, with options to address it before it compounds.
05
Tribe definitionThe community that builds emotional equity — not just functional awareness. Who they are, where they gather, and why they're the right people to carry this brand.
06
Channel strategyTwo parallel tracks: the credibility channels already in motion, and the community channels needed to build brand love alongside volume.
06
Label voice & languageWhat the bottle should say — and how to say it — to communicate the product, the positioning and the personality in three seconds.
08
Prioritised action planA modular sequence of next moves — not a rigid plan, but a toolkit the founders use as they see fit.
🔒
The full strategic content is confidential. What's shared here is the shape of the work — the thinking process, the areas covered, and the outcome. The strategy itself belongs to Umi Drink.
The outcome
What they walked
away with.
Delivered
"A complete, actionable brand strategy toolkit — built to be used, not filed away."
A clearly defined brand territory — savoury, social, unapologetically non-alcoholic — that positions Umi away from every look-alike and creates a category of its own
A named tribe with precise profile, cultural codes and activation entry points
A two-track channel strategy that solves the brand visibility problem without abandoning the credibility channels
Concrete, prioritised next moves — modular, sequenced, immediately actionable
Label language and brand voice ready to apply across packaging and communications
The full toolkit was delivered as a single, navigable document — structured, direct, no fluff. The kind of work a founder picks up on a Tuesday morning and acts from by Tuesday afternoon.
The format
Short intervention.
Real result.
A Brand Strategy Toolkit — one of the intervention formats we work with. No retainer. No six-month engagement. No presentation that collects dust. A focused piece of work, built together, designed to move things forward immediately.
The work took days, not months. The founders left with something concrete, ownable and immediately usable. That's the partnership model.
If the territory
isn't clear yet —
If you're building something in hospitality or drinks and the positioning isn't landing — let's talk. One conversation is usually enough to know if working together makes sense.
Get in touch