The Project – New Direct-to-Consumer Brand Launch

The new product launch for Datehini by Sepoli was powered by nutrition and love. 

As an endurance triathlete turned busy mother, founder and CEO Sezin Kutlu created Sepoli to bring the honest nutrition of her Mediterranean heritage to her young family in Napa Valley. Sezin was inspired by the ancient recipes of tahini and molasses to create a healthy energy source for herself and her family. Sepoli’s first product is “Datehini” is made from only two ingredients. Organic medjool dates and tahini, locally sourced and farmed.

We were energized by the story behind Sepoli and the opportunity to help them make a powerful first impression for their new launch.

This farm-to-retail love story was decades in the making and we were tasked with designing a whole new brand, as well as bringing their flagship product direct to consumer online. 

Our Process

Sepoli is the first food venture for Sezin and when we first met all we had to work with, was a unique and delicious product, a clever name, and her very strong vision of what the brand should be. 

Like most startups, the path to A to B can be fraught with challenges. Having clear goals, proper planning and the right team can make all the difference. We were fortunate to work with members of her internal team to flesh out brand strategy. Starting with brand values, personality, and voice and finishing with a competitive analysis to make sure we were helping to position the product to stand out in her category.

There are several tahini products on the market. Many of them are imported and used for savory recipes. The ones that include sweet ingredients contain sugar and are not organic. Datehini only contains two organic ingredients, locally sourced, with no added sugar. This was a basis for their positioning.

We quickly moved into visual branding. Our inspiration started with mood boards. This is often the best way to get what we are envisioning for the look and feel into a medium that the client can see and relate to.

The color palette was rooted in earth tones, but also included bold, bright colors to give us lots of versatility when creating assets. The swirl motif, which represents the fusion of tahini and dates, was carried from the logo into the product label and ultimately to the website.

Once the mood boards were finalized, we worked on the jar label design. The product falls into the specialty food category, and often times, these products are priced higher than what you might see at regular retail.

Quality organic ingredients and small batch production means we had to communicate the benefits of the brand with the label and package. The product is packed in a glass jar and we chose to create an label with a die-cut focusing on the swirl front and center. The colorful pattern abstractly represents the ingredients inside. We chose a soft cream background with bold colored organic shapes to really make the product look beautiful and exclusive.

The Challenge

Like all Covid-era food brand launches, supply chain and manufacturing delays were things the client had to navigate. The website launch was only slightly behind schedule due to inventory delays, but the project was able to remain pretty close to the original timeline.

Results

Made from just two ingredients, Datehini is one of those simple ideas that has the power to change lives. Designed to deliver energy to enrich the modern American diet by simple, Old-World nourishment powered by organic produce. If there was a certification for delectable, Datehini would certainly lead the pack. 

We are beyond excited with the brand launch for this new food startup. The fact that it is also made by a certified women-owned business also warms our heart.

Visit the website here

We’re also excited to announce that the Sepoli Datehini is a Graphic Design USA (GDUSA) Package Design Award winner!

We successfully helped our client launch her big idea direct-to-consumer with a robust custom-designed Shopify website. Her online sales are growing steadily, and she is starting to get interest from retailers.

Moving forward, we will continue to work with Sepoli on website SEO, paid advertising, and other marketing initiatives.