When you work with Bean & Brand, the starting point is Story Discovery.
Good marketing copy comes from the truth of who you are — the specific, lived experiences that make your business unlike any other in the market.
In other words, your stories. Your founder stories, employee stories, customer stories… and more.
That’s why my services don’t start with creating web content, email sequences, or social media updates. Or even how you talk about sustainability and other core topics. I begin with Story Discovery.
Only once I know what your most powerful stories are — and how to tell them — can I begin to build the content that puts those stories to work.
This two-step process means that everything we create together is rooted in something your competitors can’t replicate. Because your stories belong only to you.
This is the only way to avoid falling into the coffee business sameness trap..
Step One: Story Discovery
A focused engagement to uncover, shape, and articulate the core stories of your brand.
Every coffee business has more good stories than it realizes. The problem is rarely a shortage of material. It’s knowing where to look, how to recognize a story worth telling, and how to shape it into something that resonates with the people you’re trying to reach.
Our Story Discovery engagement solves that problem systematically.
How it works
Phase 1 — Research
We begin with an immersive research process designed to surface the stories that are unique to your business. Once we’re ready to get started, I’ll send you the link to a comprehensive online questionnaire. It comprises 6 sections, each designed to help you identify different elements of your company’s unique story. It also digs deep into your beliefs as a company.
Phase 2 — Story Curation
From the research phase, we identify all viable story candidates — origin stories, founder stories, sourcing stories, customer stories, employee stories, and more. Each candidate is then evaluated using the SPICE Rubric™.
The SPICE Rubric™ is a proprietary framework developed by Bean & Brand for assessing the quality and usefulness of brand stories across five dimensions:
S — Significance + P — Protagonist + I — Insight + C — Conflict + E — Emotion
Stories that score well across all five dimensions of the SPICE Rubric™ are organized by category and synthesized into a clean, readable Story Curation Document, which is returned to you for review and confirmation.
Phase 3 — Messaging Framework
With your core stories identified and validated, we build the messaging framework that ties everything together. This framework shows you how to use your most compelling stories to frame what you say, and how you say it. Think of it as a story-powered brand voice guide. This becomes the foundation that all subsequent content work is built upon.
What you receive
By the end of Story Discovery, you’ll have two things that most coffee businesses never develop properly.
First, a Story Curation Document — a carefully researched and rigorously evaluated collection of your brand’s most powerful stories, organized by category and ready to put to work across your marketing.
Second, a Messaging Framework — your core brand narrative, and clear guidance on how to express your story consistently across web, email, and social.
This framework helps determine how you speak about your company, how you communicate your values, and how you talk about important issues like sustainability
Together these give you something more valuable than any individual piece of content: a story foundation that everything else can be built on.
Investment
$4 $3,250,950
Step Two: Story Aligned Content
Monthly content, grounded in your story, written in your voice.
With Story Discovery completed, we know exactly what your brand stands for and how to say it. Step Two puts that foundation to work.
This is a monthly retainer engagement that delivers a consistent flow of high-quality content — all of it rooted in the stories and messaging framework we established in Step One. Every blog post, every email, every web page is an expression of the same core narrative. Over time, this consistency builds the kind of brand recognition and emotional connection that turns occasional buyers into loyal advocates.
What’s included
The retainer is flexible by design. We work with you to determine the right mix and volume of content for your business and your audience. Content options include:
- Blog posts — Articles that establish your authority, tell your stories, and improve your organic search visibility
- Web pages — Home pages, about pages, product pages, and landing pages written in your brand voice
- Emails and newsletters — Welcome sequences, retention emails, promotional campaigns, and newsletters
How it works
Each month begins with a brief content planning conversation to align on priorities and themes. All content is drafted, refined, and delivered according to an agreed schedule. You review, provide feedback, and we finalize. No surprises, no scope creep, no junior writers.
You work directly with Nick Usborne — the same person who conducted your Story Discovery, who knows your brand inside out, and who brings 40 years of professional copywriting experience to every piece of content he writes for you.
Investment
From $2,500/month, depending on the volume and mix of content required. Pricing is discussed and agreed at the outset, with no hidden costs.
All content work is built on the story foundation established in Step One. Clients who complete Story Discovery first receive stronger, more consistent results — because the work is grounded in something real.
Ready to take Step One?
Story Discovery is where every Bean & Brand engagement begins. It’s focused, it’s affordable, and it will change the way you think about your marketing.
Reach out to me through the Contact page and we’ll set up a time to talk.