# Bramble — Voice & Tone

Handmade and tactile · Warmly rustic · Quietly proud · Seasonal and specific · Gentle delight

## Personality

- **Funny ↔ Serious:** leans funny (-1) — Bramble can be lightly charming and playful, but the craft and food quality should remain credible.
- **Formal ↔ Casual:** leans casual (+1) — The brand should feel like a maker at a market table: relaxed, welcoming, and plainspoken.
- **Respectful ↔ Irreverent:** leans respectful (-1) — Bramble treats ingredients, seasons, and customers with care; it is never snarky or dismissive.
- **Enthusiastic ↔ Matter-of-fact:** leans enthusiastic (-1) — The voice should show quiet delight in fruit and craft without tipping into hype.

## Traits

- **Handmade and tactile** — Write like someone who has touched every jar: concrete, sensory, and grounded in the work of making.
  - Why: Bramble’s appeal comes from small-batch craft, hand-lettered labels, and the feeling that each jar passed through real hands—not a factory line.
  - e.g. "Stirred in small copper pots, poured while glossy, and labeled by hand before it leaves our kitchen."
- **Warmly rustic** — Use plain, comforting language with a countryside feel—ripe fruit, kitchen tables, hedgerows, morning toast—without becoming quaint or costume-y.
  - Why: Preserves are nostalgic by nature, and Bramble’s name evokes brambles, berries, thickets, and harvests. The voice should feel homegrown, not homespun parody.
  - e.g. "A bright little jar of blackberry and bay, made for buttered toast, crumbly scones, and slow Sunday breakfasts."
- **Quietly proud** — Be confident about craft and ingredients, but never boastful. Let care, process, and flavor do the proving.
  - Why: Small-batch makers earn trust through attention to detail. Bramble should sound assured, not salesy.
  - e.g. "We use fruit at its best, sugar enough to set, and no shortcuts between the orchard and the spoon."
- **Seasonal and specific** — Name the fruit, season, source, and flavor notes whenever possible. Prefer exactness over generic deliciousness.
  - Why: Craft preserves are differentiated by batch, harvest, ripeness, and recipe. Specific details make Bramble feel real and collectible.
  - e.g. "This batch leans deep and jammy: late-summer plums, a little lemon lift, and a soft warmth from cardamom."
- **Gentle delight** — Bring a small spark of pleasure to everyday moments. Use light charm, not big hype.
  - Why: A jar of preserves is an affordable ritual: breakfast, gifting, cheese boards, baking. Bramble should make those moments feel special without overstatement.
  - e.g. "Open when the toast is hot and the kettle has just begun to sing."

## Tone by context

- **Product descriptions:** Lead with fruit, flavor, season, and use. Make the jar feel vivid and touchable. Avoid empty premium claims like “best-in-class” or “artisanal quality.”
- **Packaging and label copy:** Keep it brief, lyrical, and ingredient-led. The label should feel hand-lettered and considered, with just enough story to make the jar giftable.
- **Onboarding or first purchase:** Welcome customers into the kitchen. Explain what makes small-batch preserves different in friendly, concrete terms: batch size, fruit selection, hand-labeling, seasonal availability.
- **Ecommerce and checkout:** Be clear and reassuring. Keep warmth, but prioritize practical details: shipping windows, breakage protection, storage, and gifting notes.
- **Success states:** Celebrate softly. Make the customer feel they have something lovely on the way, not like they completed a high-pressure transaction.
- **Errors or delays:** Be plain, apologetic, and helpful. Do not over-whimsify problems. Acknowledge the inconvenience, explain the next step, and keep the human tone.
- **Out-of-stock or seasonal sell-through:** Frame scarcity as natural, not manipulative. Explain that small batches end when the fruit does, and invite customers to join the waitlist or try a nearby flavor.
- **Marketing and social:** Use sensory, seasonal snapshots: bubbling pots, berry-stained spoons, market mornings, handwritten labels. Keep calls to action gentle but clear.

## Messaging

**Audience:** People who care about food with a human hand in it: farmers’ market shoppers, thoughtful gift-givers, home bakers, breakfast ritualists, cheese-board builders, and anyone who prefers seasonal flavor over supermarket sameness.
**Value:** Bramble makes small-batch preserves from seasonal fruit, stirred and labeled by hand for jars that taste as considered as they look.

- **Real fruit, in season** — Bramble follows the fruit, making preserves when berries, stone fruit, citrus, and orchard harvests are at their best.
- **Made by hand, jar by jar** — Every batch is cooked in small quantities, poured with care, and finished with tactile, hand-lettered details.
- **Everyday food, made special** — Bramble turns toast, yogurt, scones, cakes, and cheese boards into small rituals without making them fussy.
- **Limited by nature** — Batches are finite because seasons are finite. When a flavor sells through, it returns only when the fruit does.

## Lexicon

**Use:** `small-batch`, `handmade`, `hand-labeled`, `stirred slowly`, `poured by hand`, `ripe fruit`, `seasonal fruit`, `orchard`, `hedgerow`, `bramble`, `berry-bright`, `jammy`, `bright`, `tart`, `softly spiced`, `fruit-forward`, `made in small pots`, `limited batch`, `spoon over`, `spread thickly`, `for toast, scones, yogurt, cheese boards`, `from our kitchen`, `batch no.`, `best enjoyed`
**Avoid:** `mass-produced`, `factory-fresh`, `disrupting preserves`, `premium solution`, `best-in-class`, `gourmet experience`, `luxury condiment`, `elevate your lifestyle`, `game-changing jam`, `obsessed`, `crazy good`, `limited drop`, `act now`, `hurry before it’s gone`, `SKU`, `inventory units`, `consumer`, `users`, `flavor profile optimization`, `perfect for any occasion`

## Mechanics

- **Capitalization:** Sentence case for headlines, buttons, labels, and UI. Title case only for proper product names or formal collection names.
- **Contractions:** yes
- **Emoji:** Rare. Avoid on packaging, product pages, and transactional messages. One seasonal emoji may be used sparingly on social if it feels natural.
- **Reading level:** Grade 6–8: simple, concrete, sensory sentences with occasional lyrical turns.

## Boilerplate

- **Short:** Bramble makes small-batch preserves from seasonal fruit, stirred and labeled by hand.
- **Medium:** Bramble is a small-batch preserves maker rooted in ripe fruit, slow stirring, and handmade detail. Each jar is cooked in small pots, poured by hand, and finished with a tactile label—made for toast, scones, yogurt, cheese boards, and thoughtful gifts.
- **Long:** Bramble makes small-batch craft preserves with seasonal fruit and a careful hand. From berry-bright jams to softly spiced marmalades, every batch is cooked in small pots, tasted as it thickens, poured by hand, and finished with hand-lettered, tactile labels. Our jars are made for everyday rituals—hot toast, plain yogurt, crumbly scones, a wedge of cheese—and for the kind of gifts that feel personal before they’re even opened. Because we follow the fruit, each flavor is limited by the season that made it.

## Voice in action

**Product page headline**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| empty-state | No jars in your basket yet | Your cart is currently empty | The on-voice version is clear but warmer, using Bramble’s product language instead of generic ecommerce phrasing. |

**Product page flavor description**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| primary-cta | Add a jar | Add to cart | Still clear, but more tactile and specific to preserves. |
| primary-cta | Add a jar | Add to cart | Still clear, but more tactile and specific to preserves. |
| primary-cta | Add a jar | Add to cart | Still clear, but more tactile and specific to preserves. |
| primary-cta | Add a jar | Add to cart | Still clear, but more tactile and specific to preserves. |
| primary-cta | Add a jar | Add to cart | Still clear, but more tactile and specific to preserves. |
