Marketing Strategy, Product Development, & Branding for Artisanal Peanut Butter Company, Kooliban

Scope of Work & My Role

This was a food business created after my husband and I completed the Food Maker Incubator Program at Hope & Main in Warren, RI. Kooliban is an expression in Morocco that roughly translates to “You are what you eat,” or “health and beauty from the inside out.” Rather than the unhealthy and unsustainable palm oil that is in much peanut butter, Kooliban added healthy argan oil to fresh-roasted peanuts and sea salt to create a delicious, healthy, responsible, and sustainable product. The branding and marketing focused on these differentiators and the visuals were designed to evoke the values that the company stood for.

I formalized the business model and pricing strategy, strategized and created all physical and digital marketing, designed the product labels, and was working on the e-commerce site.

Despite successfully having the product shared by social media food influencers and getting it into several restaurants, local food boutiques, and the Rhode Island grocery-store chain Dave’s, the company reached a point where it had to either grow significantly or shut down and, unfortunately, we needed to shut down.

I’m immensely proud of all our work and how much success we achieved, and can’t put a price on all that I learned through this process. And, it’s always possible to start up again someday.