Total Grand Cru

In 2023 we got in touch with Joris, then the owner of Total Grand Cru.
The brand and the visual guidelines were already there.

Our job wasn’t to reinvent Total Grand Cru.
Our job was to translate that existing brand world into commerce.

A Shopify webshop where the premium range came into its own, while also being pleasant and logical for customers to use.

Because in the end, someone shouldn’t just be impressed by a bottle.
They should also be able to simply order it.

The webshop was only one side of the story.
Behind every order there’s stock, order processing, logistics and fulfilment.

So we connected Shopify to the warehouse management system (WMS).
That let the webshop and operations work together better, and gave Total Grand Cru a technical foundation to build on.

For the customer, most of that stays invisible.
And that’s exactly the point.

Good commerce often happenswhere the customer can’t see it.

In early 2024 Thijs took over Total Grand Cru from Joris.

• The webshop was in place.
• The brand was in place.
• The technical foundation was in place.

So we didn’t have to start over.
We could look at a much more interesting question:

What does Total Grand Cru need now to move forward?

From that moment our role shifted.
From mostly building to optimising, sharpening and activating.

A new owner doesn’t automatically mean everything has to be new.
Total Grand Cru’s existing brand identity already gave us a starting point.
We built on that.

We developed a Brand Book to capture the brand world and make it easier to apply consistently in the next phase.

We also wrote a communication plan to give more direction to how Total Grand Cru speaks to the outside world.

• Which stories do we want to tell?
• What role does product play?
• Where do knowledge and inspiration come in?
• How do we handle commercial moments?
• And how do we make sure the webshop, content and media end up telling the same story?

Not changing things for the sake of it.
Sharpening where it’s needed.

With that sharper brand and communication direction, we could look at the material we needed.

Together with Flatcap Goatee Productions by Jerry Delamarre we organised a photo and video production.

• Not for one campaign.
• Not for one season.
• And not to fill Instagram for three weeks.

We wanted to create a strong foundation Total Grand Cru could use for a long time.

So we produced always-on brand content: photography and video that can be used flexibly across different commercial and communication moments.

• For the webshop.
• For organic social.
• For Meta.
• For other communication.
• And for moments that weren’t even planned yet when we shot it.

Create once.Use it where it matters.

We think that’s an important part of this case.

Campaign content has a clear function.
But a brand also needs a good library of material that doesn’t feel dated by next week.

• Images that show who you are.
• What you stand for.
• What you sell.
• And the world that comes with it.

That way you don’t have to start from scratch for every commercial moment.

The content becomes part of the system. Not just part of the campaign.

With Thijs we work continuously on the digital side of Total Grand Cru.

• We optimise the webshop where needed.
• We work on SEO.
• We run the Google Ads.
• We run the Meta Ads.
• And we use the available content to feed those channels.

But that doesn’t mean we work through the same list every month.
First we look at what’s going on.

• Which products deserve attention?
• Where do we see demand?
• Which moments are coming up?
• What’s happening in the webshop?
• What content do we have available?
• Where do we see opportunities or friction?

And only then:

What are we going to do with it?

By now our partnership covers quite a few different parts.
But what’s interesting is the connection between them.

• The Brand Book keeps the brand recognisable.
• The communication plan gives direction to what we say.
• The content library gives us the material to make that story visible.
• SEO builds organic visibility.
• Google Ads captures existing demand.
• Meta Ads creates attention and new demand.
• The Shopify webshop then has to turn that attention into a good buying experience.
• And the WMS makes sure whatever is sold gets processed properly.

No separate channels.One system that keeps working better together.

Maybe the best thing about this partnership is that it didn’t follow a straight line.

We started with Joris and a concrete Shopify question.
The webshop was built.
The technology behind it was connected.
Thijs took over the business.
The needs changed.
So our role changed with them.

And those parts increasingly work as one.

Not because we want to sell Total Grand Cru as many disciplines as possible.
But because the business now asks different things of us than it did in 2023.

Same business. New questions.Keep evolving.