Tamsin Thom
An award-winning creative
specialising in ➺ copy, brand strategy and transformation ✴︎ passionate about
helping purpose-driven companies
launch and evolve ☻
Roast & Ritual
Brand creation, positioning, identity
Our challenge: create an M&S speciality coffee brand with artisanal credentials, serious stand-out and timeless appeal.
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Marks & Spencer approached us with a new speciality coffee house blend to launch in Café and Foodhall. Our challenge was to dial up M&S’s coffee credentials and turn it into a destination for speciality coffee – all without overshadowing M&S’s established premium ‘Collection’ line.

Following a collaborative workshop, I crafted the strategy around 'artisinal for all' - M&S are the only retailer that can launch artisinal at scale, making trusted quality and indi ingenuity available to all. Roast & Ritual now had its reason for being: to wake Britain up to better cups, by democratising speciality coffee for all. To maximise stand-out, we created a clean modern logo and distinctive colour palette. I created the name Roast & Ritual – a stand-alone name that can exist within the M&S master brand. Modern and artisanal,
yet warm, mellow and approachable (with a nice shorthand R&R communicating rest and relaxation). A clean and modern logo with the quietly confident strapline - For real coffee lovers - created an iconic mark for the bran, paired with a “Crafted by M&S Food” lock-up to bring it into the brand family.


A duck egg colour palette – and a swirling pattern inspired by latte art – gave the brand a gentle but distinctive artisanal look.twe designed the packaging to highlight the quality of the coffee, dialling up M&S’s coffee credentials – this included both cups and reusable cups. the verbal identity and messaging are confident and down-to-earth, with carefully placed moments of wit. This all played out across a suite of launch POS for café in both print and digital, supporting the Roast & Ritual launch merchandise.




Results: Roast & Ritual boosted customer engagement across M&S Cafés. People liked the elevated quality and trusted familiarity of this new house blend. By offering Roast & Ritual in more formats – beans, ground, and pods – we captured the attention of new audiences and got people excited about enjoying speciality coffee at home. The brand resonated with key audiences: they appreciated both the modern, trend-driven feel and the trusted M&S quality.