Developing Characterful New Catalogue Copy as FELCO Target Domestic Users

Challenge

FELCO is a Swiss manufacturer of horticultural cutting and pruning equipment with a global reputation for excellence that continues to set the standards in the industry. The company’s secateurs, identified by their distinctive red handles, have become a generic term; ‘A pair of FELCO’s’ is synonymous with the highest quality. Three core values define their products: ergonomics – where comfort over a long day of cutting is a priority – and a combination of interchangeability and durability, which means that all major parts can be replaced.

The emphasis on these values is achieved without losing the personal ‘feel’ and integrity of the tools. Users often replace parts while retaining original elements, such as well-worn handles, for comfort or sentimental reasons. This personal ‘feel’ has not always extended to tools whose identity has traditionally been defined by a catalogue number. In seeking to extend further into domestic markets overcoming this obstacle – which can prove intimidating to the uninitiated and a barrier to making the right choice of tool – became a priority.

Strategy

FELCO’s innovative products have been aimed at the commercial pruning and cutting markets where their use is second nature. Discerning domestic users have always valued their ease of cutting and the satisfaction of a job well done. Consequently, FELCO’S secateurs, loppers, saws, and knives have always found domestic devotees. However, the company’s original Number 2 secateurs have often been both the starting and endpoint for many consumers unsure of the many benefits available across the full range.

Mulberry was charged with writing more characterful descriptions for all of FELCO’s products for the company’s new global catalogue. The aim was to newly define and personalise the tools, not just in short and long descriptions but also across the exceptional range of features – often exclusive to one specific tool – which are available. The desire was to highlight these tools as less of a list defined by numbers, and to provide a fresh identity more specifically and carefully attuned to the actual cutting tasks, emotions, benefits, and environments involved.

Results

Mulberry has produced copy that is targeted, distinctive and occasionally quirky, to encapsulate the universal needs and thoughts of users. This has referenced key FELCO characteristics and messaging involving working in harmony with nature, quality, efficiency, environmental responsibility and safety. This will enable FELCO to provide a less challenging introduction to their products for general consumers while still emphasising the excellence embodied in their tagline – Swiss Precision. Made to Last. The copy is to be translated into 17 languages for catalogues to drive domestic sales globally; sharing the outstanding FELCO benefits in a more receptive and accessible way to a broader audience of potential customers.