Damn Good Meat Snacks Meet Damn Good Rebrand
A Full Case Study
2018, often referred to as “The Jerky Boom” (no citation needed), was a wild time where cured meats became the craveable crossover snacks to make the leap from gas station go-to to Whole Foods staple. The problem the Werner family faced was that they were in jeopardy of losing business, with retailers telling them their packaging just wasn’t making the cut. But this Tillamook, Oregon, family had been in business 25 years—even though the Werners knew the story behind their delectable gourmet meats, they needed a new way to tell everyone else.
CLIENT
Werner Gourmet Meat Snacks
WHAT WE DID
Brand Foundation
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
Package Design
Illustration
COLLABORATORS
IntroPDX, Copywriting
Jeff Foster, Logo Illustration
ARTICLES
Featured in DesignRush “Best Beef Jerky Packaging Designs”
Store shelves were overflowing with jerky of all kinds and investors were turning their attention to an industry that had 3.5% sales growth in a year which equated to billions (Washington Post, 2017). Convenience stores were skewing healthier and jerky was ousting candy for the coveted impulse-buy. What all these other brands had in common was their attention to conscientious, healthy ingredients—or at least the perception—with clean design, “all-natural” and “grass-fed” touts and evocative imagery of majestic cattle living their best range lives. Put simply, these weren’t your grandpa’s Slim Jims. Werner’s dated look wasn’t living up to their product and they were facing lost customers and evaporating sales.
If we could elevate the Werner story and contextualize their personality, we could craft a packaging system that could surpass the competition.
Although the Werners were savvy to the impact of superficially updating their packaging, we wanted to show them that it was just the beginning: only through new packaging that connected to core messaging would the brand authentically translate to the customer. When done well, this cohesive approach leads to lasting sales growth and brand longevity. Like selecting premium cuts of beef, we led the family through messaging and brand explorations, allowing us to save only what felt the truest representation of the people, place and process behind the meat.
Landing on the imagery and feel that were most evocative to the Werners’ experience began to codify how best to position them. Additionally, after an extensive competitive audit, as well as an analysis of their current product portfolio, we were able to identify where Werner’s brand was coming up short. What the Tysons and Hormels getting into the gourmet meats game didn’t have was this quirky family’s story. The Werners were known in Tillamook for their boisterous personalities and a logging lineage that predated their time in the jerky business.
Through getting to know the Werner’s and the market context, we identified three potential design avenues for their rebrand.
A full reimagining of their logo and identity, messaging and nomenclature took off, as we worked closely with the Werners to show the world what was so damn good about their meats. Combining a robust, rugged look and feel with Americana values, quippy copy and a more comprehensible color hierarchy, the new Werner identity came to life. Not only was their brand on an even playing field with the competition, we helped Werner create a roadmap to greater business opportunities, such as speeding up the launch of a new grass-fed product line, and a more refined approach to audience segmentation.
Category buyers preferred the new design to the old design by a nearly three-to-one margin— an outcome that’s reflected in the brand’s sales performance.
Even though the Werners had a heritage product that could stand up to anybody’s in a blind taste test, their branding and packaging was holding them back. Through our partnership in understanding the true value of design, Werner is now displayed proudly at, and purchased readily from, more gas stations, grocery and convenience stores, than in their wildest dreams. That’s just a little something to chew on.
How it all worked out:
APPROVAL
71%
prefer the new packaging
FINDABILITY
4.2 sec
with 98% accuracy
GROWTH
13%
increase in year-over-year sales
