01 — STRATEGY
Brand strategy
We analyzed the marketplace and created a strategy to establish Derby City as a distinctive consumer brand.
Work Example / Derby City Meats
From 20 years behind the scenes to a brand built for the shelf.
Derby City Meats wanted to move beyond co-manufacturing and create a consumer brand of its own. We helped turn that ambition into a distinctive brand, package and go-to-market story.
The opportunity
Make the leap from manufacturer to consumer brand.
Derby City Meats started as a meat processing plant in Louisville, Kentucky. After 20 years as a co-manufacturer, the company wanted to create its own brand of jerky and ready-to-eat meat products.
They came to us looking for help with brand strategy, package design and marketing. The opportunity was bigger than a new package: it was about giving a capable food company a consumer-facing identity and a compelling story built around what made its product different.
What we did
Built the brand system. Then helped put it to work.
02 — IDENTITY
Brand identity
A consumer-facing identity built to express the company's bourbon-barrel smoked point of difference.
03 — PACKAGING
Package design
Packaging designed to make the products feel ownable, distinctive and ready for the shelf.
04 — SALES
Sales materials
Tools to help the brand tell its story and support conversations with retail and distribution partners.
05 — COMMUNICATIONS
PR & communications
Press materials and messaging that helped introduce the brand and its product story.
06 — GO-TO-MARKET
Launch strategy
A launch strategy connecting the brand proposition, product portfolio and route to market.
The work
A brand with a point of view.
From identity and packaging to lifestyle imagery, the new system gave Derby City Meats a more distinctive consumer-facing presence.
Built to sell
Give the brand tools that can travel.
The work extended beyond the package. Sales materials helped Derby City Meats tell the product story and support conversations with retail and distribution partners.
That meant creating a brand system that could work not just on-pack, but wherever the business needed to introduce itself.
The brand in context
Designed to feel like a real food brand.
The result
From an idea to a brand with distribution.
Over time, our work expanded beyond jerky and ready-to-eat meat products to include Derby City's heat-n-serve pulled pork and BBQ sauce.
- RegionalDistribution in Kroger and Walmart
- NationalDistribution in major convenience-store chains
- ExpandedProduct portfolio beyond jerky and ready-to-eat meat
“The team was great to work with. They took all of our ideas into consideration, but also showed us better options.”
President · Derby City Jerky