New Meat Label

[highlands]

Up until now we have sold direct to customers but I have been getting many requests from restaurants and stores for pastured pork. Selling wholesale means some different regulations and I'm researching that now. One important detail is that little sticker that get slapped on the package. I don't want to use the butcher's label, especially not at $15 per pig. Doing that would mean people would not be seeing our name thus losing marketing opportunity. I'm not about to pay the butcher for the privilege of marketing his business.

So I need to make up a meat label and that has been my indoor task for the day. The above is my current version which I've just sent off to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to have it checked to make sure it meets their requirements. I found some specifications in this document which covers both Vermont and USDA labeling requirements. Interesting reading.



My label design is 3.25" x 4.25" which seemed to be the most common size of the labels stuck on the wall at the butcher shop. I photographed the wall while I was there so I've been able to study other people's labels at my leisure. In the photo above of the label wall I've added a digital copy of our label for comparison purposes. There are actually two copies, one with and one without the black border on our label. Clicking on the label wall photo will get you a bigger version where you can see more detail.

I could have gone with one or two colors but the Buy Local, the Vermont Seal of Quality and the Certified Naturally Grown logos are in full color. They make good use of color so I want to use them that way rather than reducing them to black & white. I may initially inkjet print these on label stock, if that is allowed by the state, and seal them with a clear coat. That makes it so that full-color is easy to do. If I go to commercial printing later that may change.

This is my first meat label. I would be very interested in comments from people about the above label. Do you like it? Why or why not? What is good and bad? I would love to hear both from people looking at it as buyers of food as well as those of you who raise and sell meat.

By the way, my lovely and talented wife Holly drew the portrait of the pig. If you haven't done so already, check out her online portrait gallery. She is an excellent artist, if I do say so. And no, I'm not biased. Well, not much.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://NoNAIS.org

[tyusclan]

I like it. I think it's a very good design. I'd leave the black border on there. You can't really see much difference in the picture because the background on the board makes them both look like they have it.

[dezeeuwgoats]

I like it. I think the picture of the pig is pleasing - I like the colors, and I especially like the full color logos.

I also like the North Hollow Farm logo - I prefer to see an actual photograph of the farm with the livestock on it - and if you've got it - flaunt it! How many of those photos are REALLY accurate. I know yours would be! I would actually be interested in seeing a 'family' group. Maybe others would find that morbid though, lol.

Who will see this logo - the chefs and cooks at local restaurants? I'd go with the drawn pig. They probably 'know' what your product is already and what is behind it. If it will be in grocery stores - I think the photo would be more appealing and informative to a broader range of shoppers, due specifically to the fact that terms like 'free-range', 'cage-free'have been so messed with that many people aren't going to be really 'sure' what it means. JMO

I prefer the black border, and so does my seven year old son.

niki

[farmergirl]

I like it, though it does seem a bit "busy". I realize that would be hard to avoid with all the regulatory this and that. I like the green color, it's consistent with the fresh and healthy message.

[Rockin'B]

Originally Posted by farmergirl

I like it, though it does seem a bit "busy". I realize that would be hard to avoid with all the regulatory this and that. I like the green color, it's consistent with the fresh and healthy message.

Agree with that ^^^.

To that end, I'd leave the border off and see if that doesn't ease up on the eye activity.

Great stuff and congrats on the progress!!!

[Laura Workman]

It must be nice having an artist on hand!

I'd keep the border, since on a clear package, it would provide a good dividing line between label and meat.

Although I like the picture of the pig very much, I have to agree with dezeeuwgoats. To me, a drawing of a pig only says "pork." Some beautiful photograph of YOUR OWN pastures with YOUR OWN pigs would be really unique, I think. You have such a beautiful place, and your animals look so happy - that's something a confinement operation just can't show. I cruised through your pics on your blog, snatched one, cropped it and played for a few minutes, just to give you kind of an idea of what I was thinking of. I'm really sorry if it seems presumptuous, but hey, it was fun! Naturally, I didn't have all the logos, etc. Anyway, here it is:



Highly pixellated, of course, because of the low-res after cropping. Also a nice typo. (Can they pasture port?)

[Up North]

You have so many great pics of your happy pigs that I would really want my costumers to see that. You are not only selling great pork but an idea. What a better way to get that idea across than a picture. I'd make sure there is lots of green in your photo. Your label and the North Hollow Farm labels have the most eye catching designing. Even that purple label just blends in because there's no great pic on it.

Good Luck!
Heather

Forgot, I like the idea of your family being in the pic. Maybe you could get one of you guys standing out among your pigs in the pasture. Hopefully it wouldn't be too busy on the label.

[piglady]

I love the picture idea.

[highlands]

Originally Posted by Laura Jensen

I cruised through your pics on your blog, snatched one, cropped it and played for a few minutes, just to give you kind of an idea of what I was thinking of. I'm really sorry if it seems presumptuous, but hey, it was fun! Naturally, I didn't have all the logos, etc.

*grin* My favorite sow Big Pig and her boy friend Ram One.

As much as I love the idea of the photo design, and the one you did looks lovely, I fear it won't hold up visually as the labels aren't all that large and I can't count on good lightning. There is also a fair bit of required text that must be a certain size or larger. To try and keep it less busy I'm going to stick with the drawing rather than a photo.

Another thing on the photo is I see it invoking an older time feeling thus playing on the nostalgia for simpler times. A photo doesn't do that.

On the photos of the farm, family and animals, there are so many and so varied. At such a small size detail is lost. Hopefully people will follow the link to the site which as you say, gives a sense of life that factory farms just don't offer. I'm hoping that the "From our Family Farm to Your Family's Table" hints at that.

Here is a revised label with some ideas people have given here, via email and on my blog:



The label is targeted to consumers who would be seeing it in the meat case at the local stores.

Keep those ideas coming - I really appreciate the feedback!

By the way, I found the USDA web pages for information about labels. Check out:

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Regulations...cies/index.asp

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Regulations...ance/index.asp

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Regulations...ions/index.asp

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Regulations...ures/index.asp

as starting points.

[highlands]

I just got off the phone from speaking with our butcher. He had gone over the label with the USDA inspector and everything looks good so off to Washington soon. He also said that the white space within the pig is plenty big enough for the printing of what cuts, etc.

[Laura Workman]

(I tried to post this last night, but the dang internet's been down until just now.)

Hi Walter, One more little thing that occurs to me is, where you say:

"Pastured Pork - Bred, born, raised & packaged in Vermont"

There seems to be kind of a jolt when you move from "raised" to "packaged." I mean, the whole statement, up to that point, speaks of the animal having a good life on green pastures, then rather abruptly, it's stuffed into a package in the grocer's meat counter. I was thinking maybe saying something like:

"Pastured Pork - Bred, born and raised on our Vermont farm"

and then below, saying:

"Packed in Vermont for:"

That would seem to get the same information across, and also allow the city dweller to muse peacefully on the bucolic pasturing of animals born on the farm without having to immediately consider the implications of the word "packaged."

[highlands]

Excellent, Laura. That bothered me too. I love your suggestion. Here's a new sketch for the label with the wording changes:

[Laura Workman]

I think it looks great! I like that you changed "humane" to "humanely." I also LOVE the NoNAIS.org right under the USDA sticker!

[highlands]

Putting NoNAIS.org under the USDA logo was my son Ben's (age 10) idea. Already he knows how to subtly subvert.

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by farmergirl

I like it, though it does seem a bit "busy".

I agree. I like it, but it's a bit too cluttered.

[highlands]

LadyCat, What would you suggest removing? Can you prioritize what you see as being least important to most important? Thanks! -Walter

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by highlands

LadyCat, What would you suggest removing? Can you prioritize what you see as being least important to most important? Thanks! -Walter

This is only to give a very rough idea (I'm not trying to redo your label for you!), it's still a bit cluttered, but some of it was redundant, so I removed some excess. Also, if they want YOUR pork, they already know to buy local.



I wish you weren't so far away. I would buy your pork.

[highlands]

I like what you did with the text combo, LadyCat. I'm going to keep the Buy Local as it is an important concept to promote - a wetware virus. Here's a new version:

[ladycat]

Walter, that does look better than the first version. You're a better artist than me, too.

[Junkmanme]

Since NAIS appears to be "dead", I would leave that OFF the label. It really serves no marketing purpose, in my opinion.