The Rock & Roll Chef®

HERE'S THE FIRST RETAIL PRODUCT FOR BABY BACK BLUES BBQ THAT I KNOCKED OUT (yay). To me, packaging design for retail is high consumer art, very competitive, very hard to do well. By well I mean: stand out on shelves, get folks to pick it up and put it into their shopping carts - period. I actually think the designs on cereal boxes are THE most researched, focus-group heavy, expensively-researched-before-they-hit-the-market products on shelves. Package design ALWAYS takes longer than most people realize (just getting to this point was probably 6 revisions, not including the logo). As BBB is also slowly introducing their brand for retail, there isn't an overwhelming demand to begin with. As such, the first-run labels will be done on color laser prints and affixed by hand onto the vac pack pulled pork units (not exactly cost effective for mass production). When/if the demand increases, the co-packer will have to figure out how to automate that part of production - but that's a good problem to have, right?

At some point, I'm going to add something relative to this label (and every product vying for retail shelf space), regarding the Universal Code Council or GS1 (the organization which issues barcode accounts), which is truly nothing short of a monopoly. FYI, they lost a class-action law suit a few years back, which turned out quite well for those of us who created an account with them before 2000 (can you say "grandfathered in?").

Labels: america loves bbq, baby back blues, package design, pulled pork, rock n roll chef

IF YOU'VE LIVED IN CHICAGO, IT'S LIKELY YOU'VE HEARD OF MOO & OINK. I'm not originally from here, so I remember laughing hard when I got here & first heard their name, which is both silly and unbeatable for telling you exactly what kind of stuff they sell: SOUL FOOD! (chitlins, collard green, ribs, short ribs, rib tips, catfish, hamhocks, beans, cornbread mix, etc). And all things BBQ.

One thing I discovered that separated them from every other local store - REALLY forward-thinking marketing, including the early adoption of online video, jingle contests, branding, private labeling. Miles ahead of even the big corporate chains, very impressive to me.

WELL, last month I had the pleasure of meeting the man behind that great great marketing - Mr. Barry Levy (admittedly, a cultural disconnect/surprise for that kind of store & target demographic... but talk about iron-clad street cred). I was videotaping a food show for the Illinois Dept. Of Agriculture at Drury Lane in Oakbrook, IL, and Barry was there with his family, rolling out his new venture: America Loves BBQ and Love Me Tenders. Without going into the bloody details, there was a falling out at Moo & Oink and, after 30 plus years, Barry went his own way, and has now moved heavily into the retail & wholesale business with all kinds of tasty stuff (his "Super Sausage" is somewhat addictive; Chip Znuff and myself have been testing various recipes with it). Barry & I hit it off immediately, as I told him how much I loved their marketing & online video, and the things he had to say about BBQ & ribs being a national passion mirrored what I've been saying and doing with RibfestUSA.com.

From there, I had the chance to produce more video at Barry's house (LOVE that 24 p film look), and we got some nice photos... and I then plugged all that in over Barry's 90 second blurb I shot at the trade show (below). I think it tells his story pretty well pretty fast, makes his stuff look big-time, and pretty much shows anyone who's interested what his brands are about.

Something else about Barry: Looks can be deceiving, because there's probably not many people in the USA who know more about soul food than him (and the manufacturing, packaging, distribution and in-store promotions of those foods, too). Based on the wide variety of folks he's befriended from all walks of life, he's no snob either. More, during his time at Moo & Oink, he got to know the owners of more Chicago rib & bbq places than probably any other single person. In my world, that's real cool (and maybe invaluable - can you say Jack Daniels, Green Egg & qualifying event for the JD national event?). Stay tuned & enjoy Barry and his tasty products.

Labels: america loves bbq, barry levy, bbq, love me tenders, moo and oink, soul food