SunFed Ranch 100% Grass Fed Beef Package Redesign by Third Street

Jun. 16, 2021

• Objective

The SunFed Ranch brand is led by fifth-generation California ranching families who have one mission: delivering delicious, locally produced, 100% grass-fed beef that is better for the environment and our health. 

A 2021 rebranding initiative had one objective: to build awareness and trial with a bold new look, a throat-clearing voice, and a core message designed to travel nationally. Part of this effort was a packaging overhaul that brought an eye-catching, elevated look to the beef counter.

• Strategy

SunFed Ranch was looking to grow the business in the San Francisco and Sacramento areas as the next steps on its path to national expansion, and named Third Street its AOR in August of 2020. Ultimately, the brand wanted to own the high-end, grass-fed beef space. This refreshed packaging would help bring in additional orders from customers as well as attract new customers. 

• Challenge

By the time the USDA is done telling you what you HAVE to put on a food label, there is very little space to put what you WANT to include without cluttering the package. The design had to be simple, efficient and complement the beef product itself.

• Execution

Third Street created a comprehensive, integrated, multi-media marketing campaign to refresh the brand along with a redesign initiation that included a new logo, new brand language and new packaging. Working with Third Street’s longtime collaborator and Yale MFA grad Alex Moulitsas, Agency created more than 25 newly designed packaging SKUs for ground beef, steaks, corned beef, bone broth and burgers, swapped imagery of sprouting grass for an abstract doodle of a cow for the logo and added the phrase “100% Grass Fed Beef.” While the old packaging was quite wordy, redesigned ones contained minimal text, such as “Free from antibiotics and added hormones” and “100% Natural. 100% Delicious. 100% American.”

• Results

The campaign and redesign did the trick: Today, SunFed is the #1 grass-fed beef brand on the West Coast. Many stores, such as Ralph’s, Raley’s, and Albertsons, in the brand’s target markets (San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, and Los Angeles) have routinely sold out of SunFed Ranch Beef, and the brand will become nationally distributed by fall 2021. 

SunFed has been awarded five times as many doors this year as it did the last two years combined—with the same number of salespeople and sales investment. With the brand and sales performing well, the company has entered into three new ranch leases for additional capacity in California and partnered with one of the largest landowners in the U.S. to pull cattle from their highly respected system. It will take its first step into production outside of California later in 2021 to support a new national footprint driven by branded wins on the East Coast.

SunFed VP Marketing Ashley Finster, said:

“While the positive impact on the consumer side has been immediate, the revamped packaging and “ALL BEEF. NO BULL.” campaign has also played a pivotal role in attracting world-class investors from the High Tech and DTC world. The work has professionalized the company, leading to new partnerships with national grocery chains that are expanding the SunFed footprint from California to what will now be thousands of stores across the U.S.”

 

SunFed CFO Tony Prudhomme added:

“Amen!”