Just Cured - Experience Fine Foods

But, to paraphrase Orwell, some babies are more beautiful than others. And, as I learned this week, some parts of each baby are more beautiful than other parts of that baby.

And so, I spent countless hours this week with my brand identity gurus dissecting my baby Just Cured, all in an effort to capture the essence of the company and our products. And that’s the easy part they tell me. Once we capture that essence, they, with my input, are charged with translating it into tangible things like a logo, colors, fonts, package design, and a score of things I don’t even know yet. Oh, and that essence has to accurately portray not only the company and the salmon products we have identified, it should also cover planned or logical extensions of the product lines that we haven’t considered yet.

As I write this, I am staring across the room at a “mood board.” It is a collage of sorts consisting of colors and shapes and images taken from a variety of sources. I am to study this mood board and decide, for example, if the shape of a particular vodka bottle conveys to me an impression similar to that which I want Just Cured’s products to convey. I’ll be honest; mostly, the shape of the vodka bottle makes me thirsty.

This is the fourth mood board I have seen this week. This one is a distillation of the three we discussed at a meeting earlier in the week. I have looked at the boards for too long now; my thoughts are becoming less rather than more clear. I will focus my attention on the images and what they mean to me tomorrow. In the meantime, I will attempt to put some organization to my thoughts in this public place.

Are Just Cured’s smoked and cured fish (and maybe, someday, meat) “old fashioned”? Our products incorporate techniques that are ancient. Preserving the spoils of a kill by exposing the flesh to a smoky fire probably happened right after the fire was first used to cook the freshly killed animal. Further preservation with salt was not far behind. I think of our smoked salmon, for example, as “traditional” because of the ancient methods rather than as old fashioned. A holiday dinner at Aunt Sally’s might be a tradition; her home decor is old fashioned. Can we convey a difference that subtle in the brand?

We will produce Just Cured products using high quality ingredients and with individual care and attention. Accordingly, the products will be priced at the high end of the range of our competitors’ products. In addition, no one needs smoked salmon. Does that make our products luxury items? What is the difference between a premium quality product and a luxury good? Does creating a brand around the premium quality push us into the hoity-toity or the frou-frou, or worse, the merely irrelevant? In my mind, our products constitute a minor indulgence rather than a full-blown excess. Again, how can we convey that in the brand itself — or is our premium quality not the most important thing to convey?

I intend for Just Cured to encourage and support sustainable husbandry. Does that make Just Cured “green”? I think not. But should that goal be part of the brand itself? And if so, how large a part?

Do I still think my baby is beautiful? Of course I do! Which part of her do I show off to the world — and have a high likelihood the world will agree with me?

Stay tuned for the answer. In the meantime, I’ll put the mood board next to the television on which I intend to watch a few basketball games this weekend.