Fred Hart contacted me after listening to my interview with Hugh Thomas and was so inspired by it, he contacted me to be on the show. Fred’s pretty legit, he’s been a speaker for Expo West, has an awesomely inspiring team, and the dude just oozes passion.
We talk a lot about the power of branding, and the nuances it really takes to make a brand stand out. We don’t only say the power of say, words, but the power of color, the power of being different, and small design tweaks to make it stand out.
Other big topics are about my favorite topic, how to be more creative, why Boulder has such a powerful natural food community and the beauty of being obsessed with your work.
Fred also was generous to share his expo west experience. Attached is his team’s massive photo collection of the expo.
About Fred
Fred Hart is a Partner and Creative Director at Interact Boulder, a branding and packaging design agency obsessed with the food and beverage industry. Located in Boulder CO, at the epicenter of the natural foods movement, Fred helps usher in the good food revolution and changing of the guards in CPG.
When Fred’s not walking through grocery stores like they’re art museums or playing professor at the University of Colorado, he’s actively exploring cities on foot and disproving the notion that white men can’t jump.
Sponsor – BAKERpedia
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Show Notes
How did you meet Hugh Thomas: Through BevNet.
How did you meet Alex Oesterle: I’m in Boulder and he’s in Denver
How did we all meet each other?: We’re obsessed
When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them?: I build food brands.
I work at a creative agency, with 16 people, We work exclusively with the food and beverage company and work on packaging and brand consulting
How do you prepare to brand?: Holy Trinity: Client, Category, Consumer
Client: Who’s the client?
Category: For example, water is a commodity but can be branded to anything
go to 14 food and beverage trade shows
If it doesn’t resonate with the consumer
Scenario, what’s more important, more claims or fewer claims?: If I throw you 6 tennis ball at once, you’ll probably not catch any of them. But throwing one is easy to catch. We want you to catch one. However, claims can be used abundantly
People don’t read, but they recognize.
Romancing the brand: Sprite: Hip hop Artists are like Sprites. Cool, icy or crisp.
Bobo’s Oat Bars: Beyond being an oat bar, what makes this product unique?: The bar is named after her own daughter. Coffee shops exude this too so we sell Bobo’s at coffee shop
Creativity is so subjective that there’s only variying degrees of wrong
Is creativity a muscle?: I do, and I think that as kids we’re the most creative and we lose creativity though most people can build it up
How do you train creativity: I break down creative pieces like documentaries and see how I can make it
How Adam gets creative: I argue with different people and that’s a good thing.
How do you
Do people come to you or you go to them?: Clients come to us either through referrals or trade shows. Entrepreneurs who talk to us just get it and want to go forward. At the end of the day, it’s about sharing a vision. If you don’t want to have a beer with them, you shouldn’t be working with them.
Did you join Interact in the beginning?: I left San Francisco 2.5 years ago to grow Interact from 3 people to 16 people. We went to their own branding
Describe the steps it took to get to where you are today: In college, I didn’t party too much, but I loved the design. For design, do what you love, and the money will follow if you work hard enough.
Food and Beverage Industry: Food and beverage is probably the most stimulating and captivating industry because it’s competitive design. No other industry competes with each other for the “share of stomach”. I have to interrupt a consumer’s shopping behavior.
Interview with Alex Oesterle
What catches your eye in grocery store?: People don’t read, they recognize. For example, Coke is red, Tiffany is teal. Color is huge. Brand identity is huge. For example, Monster Energy Monster claw. Shape too. For example, Voss water bottle. Method cleaning. The tear drop bottle.
A lot of natural categories are switching to bright color. You should always challenge your catrgory, but not your consumer. We’d have to find different ways to see if the color is different, but effective
Goodbelly – did not want to do white. They owned black and black is the color of efficacy.
Color Psychology: We don’t adhere to it a lot because if everyone did it, everything would be red. You have to keep in mind the context of the brand
How do you become more innovative?: It takes a willingness and a confidentness to take a leap of faith. Tension leads to attention. If I describe a cookie, it can’t be just any cookie. It has to be unique.
Do you guys use small tests to show tension?: Depends. Small brands trust their gut. Big brands is a bit harder. For big brands, you have to maintain equity and give a breathe of fresh air.
On buyouts: You have the chobani’s and KINDs of the word where they maintain their independence. The small companies can innovate, the big food has the power of scale. As long as big food leaves their acquisition alone, then it becomes beneficial.
Annie’s Foods
RX Bar
Justin’s Nut Butter
Independence is something that big food recognizes is really important.
What kind of food trends and tech is really exciting you right now?: Cannabinoids. We’re in the heart of it in Colorado. Adaptogens are popping up too. Rebel Coffee is doing something.
Ashwagandha
Holy Basil
About Cannabis and CBD: No market leader just yet. No one has necessarily been adding it directly to food.
Is it legal?: It’s in this weird gray space.
The biggest challenge the food industry has to face?: Better defining sustainability. It could be privatized, not heavily regulated, but it can be.
Rotten documentary: It exposes the darker side.
Boulder Colorado: Has a history of natural food. For example, White Wave Foods. Celestial Seasonings was founded here, a lot of outdoors
Naturally Boulder
Naturally San Francisco/Naturally Bay Area
What is the one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: The supply chain. How does it all work.
Saffron Brands
Chobani
Was there a brand that inspired you to get into food?: Monster Energy Drinks. You can add so much to improve a food brand. Most people think that logos are word-based, but they are actually pictoral.
Alex Oesterle’s interview with Brandon Roten and Wendy’s
Some brands don’t want to be the best and use it as their advantage
CEO of Taco Bell moves to Chipotle
Even though Chipotle is taking a beating, it still has a strong brand integrity. If this CEO can activate that, it will work
Missy Schaaphok Episode
Kardashians tweet about Snapchat
Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to go into your industry?: The creative industry is very blue collar. You need to let your obsession drive what you do.
What’s your favorite interview question to ask?: If they were a crayon what would you be?
Adam’s answer: Dark Blue
Describe it to a blind person: Right before the sunset, that is dark blue.
What do you think colleges should teach more of?: Soft skills
Do you have any advice for speaking gigs?: Having something to say. Don’t talk about yourself but just share knowledge
Keep doing some work. Post and talk on forums and blogposts. That’s how you build rapport
John Kraven
Where can we find you for advice?: Interact boulder Instagram. Fred@interactboulder.com