Slop Dog Food – Branding and Package design
Here at Straydog, we’ve been working like dogs lately, with yet another amazing dog food client. Zeina with Slop Dog Food reached out to us a few months back to partner with us to help her design a kick-ass brand, logo and package design for her new raw dog food brand.
The Slop Brand Positioning:
Slop gives you a simple, guilt-free way to feed your dog truly healthy, locally-made food without the premium price tag or the bullshit marketing.
The Slopportunity:
Slop is not just another dog food brand; it is a necessary and welcome disruption. The strategy is built on carving out a unique space that no BC-based competitor currently occupies.
The British Columbia Fresh Dog Food Landscape
A clear-eyed view of the market reveals a significant opportunity. The initial assessment suggested that no local competitors for cooked dog food exist in British Columbia, with most alternatives coming from Ontario.
Slop’s proposed positioning is the direct antithesis of the premium wellness model. With its “no-bullshit,” “gross but great” attitude and an affordable price of approximately $6 per day, Slop targets a completely different consumer. This is the dog owner who is skeptical of slick marketing, tired of the high costs associated with the “wellness” trend, and seeking an honest, straightforward solution. Therefore, Slop’s opportunity is not to be the first local cooked dog food, but to be the honest, affordable alternative. The brand’s competitive advantage lies in its ability to occupy a niche defined by radical honesty and value—a space that is currently vacant.
Unique Value Proposition
Radically Local. The statement “From BC, made in BC, for BC!” is more than a logistical detail; it is core to the brand’s identity. In a market where retailers and shoppers alike prefer to support local businesses, this fosters community pride and builds a foundation of trust. It communicates a commitment to the local economy and a smaller carbon footprint, which resonates with the target demographic.
Brutally Honest. The brand openly admits the food is “gross but great”.1 This approach embraces the unglamorous reality of the product’s appearance to build trust through radical transparency. It is inspired by the “No B.S.” ethos of brands like RXBar, which found immense success by being upfront about their simple ingredients. This honesty disarms consumer skepticism and creates a memorable, authentic connection.
Deceptively Simple. The product itself is a straightforward solution. Cooked food is recognized as a gentle option for dogs with sensitive stomachs, and Slop can be simply served as a complete meal or mixed with kibble. There are no complex feeding calculators or pseudoscientific claims. The message is clear: it’s just good, simple food.
Intentionally Affordable. Slop is positioned to be significantly cheaper than its direct competitors, with a clear price advantage at around $6 per day compared to alternatives that can cost $9-$10 or more. This is not about being “cheap” in terms of quality, but about delivering exceptional value.
Slop gives you a simple, guilt-free way to feed your dog truly healthy, locally-made food without the premium price tag or the bullshit marketing.
This statement captures the feeling of “relief and calm” that the brand aims to provide its customers. It directly addresses the pain points of modern dog owners; guilt over feeding processed kibble, lack of time, frustration with high prices, and skepticism towards marketing hype. Slop offers a clear, honest, and accessible solution.
The “No-Bullshit” Brand and the Slop Persona:
Slop is not trying to be the flashiest car on the road; it is the one that you know will start every morning. Expanding on this, the Slop persona is like that one friend who always tells you the truth, even when it’s a bit awkward. It is unpretentious, deeply reliable, and possesses a dry, observational sense of humor. The brand is not concerned with being cool or following trends, and this inherent lack of concern is precisely what makes it cool. It shows up, does its job effectively, and doesn’t make a big deal about it. Slop has “absolutely zero political, social, sports etc opinions”. It is a dog food company, and nothing more. This singular focus reinforces its nononsense, dependable nature.
Our Approach to Building the Slop Brand Identity:
Visual Strategy: “Anti-Design”
The pet food aisle is a sea of sameness: glossy bags featuring beautiful photos of happy dogs running through sunny fields. To stand out, Slop must do the exact opposite. This is the principle of “separation”— finding an empty seat on the crowded bus and making it your own. This “anti-design” approach is the perfect visual language for Slop. It visually communicates the “nobullshit” and “gross but great” ethos. The design itself becomes the message. The visual strategy is built on three core principles: minimalism, honesty, and disruption.
A Definitive Colour Palette.
The initial question of using pastels versus neon/brights is resolved by the brand strategy. Pastels are soft, gentle, and fit the “premium wellness” vibe of competitors. To be disruptive, Slop should use neon. Neon is energetic, modern, unapologetic, and slightly jarring—perfectly aligned with the anti-design approach. Neons could be true or retro-ugly. Main Palette: Black and White. This provides the clean, “no-bullshit” foundation for the brand. Flavour Accent Palette: Each flavour will be assigned a single, vibrant, “off-trend” neon colour. This colour will be used sparingly as an accent to identify the product. This color-coding system also directly addresses the need for accessibility, making it easy for customers to distinguish between flavours at a glance.
Typography System
Comic Sans and American Typewriter are, quite simply, the two most hated fonts out there. So we’ve used them, but with a twist. We’ve also used Anton, an unassuming font that has gravitas, but no flair. The typography will be simple, clean, and functional, reinforcing the brand’s honest and straightforward personality.
The Chosen Logo:
The logo is a strong solution because it uses simple, confident typography to communicate the brand’s “no-nonsense” attitude. The bold, heavy font for “slop” is direct and unapologetic, while the classic, typewriter-style font for the tagline adds a sense of trustworthiness and quality. This contrast effectively tells the brand’s story: a straightforward product that is made well. The compact, block-like layout feels solid and dependable, aligning with the brand’s functional persona. the colours for different flavours could be a little more “retro” neon, adding to the un-branded approach and adding a little “jar” to give the audience pause. The separated tagline give’s more emphasis to the two meanings, “made from good ingredients”, and “food for your dog”.
