The third grocery product from Kato Farm is a minestrone soup.
It comes in a simple retort pouch, but the sweetness and acidity of tomato is wholly preserved. No synthetic seasonings or animal products are used so it is perfect for vegans, too. Recipes are written by Ms. Kaoru Ariga, the food writer who won the 5th Recipe Book Award.
The amount of packaging material was kept at minimum so that we can use the best possible ingredients.
The watercolor painting that visualizes the smoothness and high-quality of the product was done by Ms. Shio Ueda.
Kato Farm is located in Hiraya village, “the municipality with the smallest population”, in Nagano prefecture.
We worked on branding of the tomatoes they produce. They already had a dedicated customer base so we based the design on what those customers liked and also on the research on potential new customers. The owner wished to keep the prices of the products low so we steered clear of high- end type of design. Instead, used concepts such as “cute and delicious” and “wonderful country side” to convey the tastefulness of the tomatoes.
We had the same designer who had been working with the farm design the logo.
Coupled with the name, “Shinshu Highland Summer Tomato”, we believe we managed to create a brand image full of breeziness of highland summer.
Both fresh tomatoes and tomato juice are selling well and we are planning to come up with new products in the future.