Food distribution giant Sysco Corp. works with thousands of restaurants across the country — but like food, it doesn't ever want its reputation to get stale.
That's why the company enlisted the help of Bolster, a small Minneapolis branding agency that's quickly building a track record by helping food providers show where their products come from.
"The challenge [with Sysco] is there's a perception that everything comes out of a can," said Bolster brand director Jason Hammond. "So sometimes they'll see negative reviews on Yelp. Someone will make a comment like, 'Fell off the back of a Sysco truck,' as in, it was canned food. In reality, that's a portion of their business."
Bolster is working to round out that image using documentary-style interviews with restaurant owners and other Sysco clients.
In one unreleased video, Houston chef Randy Evans shows off his commitment to locally grown food. He does his own beekeeping and grows his own produce, and he also works with Sysco.
"I was kind of shocked that they worked with local farmers," Evans said in the video. "They could bring in these small-farm-raised local products without a problem."
Interviews with customers are a hallmark of Bolster's approach. The agency, which has a staff of just eight, was founded on the idea that it would aim not to tell customers what each company wanted to be, but what it really was.
"Instead of Sysco telling restaurants, 'We can do this,' they're letting a peer of the restaurant owners and operators say, 'This is who I am and this is who I've selected to work with,' " Hammond said.
