Breaking Out Of The Commodity Coop

How Left Off Madison Helped Launch And Grow Just BARE Beyond Commodity Competition

When Pilgrim’s Pride sought to evolve beyond its legacy as one of America’s largest poultry suppliers, the company faced a difficult reality:

Consumers largely viewed chicken as interchangeable.

For decades, much of the category competed primarily on:

• price

• promotions

• retailer relationships

• operational scale

But long-term growth and stronger margins required something different:
consumer preference.

That challenge led to the launch of Just BARE — a premium consumer brand within the broader Pilgrim’s Pride and JBS portfolio designed to compete differently inside one of the most commoditized categories in food.

Left Off Madison leadership, including Rob Douglas and Boris Litvinov, helped develop and lead the foundational brand, advertising, retail, and shopper marketing strategy that supported the brand’s early growth trajectory.

Today, Just BARE has surpassed $1 billion in annual retail sales.

For full transparency: Left Off Madison did not steward the brand throughout its entire journey to that milestone. However, we were part of the foundational launch and early growth effort that helped establish the strategic platform and momentum for what the brand would ultimately become.

The More Interesting Challenge Wasn’t Advertising

Launching a poultry brand sounds relatively straightforward on paper.

In reality, the category presented several structural challenges:

• deeply entrenched incumbents

• retailer-driven competition

• heavy price sensitivity

• limited emotional differentiation

• consumer perceptions that “chicken is chicken”

Internally, there were also broader strategic questions facing the business:

• Could a historically B2B-driven poultry company successfully compete as a modern consumer brand?

• Could branding meaningfully improve profitability inside a category traditionally dominated by operational scale and pricing pressure?

Those were the larger questions underneath the marketing.

What another CMO could learn from this:

1. Commodity Categories Become Vulnerable When Preference Disappears

Many mature categories eventually drift toward competing almost entirely on:

• price

• promotions

• distribution

• retailer leverage

But once consumers stop perceiving meaningful differences between brands, margin pressure typically follows.

One of the largest growth opportunities in mature categories is often not simply “more advertising.”

It’s rebuilding perceived distinction.

Just BARE helped demonstrate how strategic brand-building could create separation inside a category where consumers historically saw very little.

2. Retail Strategy And Advertising Work Best When Built Together

One of the most important strategic decisions behind the Just BARE launch was aligning advertising efforts with retail expansion priorities.

The Left Off Madison approach integrated:

• retail expansion strategy

• advertising

• shopper marketing

• communications planning

• regional market prioritization

• consumer demand generation

Advertising wasn’t developed independently from distribution goals. Instead:

• retail expansion informed media priorities

• advertising reinforced retailer confidence

• shopper marketing supported shelf momentum

• broader brand activity helped create consumer pull

Too often, brands isolate these functions into separate workstreams.

The result is usually fragmented growth.

3. Internal Organizational Buy-In Is Often The Hidden Marketing Challenge

Modern marketing transformations frequently require internal culture shifts before they create external growth.

At the time, there were understandable questions surrounding the long-term value of investing in a consumer-facing poultry brand.

That skepticism is common inside organizations historically optimized around operational efficiency and manufacturing scale.

In many cases, marketers are not only tasked with influencing consumers.

They also have to help internal stakeholders believe brand investment can materially impact enterprise value.

(L-R) Chicken grower, Rebecca, a main feature in the Just BARE ad campaign. A package of Just BARE fresh chicken. Chicken grower, Adam, another main feature in the ad campaign.

4. Challenger Brands Rarely Win By Outspending

Large incumbents often possess:

• bigger budgets

• broader awareness

• deeper retailer relationships

• larger historical market share

That doesn’t necessarily mean they are strategically sharper or culturally closer to evolving consumer behavior.

One of the key opportunities for challenger brands is identifying where categories have become predictable.

The brands that grow disproportionately are often the ones willing to rethink category behavior itself.

5. Growth Happens Faster When Brands Escape Category Gravity

The most successful growth brands often stop behaving exactly like the category around them.

They build:

• stronger identity

• clearer positioning

• greater perceived value

• stronger emotional relevance

• better alignment between brand-building and retail strategy

That lesson extends far beyond poultry.

It applies across:

• CPG

• financial services

• hospitality

• automotive

• consumer electronics

• retail

• virtually any mature category facing commoditization pressure

The Long-Term Outcome

Today, Just BARE has surpassed $1 billion in annual retail sales and become one of the fastest-growing brands in the category.

According to Pilgrim’s Pride, the brand has experienced rapid growth driven by expanding retail distribution, accelerating consumer demand, and strong momentum within the prepared and fully cooked chicken segment.

While Left Off Madison did not manage the brand throughout its entire evolution, we are proud to have helped shape and support the foundational launch and early growth period that contributed to the brand’s long-term trajectory.

Sometimes the most important role in growth is not simply managing scale after momentum exists.

It’s helping create the early conditions that allow momentum to happen in the first place.

Explore the full Just BARE case study

See the strategic thinking, retail integration, shopper marketing, advertising execution, and challenger-brand approach Left Off Madison used to help launch and grow Just BARE beyond traditional commodity-category marketing.