Meatboy is an interesting story that has grown into a fun marketing tool that 1 little boy thinks is the greatest.
When I started working for Midwestern 10 years ago I would always refer to the butchers as "Meatboys." I always played sports and used nicknames all the time so I felt this was appropriate for our store. Well, one day I got the idea to turn it around and put the word "Meatboy" on my license plate. Well, I never imagined the comments I would get by doing this. At least once a day I was asked what it meant or had someone wave at me because they knew I was from Midwestern Meats. This made me start thinking of a marketing idea to have a meatboy represent our philosophies and how we manage our day to day services.
Finally I decided to meet with a promotional professional to talk about my idea and get an opinion. My idea was to take a little boy and make him Meatboy. She felt that it would have to be a cartoon generated, as this would be more acceptable and more effective with customers. I sat on it a few days, but just thought my idea was still the right one so I moved forward. I created Meatboy with my son Kellen. He was 3 at the time. My wife snapped some pictures of Kellen "acting" at home and this was the beginning. He was now officially Meatboy. I then would take the different pictures, and come up with sayings that he (any little kid) would come up with. There are so many fun things kids say, it was easy to create the fun pictures we have used. I immediately had a large picture printed and put on our front window welcoming people to our store. This picture has turned into an item all on it's own as our window painter will paint different looks on Kellen based on the season or holiday. I think his favorite is when he looks like a bunny rabbit for Easter. Everytime he comes to the store he can't wait to see what he looks like today.
Anyway, it's a fun way to get our services out and it's a fun way for my little boy to be involved with my business. He now thinks he is the "boss" and he takes alot of pride knowing he is Meatboy. If you should ever see Kellen in the store please don't hesitate to call him Meatboy.