Livestock Advertising Code of Ethics

http://ranchhousedesigns.com/education/ethics

Here at RHD, most everyone knows that we take ethics and integrity as our top priority. We have always tried our best to maintain the highest level of professionalism in our designs and writing, but we recently thought it was a good idea to put it all in writing. So, we developed the RHD Livestock Advertising Code of Ethics. 

We welcome others to use this same code of ethics in their own livestock advertising programs, or for anyone in the cattle business to use it as their guide. It is also available at http://ranchhousedesigns.com/education/ethics.  

Ranch House Designs Livestock Advertising Code of Ethics

1. RHD will maintain the highest level of truth and ethics in all advertising, public relations, marketing, news, editorial writing, and websites created.

2. RHD exercises only ethical livestock photo retouching, and will never alter the physical conformation of any animal represented in a photograph.

3. RHD exercises extra care when creating advertising materials that may be viewed by children or young adults, including using discretion based on the product, animal name, and any implications related to alcohol, prescription drugs, or guns.

4. RHD respects and maintains consumers' personal privacy regarding their preferences to receive selected marketing, news, email blasts, and advertising.

5. RHD accurately represents the circulation of printed and electronic media.

6. In the event of a potential ethical concern, RHD team members will privately discuss any ethical concerns with clients during the creation of advertising, designs, websites, or content in all efforts to resolve ethical dilemmas according to the highest ethical standards.

7. RHD strives for accuracy of all materials published, whether it be online, through social media, or in printed materials. Personal opinions in editorial writing will be labeled as such, and any errors of significance will be corrected when called to attention.

8. RHD follows federal, state, and local advertising laws and cooperates with industry self-regulatory programs for advertising practices, including but not limited to the Livestock Publications Council, U.S.D.A., U.S. Patent and Trademark office, Federal Trade Commission, Food & Drug Administration, and National Advertising Review Council.

Encouragement for New Designers

Here at RHD we have a lot of young designers who email us or tell us in person that they wish they could work at RHD, or have a business like RHD, or design ads like RHD.

Well, this morning I was going through some old boxes and I came across this little gem....

What is this piece of work you ask? Well, it's the first ad I ever designed. This was designed in 1997 when I was an intern at The Showbox magazine. I worked there for 3 months, and for the month of June and July, all I was able to design was 1/4 and 1/2 page black and white ads for shows. Which are pretty much template based. 

By August, Cherie gave me the go-ahead to get to design the ad for V8 Ranch, since it was my family, and for Wessington Springs Club Calf Producers, and R&R Cattle. 

I estimate I probably spent 10 hours on this ad. I remember pestering Laura Stanley to death about how to design an ad. (Laura was The Showbox editor at the time). I spent HOURS searching for this background. I tried every font on the computer. I mean, this was going to be my debut design in a magazine like The Showbox so I was pumped. 

I remember when it came out, I couldn't wait to show all my friends. My friend Matt Leo had spent the previous summer working at Pacific Showcase magazine and I felt like he was the friend who probably knew the most about ad design. I couldn't wait to show him.  Of course I was wanting some major bragging. 

But what did he say? "Rachel, this looks like crap!" 

WHAT???

He said, "You can't even read the headline! It looks like it says Congratulations V8 Uniors". 

Needless to say I was disappointed, but in the long run, that was the best thing that anyone could have said. Aside from the poor background and typography choice for a headline, it still was a pretty nice ad.  Good layout, good picture size, and legible captions. But ever since that day, I have always felt that typography and font choices were my first priority in designs. Because I always hear that old friend saying "It looks like V8 Uniors!' 

And, I post this to show any aspiring designer out there who's wondering how they get to be "like Ranch House Designs".....that it's not where you start...it's where you finish :)

Rodeo Empire Agency: Texas

This is a website we are very excited about! The group and their direction, paired with our design techniques, created the perfect look for the Rodeo Empire Agency, Inc. (REA).

Cowboys Logan Medlin and Turtle Powell are just a few of the clients that REA is working with to help them get the most out of their advertising and promotions.

Christi Bland and Kathleen Collier make up the Hereford, Texas based REA, whose motto is "Helping Cowboys Stay Cowboys." They both come from rodeo families and saw a need to keep the Western heritage and way of life alive. Thus, they created the Rodeo Empire Agency.

REA offers cost effective advertising to their clients for their target markets, while promoting them on a regional, state and/or national level.

Check them out, www.reatexas.com! They are ready and willing to take you to the next level.

Taylor Show Cattle: Iowa

Taylor Show Cattle, Bloomfield, Iowa, is one of our newest sites. We are happy to assist this great couple in promoting their cattle breeding, fitting and marketing operation.

The operation, started in 2000, focuses on high quality Simmental, Maine and Angus cross cattle. That allows them to market to all types of operations from purebred seedstock to promotional bulls.

They attend all national shows and offer cattle that are the total package, with a huge presence at the annual Iowa State Fair each August.

Taylor Show Cattle focuses on the maternal side of the business. With that in mind, they are able to create females that will go into donor pens across the nation and that it their difference.

They offer winners via private treaty, off the farm, year round. And, they love to work with people striving to get into the winners circle and into the photo backdrop.

This group is never more than a phone call away for their current and future customers. You can call Randy, 641-208-6653, anytime to purchase cattle, talk marketing tools and get a jump start on your genetic package.

Visit their new site, www.taylorshowcattle.com, live now from us.

Thoughts from the only male team member here at RHD...

As most people know, RHD is primarily made up of women, with the exception of our "one in a million" team member Matt Sweeney, who is our developer.

Today, to celebrate wrapping up a great 1st quarter 2013, Rachel got everyone a Longchamp bag / purse. We were first introduced to these by Joelynn Rathmann who is our resident (well former resident) fashionista.

So, the purses were the tipping point for Matt's feeling of being surrounded by females here at RHD, which pushed him to do what all fun graphic designers do --- make a graphic!!

According to Matt, working at RHD really makes men feel under-appreciated :)

According to Matt, here are just a few of the reasons why :)

• Tanning strategies, manicures, hair stylists, and even bra sizes are discussed routinely at staff meetings here at RHD.
• Shopping conversations are a daily, maybe even hourly conversation topic here in the office
• It's not uncommon for people to take off during the day to get highlights or a manicute / pedicure
• Bath & Body Works or Victorias Secret are our go-to gift of choice for any office birthday / holiday
• For Easter, Halle (our newest team member) gave everyone a custom made pen with a flower on the top....of which 4 people were using in today's staff meeting
• Channing Tatum pictures randomly show up as our computer backgrounds or taped to people's desks. (Especially on birthdays)

Instead, Matt says...It is too much to ask for a "Man Cave Day" or gift certificates to Bass Pro Shop...or to discuss cool things like ammo, handgun preferences, XBoxes, or plasma TVs at a staff meeting?

So, here's what Matt came up with, as his visual of what a day in the life at RHD really is like :)

Spring Photo Fun Contest

I don't know about our friends up north but here in Texas, spring is in the air! We had such a blast with our Fall on the Farm photo contest that we are hosting another Spring Photo Fun contest to share and celebrate the beauty of life out in the country, on the ranch, or in the barn.

So are you a photographer? Here's how you get in on the fun....

1. Email your photo to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com between the dates of now and March 17, 2013.
2. The photos will be posted on our facebook page during the week of March 18-22 and the photo with the greatest number of likes will be chosen as the fan favorite winner.

The winner will receive a float wrap print of their winning photo. If you don't know what a float wrap is, it's like this....it's a print that kinda sticks out from the wall.

Now we should say, if you do happen to win, you will have to provide us with a high res photo of your entry to print it on the float wrap. So like an instagram photo won't be high enough resolution. But don't worry, if you do win, and you don't have a high res picture, we'll find something else cool for you to get.

We loved seeing the fall photos, and we can't wait for spring! So go ahead and email those photos in to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com and let's get started on the fun!


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Official Rules To Join the Fun....

• By sending us the photo you grant release to RHD and Facebook to post your photo on the RHD facebook page.
• This game is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with Facebook. It's just something fun we're doing at RHD. 
• Winners will be selected by a panel of judges here at RHD along with input from fans. The winner is not selected on how many likes they get. 
• The winner will be notified by email if they are selected.

Do you bleed purple?

RHD To Host Livestock Advertising & Photography Workshop

RHD TO HOST LIVESTOCK ADVERTISING AND PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

Ranch House Designs, Inc. will host a two-day livestock marketing workshop on April 19-20 in Wharton, Texas. The workshop features a complete guide to livestock advertising including the importance of livestock marketing, determining an advertising budget, different tools available for the livestock producer, advertising design, email marketing, web design, social media, and much more. The group will also host an optional hands-on livestock photography workshop on April 20, where participants will photograph actual livestock at V8 Ranch followed by a hands-on classroom session about image management, ethical photography retouching, processing videos for use on YouTube and the requirements for pictures and videos in use on websites.

This comprehensive workshop will feature speakers Rachel Cutrer and Stacey Shanks, of RHD, along with keynote speaker Carlos Guerra of LaMuneca Cattle Company and guest video instructors Wade Fischer and Joelynn Rathmann of Ideal Video Productions.

Registration is now open at www.ranchhousedesigns.com. Adult workshop registration is $150 and student registration is $100. There is an additional fee of $100 to participate in the optional on-farm livestock photography workshop at V8 Ranch. 

Denver Photo A Day Challenge

Join us for a fun way of showcasing what's going on at Denver this year! Post your pics on Instagram and tag @ranchhousedesigns and #rhdphotoaday. Post your photos from ANY of the categories on ANY day. Each day we will choose one favorite photo to win an RHD prize. Prizes will vary each day but will be t-shirts, caps, RHD hoodies, inspirational metal art and more. Then, after Denver, we will post each of our daily winners on our Facebook page and our fans will choose our "Best in Show" Denver photo. That winner will receive a free ticket to our April Livestock Marketing Workshop!

Kohlhaas Cattle Co., Iowa

We are excited to feature one of our recent cattle website designs, Kohlhaas Cattle Co. of Lu Verne, Iowa.

The Kohlhaas family came to us earlier in 2012 because they really liked the work we had done for lots of other Iowa club calf producers, and also the website we had just done for Cyclone Trace.

And, no surprise, when we got the design instructions for KCC, guess what their design preference was....Red and Gold, Iowa State colors.

We love working with customers of all backgrounds, but family farms are always special to us. Kohlhaas Cattle Company is a 3-generation family cattle and grain farm. Their business began in 1989, when they bought their first club calf for a 4-H project at the Kossuth County Fair.

Like many others in the business, once they had that first calf, they were hooked. The Kohlhaas's said that that first calf ignited a passion within their entire family and motivated them to work harder each year to grow their success in the show cattle industry.

I guess if you had to say what is the most unique thing about this family, it would be their niche in market heifers. They are pretty much the experts on market heifers. In fact, they have exhibited FOUR grand champion market heifers at the Iowa State Fair and also two reserve grand champion market heifers at the Iowa State Fair. So yeah, they are the people that when you see them in your class, you are silently bummed because you know they'll be so hard to beat!

Since that first calf in 1989, more than 20 years ago, KCC has developed a respected program with proven consistency in the show ring. They use their experiences from what they learned while showing all those champions to help their clients.

This really was an awesome group to work with -- and I hope you will check them out at http://kohlhaascattleco.com.

And yeah, if you are in the market for a market heifer -- you know where to go!