This vegan foods marketing article was originally published in January 2022 on my marketing website www.ifiweremarketing.com but the thought process and the ideas could work equally well even now. Updated version here.
To many, veganism or plant-based eating may come across as a fad. While some may indeed be following it out of FOMO (Celebrities are converting, let me try it too); majority adopt it for one of 3 reasons:
1. They want to save the planet
“A study published in New Scientist magazine shows that each person can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that his or her diet contributes to climate change by up to 60 per cent—just by going vegan.” – Downtoearth.org.in
2. They want to save animals
“Did you know that every vegan saves nearly 200 animals per year? There is simply no easier way to help animals and prevent suffering than by choosing plant-based foods over meat, eggs, and dairy “products.” – Peta
3. They want to improve their health
Source : Krupa Shah Cordeiro, Understanding Whole Foods Plant Based
But it is not smooth sailing for brands present in the plant based food space.
Food preferences are deeply rooted in our upbringing, traditions and culture, our belief systems, our taste obsession. Hence, people often get aggressive or defensive when their food beliefs are challenged or if someone tries to preach to or modify those.
Target Group For Vegan Foods
So, to promote itself, any food brand present in this space needs to first bifurcate and understand who it is speaking with.
It is one thing to have demand for vegan foods from people who are already convinced of its value, but another to entice those people who either have not heard of it, are indifferent or who don’t believe in its proposition, yet.
So, I like to split the TG for vegan foods thus:
- Plant-based eaters i.e. people who are dedicated vegans, eating only vegan/ whole food plant based food. They may comprise of less than 1% of the population in India, currently. So we need to look at the other two groups, if we want to see better traction.
- Flexitarians i.e. people who understand and appreciate the plant-based eating philosophy and try to follow it as much as they can. They are largely but not exclusively plant-based eaters. They may wish to convert to it 100% but are unable to do so.
- Everyone else i.e. people who are either unaware of veganism and its benefits, those indifferent to plant-based eating and those who don’t agree with those benefits.
On the other side of the vegan foods equation, we have vegan foods brands. Lets take a closer look at what comprises ‘vegan foods’ for the purpose of this article, shall we?
Vegan Foods Sub Categories
Like above, I have split the big space of vegan foods into the following sub categories:
- Packaged, ready to eat or ready to cook vegan foods (e.g. dairy alternatives for milks/ chocolates/butters; or plant-based meats or tofu or vegan packaged snacks, etc)
- Restaurants with largely vegan and plant based menus
If I Were Marketing Vegan Foods…
To Plant-Based Eaters
Now, If I were marketing either category of vegan foods to the first TG i.e. the plant-based eaters, it would be relatively easy.
Their biggest barriers to purchase:
- Lack of awareness of the plant-based alternatives and brands out there
- Affordability of plant-based alternatives
They are generally actively looking for affordable dairy alternatives and plant-based alternatives. So all we would need to do is reach as many people as we can, convince them of the value for money (VFM) aspect of our vegan foods and we should be good to go.
Marketing ideas to increase brand awareness amongst plant-based eaters:
We can reach a wider set of this plant-based TG by using the usual mass media of digital communication:
1. Social media marketing: FB groups, challenges like Veganuary, online courses and webinars such as those by Sharan India, Instagram stories, Whatsapping recipes, etc
2. Digital ads: FB ads, Instagram ads, Google Display ads, etc
3. Influencer marketing
4. E-commerce advertising and remarketing
5. Recipe book: Publish recipe books sharing how your packaged foods can be made into different delicious meals
6. Crowdsourced products:
Plant-based eaters community is a small tight knit community. Each member passionate about this way of eating. What if we create a crowdsourced product or brand of vegan foods involving this vocal and active community?
Think Kickstarter. It is crowdsourced funding. So we do crowdsourced product ideas. Or think WordPress. It is for the people, by the people, of the people. So we convert our vegan foods business into one that can be community led or based or managed. Perhaps the new product innovation pipeline is created and curated by the plant-based community. If the community is involved, brand awareness is not going to remain an issue.
Marketing ideas to convey affordability/ value for money:
7. One by two: To make it more affordable, offer an empty jar or bottle along with your product. Objective is to encourage people to share half with whoever they wish to. Just like we get 1 by 2 soup in restaurants in India. This automatically makes it more affordable. Unlike smaller pack sizes, this 1 by 2 allows us to reach newer customers as people share more.
8. Sell sampling pack sizes: If only one person from the family is plant-based, they may find it difficult to take the regular pack size, lest the item goes bad before she can fully consume it. So why not offer extremely small sizes such as sachets to allow even a single person to buy?
9. Subscription box: Offer a weekly or monthly subscription box of our vegan foods that make the combined value of each item affordable.
10. Stock-up Saturdays: Every Saturday, we can offer our products at wholesale prices to encourage bulk purchases. It will be like a flash sale, albeit a predictable one. Even if people defer their purchases to the weekly discount, the volumes would help make up for loss in value.
11. Cook a freebie:
During Covid, many restaurants sold DIY meal kits where they sent prepped ingredients and a video link on how to put together their signature dishes at home. As a packaged vegan foods maker, we can adapt this idea.
We launch cookery classes and offer our product as part of the freebie cooking kit. The cooking kits must contain all the ingredients that people would need to make multiple dishes. Those ingredients of course would also include our products. For e.g. we design a 20 recipe cookery course. Of these 20, only 15 recipes would use our vegan foods as ingredients. Remaining 5 recipes would be bonus. This way, people get VFM vegan foods and knowledge they can use forever.
If I Were Marketing Vegan Foods…
To Flexitarians
Now to create consideration and purchase intent among the 2nd group of TGs i.e. the Flexitarians, we would need some more effort in addition to the ones mentioned above.
Additional barriers to purchase for flexitarians:
- Difficulty giving up their favorite non-vegan foods i.e. cravings
- Limited accessibility and challenges in social situations i.e. difficulty transitioning
If we can address these issues for them, we may be able to attract more Flexitarians to our customer base. So how do we do that?
Marketing ideas to ease transitioning and cravings
12. Taste-o-thon:
Standard Chartered started the Mumbai Marathon decades ago. Over the years, people who were not runners, started participating and actually running. Some did it out of FOMO, others did it because they wanted to tick it off their bucket lists, yet more did it to stretch their limits. In a similar vein, what if we launched a Taste-o-thon where we invite people to stretch their taste buds as far as they can go?
World Resource Institute’s research has found that using words like vegan, veganism in the food industry’s communication has a deterrent effect on many. Instead, focusing on taste, texture, flavor, etc has a positive impact on sales. Hence, ‘Taste-o-thon’.
It can have multiple levels- 7 days Dream Run, 15 days…..going all the way up to 21 days. Based on their levels, they have to try one new food and give up one favorite food per day. The new and old food lists will be pre-decided. This way, they would slowly stretch their taste buds, their ability to control cravings and get introduced to each of our offerings.
For e.g. Day 1 (+) Cashew cheese nachos (-) Ghee and butter for the day.
Day 2 (+) Try kale smoothie (-) No milk for the day.
So on and so forth.
To execute, we could tie up with others in the vegan foods space (more the merrier). We email recipes that help make the new item delicious.
They can have the option to buy and use our brand for the Taste-o-thon at a highly discounted rate for that duration.
This becomes our Intellectual Property like Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon or Movember or Veganuary. It would yield wonderful results only if invested in for a longer duration.
Of course, the best impact will happen if we can gamify it. People get to flaunt their levels of trying new foods- I am at level 5 i.e. I have tried 10 unique foods. I am at level 7 i.e. I have tried 14 unique foods.
13. Pouchy packaging:
During research, I came across this unique packaging from Uten on Trendhunter from 2011. This packaging has a pouch tied around the jars and boxes. Each pouch is stuffed with recipe cards for the item within the jar. This is an eye-catching and interactive alternative to a recipe book.
For the Flexitarians, they find it challenging to transition because they don’t really know how to keep their taste buds satisfied without their favs. If they were given recipes to make delicious vegan foods, that offer the same familiar taste, in an interactive and engaging format, they are more likely to play around with them and try our product in the process.
Lets take a break here. In the next post, we will continue with more marketing ideas that will speak to both Flexitarians and Everyone Else combined. You can read it here.
