Beyond Meat’s plan for global domination: Audiences, Strategies and GTM tactics.

Beyond Meat is a US-based manufacturer of plant-based meat substitutes that produces substitutes for meatballs, ground meat, patties, chicken strips and beef. With an annual revenue of US$406.8 million and gross profit of S$122.3 million, Beyond Meat is a profitable leader in plant-based substitute meat products primed for growth through the implementation of an effective marketing plan. This plan will cover the audience, strategies and activities for an effective Beyond Meat marketing plan.

Audience: The audience for the Beyond Meat plant-based meat substitute product are primarily young, urban consumers in higher-income neighborhoods who identify as vegan or vegetarian, and who support sustainability and environmental conservation initiatives (Keefe, 2018). Beyond Meat consumers are 61% more likely to be young vegans or vegetarians, and to come from higher-income cities such as San Francisco and New York (Keefe, 2018). Furthermore, Beyond Meat customers are likely to consume sustainable alternatives such as high-agricultural yield grains, non-plastic biodegradable packaging and sustainably sourced Fairtrade commodities, as a way of reducing their personal environmental impact and carbon footprint (Rosenfeld & Tomiyama, 2019). Beyond Meat customers are also interested in reducing their single-waste use, and are challenged to live in a more ethical and sustainable manner. They are also likely to be more politically active on social media or e-commerce sites such as Amazon or Facebook, which is where their customer journey often begins in searching for sustainable alternatives. They are then likely to interact with online communities or chatbots to learn more about the sustainable alternatives, followed by research on the company’s website and news reports to ascertain if a product is genuinely sustainable or if it is simply greenwashed (Loyez, 2020). These demographic, psychographic and user-based characteristics provide a clear targeting profile for Beyond Meat customers. Based on the above, Beyond Meat should deliver value through a sustainable and ethical product that helps users reduce their carbon footprint.

Strategies: Beyond Meat aims to raise awareness and consumer adoption of meat substitutes in its key markets of the United States and Western Europe, and grow at a revenue rate of 5% per year in the short-term (up to 2025) and 10% per year (up to 2030) (Beyond Meat, 2021). Beyond Meat also aims for a brand lift in perception on key social media channels of 10% per year, and an increase in conversion rate to 20% per year. To achieve these goals, Beyond Meat should use a digital-led marketing strategy on social media, email newsletters and websites to engage the digitally native target audience (Keefe, 2018). This strategy should create engaging, novel and compelling content to educate consumers on the environmental and health benefits of meat substitutes. The use of social media marketing and influencers should also be used to create a premium meat substitute brand that would justify the premium pricing for at US$16 per pound.

Activities: To engage, educate and convince the target audience of the value of Beyond Meat, the company should use a digital-led social media marketing campaign in partnership with key influencers (Weinrich, 2019). This should involve the use of mini-documentaries, banner advertisements and interactive games on key social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, which would effectively engage the young, urban target audience. Leads generated from these campaigns should then be sent to clickthrough to detailed newsletter and product information on the website for additional lead nurturing. At this point, leads should then be willing to convert to product purchasers. This would involve a budget of US$1 million per year, with US$200,000 for production costs, and US$800,000 split equally between Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and targeted programmatic advertising. The diversification of the media plan would allow for the campaign to effectively reach and retarget the target audience with relevant content at multiple touchpoints. Finally, in terms of measures of success, the campaign should be measured in terms of reach, impressions, social media brand uplift/sentiment analysis, engagements for likes, shares and comments, and lead conversion rates.

References

Beyond Meat (2021). Beyond Meat Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Financial Results. Beyond Meat. https://investors.beyondmeat.com/news-releases/news-release-details/beyond-meatr-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2020-financial

Bryant, C. J. (2019). We can’t keep meating like this: Attitudes towards vegetarian and vegan diets in the United Kingdom. Sustainability, 11(23), 6844. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11236844

Choudhary, A. (2020). Sustaining a First Mover Advantage in a Fast-Growing Meat Substitute Market. Rutgers Business Review, 5(3), 405–415. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3831681

Keefe, L. M. (2018). # FakeMeat: How big a deal will animal meat analogs ultimately be? Animal Frontiers, 8(3), 30–37. https://doi.org/10.1093/af/vfy011

Loyez, M. (2020). Make the most of the green rush by avoiding the greenwash. Equity, 34(9), 16. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/INFORMIT.503052976655336

Rosenfeld, D. L., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2019). When vegetarians eat meat: Why vegetarians violate their diets and how they feel about doing so. Appetite, 143, 104417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2019.104417

Van Loo, E. J., Caputo, V., & Lusk, J. L. (2020). Consumer preferences for farm-raised meat, lab-grown meat, and plant-based meat alternatives: Does information or brand matter?. Food Policy, 95, 101931. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101931

Weinrich, R. (2019). Opportunities for the adoption of health-based sustainable dietary patterns: A review on consumer research of meat substitutes. Sustainability, 11(15), 4028. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154028