We are a month away from our second Plant Based Summit and we are receiving lots of keen interest and questions about the purpose of the event. Last year’s summit was very focused on science and the global need to change our eating habits to survive the future when we start running out of farmed animal proteins. This was a great insight for all who attended. It was exciting to see how far along we were with our clever sciences and the large resource of global thinkers behind the need to make changes to feed the future population growth with sustainable protein sourced outside of traditional animal husbandry.

As a marketing professional, I plan to see this year’s event focus on and cover how we can engage the consumer to purchase processed plant-based products to feed the family, replacing the traditional meat and three veg. This part of the sales chain is mystifying many plant-based manufacturers who are struggling to get the sales they need to upscale their production schedules.

My background in the plant-based industry has been to help design and supply plant-based cafe milks to the global marketplace. I have been involved with some of the biggest and most successful international brands and have seen the cycle of consumer take up, so now I feel it’s necessary to put perspective on how this has happened and why consumers made the change from dairy.

Selling plant-based milk to cafe businesses was not easy to begin with and it was probably because the products that were available 10 years ago were very poor in taste, and the performance when heated and added to coffee was not good. What I could see was if a product was made which replicated dairy in taste, texture, and performance it would be an easy transition for the barista to be able to sell this alternative to the customer. We eventually made this happen with clever science. Suddenly, we had a market. The price point also had to be close to dairy so as not to restrict sales cost-wise. In most cases, the benefits of health and nutrition were secondary to the performance and taste when engaging consumers. The majority of people who have switched to plant milk for their coffee aren’t vegans or lactose intolerant, they have switched because they enjoy the taste of oat or almond milk in their cafe beverage and don’t have stomach upsets with dairy overload. Australia, New Zealand and the UK made for easy marketing because 95% of all out-of-home coffee purchases were milk-based drinks.

How do we convince consumers to try manufactured plant-based meals and not just cook up a heap of veggies? There are several factors we must address to make the ease of this change over to happen seamlessly and to break traditional habits of the home kitchens as well as eating out in restaurants and cafes.

Convenience is a big issue in switching people’s habits. We all know fewer people cook now so if you offer them a product that just needs to be heated and served it is more likely they will spend a bit more money on a ready-to-eat meal and once they try it they will make it a part of their weekly meal plan.

We also need to stop putting people into a lifestyle category such as vegan, vegetarian or carnivore. I believe most people are comfortable with being flexitarian in this modern world. The non-categorized dietary market is 55% and is the most likely market to try an alternative food option. Health, lifestyle and trends do control us a bit, but I think most people decide early in their lives what foods they like and dislike. 

The processed plant-based industry has been driven for a long time by patties and burger substitutes. However, as we know now plant-based protein can come in all forms, from seafood, eggs, crumbed chicken and plant-based dairy substitutes. I think the secret to engaging the consumer is we need to first start by putting plant-based foods on cafe and restaurant menus. Have our industry professionals create the great dishes that we all want to eat. We used skilled baristas in cafes to help promote plant milk, so let’s do the same and engage our chefs to make plant-based meals a regular menu item. And as most foodies will agree with me, if I have a good meal at a restaurant I will try and recreate that dish at home. 

The plant-based meat market has slowed its growth which is worrying for manufacturers who have all been scaling up and seeking investment. The Plant-Based Summit wants to address some of these issues by having the major decision-makers in one room and creating a brain trust of future leaders. We all agree science is a big key to expanding the product range, but I believe it’s now time for marketers to generate a way for future growth by engaging consumers. A plant-based future is a bit like climate change, we know there are issues, but we have all become very complacent about the real problem and are happy to ignore reality. I have a real issue with shock marketing that some dietary categories use too often. Shock value ends up being very negative and like the nightly news, it’s easy to switch off and ignore. Plant-based food and beverage is for everybody and should be fun and an exciting part of our daily lifestyle.

Please join us at the Plant Based Summit 2023 in Melbourne and be part of the brain trust of smart business leaders who are making a change to our future.