Bruce McIntyre, CEO of the Australasian Plant-Based Association (APBA) writes his thoughts on how the plant-based food and beverage industry can strategically position for growth during challenging market times.

Before I get cracking, my disclaimer is that I’m not a marketer. But everywhere I go, and everything I do I process information relating to plant-based food and beverage products. I annoy everybody, and I mean everybody…friends, family, even strangers in the supermarket, to better understand their thoughts, behaviours and attitudes about plant-based foods and beverages.

So yes, I’m Mr Anecdotal, but here are my thoughts. In such a polarising time of humanity, I am seeing two levels of consumer barriers that need to be addressed to build sustainable sales of plant-based foods and beverages. The first is a perception. A large portion of societal perception is that people who are vegans or who promote eating plant-based meat are hard-line environmentalists.

As data out of the US indicates a decline, or at least a plateau, of plant-based meat sales, some commentators suggest that the market is at saturation point.

With significant capital investments there is the obvious expectation on returns. The pressure is on to convert the hearts and minds of consumers into higher plant-based sales globally.

The second consumer barrier is product credibility. Credibility covers two aspects across behavioural drivers including trust, value, variety, convenience, nutrition and affordability, along with experiential drivers including taste, texture and mouth feel.

So as the saying goes; if ‘perceptions are nine tenths of the law’, then we have a big job in front of us to gain the hearts and minds of the broader pool of consumers. 

If we are going to have food security for the expected extra 2 million people on earth by 2050, then we need to be truly inclusive to engage everyone to build a sustainable plant-based industry.

As an industry I believe we need to simplify the narrative to be truly inclusive, by strategically positioning plant-based food and beverage as a healthy choice for flexitarians. The use of the term flexitarians is inclusive, non-judgemental and opens the door for growth to the whole marketplace.

Yes we need to understand how that messaging is delivered to each of the generational marketing sectors and especially the ‘Mum’ sector as they typically hold the weekly grocery spend which can significantly influence sales.

I’m not saying don’t educate consumers with your values across the environment, moral, health or other philosophical beliefs, I am encouraging the industry to target the flexitarian as a priority to maximise sustainable growth for our industry.

 Let’s not judge, let’s be truly inclusive so we can engage flexitarians…to drive growth from everyone, to include more plant-based choices into their daily menus.

The industry has the products in play, now we need to sell, sell, sell!!

I invite you to the Plant-Based Summit on the 17th July 2023 at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne. The Summit theme is how to get higher consumer sales from plant based food and beverage. Marketing insights into ‘generational marketing’ and into the ‘mum’ sector. We will explore these through the flexitarian lens to provide powerful tools to enable growth.

Be part of the brains trust and process to drive growth with co-opetition. Get involved and gain incredible insights, connections and build our collective industry voice.