The American plant-based meat pioneer that responds to consumer needs & wants

The first time I tried Beyond Meat for the first time was at A&W, following Erin Ireland’s promotion of it in Toronto in 2018. I remember it tasting pretty phenomenal (it was already a decade since I’d had beef) but there was this lingering aftertaste on my tongue I wasn’t a fan of. Nonetheless, Beyond Meat spread like wildfire at restaurants and in grocery stores.

It was one of the first—if not the first—major plant-based meat alternative company to go public in 2009, which meant a lot more scrutiny from animal agriculture and the food industry alike. However, the company pivoted really well, putting out even healthier products in the last few years to combat the disinformation around meat alts being ultra processed and unhealthy.

I talked a bit about this in my interview with Karina Inkster for the No Bullsh!t Vegan podcast.

Let’s learn all about the marketing tactics behind this meat alt behemoth.

Date founded: 2009

Headquartered in: El Segundo, California 

Founder(s): Ethan Brown

Current CEO: Ethan Brown

Current COO: Jon Nelson

Current CMO/Marketing Director: unknown 

Annual revenue: $327m

Annual marketing budget: unknown

Here’s a Bloomberg interview with Founder & CEO Ethan Brown from 2022:

Products/services:

Beyond Meat offers a large line of plant-based meat products, including:

• Beyond Steak
• Beyond Bowls (Fajita, Teriyaki) 
• Beyond Chicken Tenders
• Beyond Burgers 
• Beyond Beef
• Beyond Sausage (Mild Italian, Hot Italian)
• Beyond Breakfast Sausage
  

Brand features:

1. Emphasis on clean eating and health 

Beyond Meat positions itself as a clean source of plant-based protein, focusing on dispelling the myths of the “long” ingredient lists that plant-based meats tend to have. Their products are GMO-free, soy-free, and use beet juice to mimic the bloody look of animal protein, whereas competitors such as Impossible are more focused on replicating the taste of meat as closely as possible, with less concern for natural ingredients.

It was the first company to cleverly position its green-packaged products in the meat department, potentially fooling customers into purchasing a cleaner version of meat. Other brands and meat packers followed suit with green packaging—their attempt at blue and greenwashing. Impossible swung back the other way and went red, so now we have the two competitors celebrating Christmas 😂

In this video, Ethan Brown describes the process of making their products to show transparency to their consumers and skeptics. He also talked about this direction when I saw him speak at Vegan Women Summit last year.

Beyond Meat’s website highlights the use of whole ingredients, such as peas, avocados, and coconut oil. Website visitors get a “healthy” feel as they scroll through its use of veggie-inspired graphics and images of an active lifestyle, again to combat the controversy around product ingredients.

2. Global Reach

Beyond Meat has successfully penetrated global markets with exposure in countries across nearly every continent, including North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and South America. Not only are their products sold in retail stores around the world, but the brand has also built strong food service partnerships, including a long-standing collaboration with A&W Canada that dates back to 2018.

In the UK, McDonald’s offers the McPlant™, which uses the Beyond Burger patty. In 2020, Starbucks China offered products using Beyond Meat. This successful global exposure and expansion is rare within the plant-based market. Competitors like Impossible have had trouble entering the EU market because of its strict food regulations.

Top marketing tactics

1. Social media trends

Beyond Meat’s marketing team does not fall short with grabbing onto trending topics online, even deep-cut ones like the nod to Ashton Hall’s controversial morning routine. It gets praise from commenters for being in touch with current online trends.

2. Educational marketing and thought leadership

Beyond Meat posts helpful, non-promotional content that’s relevant to its audience, like the best way to cut a bell pepper. This is a great example of BM knowing that a portion of their audience is likely in the kitchen cooking, but not necessarily professionals. Educational marketing is great for creating customer loyalty and cultivating its online community. It recently released its first documentary too.

Beyond Meat builds thought leadership by using recipe content that’s viewed as not promotional, but helpful to its audience, following suit from the plant-based alternatives that came before it.

3. Influencer marketing

Beyond Meat heavily relies on brand deals with TikTok and Instagram influencers to promote its products. This is most often in the form of recipe videos, which complement its thought leadership pillar.

4. Promotions

Beyond Meat also uses sweepstakes and giveaways, again to get products in people’s hands and mouths.

All of Beyond Meat’s top marketing tactics show that convincing the public to consume plant-based meat alternatives is a long game. They’ve been at this for over 16 years, but are taking the efforts of its predecessors way further.

Giveaways or contests and showing how to cook with your product is a great first step, but the use of social media trends and influencers markets brilliantly to a younger and less skeptical audience.

Website: beyondmeat.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/beyondmeat
Instagram @beyondmeat
LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/company/beyond-meat
YouTube: YouTube.com/@BeyondMeat
TikTok: @beyondmeat
X @beyondmeat

Are you a vegan who needs a hype woman to take admin or marketing off your plate so you can grow your biz? Contact me!