How Veganism Is Changing Marketing

Anyone tempted to think veganism is a trend should remember that people used to say exactly that about vegetarianism. Now, vegetarianism is clearly established and interest in veganism is continually growing. In fact, it’s already grown to a point where businesses need to pay attention.

With that in mind, Adele, owner of corporate confectionery business; Distinctive Confectionery, shares her tips on what veganism could mean for businesses of all kinds.

Understanding the rise of veganism

There are many reasons why people become vegan. Many of them relate to health. These include the need for people to watch their weight (especially with sedentary lifestyles). There is also growing concern about the use of antibiotics in commercial meat farming. In theory, only eating organic meat could resolve this last point, but it would be very expensive.

Other common reasons for becoming vegan include concern for the environment, sustainability, and animal welfare. People are becoming increasingly aware that meat-production is a resource-intensive activity. What’s more certain types of meat-production can generate further environmental problems. For example, cows are a notorious source of methane.

The importance of “part-time vegans”

Just as there are many reasons for people becoming vegan, so there are many different levels of veganism. At one end of the scale, there are strict vegans. Strict vegans will not use any product which has any animal ingredient in it. At the other end of the scale, there are “part-time vegans” or “flexitarians”. These are people who are sympathetic to principles of veganism but are less strict about how they practice them.

Much of the rise of veganism has been fuelled by people on the more flexible end of the scale. These are likely to be people who will choose vegan options whenever it is reasonably convenient for them to do so. They might not go (far) out of their way to find vegan options. They do, however, very much appreciate vegan-friendly products being offered to them. They are particularly happy if these products have decent environmental credentials.

Being prepared with vegan products

If you’re a food company, then you need to get on top of the demand for vegan products. Even now, failing to cater to vegans is likely to be limiting your market reach to some degree. Going forward, it could be a serious hindrance. You don’t need to convert your entire range to be suitable for vegans (not yet at any rate). You do, however, need to offer enough vegan options to be taken seriously.

This is particularly important for retailers and food-and-beverage outlets. Firstly, there will be more vegans looking for places to shop and eat. Secondly, there will be more non-vegans needing to find vegan-friendly options for people they know.

For example, if someone is doing the shopping for a family of three non-vegans and one vegan, they will be looking to find everything they need in one place. Similarly, if someone is organizing a group meal, they will be looking to find a location which can cater to all dietary requirements. This is increasingly likely to include vegans.

Rethinking your packaging

The rise of veganism is yet another reason to keep working and reworking your packaging to ensure that it achieves maximum impact with minimal use of resources. This is also likely to earn you favour with non-vegans since excess packaging is a widespread concern.

It’s also a good reason to look at how well your packaging markets your product to modern consumers, including (and especially) vegan ones. As a rule of thumb, you need to be slightly careful about placing your environmental/sustainability credentials front and centre. What’s more, if you do go down this route, you need to back them up very thoroughly.

This may seem counter intuitive, given that the environment and sustainability are both huge concerns for modern consumers. The key point to take away, however, is that modern consumers want to see companies treating environmental awareness and sustainability as baselines, not as direct selling points. It’s therefore often better to market the general benefits of your product and just hint at your ethical credentials.

One of the main benefits of this approach is that it can help you to avoid falling into the trap of “preachy” packaging. Modern consumers generally do not take kindly to being lectured on why they should buy a product. They are, however, usually open to being educated on its environmental/sustainability benefits as long as this is done both respectfully and succinctly.

Refreshing your marketing strategy

Similarly, now is also a good time to review your marketing strategy as a whole and see if it needs to be updated to reflect rising trends, especially veganism. When undertaking this review, there are two key points to keep in mind. Firstly, you want to look at how your product addresses the sorts of concerns vegans tend to have. Secondly, you want to focus on what you stand for, not what you stand against.

As with your packaging, you want to be sending out positive messages in a respectful and succinct (non-preachy) manner. What’s more, you need to be absolutely sure that those messages are consistent, both online and offline. This may involve rethinking not just your approach to content creation, but also your approach to running competitions and to choosing promotional merchandise.

This can create something of a challenge since environmentally friendly products often carry a price premium. On the one hand, this can be justified due to their benefits. On the other hand, many companies need to operate on tight marketing budgets, especially at this time. In general, the smartest way to square this circle is to look for vegan-friendly “treat food”.

Vegan-friendly food products, even sweet ones, are generally on the healthier side of the spectrum. This means that you can enjoy them while watching your weight. They also tend to have solid environmental and sustainability credentials and to be smart about their use of packaging. Treat foods are always popular as both competition prizes and promotional items. They’re also a very practical option for the donor as they are generally very easy to store, to carry and to send by post.