Kevin Ryan's: Culture Matters
Boundary-Less
Heinz said that they scoured decades worth of food blogs and forums to create their latest sauce creations for the Canadian market: Heinz Tarchup (Tartar sauce+ Ketchup), Wasabioli (Wasabi+ Aioli) and Hanch (Hot Sauce+ Ranch). The new flavors are available now for a limited time.
Plant-based cookie company Mmmly has officially opened for business. The brand claims to use vegetables, prebiotic fiber, fruits, and healthy fats in their cookies to fuel the brain, support gut health, and overall well-being. Founded by Michelin-star trained chef Nick Naclerio, the company promises good taste as well as good ingredients. One serving contains 5-6g of prebiotic fiber to boost gut health, 4g net carbs, and only 2g of added sugars, which is 65% less than its leading competitors.
Canadian-based Mid-Day Squares is expanding distribution in the US. The Millennial-led company produces plant-based bars formulated with hemp protein, sacha inchi protein, pumpkin seeds, dates, yacon syrup, maca powder and pink salt, topped with a layer of raw dark chocolate. A packet provides 12 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber. The refrigerated bars are also vegan, gluten-free and soy-free. Varieties include fudge, almond crunch and peanut butter.
UK-based Wheyhey has announced a Brownies and Cream expansion of their signature ice creams. The brand claims that their products offer the most protein of any ice cream in the UK and that they are the only natural sugar-free ice cream on the market. The product is also high in fiber, low in calories and made from grass-fed milk and cream.
Austrian-based Paddies Cheesetastic has received the 2021 Innovation award from the International Snack Industry. The product is a puff-pastry like nugget with a flaky, crispy exterior and a creamy, cheese-filled center. The brand reports that this is done without frying the product, but rather by baking the chickpea dough via induction technology. The resulting snack is high in protein and low in fat.
Meal delivery company Freshly, now a Nestle company, is partnering with regional and national restaurant chefs to offer limited edition meals through their service. Chef’s Special will be available through Freshly stating April 5th. Meals will change on a 10-week cycle and will include Chef Jet Tila’s Kung Pao steak with basmati rice and toasted cashews; Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s Escovitch steak with jerk broccoli, peppers and coconut rice; Chef Sean Brock’s oven-roasted pork chop; and Chef Kristen Kish’s sliced beef brisket.
So What?
I’m going to date myself here. At my first corporate job, laptops were so rare that you had to check one out if you were traveling (they weighed a couple of pounds). Cell phones, at the time, were dumb phones, and most people didn’t have one. All of which meant, for the most part, work stayed at work.
However, within just a few years, laptops became more ubiquitous. I remember the first time I undocked my new work laptop and took it home with me—it felt odd, unfamiliar, and foreign to power it up at home; a little bit of the office in my domestic space. But soon, smartphones were on the scene and we were installing protocols to allow us to check work email anytime. What at first felt strange, became commonplace. The sharp line separating work from home quickly blurred.
Of course, this line has all but disappeared now, especially with the pandemic. People now work from kitchen tables and couches, with colleagues and cameras (not just emails) peaking into our home life. Homes are now offices, schools and theaters, porous spaces for the rest of our lives.
But 2020 was just a year of acceleration, we’ve been losing the demarcation of other parts of our lives for a while. Time is now blurred as the reach of technology means nothing closes anymore. Healthcare has moved from the doctor’s office to our home and our devices. The difference between a grocery store, a restaurant and even a vending machine are now becoming less easy to discern.
So, it should come as no surprise that we are seeing products on the market that not only merge condiments, but also disparate categories (health and indulgence) and fine dining with microwavable meal delivery. In fact, I’d predict we will see a lot more of these blends. Our society is in an in-between phase, especially coming out of the pandemic, where things have yet to gel into a new normal. Now is the time to try new combinations and to stretch boundaries on what was previously normal. If your company wants to break into a new daypart, a new category or a new occasion—now is the time to do it!
***ANNOUNCEMENT***
I’m excited to announce that Malachite is partnering with Toronto-based AI anthropology company MotivBase to bring readers of Culture Matters exclusive content. What is MotivBase you may ask? They’re a global research technology company that utilizes big data (and PhD anthropologists) to help companies decode what consumers want and help companies get the answers faster. I think their reports will open your mind and stimulate their thinking—exactly what Culture Matters aims to do.
In the coming weeks and months, you will find links to exclusive data and reports specifically tailored for the CPG, foodservice, and retail industry (i.e., readers like you). In the meantime, here is a link to MotivBase’s Fireside Chat series (which I’m excited to be featured as a guest) and a description of the series from MotivBase’s founders Ujwal Arkalgud and Jason Partridge:
“In 2021, we will explore the role of anthropology in business with a series of thought leaders including Gillian Tett (Financial Times), Amber Case (Mozilla), Jennifer Hyman (Rent-the-runway), Meg Maupin (Atolla).
What really interests us in the application of anthropology to business is how we (as humans) make meaning, and create myths in the world around us.
Through our everyday interactions we assign meaning to words, ideas, things, in culture. Often, we assign meaning without even knowing we're doing so. For example one of our guests, Karen Robinovitz, has completely transformed the meanings associated with slime. Along with her co-founder at the Sloomoo Institute, she has taken a commodity easily purchased at the local dollar store and turned it into a tool for therapy and relaxation, a tool for science education, for play (kids AND adults) and so much more. In Karen's hands, Slime takes on a whole new set of meanings, allowing her and her team to innovate in a space that otherwise may have been considered uninteresting.
It is exactly these types of stories that we'd like to surface and share with you through our Fireside Chat Series. Our guests are all experts at unearthing meaning - either through their skills as trained anthropologists, or through their innate nature-given gift as entrepreneurs and innovators. We're interesting in unpacking their stories in this series to demonstrate the value of taking an anthropological approach to business and innovation tasks. “
The Protein Ladder
Singapore-based Sophie’s Bionutrients, a next-generation sustainable urban food production technology company, has announced the launch of a new alternative burger made of microalgae. The new burger will have twice as much protein as traditional burgers. The company claims that the process is 100% plant-based and sustainable.
Sweet Earth Foods, a Nestle company, has announced an expansion of the company’s Mindful Chik’n line with the release of three pre-seasoned, ready-to-eat products. Each product serving has 13 grams of protein and four grams of dietary fiber. Products include: Shredded Seasoned Chik'n, Seasoned Chipotle Chik'n Strips, and Shredded Korean Style BBQ.
McDonald’s has officially announced that their new McPlant burger, currently being tested globally, is being supplied by Beyond Meat as part of a three-year strategic agreement between the companies. The partnership will also see the brands working to develop additional plant-based menu items as an alternative to existing chicken, egg, and pork options. Most consumers will get a chance to try the McPlant burger sometime in 2021.
Ireland-based startup Strong Roots is making expansion moves in the US through Walmart and Whole Foods. One of the fastest growing food companies in the UK, Strong Roots is a leader in plant-based meals and recently became the first plant-based Irish company to become a B Corporation.
So What? Last Friday, I had the pleasure of being a speaker, along with Vice President of Product and Regulation at Memphis Meats Eric Schultze, on the Center for Food Integrity’s webcast focused on cell-based protein. One of the things I discussed was the past and future motivations and tensions of consumers as they moved toward meat alternatives. Since then, I’ve gotten a lot of good questions and asks to expand on my thoughts---so here we go:
Choosing to eat less meat is not a new phenomenon. People have been dabbling with non-meat protein well before Impossible and Beyond Meat came on the scene. However, there is something about this round of veggie-based offerings (and the fermented and cell cultured options forthcoming) that’s fundamentally different from the tofu, seitan and Tofurky that many of us ate in college. There is a reason why I believe the latest estimate from BCG that shows that the alt protein market will grow by a 14% CAGR (to $290 billion) in the next 15 years—it comes down to balancing the protein ladder.
People decide to eat less meat for three fundamental reasons: ethical, environmental, and health (I’ll leave out novelty for now because it tends not to be a sustaining reason). However, people rarely stop eating meat all at once. Typically, it’s a gradual process. In my experience from studying consumers, people usually follow a distinct pattern of leaving beef first (“high cholesterol” “most indulgent” “most meaty of meat”), then move away from pork, then leave chicken, and finally leave fish. I call it the protein ladder because there is a definite progression. Of course, it’s not a straight shot. People regularly stop eating beef, then pork, and get to chicken, only to be enticed back into eating bacon. Or perhaps they’re at a barbecue and feel odd not having a burger with friends. In fact, some people spend their lives going up and down the ladder, never going full vegetarian (we'd call them flexitarian today). Net-net: there are forces on both sides of the protein ladder that push people to either leave meat or come back to meat. In fact, the reason only ~6% of the US is vegetarian/vegan can be explained by the ladder.
‘Meat substitutes’ and vegetarian meals of the past have never been able to truly disrupt the protein ladder. While they might have addressed some forces on the left (e.g., health claims), they often lost out on most forces on the right (e.g., cost, convenience, social pressure, and taste). However, what we are seeing arrive on the market today is radically different. The reason Impossible and Beyond have made such waves is that they have been able to address both sides of the ladder simultaneously.
On the left side, current plant-based offerings attack environmental, health, and ethical concerns head on, with Beyond actively pushing to make healthier versions this year. As for the right side, there was a reason that a ‘ground beef’ analog was smart beyond technical reasons. Everyone has recipes for ground beef. Its practical, convenient and fits into numerous social occasions (from barbecues to chili). By getting the taste right, and starting to offer products that mimic items at each rung of the ladder, today’s plant-based brands have made it possible for consumers jump off the ladder immediately. This could very well lead to large swaths of consumers moving to plant-based diets quickly, without being caught in a constant loop.
However, all this this does is set up a new ladder with plant-based, fermented and cell-cultured (and perhaps regenerative agricultural meat?) at the center. The left and right arrows are the same, but now it just becomes a matter of which brands/technologies can deliver best and keep consumers happy. On the left, alternative protein brands will push to be the most healthy, ethical, or environmental. On the right, brands will race to be the least expensive, have the best taste, and look/cook the best.
So, what technology will win the alternative protein battle? Who can balance the ladder the best?
Interesting Miscellany
Los Angeles startup company Sound Nutrition is launching their signature product called Sound Bites. The company uses ultrasound technology, instead of heat processing, “to gently vibrate ingredients together into a bite-sized snack. This process protects the nutritional integrity and true flavors of each ingredient, so there’s no need for added fillers to bind it together or excess sugar to mask the taste.” The snacks are available direct-to-consumer through the company’s e-commerce platform. Sound Bites contain two oval-shaped bites per pack, and each pack is available in a case of 12 priced at $72. So What? High pressure processing (HPP) revolutionized beverages and allowed for the explosion we’ve seen in raw juices and smoothies on the market. However, no one buys a juice because it uses HPP, but rather because it tastes fresher and the marketing plays on consumers’ desire for less processed products. Could ultrasonic be the HPP of food? Absolutely! However, I don’t think it will get there via advertising the tech, it will do it by offering a superior product with better flavor and texture and a cleaner ingredient deck (which Sound Bites appears to be doing). There is nothing wrong with advertising a technology, but only if it’s supporting a differentiating, desirable benefit. Otherwise, it’s just a gimmick, and gimmicks don’t last long.
Soft-serve ice cream shop Carvel announced a cereal version of their much-loved Carvel Crunchies (aka ice cream sprinkles). While the launch was slightly tongue in cheek (it was April 1st), the company is actually giving away boxes to in-store and food delivery customers from April 14-18. Carvel Crunchies have long been a favorite for customers and this cereal launch coincides with an expansion of the Carvel Crunchies line to include new cakes and shakes. Heinz had their own April 1st ‘launch’ of Cravy, a mashup of two Thanksgiving favorites Ocean Spray cranberries and Heinz gravy. This ‘launch’ was more Photoshop than reality, but Heinz has an open Twitter poll and if they get 250,000 votes they’ll make it happen. So What? Referring back to the Boundary-Less piece above, it’s getting much harder to tell the difference between real pranks and real launches these days. Is Carvel Crunchies cereal that much different from a whole box of Lucky Charms marbits? Is Cravy that different from Hanch? When humorous ideas are given credence, it tells me that brands aren’t pushing the envelope as far it could go in their innovation.
Erratum: In the last issue of Culture Matters, we reported on a new product from health and wellness holding company HumanCo called Snow Days. We erroneously said that HumanCo was the product of a SPAC when, in fact, HumanCo is the sponsor of a SPAC. We regret the error.
From Innovation to Ideation
Malachite can serve as guide, coach and inspiration in your company's journey toward a profitable pipeline. From consumer interaction, to whitepapers, ideations and prototyping, Malachite can help. Visit malachite-strategy.com for more info or email kevin@malachite-strategy.com.