Beyond Burger

Introduction:
Marketing mix is a set of decisions or activities in response to the target market of a product, which
also refers to as four Ps: product, price, place and promotion (Grewal et al 2017). Beyond Burger was
launched by Beyond Meat to Australia in December 2018 (Beyond Meat 2018). The target market and
value proposition of the product was identified in case study part A. Beyond Burger targeted at
nationwide urban and suburban customers, including all vegan, vegetarian, omnivores and meat-
eaters, who pursue a healthier and greener life and look for good taste and nutrition for a regular meal.
Its value proposition is a plant-based ‘beef’ burger that is meatier as it looks, cooks and satisfies like
beef; healthier as it is high protein, low saturated fat, and GMOs, soy and gluten free; and greener as
its lifecycle is resource-saving and low pollution than its competitive meat and meat-free products.
This essay will demonstrate how Beyond Meat would use marketing mix to create value through the
product, set a price that captures the value, deliver the value through placement, and communicate its
value proposition through promotion.

Product:
Integrated marketing mix is the foundation of marketing theory. It is designed to set a range of
elements that a company can leverage to the purchasing behavior of their targeted clients
(Varadarajan, R 2018). Traditionally, 4Ps institute marketing mix: product, price, placement
(distribution) and promotion. These factors are indispensable for a marketing executive to synthesize
the visible and invisible qualities of a product with the aspirations of the target groups (SĂvescu, RF
2011). Beyond burger targeted itself to Australian market who has been increasingly concerned about
health issues such as diabetes or obesity and natural hazard such as climate change and global
resource constraints. It is an opportunity for them to incorporate 4Ps strategies into their sustainable
brand to expand more market shares in a sustainable long-term business.
Product is an essential strategy, companies are commitment to offer a qualified product that reacts to
the needs of its desired target market, it is more relevant to satisfaction or fulfillment, and a product
can be tangible in the form of goods or intangible in the form of a service (Ozturkoglu, Y 2016). In
the context of Beyond Burger (BB), there are three dimensions involved in to deliver its value
proposition to meet its target market. Initially, as a food commodity, BB is classified into
Convenience, Keillor, BD et.al (2002) point out convenience goods features habitual purchase, little
comparison or shopping effort, and convenient (Varadarajan, R 2018). For example, the BB
commodities are readily available at supermarkets e.g., Coles or IGA stores across Australia (detail
evidence proved at placement), consumers do not require much time or effort to make a purchase
decision on, they can grab a burger regularly at any time once the food is consumed. Secondly, there
are three levels of product complexity’ that applies to BB - core level, actual level and augmented

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level which help company reach its business goals. The BB core not only caters for the prevalence of
contemporary health trend but also address environmental concerns globally on the basis of its soy-
protein meat quality combined with beef taste. Branding, packaging and labelling predominate at
actual level in the context of food products -BB. Cheng S (2019) introduces the main pictorial mark
features a bovine with a cape - Super Cow. Colors are a light green and a black, making it clear that
this is a veggie product, simple and clean. An Australian flag as a cape for Bovine which highlights
Aussie market entering. It is a very smart strategy to slogan on the Super Cow: ‘WE ARE THE
BETTER MEAT!’ even though brand their product the word “meat” rather than meat alternatives, which
indicates they may desire to target meat eater groups as well rather than only limited at vegans.
Additionally, a family branding strategy fits Beyond Meat and gives all of their products have
‘Beyond’ in the name, ranging from Burger, beef, pork sausage to chicken. This strategy enriches the
variety of soy-based meat menu for diverse consuming groups, in order to meet consumers’ taste and
favor of versatility, and different cooking ways. In regarding to packaging and labeling of Beyond, the
eye-catching design is vibrant - with a strong pack architecture to ensure key information such as 20G
protein count and no soy/no gluten and GMO free are clearly visible on the pack to
appeal consumers to pick it up from store shelves to have a detail checking when shopping at meal
aisle (Derrick Lin 2016). Due to the environment friendly trend is emphasized, the feature of
recycling packaging is another key selling point, e.g., renewable resources for cardboard and 100%
recycled paper using soy-based inks on print, to align with its sustainable features of products. (Heller
M et al. 2018). As for associated services/Augmented level on the basis of BB, it can be product
support blogs through various social media e.g., Facebook, continuously posts product
campaigns/videos and consumers’ reviews, to maintain purchasing loyalty (evidence at promotion).

Promotion:
Promotion is communication that informs, persuades and reminds potential customers about a
product’s benefits to enhance customer perceived value and elicit a response (Grewal et al 2017).
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) represent the promotion, it is defined as incorporating a
variety of communication tools ‘to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communicative impact’
(Grewal et al 2017). Consistent and continue positive message sending is crucial to achieve marketing
success because it will influence customers response from awareness, preference to conviction and
affect customers’ favorable attitude and purchase motivation (Kailani 2012). IMC would send the
consistent message through allbrand touchpoints. Touchpoints are ‘any brand contact with potential to
deliver a message’ (Grewal et al 2017), and some typical touchpoints of Beyond Burger are public
speaking, email, social networks, website, seminars and media release. Through IMC, Beyond Burger
communicates a consistent core message that ‘it is a new breed of burger – build from plant’ which is
‘the future of protein’ (Beyond Burger 2020).

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The firm has used public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing and digital marketing as IMC
tools. Public relation is the communication activities designed to build and preserve positive brand
image and public relationship (Mikáčová & Gavlaková 2014). Beyond Burger has extensively used public
speaking in the form of seminar or interview on the global platform such as Bloomberg Technology
(2019), ideacity (2017), Goldman Sachs (2019), etc. The company involves media relation in the form
of news releases on Today, BuzzFeed and BRIT+CO to generate news coverage of the brand (Beyond
Meat 2020). Beyond Meat also invite global celebrities and influencers to be the ambassadors of the
brand CSR program, Feed A Million + (Beyond Burger 2020), which not only promote the product
through posts of these influencers but also communicate a positive and socially responsible brand
image to the public. Public relation is an effective method in shaping strategic messaging and
successful branding (Mikáčová & Gavlaková 2014) as it is of high credibility to build trust with many
prospects. Sales promotion is short-term incentive that encourage the purchase (Grewal et al 2017).
The company website provides a ‘$2 OFF’ coupons to stimulate demand and incentivize purchase
(Beyond Meat 2020). Direct marketing, delivering promotional materials individually (Grewal et al
2017), has been used in the form of email to remind the customers and develop lasting customer
relationships. Digital marketing is the focus of Beyond Burger marketing strategy, which is promotion
through digital channels like website, blog and especially social media. The brand social media
account was printed on the package of Beyond Burger as mentioned in the first P product. On these
digital channels, the brand regularly shares quality content like products information, ambassador
promotion video, tempting recipes, public presentations, etc., and customers can directly interact with
the brand by commenting the posting. Digital marketing is a powerful IMC tool because it can
facilitate customer engagement by involving, listening and responding to the customers and build long
term customers relationship.

Although Beyond Burger extensively use the internet to deliver its messages, surprisingly, there is
little evidence of using advertising, ‘A paid form of communication from an identifiable source’,
specifically internet advertising like YouTube short video ad inserted in the contents. Internet advertising
could be linked to detailed content and allows for specific targeting through viewer preference
algorithm (Grewal et al 2017). Beyond Burger has missed the opportunity to reach boarder area and
create awareness through internet advertising.

Conclusion
Beyond burger's current marketing mix targets a specific and narrow segment of consumers in
Australia. It effectively reaches the target consumers - who are high income, health considered, and/or
value animal welfare. However, there are limitations on its pricing, placement and promotion
strategies which drags it away from winning the Australia market.

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For the pricing strategy, Beyond Burger currently targets high-income customers with its premium
price. Facing the local competitors who offer similar plant-based burger patties with a lower price.
Beyond Burger potentially loses a considerable portion of the low to middle- income earners due to its
pricing position, especially the young consumers who will be the mainstream of the vegan/vegetarian
community in Australia. Data shows the two main reasons people choose a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle
is health reasons and animal welfare, where, low-income earners (42%), men (34%), born abroad
(33%) cited health reasons while higher incomes (49%), women (41%), born Australia (39%) cited
animal welfare (Sutton 2019). Beyond Burger as one single product, could not sufficiency serve two
different types of consumers with different income, culture background and gender.

For the placement strategy, Beyond Burger appears low in stock in its two major retailers: Coles and
IGA. If consumers are not able to get the product when they need it, it is hard to enter the market.
This stock issue is related to its supply chain management. As the manufacturer is located overseas in
CA, USA, there are variables such as logistics cost, temperature control, inventory management,
which all need to be considered to have a sufficient stock level.

For the promotion strategy. Firstly, using a more localized approach in its promotion activities allow
the product to reach more potential customers, the traditional meat burger consumers in Australia in
particular. Secondly, little promotion work on pricing has been done to attract new customers. It
appears only in IGA online stores, it shows a promotion price of $7.99 instead of the original $12.00
per package.

To conclude, I recommend Beyond Burger reconsider its product line design, to have more products
in the product line that target consumers with different levels of needs, applying a localized
advertisement, and possibly a better placement strategy by adjusting its supply chain management. In
this way Beyond Burger will reach a broader segment of customers and eventually win the market in
Australia.