25A - What's Next?

Existing Market

What I think is next (when I say next I mean in the next few years, not int he far off future) is an increase in grocery stores and restaurants that only sell plant-based food, and also food delivery services like Hello Fresh that are catered to plant-based diets. These products seem to be on the rise right now and are especially popular in cities, which tend to lead with trends that trickle over to the rest of the country.

I talked to three vegetarians/vegans who are still relatively new to the diet (to to two years) and the three ideas they gave me based on what they think is next in the industry were these:

- A service for the elderly to maintain a healthy plant-based diet while also keeping track of vital nutrients (since the elderly need more nutrients daily to be healthy). 

- A government institution that regulates the sustainability of the food products we produce and import, eventually eliminating meat from mass production altogether. 

- A robot that prepares a specific meal plan (plant-based) for the consumer for every meal, which automatically regulates the diet to be balanced and contain all the daily recommended nutrients. 

New Market

A radically different market would probably be meat-oriented consumers who like barbecue and would never consider going vegetarian. A way I could possibly market towards these people is with barbecue substitutes (like jackfruit) and then basically trick them into realizing that meat substitutes are viable. Maybe this could mean partnering with vendors selling jackfruit pulled-pork sandwiches at a farmer's markets, music festivals, or county fairs, and then once the person falls in love with the sandwich then maybe those vendors can advertise for our app with a business card or something. We could include a discount code for those people so the app is half the price, and give them the jackfruit BBQ recipe as soon as they set up their profile.

I interviewed two omnivores, one who I knew was more open-minded and one who seems like the type of person who thinks eating meat makes them more masculine and cool. The first person, as I expected, said they would be more likely to download the app if they fell in love with a specific vegan recipe and then got a discount code for the app. This person said they wouldn't be likely to actually go vegetarian, but would consider using the vegetarian and vegan recipes if they were good. The second person had never heard of jackfruit and said that you need meat in your diet to be healthy, so they wouldn't even consider getting the app (and added that meat and dairy substitutes are "gross" and "a waste of money"). 

I wasn't surprised by the answers I got since I already knew the people I interviewed and has an idea of how close-minded they were to the whole plant-based diet. This new market could be profitable if the person is open minded and would be willing to use plant-based recipes, but some people are so against plant-based diets that they would never consider it. Those are the people who say "being vegan is for p****** and hippies" or "I like how meat tastes so why would I stop eating it". I get these reactions all the time when I tell people I'm vegetarian, so I wasn't surprised at the reaction of the second person. Honestly, I think this market would be too much work than it's worth. I could just stick to my original market and still be violently successful.