Beyond Meat (BYND) is rolling out a new strategy in hopes of escaping the polarized debate surrounding plant-based foods: it will remove the word "Meat" from its product packaging while building a series of "Beyond" sub-brands across entirely new categories.
The company's current product lineup now includes Beyond Starmatter plant protein powder, Beyond Starcut meat-jerky-style protein bars, and a high-protein sparkling beverage line called Beyond Immerse.
Founder and CEO Ethan Brown said the company plans to rebrand around the concept of a "Phytosphere," building a plant-based product ecosystem. "'Beyond' will serve as the core master brand for all plant-based main-meal protein products; at the same time, we will build other sub-brands, each with its own story positioning," Brown said.
The company is in talks with several marketing agencies about a new campaign for next year, hoping to position the brand as a health-focused lifestyle that Brown calls "vitality mode," while deliberately avoiding the various political controversies surrounding meat.
I asked Patrick about the product label change: removing "Meat" from packaging could mean losing some hard-won brand equity, but keeping "Beyond" would leave the company still carrying the market backlash that plant-based foods have suffered. Is this rebranding hitting the perfect balance, or will it become a double-negative outcome that fails on both fronts?
Patrick: On one hand, they want to break away from the established labels of the original Beyond brand; on the other hand, they want to expand the boundaries of what that brand covers. That is very difficult to pull off. The corporate entity's name remains Beyond Meat Inc., but in press releases and financial materials it adds an alias: "also known as Beyond Plant Protein Company." This somewhat awkward approach precisely reflects the predicament the company faces.
But the logic behind the company's choice is very clear: demand in the plant-based meat market has been shrinking for some time, while the protein powder and protein beverage segments are growing. The company is betting that analyst Emily Weiss's judgment will come true: that a cycle of hype and market backlash surrounding plant foods has subsided, which would open a window of opportunity for them to ride the current protein consumption boom and attract new consumers who are adjusting their diets because they are using GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
But the company has tried multiple turnaround strategies in recent years, and so far all of them have yielded little.
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