The more the vegan and vegetarian trend spreads, more are the opportunities created for businesses to differentiate themselves ■ Shlomit Hoch-Grönvall offers marketing tips to ride the trend.
Date of publication: January 27th, 2013
“Breaking laws, from Jesus Christ to Nelson Mandela, from Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King, laws have always been broken to facilitate substantive change.” So begins the famous lecture at Georgia Tech in the summer of 2010 by vegan activist Gary Yourofsky.
One may say many things about Yourofsky, who has made waves and created disagreements throughout Israel. But it seems that the most powerful addiction of mankind, and certainly of Israelis – meat eating- has been undermined by his speech. It is not a trend. Neither is it a passing phenomenon. It is a new path, if not a revolution.
Restaurants add vegan dishes, parents teach their toddlers new eating habits (while terrifying the grandparents), Miki Haimovich, who founded the campaign “Meatless Mondays”, recruits more and more chefs, and so on.
So there is a change of consciousness. A change that does not concern only our stomach, but touches many areas – social, consumer, economic, and even political. This change also affects small and medium businesses and entrepreneurs who know how to read the signs, identify the demand and adapt to the winds of change. Consider a young entrepreneur, a devoted mother who is also a natural born cook, who runs her own business of home catering services. Let us imagine what could happen if she ran a vegan business using vegan lifestyle as a marketing message: its importance, the creativity in it and its deeper message. A clear and unique personal voice.
This clear differentiation can represent a strong personal voice easy to connect to. It is easy to market it to a differentiated and high quality audience, a loyal audience that will return over and over again because they believe in this way and in the product. The benefit can be very clear to the customer, and her commitment to the product and to the business will be strong.
The marketing plan of a business with a clear personal voice can be much more efficient.
How? Here are some points to consider:
- The loyal customers will connect with your personal voice and, as loyal and enthusiastic followers of your marketing programs, will help you market it on social networks and on the Internet. They will do it because they will believe in what you tell them.
- Your customers will do a great job of word of mouth amongst those who are similar and close to their worldview and help you reach the audience you are looking for.
- Collaboration from the same content world will be obvious and flowing, and will open a wide door for more sources of income.
- As the business owner you will be connected to a focused industry that will feed you with knowledge and opportunities of the field.
- The owner’s passion for her business will be greater since it will coincide with her personal values - and there is nothing more effective and contributing to the relationship with the customer than that.
The author is a marketing writing expert and founder of Concept Teller.
