The manner and scale on which we farm, slaughter, and consume non-human animals in the 21st century is perhaps the greatest moral cataclysm humanity has ever committed. Almost 100 billion land animals are slaughtered every year in the global food system, with the number of fish killed annually by humans sitting at more than 1 trillion.

As the world becomes increasingly developed and people are lifted out of poverty, their respective demand for meat correlates strongly. China’s per-capita meat consumption has risen from just over 10kg a year in the 1980’s to now being more than 50kg per person, in a time when their population has risen by only 50% but their poverty rate has fallen from almost 90% to less than 1%. The alleviation of global poverty is undoubtedly one of the most important projects for humanity to crack but the attendant rise in the raising of animals, often in unimaginably hell-like factory farms, is an issue that cannot be ignored.

In addition to the suffering inflicted on these beings, large-scale animal agriculture has devastating impacts on pollution (accounting for 18% of total CO2 ), deforestation (with beef production alone responsible for 41% of global deforestation), and anti-microbial resistance. Despite the numbers of vegetarians and vegans increasing significantly in the UK in recent years, it seems undeniable that our species has an insatiable desire for meat and animal products. Adopting more ethical farming practices is of paramount important, to at least reduce the suffering of these hundreds of billions of sentient creatures, but in and of itself this is not an adequate solution. Cell-cultured meat, however, could be the necessary silver bullet.

For a module entitled “Strategic Marketing Management”, as part of the Management (MSc) programme that I am currently studying for, we were tasked with conceiving of and proposing a new product for an already existing company, then developing a detailed strategic marketing plan. Thinking about the concerns related to the ways in which we farm animals, and inspired by many of the cell-cultured meat companies currently operating, I elected to construct my proposal around this space. Having now had the report marked and returned, I am excited to share it with you. Whilst there is a fair amount of business-jargon, I think it’s all relatively comprehensible and contains some interesting ideas. As ever, if you have any thoughts about any ideas expressed here, I’d love to hear from you.

Introduction

Finless Foods ought to develop and market a cell-cultured lobster product. Currently focused on tuna, their ultimate objective is to create “a future where the ocean thrives” by bringing to market “delicious and sustainable […] cell-cultured seafood” (Finless Foods, 2023). Developing and marketing a lobster product will aid them in their ultimate objective by enhancing their brand’s reputation, communicating their core values, diversifying their product range, and helping improve animal welfare and ecological standards.

Shiok Meats, a Singaporean company, debuted the world’s first cell-cultured lobster at an exclusive tasting event in 2021 but paused development this year because of “tightened finances” (Scalia-Bruce, 2023). Financially and reputationally, there exists enormous motivation to bring such a product to market. Lobster is a highly desirable and luxurious food, which will help both boost brand imaging and justify the necessarily high price of cell-cultured meats (Parker, 2022). Such a product would also have significant environmental and ethical benefits. Live-lobsters experience pain (Valente, 2022) and frequently encounter horrific treatment, being “impaled, torn apart, and decapitated” in slaughterhouses and boiled alive in restaurants (PETA, 2018). All lobster is wild caught (Grodinsky, 2023) and this has devastating impacts on many aquatic populations (ASMFC, 2021; MSC, 2022). Additionally, lobster stocks on the Atlantic coastline, where 60% of the world’s lobster are caught (Western Rock Lobster, 2022), are set to be devastated by warming waters (Greenan, et al., 2019). Cell-cultured agriculture provides a safe product, free from pesticides, growth hormones, and disease, requiring no animal suffering and reduced environmental impact (Gaydhane et al., 2018).

Mapped onto Ansoff’s Matrix, cell-cultured lobster represents a new product within a new market, thereby seeking diversification but increasing risk. More accurately, however, it is a “new class of product” (McKinsey, 2023). Finless Foods are ideally positioned to champion the social change and altered consumer preferences necessary in this arena, and disruptive innovation provides the necessary means (Christensen, 2006; Neely & Hii, 1998).

Strategic Analysis and Objectives

The VUCA nature of the world makes change inevitable, and businesses must use information, acquired through environmental scanning, to prepare for and anticipate it. A SWOT analysis will be deployed here due to the significant insight it provides of internal and external influences (Hooley et al., 2017, p. 39). A range of PESTEL factors will be highlighted throughout.

Finless Foods have several key strengths. Reputationally, they’re identified as a “promising alt-seafood compan[y] to watch” (Enerva, 2022) and have received ample public awareness, garnering spotlights in Forbes and The Guardian (Kart, 2022; Canon, 2023). Financially they’re well-positioned, having raised $34 million in investment in 2022 (Kart, 2022; Business Wire, 2022). Legally, they are on track to achieve regulatory approval by 2024, becoming the first company to offer “cell-cultured bluefin to US consumers” (Canon, 2023), whilst technologically they are developing rapidly (Chen, 2022). They also have multiple weaknesses. Future capital may be a cause of concern and regulatory approval still provides a major obstacle for cell-cultured meats (Ko, 2023). Furthermore, Finless Foods’ name is not the biggest in the cell-cultured seafood industry, with ‘Wildtype’ raising $100-million and developing “sushi-grade” salmon (Kateman, 2022), and BlueNalu strategically partnering with Mitsubishi (Fishfarming Expert, 2022).

The opportunities within this space are phenomenal. The industry has huge demand and promise, with a potential market-cap of $25 billion by 2030 and no current market leader (McKinsey, 2023). Regulatory approval is possible, with Upside Foods recently being approved to sell cell-cultivated chicken in the U.S. (Scalia-Bruce, 2023) and industry-wide technological advancement driving down costs (Hong et al., 2021). Additionally, animal suffering and ocean destruction could be immensely reduced. There are also significant threats. Despite using less energy, water and land (Tuomisto & de Mattos, 2011), the financial viability of cell-cultured lobster remains a “common challenge” (Ko, 2023). Competition within the market is probable, with Upside Meats acquiring a cell-cultured lobster start-up (Upside Foods, 2022), and the possibility of Shiok Meats’ re-entry remaining. There is also concern regarding the public perception of cell-cultured lobster, with most objection relating to perceived unnaturalness, neophobia, and trust factors (Siddiqui, et al., 2022).

Objectives

The embryonic stage of this industry dictates that Finless Food’s strategic direction with this product ought to be growth oriented. They should focus on informing and persuading to achieve the following SMART strategic objectives (Ogbeiwi, 2017).

• Establish Finless Foods as the biggest name in the cell-cultured seafood industry;
• Improve public perception of cell-cultured lobster desirability by 20%;
• Establish cell-cultured lobster market dominance;
• Improve awareness of negative ethical and environmental impacts of lobster fishing by 30%.

Target segmentation

Market segmentation is essential for establishing “meaningful differences” between consumers’ needs, which enables better competitive positioning and marketing strategy (Hooley et al., 2017, p. 159; Brassington & Pettitt, 2007, p. 113). The target segment will be highlighted using background characteristics to establish “probable and non-probable users” because sociocultural factors highly influence attitudes to cell-cultured proteins (Siddiqui, et al., 2022). (Hooley et al., 2017, p. 172).

The target consumers will be US-based, due to their considerable GDP (worldometer, 2023), highest global lobster production and consumption (Statista, 2023), and high receptivity to cell-cultured meat, with three-quarters of Americans being ‘willing to try’ (Bryant et al., 2019). Additionally, restrictive regulations mean there’s “no path to market” in the U.K. and EU (Cuff, 2021) and China remains years away from approval (Ko, 2023). The archetypal target customer persona is a female liberal young professional, with ethical and environmental awareness.  Women are more open to eating cell-cultured meats (Bryant & Barnett, 2020), as are younger customers (Bryant & Sanctorum, 2021) and political liberals (Wilks et al., 2019), whilst the product pricing necessitates a wealthy target consumer. Communication of the varyingly salient consumer wants and needs, as well as costs and convenience, will now be detailed.

Critical Discussion of Strategy

The “4 C’s” framework will be deployed to formulate this marketing plan. Establishing consumer wants and needs is essential for product differentiation and positioning. Consumers primarily identified animal and environmental reasons for favouring cultured meats, whilst the words ‘consumers’, ‘FDA’, ‘clean’, and ‘animals’ featured frequently within social media engagement (Bryant & Barnett, 2020; Specht et al., 2020, p. 7). Thereby, the differentiation focus will be on product attributes, the respective benefits of cell-cultured meat, and the company’s brand image. This marketing plan will employ a hybrid relationship and transactional marketing, to benefit customer interactions and relationships, whilst also maximising the focus on the product, increasing publicity, and optimising cost-effectiveness. The positioning for the customer needs to be functional, to meet dietary needs, symbolic, to make people feel moral and proactive, and experiential, to provide new sensory experiences and positive emotions. The positioning for this product needs to be centred around functionality, symbolism, and experience, as is reflected in its product statement:

“To bold customers who are ethically conscious, health-focused, and future-oriented, our product offers a world’s first: delicious, nutritional, clean, and ethically-sound lobster meat”.

Customer Journey Mapping (CJM) describes consumer touchpoints and is a useful tool for “understanding an organization’s customer experience” (Rosenbaum et al., 2017, p. 143). The intended customer journey for this product will take customers from not considering and talking about the environmental and ethical impacts of consuming lobster (Sanchez-Sabate & Sabaté, 2019) to doing so more often. From here, the journey will ideally extend to customers feeling like they are ethical and responsible for preferring cell-cultured rather than traditional lobster, thus boosting sales and reducing traditional lobster consumption (Bryant & Dillard, 2019, p. 4). Under the framework of Services Dominant Logic (SDL), customers are co-creators of the value of products, and this CJM process will enable the co-creation of the products’ ethical, healthy, and moral status whilst deepening the customer-product relationship (Galvagno & Dalli, 2014, p. 644).

Focusing on ‘costs’ instead of pricing enables increased customer-centricity (Solomon, 2009) but the direct pricing of product remains “the most accessible lever for manag[ing] profitability” (Kohli & Suri, 2011, p. 563). Customer demand is expected to be very high for this product due to many Americans not being content with plant-based proteins, the huge U.S. lobster consumption rates, and the lack of an identical alternative (Bryant & Dillard, 2019, p. 4; Statista, 2023). This high demand is, however, mitigated by the high production costs of cell-cultured meats. Assuming reasonable technological advancements, the wholesale cost of cell-cultured lobster could be as low as $29/lb wholesale, whereas traditional lobster prices hover between $10-15/lb wholesale (Garrison et al., 2022; FFAW, 2023). Thereby, this marketing strategy will deploy a loss leadermarketing approach, by selling the product at cost (thereby above ‘the floor’) to maximise market share and consumers reached.

The pricing will nonetheless represent significant cost to the customer, thus still communicating the high value of the product, but the cost will be mitigated by lobster’s luxury perception and the product’s perceived ethical benefits (Parker, 2022). A lengthy product lifecycle and market dominance is prioritised here over quick profits. The pricing structure will be dynamic, differing depending on the distribution channel through which the product is sold, but be capped at a fixed price, to prevent unethical practices like captive and predatory pricing (Rey & Tirole, 2019). Finless Foods’ significant capital reserves makes this economically sustainable, and the pricing will satisfy the strategic objectives by increasing brand image and product awareness, and in turn creating sustainable competitive advantage.

The consumer demand for instant gratification has led to the concept of ‘convenience’ succeeding that of ‘place’. Convenience still centres on assessing where a customer can access the value it is creating and requires the identification of ‘distribution channels’ (Farquhar & Rowley, 2009). This product’s marketing approach will utilise a highly exclusive multi-channel intermediary distribution strategy, to maximise reach whilst also maintaining significant control of the product image.

At launch, two retail distribution channels, selected for their closely aligned imaging and branding, will be utilised: Nobu Sushi Restaurant, and Whole Foods supermarket. Owning a sublime reputation, centred upon its “extraordinary style, service, and personality”, Nobu’s restaurants would be an optimal intermediary distribution channel for Finless Food’s cell-cultured lobster in the U.S. (Michelin Guide, 2023). Doing so would increase brand awareness, highlight the high quality of cell-cultured lobster, and provide further justification for the premium pricing (Fishfarming Expert, 2022). Similarly, Whole Foods Market have “redefined the supermarket experience” by cultivating a reputation based upon selling organic, ethical, and high-quality produce (Tillotson, 2006). Their ethical focus is particularly prescient regarding lobster. They stopped selling live lobster because of their prioritisation of the “quality of life for all animals” (NBC, 2006) and they have now stopped selling Maine lobster entirely (Yang, 2022). Both moves generated huge public debate and publicity.

The ‘loss leader’ pricing strategy and reciprocal brand improvement will incentivize these channels to sell the product. Selling the product in physical stores will bring benefits associated with immediate gratification and physical touch, whilst the wholly intermediary strategy will reduce costs associated with transactions, logistics, market intelligence, and after-sale support (Gadde, 2014). Customers will inevitably encounter reduced convenience, in access, search, and possession, but this will be tolerable due to the distinctive and high-value nature of this product. The exclusive selection of the intermediary channels will promote brand awareness and values, increase positive customer-product perception, and justify the high-costs of the product. These factors combined satisfy the strategic objectives and create a path to sustainable competitive advantage.

Communicating with customers is essential for understanding their preferences and communicating brand and product value (Hooley, et al., 2020, p. 352). Marketing communication encompasses three key areas: message, tools, and media (Holm, 2005). As has been established, the product’s key message is that cell-cultured lobster offers a healthier, more ethical, and environmentally friendly alternative to caught lobster. Thereby, the messaging has a moral, rational, and emotional slant. Establishing a ‘brand archetype’ is influential in communicating brand image to customers, with recent research suggesting that creating multiple simultaneous brand archetypes is benifical (Merlo et al., 2023). Considering this, Finless Foods ought to position themselves as ‘The Hero’, ‘The Creator’, and ‘The Sage’, to communicate their desire to create positive change, their innovative capabilities, and their understanding and competence.

Developing a ‘story’ sells a product to customers. Finless Foods ought to amplify their quest to save the oceans and reducing animal suffering. To aid this, an advertising campaign centred around two fictionalised animated lobsters, Shellby and Clawdia, should be developed. This campaign will communicate the product’s story as well as the image of Finless Foods. The creative and positive nature of this approach will boost engagement (Schneider et al., 2021).and extensive research has shown anthropromorohisation and focusing on individual characters to boost empathy (Kahneman, 2011; Malinowska, 2021).

A mix of paid, owned, promoted, and shared tools in both digital and traditional media will be utilised. Research has shown education and media coverage to be vital in communicating the benefits of cell-cultured meats, with social media being particularly useful (Siddiqui, et al., 2022). The biggest influencers on social media in this space are cell-culture companies, so Finless Foods ought to intensely develop their own website and social media presence, and collaborate with animal welfare organisations to create viral social media (Specht et al., 2020, p. 12). This provides cheap, direct, two-way communication with the target consumer and easily measured results. Additionally, podcasts, such as Joe Rogan’s, are influential in shaping opinions around cell-cultured meat, so the Finless Foods’ CEO ought to engage with them and share the story (Specht et al., 2020, p. 13). Finally, direct marketing on TV and radio, paid promoted content on social media, and targeted digital advertising should be used boost brand awareness if these measures are underperforming.

Control and Implementation

The utility of marketing is contingent upon effective implementation and subsequent measurement (Solcansky & Simberova, 2010). KPI’s are metrics for assessing performance and the four identified here are a mixture of soft, hard, and “Triple-Bottom Line” focused, to align directly with the strategic objectives.

• KPI 1: Finless Foods identified by target consumers as the primary cell-cultured seafood company in 2 years’;
• KPI 2: U.S. public perception of cell-cultured lobster to improve by 20% in 4 years;
• KPI 3: Finless Foods being the first company to bring cell-cultured lobster to market;
• KPI 4: Increased public perception of lobster fishing and environmental degradation by 30% in 4 years.

Due to the independent and temporally differentiated nature of the KPI’s, the control and evaluative processes will be carried out at different points, as will their corrective measures. Social media polls will be used to assess both KPI 1, whilst further academic research will be funded to assess KPI2 and KPI4. KPI 3 will be assessed as and when it happens. These KPI’s will be effective measures as they are focused, sufficiently consistent, relevant, and accessible.