Purpose:
The 5th ‘P’ in the Sustainable Food & Beverage Marketing Mix

Let’s start with some promising news: 100 percent of marketers responding to the Quantis 2024 Food Report Survey have seen positive consumer changes around sustainability. More than half maintain that their customers are interested in sustainable products and willing to spend more to get them — so, there’s a huge opportunity for food and beverage brands and marketers to connect people with the products they desire.

But cultivating the next generation of sustainability-minded consumers requires groundwork. Marketers have a significant role to play, from product ideation to distribution.

E. Jerome McCarthy’s classic breakdown of the marketing mix, the 4 Ps — product, price, place and promotion — provide a good framework to explore where food and beverage marketing teams can insert sustainability into the conversation. We also recommend adding a fifth P, purpose, to provide a foundation from which they can make a larger impact. Let’s see how these 5 Ps can be applied.

Purpose

A brand’s purpose statement defines what is meaningful to a company and how they will behave while achieving their goals. It drives not only individual sales but company expansion — brands that prioritize environmental values in marketing outperform on both revenue growth and reputation.

Defining (or revisiting) a brand purpose is a valuable opportunity to ingrain sustainability into the foundation of a food and beverage company. Whether you perform this work in-house or through an external agency, the marketing team’s input and approval is essential.

A brand purpose should come from a deeply authentic place, distilling the company’s reason for existing into a short phrase. For a relevant stance on sustainability, tap into what is essential to the business itself: For example, a beverage company committed to clean water or a snack that uses upcycled ingredients.

Marketers can help evaluate both what is important to company leadership and what consumers value. This overlap gives a tighter focal point and a meaningful level of specificity to the purpose statement. Clean water where? Regional lakes and rivers where the ingredients are farmed. What kind of upcycled ingredients? Protein leftover from grain production. Attaching your brand’s purpose to real situations and experiences can help the consumer build a personally relevant case for purchase and loyalty.

Product

During product R&D, marketers can share insight into consumer demand and behavior that goes beyond quantitative surveys. This is useful information from a primary source that can push for ecodesign and inspire new recipes.

Increasingly, large brands are tracking consumer menu hacks — looking for ways their customers are ordering off-menu to satisfy their desires. Even marketers at smaller organizations can observe trends on social media.

Ask yourself how customer behavior is aligning with sustainability aspects of your brand’s purpose. Are home cooks mixing savory seasonings into your plain yogurt? Share this information with the R&D team so they can explore new product options. If vegan customers love your burrito with double beans, it may be a signal to add other plant proteins. The most natural human desires come through when people modify products to suit their taste.

Product and process education is another point for consumer engagement. More sustainable food is a simple enough concept to grasp in the abstract, but understanding why specific changes make a difference can steer consumer decisions. Content marketing and brand participation in the public conversation can establish your company as a leader with a dedicated interest in sustainability.

The emergence of novel ingredients such as lab-produced meats and other alternative proteins provides another opportunity to build a market through education. For example, about 64 percent of US consumers are unfamiliar with cultivated meat — which presents a prime opportunity to inform and appeal to a new audience.

Price

Many factors affect pricing, but consumers’ willingness to spend is the ultimate delimiter. Marketers, through close observation of customer behavior over time, often have a realistic sense of what the customer is willing to pay and how much of an increase they will accept. A clear understanding of price elasticity can help determine not only changes in products, but changes in marketing plans as new messaging becomes necessary.

Data suggest consumers might be willing to pay a premium for sustainability, although retailers observe that they won’t always follow through at the point of purchase. Increased acceptance and demand are a sign that sustainability has mainstreamed from premium benefit to standard expectation. Brands should take care to not undermine themselves by promoting sustainable goods as premium rather than mainstream; we can no longer afford to view sustainability as a luxury. This presents an especially acute challenge while inflation is high. Educating consumers about resilience and long-term access to affordable ingredients can help make the cost worthwhile.

As mentioned, a strong brand purpose rooted in sustainability helps build trust in a brand — which accelerates the acceptance of new products. This underscores how important that foundational work is for facilitating subsequent campaigns. Once your brand has a history and reputation to work with, attributes such as sustainability and corporate responsibility come with the territory.

Place

Place touches upon product manufacturing and insertion into the market. In the case of food and beverage, marketing teams can leverage factors such as ingredient origin, social and environmental responsibility in the region, and sustainable production processes.

Introducing new products, especially those with novel ingredients or preparations, relies on consumer curiosity and courage. While consumers can assume that commercially produced foods are safe to eat, there are no such guarantees of satisfaction or value.

In-person sampling is the obvious way to encourage customers to try a new product. Product placement in media can normalize new products and make them familiar. But equally important is situating the product in a cultural context — intersecting with consumers where they are searching for recipes, looking for ways to use an ingredient or considering takeout.

In-store placement also plays a big part in customer adoption. Placing sustainable foods and drinks at the ends of aisles and at point of sale makes it easy for customers to access them spontaneously. Placing plant-based alternatives alongside conventional, animal-based products increases visibility and drives stock turnover. It also makes it easier for flexitarians — omnivores who often choose vegetarian options — to choose plant-based options. Clear signage is also essential to introducing new products and appealing uses: Try our spicy seasoned tempeh in your next stir fry!

The contemporary version of “place” should also address the virtual spaces where shoppers are searching for products — so, today’s idea of place must include a comprehensive SEO strategy. If online shoppers can’t search for your product, they can’t try it. Pay attention to shifts in sustainability terminology and adjust keywords accordingly. Overuse and inconsistent definition of terms such as “green” has opened them to consumer suspicion and diluted their value. Phrases such as “Ways to use <product>” and “How is <product> made?” can ensure your campaign — and your therefore your product — is in the right place to be found.

Promotion

Promotion is the core of marketing strategies and there are so many ways to do it effectively that it’s easier to name the few Don'ts in sustainability marketing.

• Don’t make assumptions about transparency. Both greenwashing and greenhushing can negatively affect brand reputation and sales. Understand what your audience needs to hear but don’t remain silent. 58 percent of businesses under-promote their sustainability efforts and risk missing the mark with consumers and investors.

• Don’t lead with sustainability. A food product must appeal to consumers in taste, texture and value before it’s even in the consideration set.

• Don’t rely on outdated niche marketing to sell sustainability. It’s valued by a diverse group of people — feel free to break away from restrictive assumptions about who is buying. Marketers can mainstream sustainability by crossing previously sacred divides. Fast food can be vegan. Animal proteins can be cruelty-free. Mushrooms can build muscles and cocoa can be cooperative.

Marketing sustainable food is its own unique turf — where optimism, science and craving are blended into an emotionally charged mix. Harness these tools and tell a bold story that dares to believe in a better way. There is so much for marketers to tap into, and consumers are ready to hear it.

The need for sustainability efforts has outgrown the sustainability department, opening more opportunities for marketers to get involved and push progress forward. The 5 Ps expressed here are just a few places where you can blend more sustainability into your marketing mix. Use these as a starting point to encourage the holistic thinking and collaboration your company needs to be a food and beverage sector leader.

For more ideas and strategies for food and beverage sector sustainability, download Quantis’ 2024 Food Report: Recipe for Transformation.

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Published Oct 8, 2024 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST