Eat Real

Case Study & Marketing Plan for Eat Real, one of the UK's fastest growing vegan snack brands

Product Concept: Vegan Snacks

Healthy | Tasty | Eco Friendly

EatReal brings you a new, innovative and exciting snack, using only the best ingredients and flavours inspired from around the world.

EatReal is the perfect snack for everyone, being Vegan, Gluten Free, Kosher & Halal, not to mention being free from all 14 declarable allergens, resulting in an allergy free tasty snack.

Thanks to EatReal’s plant powered nature, these vegan snacks are highly sustainable compared to other snacks.

Vegan Chilli & Lemon flavoured Potato hoops. Spicy & Zingy, made from the finest quality ingredients bringing an authentic and exotic taste

Quantity: 80g
RRP: $5.40 – cost price $0.90 (AUD)

Brand Story

EatReal is a vegan snack brand for the non vegan snack aisle. Being an allergy free, gluten free, kosher & halal, EatReal is perfect for everyone with a diverse range of products for toddlers, kids, teens and adults. As an added bonus, due to its gluten free & low calorie nature, EatReal is great for those on a Free Form diet.

Whether its a lunchtime treat, road trip fuel or an extra ingredient to spice up your meal, EatReal is the snack for you.

USP's

Objectives

Campaign will take place over a period of 3 months:
Month 1 – Awareness – To build product exposure via Social Media
Month 2 – Launch – To promote the product over 4 weeks
Month 3 – Retention – To build lead generation through Retail & eCommerce sales

KPIs

Self KPIs
1 – Increase Australian market share by 40%
2 – Achieve a conversion rate of 30% through paid media
3 – Distribute 12 blog posts across 4 social channels
Audience KIPs
1 – Increase social engagement rate by 5%
2 – Build Australian network of 6 vegan influencers
3 – Add 1000 subscribers to email list

Market Research

Australian Vegan FMCG Market

Since 2017, Australia has been projected to be the third fastest vegan market by 2020 at an estimated 9.6% growth, estimated to reach $215 million (AUD). Due to COVID, the demand for vegan products has astronomically increased to over 600% during the months of April and May 2020. There is no better time to establish a vegan stronghold in Australia.

Research conducted by Roy Morgan has found that the trend in vegetarian eating continues to grow — with 2.5 million people (12.1% of the population) in Australia now eating all or almost all vegetarian.

The 2018 data shows a continued growth in people choosing kinder, more sustainable meals — up from 2.1 million people (11.2%) eating all or almost all vegetarian in 2016, and 1.7 million people (9.7%) in 2012.

That’s an additional 400,000 individuals choosing meat-free meals in Australia since 2016 alone! This works out to 1 person deciding to eat less meat or go meat-free every 5 minutes!

The rising cost of meat in Australia not only increases the demand of plant bast meat alternatives but also warms Australians towards a more vegan friendly diet. Due to the increased cost of meat, the Australian Meat Processing industry now generates over 60% of its revenue from overseas, with that number expected to increase over the next 5 years.

In addition to this, Australians are increasingly concerned about their impact on the environment which is a huge factor behind the rise in demand for plant-based products. Due to their sustainable nature, plant based products are much friendlier to the environment.

Finally, rising health consciousness is another major driving force behind the trend towards greater consumption of plant-based foods. Australia is currently experiencing a rising fitness culture, which is encouraging consumers to move to low calorie diets. Plant-based food manufacturers have been acutely aware of this trend, and have increasingly produced foods with few calories and low levels of saturated fat. This trend has significantly contributed to rising demand for plant-based foods.

Due to this exponential increase in demand, along with COVID’s impact on the economy, there have been many delays in the production of vegan products in Australia, bringing a demand from external suppliers. Establishing a foothold in Australia can be done in the following 3 step plan:

Step 1

Initially importing UK manufactured vegan FMCG to Australian stockist, retailers & distributes, including Amazon

Step 2

Raise awareness by working alongside:

1) Key influences & bloggers

2) PR & Publications

3) Conduct social and web ads

Step 3

Use re-targeting ads on Instagram, facebook and other online platforms to retain audience interest & brand awareness

Since Eat Real products are manufactured in the UK, it would be best to promote them as a high quality, premium British product. The Made in Britain stamp has credibility among the rest of the world, denoting premium design and quality.

The appeal of buying British remains strong around the world, with two fifths of international consumers revealing they are more inclined to buy a product that carries the Union Jack.

The global research from Barclays Corporate Banking found consumers abroad have the strongest associations of quality with Brand Britain. Younger people were also more swayed by the Union Jack – nearly half of 25-34 year-olds (48 per cent) said this would encourage them to make a purchase, compared to a quarter (24 per cent) of over 55s. As a result, foreign consumers are prepared to pay 22% more for food labelled as British-made.

Utilising Brexit & British independence as a marketing USP will be advantageous for the Australian Market. A quote from a recent interview with Australian high commissioner George Brandis

“At a time when there are tensions in the world that are growing more acute – and which have been dramatised and thrown in very stark relief by the COVID crisis – the benefit, the importance to each other of like-minded, free-trading liberal democracies like Britain and Australia has never been greater,” the high commissioner told Sky News.

“There are obvious advantages of two countries like Australia and the United Kingdom having a close trading relationship because our systems are complementary, our system of laws is similar, our values are similar, interests are similar, we speak the same language, we have the same Queen.

“In every dimension it’s possible to imagine, we are like-minded and complementary countries.”

With this in mind, a British manufactured product would be viewed as good as Australian manufactured if not better, for the average Australian consumer.

The Data

One key aspect of all marketing campaigns is to cut through the hearsay and let the data do the talking. Thanks to big data from the likes of Facebook & Google, the size of the vegan market can be measured in near real-time with detailed targeting & search term volume.

Facebook / Instagram

Keyword
Australian Audience Size
Veganism
6,500,000
Vegetarianism
3,900,000
Healthy diet
3,400,000
Snack food
2,800,000
Confectionery
2,200,000
Ethical Consumption
460,000
Health & Wellness
4,200,000

Google

Keyword
Monthly Searches
vegan snacks
2,900
vegan chips
590
vegetarian snacks
590
healthy vegan snacks
480
vegan
33,100

Based on the above data, there is an engaged audience that is interested in not just veganism but also vegan confectionery

Buyer Personas

Before we can identify areas of growth, we need to understand our key buyer personas so we can tailor our marketing efforts towards them. I have listed 3 potential target markets

Vegan

Name: Samantha
Diet: Vegan
Career: Teacher
Location: Sydney
Gender: Female
Age: 27
Bio: Samantha is university educated & vegan by faith & is BAME heritage

Flexitarian

Name: John
Diet: Flexitarian
Career: Accountant
Location: Melbourne
Gender: Male
Age: 40
Bio: John is post graduate educated, semi-vegetarian due to dietary / health reasons

Health Conscious

Name: Danny
Diet: Ethical Buyer
Career: Student
Location: Perth
Gender: Non-Binary
Age: 20
Bio: Danny is a health conscious fitness enthusiast who prefers low calorie snacks & low carbon emission goods

Similar Brands

Similar Vegan confectionery Brands in the Australian market

Smiths

A global heavyweight in savoury snacks under the Pepsico brand. Originally from the UK, Smiths manufacture their snacks in Australia, for the Australian market using locally sourced ingredients. Smiths healthy product brand Sunbites is in direct competition with EatReal. Sunbites specialises in low calorie healthy snacks in premium & exotic flavours.

Ajitas Vege Chips

Ajitas Vege Chip Company is the market leader in producing plant based Gluten Free chips in Australia. Producing Gluten Free snacks free from eggs, genetically modified ingredients, artificial colourings and preservatives. Ajitas have 2 ranges, Vege Chips for a health conscious alternative to regular crisps and Deli Crisps, an exotic flavour set of crisps made from unconventional ingredients such as sweet potatos and falafel.

Cobs

Established in 2004, Cobs specialise in corn based snacks, particularly Popcorn. Boasting gluten free & nut free snacks that are made from high oleic sunflower oil that is suggested to reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering bad cholesterol. Cobs also produce tortila shaped corn chips as well as corn puffs

Greenday Chips

Greenday are based in Thailand and have collaborated with Eastland Asian Foods (EAF) to produce fruit and vegetable based chips cooked with rice bran oil. EAF import and wholesale Asian Foods across Australia over the past 30 years. Specialising in chips made from fruit and vegetables such as bananas, okra & pineapple, Greenday boast natural, low fat and high fiber snacks.

EatReal's Australian Brand Story

Eat Real is the fastest growing plant based snacks in the UK. We pride ourselves on providing great tasting gluten free crisps for everyone by being free from all 14 declarable allergens, additives & preservatives. As a result our snacks are perfect for Halal and Kosher diets.

Eat Real snacks are based on three very simple concepts:

Real Taste

What sets Eat Real apart is our diverse & exotic range of tasty flavours; Chilli & Lime, Sundried Tomato & Roasted Garlic, Mango & Mint & many more, you’ll definitely have a hard time picking your favourite.

Real Nutrition

Eat Real are big believers in Plant Powered snacks, made from high quality ingredients, providing slow burning energy throughout the day. Thanks to our healthy ingredients and manufacturing process, our snacks have 40% less fat compared to regular potato crisps as well as having lower calories per packet, making it the perfect guilt free snack.

Real Ingredients

Our extensive product range is made from fresh, eco friendly & sustainable ingredients, including  hummus, quinoa, lentils & more

Australia Specific USP's

Highlighting certain USP’s of EatReal will support the brand growth in Australia. The increasing vegan & health conscious market enjoy a more active and outdoors lifestyle. This involves, surfing, camping, rock climbing and much more.

By competing with our competitors USP’s as a foundation and capitalising on their areas of improvement, EatReal can establish a foothold in not just the Australian Vegan market but the overall FMCG market

With that in mind, we want to show EatReal as Fresh, Energetic & Free (From Additives & Preservatives) while also promoting a Healthy, Tasty & Eco Friendly snack.

Branding

Logo up-fresh

Original Logo

New Logo

New logo focuses around the vegan aspect of the brand. Healthy green & premium gold convey an upmarket look. The green leaves are instantly recognised as vegan products

Fonts

Poppins Bold

eat real

Poppins is a traditional  geometric sans serif typefaces that has been a popular design tool ever since these actors took to the world’s stage. 

Each letterform is nearly monolinear, with optical corrections applied to stroke joints where necessary to maintain an even typographic color.

Leafy Regular

The font is made for everything that needs a personal handmade feel. 95 characters made by hand, every letter unique and with its own character.

Colours

The new colour pallet demonstrates a healthy, organic and energetic product, perfect for the target market. 

Green

Forrest green encourages fresh and healthy imagery and enforces the brands vegan heritage

White

Pure white helps show the simplicity of the brand and product. Tasty & authentic vegan snacks

Yellow

Yellow is often associated with food, encouraging joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.

Authority Icons

The use of authority icons can assist in telling the brands story. 

100% Vegan symbol – easily recognisable

British quality is recognised globally

Plant Powered – healthy & energetic

Product Packaging

Premium packaging has vegan snacks front and centre. Stating exactly what the item is. Organic, leafy pattern is strongly associated with veganism, showing an authentic & healthy product.

Original

New Packaging

Vegan Snacks Logo

Customer Journey

Customer Journey Overview

Paid Earned & Owned Model

Paid Media Strategy - Social Media - Pre

Adset 01 – Vegan
Audience Size: 210K
Female, 25-34
Careers: Arts, Education, Healthcare
Interests: Veganism, Vegan nutrition
Daily Reach: 651-1.9k
Budget: £7 per week
Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Awareness
Method: Reach

Adset 02 – Flexitarian
Audience Size: 45K
All, 35-44
Careers: Business, Management, Sales
Interests: semi-vegetarianism
Daily Reach: 726-2.1k
Budget: £7 per week
Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Awareness
Method: Reach

Adset 03 – Health Conscious
Audience Size: 61K
Female, 18-24
Careers: Student at University
Interests: Ethical Consumerism, LGBT community, organic food, chocolate
Daily Reach: 844 – 2.4K
Budget: £7 per week
Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Awareness
Method: Reach

Paid Media Strategy - Social Media - Launch

Adset 01 – Vegan
Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Engagement
Method: Reach
Budget: £7 per week

Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Traffic
Method: Reach
Budget: £7 per week

Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Catalogue Sales
Method: Impressions
Budget: £7 per week

Adset 02 – Flexitarian
Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Engagement
Method: Reach
Budget: £7 per week

Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Traffic
Method: Reach
Budget: £7 per week

Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Catalogue Sales
Method: Impressions
Budget: £7 per week

Adset 03 – Health Conscious
Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Engagement
Method: Reach
Budget: £7 per week

Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Traffic
Method: Reach
Budget: £7 per week

Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Catalogue Sales
Method: Impressions
Budget: £7 per week

Paid Media Strategy - Social Media - Post

Adset 01 – Retarget
Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Traffic
Method: Reach
Budget: £7 per week

Adset 02 – Sales
Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Catalogue Sales
Method: Impressions
Budget: £7 per week

Adset 03 – Giveaway
Duration: 4 Weeks
Goal: Engagement
Method: Reach
Budget: £7 per week

Paid Media Strategy - Social Media - FB/IG

Daily Budget
Audience size
Est reach
Duration
Acquisition Ads (PRE During)
£3
565,000
2.1K – 6.3K
4 weeks
Consideration (Launch During)
£6
565,000
2.1K – 6.3K
4 weeks
Conversion Ads (Launch During)
£3
565,000
2.1K – 6.3K
4 weeks
Retention (Post)
£3
565,000
2.1K – 6.3K
4 weeks

Based on data, audience can be adjusted to target more niche audience. I estimate that audience size will lower as we go down the funnel, keeping budget high will help better convert engaged audience. Based on real time data during campaign, budget can be adjusted and ad sets can be turned off.

Paid Media Strategy - Amazon

Avg CPC
Daily Budget
Est clicks
Conv goals (sales) (at 2%)
Duration
Acquisition Ads (PRE During)
Brand Ads
£0.27
0.49
40
1
4 weeks
Product Ads
£0.27
0.49
40
1
4 weeks
Consideration (Launch During)
Product Ads
£0.27
0.82
60
2
4 weeks
Retention (Post)
Remarketing
£0.27
£0.82
60
2
4 weeks

Paid Media Strategy - Google/Bing

Avg CPC
Daily Budget
Est clicks
Conv goals (sales) (at 2%)
Duration
Acquisition Ads (PRE During)
Brand Text Ads
£0.27
0.49
40
1
4 weeks
Product Text Ads
£0.27
0.49
40
1
4 weeks
Display campaign
£0.27
0.49
40
1
4 weeks
Consideration (Launch During)
Remarketing
£0.27
0.82
60
2
4 weeks
Conversion Ads (Launch During)
Google Shopping
£0.27
£0.82
60
2
4 weeks
Retention (Post)
Gmail ads
£0.27
£0.82
60
2
4 weeks
Remarketing
£0.27
£0.82
60
2
4 weeks

Earned Media Strategy - SEO

Keyword
Monthly Searches
Avg CPC
vegan snacks
2,900
0.30
vegan chips
590
0.60
vegetarian snacks
590
0.45
healthy vegan snacks
480
0.38
vegan
33,100
0.40

Technical SEO: HTML tags, image alt tags, schema, site maps, mobile friendly, excript, readability, page load time

Off Page SEO: Link Building, Blogger outreach, news sites & vegan digests, social media, competitions / giveaways

Facebook / Instagram Audience Size

Keyword
Australian Audience Size
Veganism
6,500,000
Vegetarianism
3,900,000
Healthy diet
3,400,000
Snack food
2,800,000
Confectionery
2,200,000
Ethical Consumption
460,000
Health & Wellness
4,200,000

Earned Media Strategy - Digital PR with Influencers & Bloggers

Brand Growth in 2020 depends heavily on working alongside Influencers and Bloggers with high engagement to bring the product to the target customers. I have highlighted 6 that suit our buyer personas

Working alongside influences & bloggers that:

1) have an engaged following

2) have influence over our buyer personas

3) are willing to have a long term relationship with the brand, with the potential of becoming brand ambassadors

thefitfoodieblog

alexander__glover

georgiestevenson

thrivingonplants

tessbegg

bonnyrebecca

Owned Media Strategy

Multichannel organic broadcast of blog content across email and social:

– 10 Healthy Breakfasts

– Guilt free pleasures – healthy snacks

– Recipes that involve vegan confectionery

Email Design

COCO & EVE are a great example of engaging email marketing designs. Utilising eye catching Gifs & minimal headlines to catch the readers attention. COCO & EVE bring blog style content to their newsletters to help develop a relationship with the customers.

Please click on each image to see the animations

Social Media

The multi-regional Social Media campaign will tell the following 3 stories:

  1. Tasty Vegan snacks
  2. Authentic exotic flavour
  3. Healthy, energetic & low calorie alternative to junk food

This will be done by building a lifestyle around the product that resonates with the target buyer personas. 

eCommerce Website Planning

Enhanced ecommerce experience by showing brand authority & using user generated content to encourage the customers to purchase. 

  • Highlight CTA
  • Add Quick Buy
  • Add Trust Symbol (Secure checkout)
  • Added distraction free USP’s
  • Added trustpilot reviews for more authority & trust
  • Added user feedback for product taste
  • Showcase text reviews more broadly, filling the screen
  • Added video reviews from users and bloggers / influencers
  • Added trustpilot reviews for more authority and trust

Amazon Listing

Content optimization can increase the click-through rate (CTR) in the search result and the conversion rate (CR) on the product page. Both, in turn, contribute to an increase in sales and thus a higher ranking.

Optimise the Content

There are many factors to a successful Amazon Product listings. One of the most important is the product image that should contain the following points:

  1. Primary product photo
  2. Additional Product Photos
  3. Quality Infographics
  4. Enhanced Lifestyle Images
  5. Credibility Enhancing Graphics

Amazon Ranking Optimisation

Another aspect of a successful Amazon is the SEO, optimise for Humans and Machines for Best Results:

  1.  Product Title: Place your top 5 keywords in the product title.
  2. Bullet Points and Product Description – You can place more keywords here, but only if it doesn’t disrupt the informative clarity of the product texts
  3. Additional & Backend keyword – Assign additional product information to your product. Fill in this information as thoroughly as possible because customers can access it via the filter navigation and specific product finders.

Customer Reviews and Questions & Answers

Reviews are also critical to the CTR and CR of a product. There are two parts to consider, Amount & Stars

The questions that customers can ask on the product page are just as important. Customers often ask about specific details of the application or other information they can’t find on the product page.

Data Planning

  • Establish Marketing Platforms: Web, Social, Email
  • Outline Objectives: Phase 1 Awareness, Phase 2 Launch, Phase 3: Retention
  • Get Baseline & Set Goals: Highlight Trends & set SMART goals based on KPIs
  • Collect Data at touchpoints: Customer Reviews & Heatmaps
  • Use Data to build on customer personas: Highlight specific characteristics
  • Run Test and improve campaigns: via Split tests etc
  • Report changes and findings for future campaigns

Analytics Planning

  • Collect and prepare data
  • Analyse data
  • Deliver analytics
  • Adjust models

Data Tracking

Track Data, Events & Conversions via:

  • Google Analytics
  • Bing Analytics
  • Facebook Business Manager
  • Instagram Insights
  • Email Marketing Analytics
  • CRM Insights

Resources

Logistics (in house):
Content Writer – Blogs, Email, Descriptions
SEO/PPC – google ads, organic SEO
Social Media – Engagement, PR with Influencers, paid social
Graphic Design – Video & graphics for site, blogs, email, social

Software:
Adobe CC – £49.94/mo
Adobe Stock – £47.99/mo
Motion Array – £29.99/mo
Klaviyo Email Marketing (10k email list) – £149.99/mo
Salesforce – £19.99/mo

Budgets (per month)

Social Ad Spend: £90 – £180
Ad Spend – Amazon: £29.40
Ad Spend – Google/Bing: £49.20
PR / Influencer costs: £300
Software & resources costs: £297.9

ROI

Total Spend (full campaign): £2569.5 (GBP), $ 4720.86 (AUD)
Units to break even ($5.40 RRP, $4.50 after removing cost price): 571 units

ROI (Social Only)

Total Spend (full campaign): £2,333.7 (GBP), $4287.63 (AUD)
Units to break even ($5.40 RRP, $4.50 after removing cost price): 519 units

Timeline

Thank You

References:

https://www.plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/vegan-meat-brand-sees-astronomical-demand-despite-coronavirus

https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-insider/press-releases/rising-veganism-threatens-local-demand-for-australian-meat-and-dairy/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/731052/australia-value-packaged-vegan-food/

https://www.playmr.com.au/blog/fmcg-trends-adapting-to-plant-based-consumer-demand

https://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/study-shows-surge-in-Aussies-eating-veg.php

https://www.behance.net/gallery/92642707/Valentines-Day-Promo-EDMs

https://www.behance.net/gallery/94623501/Welcome-Email-Newsletters

https://www.behance.net/gallery/92645897/Trip-to-Peru-Contest-EDM

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/business/business-news/international-consumers-love-british-products-14319224

https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-uk-australia-trade-deal-could-be-agreed-fairly-soon-says-high-commissioner-12008452