There’s no denying that eating animal flesh is immensely popular. “The protein is the star” is a common refrain about a dish or meal. Indeed, when we describe what’s on our plate, we often begin with the choice of animal being served.
Of course, not all of us eat meat. For many, it’s a matter of religious conviction, but there are a whole host of other reasons to choose a vegetarian or vegan diet, including animal welfare and environmental costs. Factory farming that prioritizes profits and production far over critter well-being results in imagery so horrific that “ag-gag” laws are in place in some states to stop people from seeing how the sausage literally gets made. These prohibitions seem more for the benefit of the meat industry than simply shielding our delicate sensibilities. A loss in appetite is a loss in profit, after all.
Raising livestock for human consumption is also environmentally messy. Compared to plant protein, animal protein requires more water and acreage and produces more pollution per gram.
It makes sense that brands and start-ups invest immense amounts of time, effort, and capital in meat alternatives. In the last few years, we’ve seen many plant-based brands emerge, and the alt-meat explosion has been so great that we might be amid consumer-interest rubberbanding.
Still, like other “pretender” tech like Artificial Intelligence (AI), plant-based meats get pretty close to the real deal but are always just different enough to discern the distinction. To make a protein that genuinely tastes like traditional meat without the environmental and animal welfare drawbacks, companies must dive deeper and design alt-meat at the cellular level.
Meat grown from cells in bioreactors differs significantly from widely available plant-based alternatives. Instead of taking protein-rich plants like peas and soy and manipulating them into foods resembling chicken nuggets and ground beef, cultivated meat is based on an animal cell replicated and produced in laboratories.
We’re still years away from seeing slabs of lab-raised ribeye steaks sold alongside cuts sliced off a dead cow everywhere, but lab meat has finally made it onto retail shelves, sort of. Good Meat, part of the Eat Just company that markets the egg alternative Just Egg, recently partnered with Singaporean-based Hubert’s Butchery to offer Good Meat 3 to retail customers in the affluent Asian city-state.
We didn’t see the first two installments, but Good Meat 3 is best described as plant-based meat with a bit of cultivated animal protein included—a whole three percent. It’s certainly a start, but it’s hard to draw many conclusions from the small retail trial except that maybe more are on the way.
For starters, the branding isn’t visually barn-busting. But then again, just making it to retail is a compelling enough brand story for Good Meat. Moreover, traditional butcher packaging is more function than style and consists of many cellophane-wrapped trays or meat wrapped in thick paper.
In fact, Good Meat comes packed in Hubert’s in-store packaging, and its branding is nowhere to be found. It looks like ordinary bits of chicken you’d pick up from the butcher. That could be intentional. It’s supposed to be just like chicken from a formerly alive fowl but better. Presenting Good Meat like regular meat reinforces the value proposition.
Elsewhere, Good Meat is consistent with other Eat Just branding. It has a minimal rectangular outline and simple text that uses negative space to remind consumers what the product isn’t: conventional eggs or chicken. Regardless, future cultivated meat products will need informative packaging. Early adopters in a market are typically more informed and curious, and they don’t need labels to drive their purchase of something novel, new, or limited. But in the future, consumers will need help convincing in the store.
Unlike plant-based meats like Beyond and Impossible, cultivated meat must also overcome some fear and apprehension about the “unnatural” process of growing meat in a lab. For some reason, raising little chicks into full-grown birds, then killing them with a slice to the throat, and finally de-feathering the carcasses in boiling water skeeves fewer people out than folks in white coats making meat in sterile laboratories.
The government isn’t known for its speedy reactions to innovation, but some states have already passed laws against cultivated meat, preempting the market. Cultivated meat is already illegal in Florida and Alabama, and bills in Arizona and Tennessee were considered but failed.
Good Meat landing on retail shelves is an indication that we should start at least thinking about cultivated meat packaging and branding. We can take the lessons from plant-based meat and design branding that highlights positive differences while delivering a satisfying culinary experience. Cultured meat branding has to reinforce the decision to seek out lab-grown meat for environmental and animal well-being. Cultured meat has to point out its superior taste to plant-based products while being closer to real flesh. Finally, lab meat has to do all the aforementioned successfully enough to justify the premium price point to conventional meat, especially until the market scales up and prices start to fall.
“We all want to do better for the environment, but are we willing to change our mindset about meat production to accomplish it? That’s the core challenge Good Meat will tackle in bringing their lab-grown, ‘cultivated’ chicken to market,” says Margaret Russo, group creative director, new media, Chase Design Group.
“For Good Meat, finding the balance will be key,” she adds.” The brand will have to ride that thin line between familiar and innovative, as well as informative and overwhelming. Depending on their core audience (is it alternative-meat-seekers or open-minded-veggie-lovers?), the right tone will also go a long way. Humor worked for Impossible Foods—at the very least, friendly warmth should be utilized here.”
There’s a lot of work ahead for brands like Good Meat. Still, if the popularity of plant-based alternatives to milk, cheese, burgers, chicken nuggets, and even bacon is any indication, we’ll be talking a lot about lab-grown steak branding soon enough.
Images courtesy of GOOD Meat.
