A Clear Concept, But Execution Is Tricky

By Jim Prevor, Editor-in-Chief, Produce Business

We have had the opportunity to taste both 100 percent mushroom substitutes and blends of meat and mushrooms. The exciting news is that these options taste great — so great that chefs of high caliber are now exploring ways to use these mushrooms in all sorts of dishes. Indeed the Mushroom Council has been brilliant in working closely with the Culinary Institute of America to introduce chefs to this concept.

This is really crucial. There are a lot of things that can improve health outcomes in one’s diet, but most are perceived as a sacrifice of taste by consumers. Here is an opportunity to boost health outcomes without sacrifice. One can easily see areas such as school foodservice being early adopters in using such substitutes in vast quantities.

The problem, as much as anything, is a marketing one. The product tastes great, is priced well and is very versatile. The question is what is it?

Calling something a meat substitute is the kiss of death — people don’t want substitutes put in for reasons of health; they want foods that on their own merits deserve to be on the menu.

We know from long experience that if one wants to kill one’s exciting new line of culinary offerings that taste great and just happen to be healthier options, set aside a page of the menu in a restaurant and label it “Diet Options” or “Healthy Menu.”

The message such declarations send to consumers is that there is an item that isn’t good enough to be on our regular menu, but we will offer it in case you want to sacrifice taste to lose weight or be healthier. The whole concept transforms going out to eat from a joyous indulgence to a marginalizing disappointment.

So this product — and its application — needs a name and a marketing position that says: We stand on taste! If this product gets marginalized as a healthy meat substitute, it will never have a tenth of the market it could get if it is perceived as a delicious product that happens to be healthy.

The concept is clear, but the execution is tricky. The term Mushroom has its own meaning in the minds of the consumers, and this is really a different application, so simply calling this product Mushroom adds confusion. Ground beef is, of course, well-established in the diet, perhaps the most popular food in the country. What is the marketing space for this product?

We think the place to really start positioning this application is college foodservice. Primary and secondary schools are a ready market, but it might be seen as being adopted for reasons of economy and thus blunt the long-term success. Certainly, the elementary school lunch line is not thought of as a paragon of culinary innovation to be emulated in adulthood. McDonald’s and hamburger chains are big volume, but none will simply switch over from ground beef to mushrooms and so they will market the product, if at all, as a diet burger and, once again, kill the product.

College and university foodservice, though, is the perfect market. You have growing numbers of vegetarians interested in pure mushroom products and a general interest in sustainability that encourages a more plant-based diet. These consumers, not yet out on their own, are still in the process of establishing their eating and buying habits. They tend to be more open to new trends, new cuisines, new foods and new ideas. Plus, if you want something on every menu in ten years, get college students to enjoy it now.

Maybe the best strategy would be for the Mushroom Council to do a partnership with 10 universities, get the product on the menu and then run a competition for the best name. Maybe there could be a prize for the individual and a donation to the school that comes up with the best branding. Maybe there could be a formal contest in which Business School students have an opportunity to present proposals for marketing campaigns, a winner is selected at each school and then the 10 winning teams present at a “shoot-out” before the Mushroom Council and its ad agency.

There is a great deal of health-related research that is done in the produce industry, but most of it focuses on determining attributes of product high in a particular vitamin or in anti-oxidants or what not. What both the Mushroom Council and the Australian Mushroom Growers’ Association should be lauded for is funding research that goes beyond identifying product attributes, many with unknown or questionable impact on health.

These two organizations anted up to actually study the health-related impact of consuming their product. They hit the jackpot when they found that very small changes in diet can have a big impact on weight and other healthful indicators.

All our industry efforts to increase consumption should never forget one thing: In order to increase produce consumption in general, we need to increase consumption of specific items.

Here we have a truly delicious item that is also good for you. If we can’t make this specific item fly big time, it bodes extremely poorly for efforts to increase consumption in general.