Distinguishing Between Consumer Fads and Lasting Trends

Image: Beyond Meat

Corporate Challenge:  Determining whether a competitive position is a new lasting trend or just a passing Fad. 
 
Ironbound Strategy:  Powerful brands become trend setters by holistically creating value across stakeholders.  Their market position is propelled by value propositions that improve multiple needs rather than a single fad.  Studies from cause-related marketing research find consumers are attracted to brands that align with their social responsibility values.

Ironbound Action:  Los Angeles based Beyond Meat, founded in 2009, is a leading plant-based meat substitute.  Their success is more than simply an alternative to traditional meat protein, but rather a holistic shift towards progressive change.  Beyond Meat, named company of the year in 2013 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, helps consumers positively influence climate change*.  In the grand scale of time, companies that compete only for profits are the true fads sinking into extinction.   
 
 
*Beyond Burger uses 99% less water, 93% less land, generates 90% fewer Green House Gas Emission, and 46% less energy than a traditional meat burger.  
 
** “Climate change will have significant implications for agriculture and food security ... for developing countries, climate change could exacerbate the food security challenges they already experience.” – 2018 Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations Report