Executive Briefing
Lab-grown meat is a consumer-branding case study in the making
How Upside Foods and Good Meat are trying to build buzz — and trust — around ‘cell-cultivated’ meat.
By Dan Frommer on Saturday, August 12, 2023 at 8:00 am
One thing you’ll be seeing and hearing more about in the coming years is what’s called “cell-cultivated” meat: Actual meat — starting with chicken — that’s intended for human consumption, grown cell-by-cell in a commercial facility, without killing any animals.
Vast amounts of investment have already gone into this industry, also sometimes called “lab-grown” or “cell-cultured” meat.
And two months ago, the US Department of Agriculture formally approved two Bay Area-based companies to sell it: Good Meat, part of the same business as Just Egg, the plant-based eggs pioneer, and Upside Foods, a brand previously known as Memphis Meats.
One of the most interesting aspects of cell-cultivated meat — and one we’ll watch closely at The New Consumer — is how it’ll be marketed and commercialized.
Most meat today, whether it’s sold at grocery stores or in restaurants, isn’t branded at all — it’s just meat.
This will be different: As cultivated meat production ramps up over the next several years, to give the category a shot — and justify their investment — brands like Upside Foods and Good Meat will need to lead the way in building buzz, trust, demand, and loyalty.
So how are they starting?
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Hi, I’m Dan Frommer and this is The New Consumer, a publication about how and why people spend their time and money.
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