Beyond Meat: Focus Group
Purpose:
Beyond Meat has two key demographics that need to be targeted. One is the existing plant-based meat eaters, and the other is die-hard meat eaters. It is easier to understand the needs of plant-based meat eaters because they are convinced of the taste, and all they need is more options to choose from. However, die-hard meat eaters are skeptical about even trying the product because of the general perception that “you can’t get all your protein just from plants.”
For this purpose, I have designed a research instrument to help figure out why die-hard meat eaters hold the perception and what it would take to change their minds on the subject. I plan to conduct a focus group among people who have never tried plant-based meat and/or have tried it but are reluctant to try it at present. The focus group questions would be based on the participants' experience with plant-based or flexitarian lifestyle and their knowledge on the matter.
Since the participants are reluctant to try plant-based meat, we would not serve anything beyond meat products to the focus group. Instead, we would have a short website walk-through as a demo to inform the participants about the Beyond Meat products and studies to help them understand more about the brand. When the demo concludes, the focus group begins.
Focus Group Guide:
Housekeeping:
We will be recording the discussion for later use. Does everyone consent?
We have laid out snacks and refreshments to keep you powered up through this process.
Please share your honest opinions, as there is no wrong answer.
Please respect each other’s time and take turns when sharing.
The session aims to gain insight into your thoughts on plant-based meat and a flexitarian lifestyle.
To start, we would screen a short demo of the Beyond Meat website.
Opening Questions:
What is health, and what measures do you take to maintain it?
Purpose: To understand the key motivators of a healthy lifestyle for the participants.
What are your thoughts on being environmentally conscious?
Purpose: To understand if the environment plays a role in shifting the participant's perceptions.
What are some of the things that come to mind when someone mentions plant-based meat?
Purpose: To understand how the participants perceive the idea of plant-based meat.
Transition Questions:
After watching the demo, what critical factors come to mind when educating on plant-based meat?
Purpose: To understand what information catches the eye and which falls flat.
Have you ever heard about Beyond Meat or visited the website/brand on social media?
Purpose: To gauge the awareness of the brand and the intent to know more about the brand.
If some participants visited the website/social media:
If you visited Beyond Meat’s website or social media accounts before today, please share your experience on how and why.
Purpose: To understand the online accessibility of the brand in general.
If no one visited the website before today, move to the next question:
What are your critical motivators for visiting a social media account/website?
Purpose: To understand what the critical motivators for creating interest among the audience are, like usability, accessibility, interactive content, or word of mouth.
Key Questions:
Which part of the website did you engage with the most?
Purpose: To understand what stood out the most and already works with the audience.
Studies have shown that plant-based meat carries as much and sometimes more protein than regular protein. Would that change your preference or shift your intake of regular meat?
Purpose: To understand how much the customers value the studies and research efforts.
What is your primary motivation for sticking to regular meat products?
Purpose: To understand the competitive aspects of regular meat that Beyond Meat can inculcate to go further beyond.
What were your thoughts when we told you (in the demo) that plant-based meat uses significantly fewer resources and aids in addressing climate change and animal welfare? Is it enough to make you flexitarian?
Purpose: To understand the role of environmental factors in switching to meat or at least becoming a flexitarian.
According to recent studies, when ordering vegan burgers, 95% of the people who order are not vegans/vegetarians. The next time you order a burger, would you be willing to try a Beyond Meat burger instead of a regular meat burger?
Purpose: To see if studies based on peers/fellow meat eaters affect die-hard meat eaters' perception shift and motivation.
How appealing is the idea of reducing carbon footprint by becoming flexitarian? Have you tried being a flexitarian before? What was your experience?
Purpose: To see how receptive the participants are to the idea of plant-based meat. Also, to understand what the key struggles were of maintaining a flexitarian diet that can be taken into account by Beyond Meat.
Concluding Question:
Do you have any other thoughts on plant-based meat and its environmental and health effects before we end this session?
Purpose: To include any key concerns and suggestions before the focus group is concluded.
Summary:
The questions are designed to create a safe space for expression and gain maximum insight. The focus group would last for 45 minutes and would be focused on creating awareness and learning about the mindset of die-hard meat eaters.
The focus group would start with general questions to ease into the process and get an idea of the general perceptions of the group. The transition questions are surface-level questions to test how the reactions/participation are progressing. The key questions are the “meat” of the study, where we find out what areas of success and areas of improvement are needed for Beyond Meat.
The guide helps study the varied perceptions of the meat-eating audience segment.
