Marketing analysis of competitive offers on the market of plant-based meat alternatives

In the context of the differentiation of growing demand and supply on the market of plant-based meat alternatives, when developing a positioning strategy, it is necessary to use a marketing analysis of the existing competitors’ products. Purpose of this research is an empirical testing of the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the marketing components of competitive offers of plant-based meat alternatives on the Russian market. Methods of analysis, generalization, observation, description, comparison, statistics are used in the article. The research database was formed by the observation method and includes 300 names of plant-based meat alternatives of 50 brands present in retail enterprises of the Russian Federation. To characterize the marketing components of competitive offers on the market of plant-based meat alternatives, descriptive statistic data analysis was used: frequency, average values and variation. A significant differentiation of competitive offers was revealed, the indicators of variation in the volume of the product packaging, the number of ingredients in the product, the price level per 100 g of the product exceed 50%. To test the hypothesis about the relationship between the marketing components of competitive offers, One-Way ANOVA analysis and frequency tables are used. A statistically significant relationship was revealed between the type of brand positioning and the presence of ingredients in the composition of products, as well as the price level of the product. The highest price level is typical for the marketing positioning «plant-based product», while products based on protein of legumes are more often positioned as «natural». The obtained results should be applied when choosing a brand positioning strategy in the market of plant-based meat alternatives.