Software-style version iterations fail in food because poor first impressions are permanent.
John Baumgartner · Reviving the stagnant plant based meat market · Sep 28, 2023 · at 21:10
Mizuho equity analyst John Baumgartner critiques Beyond Meat's strategy of releasing iterative versions of its burger, contrasting consumer food adoption with tech products.
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“But with, you know, Beyond Meat, for example, launching Beyond Burger version, two point oh, three point oh, four point oh it's not an iPhone. You know, this is not a situation where you hook somebody on basic functionality, and they stick with you one, two, three years down the road, because now, you know, you've got a better, you know, internet explorer, you've got better text messaging. This is food. And for a lot of consumers, if you have, you know, a bad or unfavorable interaction the first time out of the gate, you're not coming back for version two, oh, and three, oh, you're done.”
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