Piperleaf India Project Report

The Company – Piperleaf India

Our client, Piperleaf India, is a Gurgaon-based ethically vegan food company that was started in the year 2020 with an objective to introduce plant-based food products such as chocolates, dairy alternatives, animal protein alternatives, etc. They envision making people aware of the benefits of a plant-based diet and bridging the gap that exists in the vegan food market. 

Why Piperleaf India

We, at FIC Projects, constantly aim to explore new territories to allow our members to acquire new skills and gain meaningful learning experiences along the way that can transfer to the jobs and roles they take up in the future. Our collaboration with Piperleaf facilitated us to venture into the Plant-based food industry – an emerging market with tremendous growth potential. A recent report produced by Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) called Plant-Based Foods Poised for Explosive Growth has predicted that the plant-based food market will exceed $162 billion within the next decade. Investments in alternative protein companies have skyrocketed globally. Venture capital and private equity investment reached $3 billion last year. A growing preference for cruelty-free, sustainable, and healthier foods is pushing the vegan movement giving rise to more and more Alt-Protein companies in India and worldwide.

Plant-based Industry

Veganism is gaining increasing adoption in recent years not just because of animal cruelty but also due to related concerns on the environment, antibiotic resistance, zoonotic diseases, and health. The plant-based food market was valued at $29.4 billion in 2020. The plant-based food market is expected to reach $74.2 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 11.9% during the forecast period of 2020 to 2027.

Why is demand increasing?

1. Prices of plant-based food products are approaching parity with conventional products, thus making it affordable for people to try them. 
2. Improved taste and accessibility have increased its popularity
3. Product innovation and expansion into new categories have opened up new markets. As consumers grow comfortable with the first products they try, they are likely to branch out and try more, which increases the consumer base. For example, once people discover they like almond milk, they are more likely to try other almond-based dairy replacements including yogurt and cheese.
4. Spending power is shifting to millennials who are deeply motivated by the trend of veganism.
5. Many consumers and even environmental experts attribute current environmental issues to animal agriculture, citing flashy statistics about greenhouse gas emissions, water, and land usage, waste, labor costs, and transportation involved in raising livestock. With increased awareness about sustainability and climate change, plant-based food products are becoming sustainable alternatives.
6. Increased activism for animal welfare and moral values has led people to understand that all animals, including those that have long been staples in diets all over the world, have a right to life and freedom. Thus, with the choice of plant-based meat, more people are switching over to animal meat.
7. These products are perceived to provide more health benefits than animal-based products.  In fact, many health experts recommend plant-based diets to people who have heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other health conditions. Thus, awareness has led people to switch to plant-based alternatives to dairy and meat products( which come with health concerns such as heart attack, stroke, cancer, and more).
8. Flexitarians– who primarily eat a vegetarian diet but occasionally eat meat and fish, are also rising in numbers and are seeing plant-based meat as a suitable alternative to animal meat.

Project Objective

The main objective of the Live Project was to assist the client to study the market in order to successfully launch their new product – Eggishh (vegan egg alternative), boost sales of their existing products (mylk and dark chocolates) through their website by optimising the same, creating a brand persona for greater customer acquisition and brand visibility, and devising marketing techniques to have greater reach.

Approach

Market Research

Piperleaf planned on introducing Eggishh – their vegan egg alternative by Early December 2021. The team extensively analysed published articles and research reports to compile the past data and growth projections and condensed it into a 12 page Market Research Report on Vegan Eggs outlining:

• Current Market Size of Vegan Eggs in India
• Growth Factors leading to the rising demand for Vegan Eggs and Alt-Protein 
• Current Total Sales of Vegan Eggs globally
• Expected CAGR for Vegan Egg Substitutes
• Target Consumer Groups 
• The pressing need for Plant-based alternatives in the Indian Market
• The role India could play in the manufacturing of Vegan Alternatives
• Challenges to be overcome to generate larger acceptance for the product
• Competitor Analysis to assess the strengths and weaknesses of Eggishh  

Additionally, the team also designed a survey with an objective to study potential customers’ dietary preferences, willingness to switch to vegan eggs, expected price, applications in which these can be used in cooking and to distribute free samples to collect feedback and close to 200 responses were collected. After thorough research and competitor analysis, the team decided on Rs. 200-300 as the optimum price range for a pack of Eggishh which equaled 6 eggs. The same was indicated by the consumer survey responses and the price was fixed at Rs. 250. Questions regarding applications gave Piperleaf a deeper understanding of customer expectations which will help them further refine their product to suit all needs. Reasons for the customer to switch to vegan alternatives were also asked in order to streamline the marketing campaigns by focussing on the most popular reason that attracts customers. The responses to this questionnaire overall helped Piperleaf to comprehend the market and the consumers pre-launch and fix the right price, level of versatility, and marketing techniques. 

Keyword Research for SEO

The client aimed to generate higher sales numbers routed through their own website and better brand visibility as well by improving their SERP Position to rank higher than their competitors and improving website traffic. For this, the F&IC Team carried out elaborate Keyword Research which is a practice in search engine optimization (SEO) to find and research search terms that users enter into search engines when looking for products, services or general information. A list of over 300 keywords was prepared by analysing competitor rankings and filtered using certain parameters to detect the most suitable keywords. The parameters used were:

• Search  Position of the  Competitor’s Website which refers to the website’s position on the search engine results page. 

• Search  Volume which  is  a  metric that  shows how  many  people  are searching for  a  particular  query. Keywords with  a  moderate to  high  search  volume  and  a low  rate  of  search  competition were selected in this process.

• Keyword  Difficulty – the  process of  evaluating  how  difficult  it is  to  rank  in  Google’s  organic  search  results  for a  specific  term.  A  keyword’s difficulty  is  based  on  a  number  of  different  factors, including  domain  authority, page  authority,  and  content  quality.   

• Cost Per  Click  (CPC)  –  This  is  an  internet  advertising model  used  to  drive  traffic to  websites,  in  which  an  advertiser  pays  a  publisher (typically  a  search  engine, website  owner,  or  a  network  of  websites)  when  the ad  is  clicked. 

• Competitive  Density  –  It  is  the  level  of  competition in Google  Ads  measured  from 0  to  1.  This  number  represents  how  many  advertisers compete  for  this  particular keyword  in  paid  search.

Brand Persona and Digital Marketing

Piperleaf, being a new company, aspired to stand out by creating a distinguishing brand identity stressing on veganism, customer well-being and sustainability. We achieved this by producing optimised content by using the generated keywords and keeping in mind the image Piperleaf wished to create. They also planned on establishing a strong social media presence to attract more customers. For this, we firstly carried out Instagram Audits of competitor brands to gain useful insights, brands selling complementary products & influencers for potential collaborations. These audits analyzed followers by geography, sex, and age and also observed the engagement rate, Like-Comment ratio, follower growth rate etc. in order to enter into the most fruitful partnerships for marketing. 

Takeaways

• Market Research runs deeper than analysing published material and doing secondary research. Consumer Trials help understand individual customer’s needs and expectations and allows us to make observations specific to the company’s geographic location and target audience.
• Importance of SEO to create a user-friendly website, find potential customers for your business and convert them, and build your website’s legitimacy. To do any of this, the key task is to understand the target market’s interests and vocabulary which was done by Keyword Research.
• Understanding the role of Social Media Platforms in creating awareness about your brand values, products and their benefits to attract more customers.

Value Add

The results of the project helped the client to evaluate the Indian Plant-based Food Market and understand why the market for Vegan Eggs could be potentially large in a country such as India. It also provided them with the resources to generate more website traffic to improve brand visibility and website traffic to boost sales. Lastly, it allowed them to determine the prices, packaging, quantity, target customers, potential geographic location, and go-to-market strategy for their brand new product to be able to have a smooth and successful launch. 

Our Team

1. Shivam Singh
2. Suchet Kumar
3. Utsav Goyal
4. Neeyati Shah
5. Nainika Padhi
6. Manya Gupta
7. Devesh Gaur
8. Siya Kalsi
9. Avanindra Yadav
10.  Ishika Shrivastava
11. Kapish Jalan
12.  Ridhima Goyal
13.  Samridhi

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