Raising the Steaks: the Marketing of Cultured Meat

A Comparative Essay of Marketing Strategies by Cultured Meat Firms in Singapore and Japan

With global action towards sustainable development and awareness of animal cruelty in the meat industry, cultured meat presents a unique opportunity to combat such global challenges and strive for both Zero Hunger (SDG 2) and Climate Action (SDG 13). Also known as lab-grown meat, such forms of meat are produced by cultivating animal cells directly.

This essay aims to explore both Singapore and Japan’s cultured meat market, and delve into the similarities and differences between the strategies employed by both countries to change consumer’s perception towards cultured meat. 

Background – The Cultured Meat Industry in Singapore and Japan

In October 2022, the Singapore government announced that it budgeted SGD$165 million (USD$122 million) to accelerate R&D in sustainable urban food production, future foods, and food safety science and innovation. Being the first country to approve the sale of cultured meat back, Singapore has been a leader in the cultivated meat industry. Similarly, the Japanese government is highly supportive of the cultured meat industry too, providing USD$27.7 million to two startups – Umami United and IntegriCulture. 

Valued at US$21.74 Million in 2023 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.45%, Singapore's market is projected to reach US$761.17 million by 2032. Similarly, Japan’s cultured meat industry is highly developed, ranking as the second largest market for alternative meat products. However, despite its high value of US$726 million, its projected CAGR of 8.05% signals a lack of enthusiasm among the Japanese of cultured meat.

In both countries, cultured meat firms tend to display characteristics of an oligopoly, since only a small number of firms dominate the market. Furthermore, there is a high barrier to entry to the market, as firms with research and technological expertise will protect their intellectual property.

The Need for Marketing 

A deeper examination into the social culture and regulatory framework of both countries can explain this trend, and serve as a direction for the various firms’ marketing efforts: while the existence of novel foods in Japan dates back to the Edo period, there is still a degree of rejection of such foods in Japan. This can be linked to the strong inclination towards meat of high quality in Japanese culture, particularly in beef consumption. Comparatively, Singaporean consumers are highly accepting of cultured meat, with more than 78% willing to try cell-based seafood; this trend can be attributed to the culture of ‘kiasuism’ in Singapore, as Singaporeans are driven to be more desirable of being trailblazers of the industry. 

In terms of regulatory framework, the Singapore Food Agency has established specific guidelines on the production and marketing of cultured meat, which increases consumer confidence of the safety of cultured meat sold in Singapore, resulting in higher consumer acceptance of such forms of meat. In analysing the perceptions of cultured meat by the general audience in both countries, a group of Japanese researchers utilised a co-occurrence network to visually represent text used in the context of cultured meat in the two countries. However, there is no existing specific regulatory framework to formally control the cultured meat market in Japan. Instead, industry groups are being formed to create industry standards and liaise with the regulator to create a process to foster consumer confidence. 

Figure 1: Co-occurrence Network of Cultured Meat in Japan. Image source

As shown in Subgraph 1, articles discussing cultured meat in Japan often discuss its development, with words like “research” and “create” often appearing together.  Similarly, subgraph 4 displays a similar category of words, highlighting words like “develop”, “technique” and “enterprise”, highlighting the process of producing and marketing cultured meat. 

Figure 2: Co-occurrence Network of Cultured Meat in Singapore. Image source

Singapore’s network includes words like “meat”, “alternative protein” and “market”, implying that the topic of cultured meat was discussed with rather abstract topics. Like Japan’s network, it is evident that discussion of research and development is mainstream in Singapore, with words like “scientist” in the first subgraph and “tech” in subgraph 5.  

Marketing Strategies Employed by Firms

In Chapter 3 of Cultivated Meat to Secure Our Future, Christopher Bryant commented that marketing initiatives surrounding cultured meat should be purposed to increase the familiarity of cultured meat as “people typically like what they know and fear what they don’t”. Marketing strategies should target their  motivations to consume cultured meat. Figure 3 depicts the primary motivations for the consumption of cultured meat. 

Figure 3:  Major factors influencing the acceptance of cultured meat. Image source

This essay will focus on comparing the strategies in three aspects: ethical and environmental concerns, risk-benefit perception and product properties. Specifically, it will examine two companies, Umami Bioworks from Singapore, and IntergriCulture from Japan. 

Ethical and Environmental Concerns

Ranked as the most significant factor that consumers are most concerned about, cultured meat firms should gear their advertisement of their products towards promotiong cultured meat as an environmentally friendly source of meat. 

Figure 4: Screenshot from Umami Biowork’s Website

Figure 5: Screenshot from Umami Biowork’s Website

Figure 6: Screenshot from IntegriCulture’s Website

Both Umami Bioworks and IntegriCulture emphasises on the positive impacrts cultured meat can have on the environment. Graphically, Umami Bioworks chooses more realistic graphics (as seen in Figures 4 and 5), depicting climate change with dystopian monochrome images (in Figure 5) and their work to be clean and ethical (in Figure 4). In contrast, IntegriCulture chose to use a soft sage colour as the background of one of the sections on their home page, evoking a sense of calmness, while highlighting the positive environmental impacts their technology can have, since the environment is often associated with the colour green. Furthermore, they inserted 6 of the UNSDGs which their cause could work towards, bringing consumer’s attention towards the sustainability goals that cultured meat could get closer to. This is particularly effective as the UNSDGs is a global initiative and IntegriCulture’s highlight on specific goals not only improves the awareness of Japanese consumers, but also international viewers of their website who are familiar with the goals. 

Another feature of IntegriCulture’s website publicity effort is the inclusion of stories in explaining the purpose and benefits of their technology. In particular, The ecological footprint of meat wrecking the planet brings to attention the negative effects of traditional livestock farming on the environment, thereby underscoring the environmental benefits of producing cultured meat. 

Figure 7: Extract from The Ecological Footprint of Meat Wrecking the Planet. Image source

Risk-benefit Perception

It is instrumental for cultured meat companies to reassure its consumers that the meat produced are safe for consumption, and even healthier than conventional forms of meat.

Figure 8: Umami Biowork’s Website

Specifically for lab-grown meat, it is crucial for marketers to combat the stigma of perceived unnaturalness that consumers may be concerned about. Positive framing of the health benefits is therefore necessary for positive consumer receptiveness. 

IntegriCulture’s website, however, does not contain any information regarding the safety of the food produced by their technology. Additionally, none of the firms addressed the perceived unnaturalness of lab-grown meat on their websites. However, IntegriCulture did portray the customisability of their technology in providing nutrients, improving individual health. 

Figure 9: Story 2 - Let’s (soon) design meat - it will be fun! Image source

This may thereby entice health-conscious individuals to test out their technology, increasing consumer acceptance of IntegriCulture’s technology. 

Product Properties 

Both Singapore’s and Japan’s culture highly value quality of food. As such, marketing efforts by firms in both countries must target this aspect, ensuring that the taste of the food is depicted to be of good quality. A survey conducted at Huber’s Butchery and Bistro, the first restaurant in the world to serve cultured meat found that eating cultured chicken significantly boosted post-consumption acceptance levels, with the tastiness of the chicken a more important factor than its integration into a familiar meal or dish in fostering repeat consumption.

Figure 10: ALKEMYST. Image source

Figure 11: Sample product by IntegriCulture. Image source

Figure 12: Story 2 - Let’s (soon) design meat - it will be fun! Image source

Both firms emphasise that the lab-grown nature of cultured meat will not sacrifice the quality of taste of the meat. While Umami Bioworks explained that their technology will be optimised for taste in plain text, IntegriCulture’s use of visual graphics, as depicted in Figure 11, makes it more enticing for viewers to increase their acceptance of cultured meat. 

In terms of pricing, another aspect of product properties, the two firms are both price setters due to their oligopolistic nature. As none of their products have yet to be approved by their respective food agencies, the marketing of both firm’s technologies do not focus on price. However, it is notable that the current market for cultured meat is more geared towards premium customers, since the cost to develop the technology is high. 

Comparing the two firms’ marketing strategies, both firms have targetted their efforts towards their consumers’ preferences in the respective countries. Yet, there are still initiatives that can be put forth by the firms such as social media marketing, which can increase consumer familiarity and awareness of cultured meat, increasing consumer acceptance in the long run.  

References

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