This Is How Restaurants Should List Vegan Items On Menus

Edited by The VEGPRENEUR Team

Michael Fox of Fable shared some very valuable advice on LinkedIn regarding how changing the names of specific food items on restaurant menus helped grow his business.

In November 2022 we closed an US$8.5M Series A round. Within 6 months we lost our 3 largest customers and 2/3 of our revenue. What we discovered next has profoundly impacted our business.

In early 2023 we were succeeding on some restaurant menus but not others and we couldn’t understand why… it was the same product on all these menus. Customer feedback, from those who tried our product was outstanding.

However in some restaurants we were performing fantastically well at 7-10% of their sales, in others we were 1-2% and coming off menus. WHY?!?!

We decided to dig into consumer behaviour to understand what was going through consumers’ minds when deciding whether to select our products when ordering off menus.

We partnered with Mexican restaurant Las Catrinas at the Eat Street food markets in Brisbane and over 6 months, we tested 8 different names for our product on their menu - 3 weeks for each name. The results were startling and profound.

The 4 best performing names all mentioned ‘mushrooms’ or ‘shiitake’ and the best ones included a flavor descriptor. ‘Shiitake Carnitas’ was the best performing name at a whopping 8% of total sales.

The 4 worst performing names were all plant based meat related names and didn’t mention mushrooms. “Pulled ‘beef’” was the worst performing name at 1% of sales.

Identical product. Just 2 words different in a menu title and sales 8x - the difference between a complete failure and a raging success!

Why? It’s pretty obvious with hindsight. Consumers want to know what it is they’re eating. Those who are reducing their meat consumption are primarily doing it for health reasons and they don’t want to sacrifice taste. They know mushrooms and particularly shiitake mushrooms are delicious and healthy. Mention shiitake and a delicious flavor descriptor and it helps build the confidence that a dish is going to be just what they’re looking for - delicious and healthy.

We now share this and more data when we launch with a new restaurant partner and needless to say they all lean into ‘mushrooms’ or ‘shiitake’ and add a flavor descriptor to go with it. Think “Shiitake Carnitas”, “BBQ Shiitake Burnt Ends”, “Shiitake Teriyaki” or “Shiitake Infused Beef”.

This simple consumer insight helped us recover one of those key customers and we’ve added and are succeeding with a whole lot more since! We grew our top line revenue 50% last year and are on track to grow faster this year. It’s no exaggeration to say this not only saved but completely turned around our business.

What simple but profound consumer insights have been critical in the success of your business?