Did Beyond Meat go too far beyond meat?

Borrowed

"Know Thyself: Before you go to market, know what you are selling and to whom. It’s a very rare business that can (or should) be all things to all people. Be the best you can be within a reasonably tight product focus. That will help you to improve yourself and help your customers to know how and when to buy your product."

From "Setting the Table" by Danny Meyer [Book]

Learned

I came across some Beyond burgers in the back of my freezer this weekend. I used to eat them a few times per month for lunch, but for whatever reason, dropped off, so my guess is they’d been sitting there a while. This isn’t about my freezer-burnt plant-based burgers, though. It’s about the functional, protein drinks Beyond (Meat) launched earlier this year that took the CPG world by… surprise. The white cans with the caped cow logo and sliced fruit. The internet reactions. The parody posts from other brands. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read on but don’t panic. They didn’t release sparkling meat substitute in a can.

At the time, it seemed like a confusing moment for the company. So, after my freezer run-in with Beyond, I started digging into what was actually going on behind all the hubbub.

What Happened with Beyond

In mid January, Beyond Meat launched Beyond Immerse, a line of sparkling protein drinks with nearly every functional callout a beverage might have these days. Pea protein, fiber, antioxidants, and electrolytes. Three flavors. Available only through their DTC site for a limited time.

The internet’s response was brutal. “This is psychotic behavior,” one commenter wrote on a post by CPG writer and Barrel advisor, Nate Rosen. Competing brands piled on with parody announcements. Pleese, a vegan cheese company, announced a plant-based cheese scented deodorant. Yo Egg spoofed with “Yo Egg Hair Gel” in textures like “Soft Scramble Hold” and “Runny Shine.” Beyond turned off comments on their TikTok.

Here’s the context that didn’t make most social posts:

Beyond Meat’s stock dropped 78% last year. They have over $1 billion in convertible debt they’ve been scrambling to restructure. Their corporate controller was terminated in December following an investigation into financial reporting weaknesses. Revenue... keeps... declining...

In the middle of all this, they began de-emphasizing “Meat” in their branding, leaning into “Beyond” as their identity, and shifting to a more protein-focused positioning. Then, they launched a beverage.

In an article for Just Food, Stefano Di Napoli, founder of Consumer Products Growth Strategy consultancy, put it bluntly:

"I struggle to see any real synergies with Beyond Meat's core capabilities or brand equity, to the point where launching real meat would almost feel more coherent."

Ivan Torossian from GlobalData called it a "desperate move," arguing that Beyond Meat should focus on fixing its core offering rather than redefining what the brand stands for.

They kept the caped cow logo on the can. The same icon they spent years connecting to savory, meaty flavors is now on a sparkling fruit drink.

This is what panic can look like at scale.

The thing is, Beyond Meat had a real foundation. Ethan Brown founded the company in 2009 after leaving a career in clean energy, convinced that shifting protein from animals to plants could address climate change, improve human health, and reduce animal suffering. He tapped his 401(k), his kids' savings accounts, and sold a house to keep it going. Bill Gates invested. So did Leonardo DiCaprio. The Beyond Burger became the first plant-based burger sold in the meat case alongside beef at grocery stores. They built something special.

I've Been There

When things aren’t working, there’s a certain kind of pull that sets in as you feel the weight of revenue falling, markets changing, all while competitors appear to be thriving. The mind starts spinning. We need a new website. We need to offer that service. We need to do [pick your poison]. I’ve felt that pull more times than I can count. I’m not sure it ever fully goes away.

Several years ago, that tension came into focus for us. As prospective clients asked what made us different, my answer was no longer compelling. More agencies were flooding the Shopify ecosystem, and what once felt distinctive no longer did. At the same time, as we looked ahead, another question kept surfacing. Where are we going? What are we building toward?

The temptation was to react. I can remember times in the past when a moment like this would prompt us to change the headline on our homepage, thinking that might do the trick. New “positioning.” Or chase a new service offering.

Instead, we paused. We had hard conversations. We even brought in a consultant. We asked ourselves what we actually did well and for whom.

The answer had been there all along. CPG brands. It was already in our work, our case studies, our instincts. One of my first projects at Barrel was a redesign of the KIND Snacks e-commerce website, a client we worked with for years after. The thread was there. We just hadn’t committed to it.

So we started carving that path. We said no to brands that didn’t fit. We went deeper with those who did. We shared our point of view.

The year we made the commitment wasn’t about revenue growth. It was a year to lay the foundation. It wasn’t easy (never is), but we signed on a dozen or so CPG clients and went deeper into those businesses, learning how they operate and how we could add value. That set the stage for a growth year to follow.

To everyone around us, the shift felt natural. We didn’t reinvent ourselves. We capitalized on what already existed and grew it.

The Other Path

Chobani nearly went bankrupt. Hamdi Ulukaya bought a defunct yogurt factory in upstate New York in 2005 with an SBA loan. He hired several Kraft workers who had been laid off and spent two years perfecting the recipe. When things got hard, and he had to bring in outside capital, he didn’t launch a plant-based burger or rebrand. He stayed focused on yogurt. Within five years, Chobani hit $1 billion in sales. By 2017, they held over 50% of the Greek yogurt market.

Back to Nature has a similar story. Founded in 1960 at a California health food store, the brand changed hands multiple times over the decades. Kraft. Mondelez. B&G Foods. By the time Jennifer Jorgensen came in as CEO in 2023, the brand needed a turnaround. She spent nearly three decades at General Mills before taking the role. Instead of chasing new categories, she went back to the beginning. She focused on what originally made them matter. Wholesome snacks, California heritage, clean ingredients. They launched a rebrand early last year that reconnected the brand to its roots. Early results are showing momentum, with the brand reporting YoY gains in key metrics. And ultimately, it's the new look that stopped me in my tracks at Whole Foods and made me bring a box home for Dana.

Suzy Richard, Chief Sales Officer at SPINS, put it well:

“The brands that weathered the storm best were those that stayed true to their core values and business foundations. In an unpredictable environment, success came from resisting the allure of chasing fleeting trends and instead doubling down on what made brands authentic.”

Movement vs. Progress

The difference between Beyond’s move and these turnarounds isn’t resources or scale. It’s the difference between reacting and responding.

Reacting is launching a protein drink when the core product is struggling. Responding is taking a hard look at what’s actually not working, having the patience to understand it, and putting in the slow work to turn it around.

When the pressure mounted, Beyond didn't double down on fixing what made them matter. They pivoted into a crowded beverage category. What this all means for the future? Too soon to tell.

Having a pulse on the market matters. But so does the resilience to stay the course and learn when the numbers dip.

The long game isn’t about ignoring problems. It’s about diagnosing them honestly and committing to the work, even when the work doesn’t produce immediate results.

That first year of our CPG focus, when the numbers didn’t grow, or an exciting new non-CPG client wanted to work with us, it would have been so easy to abandon. This isn’t working, that looks like it will. Let’s try something else.

But the inputs were right. The direction was inspiring. So, we stayed the course, and continue to.

The long game requires something harder than action. The discipline to act on the right things.

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Related: Reflecting Through Books: Balancing Real-Time Decisions with Long-Term Thinking​

& Thought

What's something you've committed to that you know is right, even if the results haven't shown up yet?