UNSTUCK 029: You're A B2B Brand. Here's Why You (Still) Have To Care About The Consumer.

The debate on B2C vs. B2B has been swirling around sustainable foods for a while. In the current climate, the conventional wisdom says B2C is too expensive, too hard. B2B is easier and gets you to scale quicker. These are critical business model decisions. What they are not, is a determinant of whether you need to be investing in understanding consumer and market opportunities, and how you position yourself as a solution to these. These are mandatory regardless of business model because you need B2C proof points to unlock any serious scale in B2B.

Should you care about the consumer mindset and skill set to take sustainable foods mainstream and get UNSTUCK if you’re a B2B brand? Absolutely. Let's unpack why in more detail.

You need to care about what your customer cares about

As a B2B brand, what your customer ultimately cares about is growth. Put simply, they can grow in one of two ways. Reaching more consumers (selling to more people) or premiumization of what they already sell to their customers (selling at a higher price point).

The other thing they care about is cost. There is a B2B play where you offer a cheaper ingredient than they currently buy, or a supply chain efficiency that makes their processing cheaper. However the likelihood that a start-up sustainable food ingredient is able to do either of these is low. Cost reduction is a scale game in an industry that has been optimising for decades.

What about supply chain resilience and carbon footprint reduction we hear you cry? Benefits, yes. R&D and procurement conversations, maybe even line trials, yes. Going to drive implementation of your solution at scale? Unlikely. The status quo prevails - until there is a crisis that demands otherwise. With unlimited runway you could wait around for that.

Which brings us back to growth. A conversation about how you can help your customers grow will get you through the door and talking to the commercial teams that are focused on the next 1-3 years. To have that conversation, you have to understand the category and the consumer opportunity you can answer for them.

Building a premiumization story

In the commoditised world of sports nutrition, Myprotein once positioned itself as the Ryanair of protein powders: no-frills, low-cost, high-volume. But as the market matured and consumer expectations evolved, the British brand undertook a subtle but decisive shift toward premiumization. The engine? Ingredient segmentation.

At the heart of this strategy lies the protein source itself. Whey concentrate, the budget-friendly staple, remains the volume driver. Yet Myprotein now offers a segmented hierarchy: whey isolate (leaner, faster-absorbed, more expensive), hydrolysed whey (can be clear for lighter taste and digestibility), and finally, "The Whey" — a tri-whey blend designed for muscle support before, during and after workouts, commanding a significant price premium.

But the diversification doesn’t stop at dairy. Vegan proteins —once an afterthought — have been rebranded and repriced under the “Vegan Protein Blend,” sources such as pea, rice, hemp, and even a version with protein from precision fermentation. Each variation comes with its own narrative: digestibility, hypoallergenic and sustainability benefits that justify higher price points.

The result: a brand that still dominates on price comparison charts, but now encourages a growing share of customers to trade up. The lesson is clear: when consumers can digest the story behind the source, they’ll pay more for their powder.

Reaching new consumers

The giants of food ingredients demonstrate best practice in how you bring category growth solutions to customers. Rightly or wrongly, consumers in developed markets believe more protein is better for them, the multi-billion supplementary protein industry is booming and will continue to do so assisted by the rise of GLP-1 medications.  There is a saturation of products in powders, bars and shakes but the opportunity to turn other categories into sources of protein is vast.

Arla Food Ingredients understands this and furthermore they have customers with businesses built on categories that are undergoing rapid change.  In beverages, consumers are reducing their intake of traditional carbonated drinks while functional offerings are on the rise.  

These sorts of category insights, combined with understanding what consumers are motivated by, leads to innovations such as their protein soda concept, showcased earlier this month. 10g protein, zero sugar and refreshing clarity delivered through their Lacprodan® BLG-100 ingredient.  

There's no monopoly on insights

Fortunately your market cap does not give you a monopoly on strategic insights. Sustainable food startups with a B2B offering can use B2C thinking as their secret weapon to unlock scale. Look no further than UNSTUCK 024 where we explain how Vivici, the Dutch precision fermentation leader, did just that.

Talk to your customers about what they care about now – tangible growth instead of squishy sustainability stories – and you'll find their doors much easier to open.