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Also, it's terrible branding. I like seaweed, it's a great snack (I especially like dulse). I also like thousands of other things that aren't bacon. When I want

Also, it's terrible branding. I like seaweed, it's a great snack (I especially like dulse). I also like thousands of other things that aren't bacon. When I want bacon, I'll have bacon, when I want some other food, I'll look for that. A "vegan" or fake version of something I already like is the last thing I'll seek out. Make something tasty and give it a proper name, and I'll buy it because it's tasty. Piggyback on some already popular food, I'll just be set up for disappointment

YLE118 4y ago
I thought this was going to be the seaweed chicharron snacks. There's surprisingly not bad, in fact I might prefer them to almost any packaged chicharrones. If they'd been called seaweed puffs they might appeal to a different audience, the way I see veggie crisps placed near the produce in some grocery stores. https://www.seacharrones.com/ https://www.seacharrones.com/
Kon-Peki 4y ago
There’s been a lot of discussion about the challenges companies in this space are having. I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that there are two distinct markets, with almost zero overlap, and they are at odds with each other. You can’t serve both markets at the same time, you can’t succeed without the credibility of one, but the only way to profitability and sustainability lies with the other. This just isn’t a VC-compatible industry. Full stop.
jjj123 4y ago
“When I want bacon, I'll have bacon, when I want some other food, I'll look for that” I hear this all the time from people who eat meat, but consider this: maybe you aren’t actually the target audience for this product. Maybe it’s for people that don’t eat any pork but still like the taste and texture of bacon.
- mc32 4y ago
  But if they are not trying to entice meat-eaters there is no reason to ride the coattails of the original, real and authentic thing. You'd sell it as "seacrunch" or "seamunch" or whatever.
  - Jarwain 4y ago
    The reason is to draw people in with a comparison to something they already know. "bacon made of seaweed" sounds more interesting and will draw more people in than "seacrunch", which has its own identity and brand it would need to build up
    - mc32 4y ago
      You may be right, but I have a feeling most vegetarians and vegans don't need an imitation of meat in mock bacon. They have a great variety of tasty things already few if any rely on meat analogues (especially if the diet is inspired by traditional vege/vegan diets). So the target with this naming convention would be "converts" or people transitioning to vege/vegan --which is a smaller market.
    - kjkjadksj 4y ago
      The end result is more like replicating a grape with artificial grape flavor: not nearly there in taste and with a ton of processing. I hate how tepid these companies are. Its like if all food has to be a copy of some other food to go to market, then we are stuck with the mass market cuisine of the mid 19th century as our end all be all.
      - Jarwain 4y ago
        Haven't tried the specific product myself so I can't really say. imo Artificial flavors aren't great at replacing a thing, but they can transfer the essence of a thing's flavor to something else and that leads to interesting results. For example, snow-cone syrup is a surprisingly good flavoring for kratom! Yeah that's fair. Doing something super novel is risky though, and a big part of starting a business is about mitigating risk
  - thelazydogsback 4y ago
    Well, if we all ate meat alternatives most of the time and treated ourselves to real meat much less often, we could reduce the density of animals raised for food so that they could be raised humanely. I love meat and especially bacon, but I'll have sea-crunch (or whatever) most of the time if it means we don't have to torture animals all their lives. Related: this Future Perfect podcast https://pca.st/ngofo0ll https://pca.st/ngofo0ll

YLE118 4y ago

I thought this was going to be the seaweed chicharron snacks. There's surprisingly not bad, in fact I might prefer them to almost any packaged chicharrones. If they'd been called seaweed puffs they might appeal to a different audience, the way I see veggie crisps placed near the produce in some grocery stores. https://www.seacharrones.com/ https://www.seacharrones.com/

Kon-Peki 4y ago

There’s been a lot of discussion about the challenges companies in this space are having. I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that there are two distinct markets, with almost zero overlap, and they are at odds with each other. You can’t serve both markets at the same time, you can’t succeed without the credibility of one, but the only way to profitability and sustainability lies with the other. This just isn’t a VC-compatible industry. Full stop.

jjj123 4y ago

“When I want bacon, I'll have bacon, when I want some other food, I'll look for that” I hear this all the time from people who eat meat, but consider this: maybe you aren’t actually the target audience for this product. Maybe it’s for people that don’t eat any pork but still like the taste and texture of bacon.

mc32 4y ago
But if they are not trying to entice meat-eaters there is no reason to ride the coattails of the original, real and authentic thing. You'd sell it as "seacrunch" or "seamunch" or whatever.
- Jarwain 4y ago
  The reason is to draw people in with a comparison to something they already know. "bacon made of seaweed" sounds more interesting and will draw more people in than "seacrunch", which has its own identity and brand it would need to build up
  - mc32 4y ago
    You may be right, but I have a feeling most vegetarians and vegans don't need an imitation of meat in mock bacon. They have a great variety of tasty things already few if any rely on meat analogues (especially if the diet is inspired by traditional vege/vegan diets). So the target with this naming convention would be "converts" or people transitioning to vege/vegan --which is a smaller market.
  - kjkjadksj 4y ago
    The end result is more like replicating a grape with artificial grape flavor: not nearly there in taste and with a ton of processing. I hate how tepid these companies are. Its like if all food has to be a copy of some other food to go to market, then we are stuck with the mass market cuisine of the mid 19th century as our end all be all.
    - Jarwain 4y ago
      Haven't tried the specific product myself so I can't really say. imo Artificial flavors aren't great at replacing a thing, but they can transfer the essence of a thing's flavor to something else and that leads to interesting results. For example, snow-cone syrup is a surprisingly good flavoring for kratom! Yeah that's fair. Doing something super novel is risky though, and a big part of starting a business is about mitigating risk
- thelazydogsback 4y ago
  Well, if we all ate meat alternatives most of the time and treated ourselves to real meat much less often, we could reduce the density of animals raised for food so that they could be raised humanely. I love meat and especially bacon, but I'll have sea-crunch (or whatever) most of the time if it means we don't have to torture animals all their lives. Related: this Future Perfect podcast https://pca.st/ngofo0ll https://pca.st/ngofo0ll