TFM - Final Project

Healthful Foods for Both People and Planet

June 2020

Christine Tingzi Xu - IMSD

María Herrero Lorences - IMSD
Eduardo Antonio Nass Balbontín - IMSD
Carlota de Paula Coelho - IMSD
Olaya Román Romín - MIGMA

Tutor: Daniel Truran

TABLE OF CONTENT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................................... II
Overview ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... II
Target Market, Competition & Strategy ..................................................................................................................................... III
Operational Overview ..........................................................................................................................................................................IV
Forecasting & Investment Needs ....................................................................................................................................................IV
GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ...........................................................................................................VI
1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Food and the Environment ................................................................................................................................................ 1
1.2. Food as the Solution ............................................................................................................................................................. 2
1.3. Emergence of a Business Idea........................................................................................................................................... 5
2. OUR MISSION, VISION & VALUES.......................................................................................................................... 7
2.1. Mission ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 7
2.2. Vision ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
2.3. Values .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
3. BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS ..................................................................................................................................... 8
4. INVESTIGATION .......................................................................................................................................................... 9
4.1. Phase 1: Customer Interviews & Results ...................................................................................................................... 9
4.1.1. The why........................................................................................................................................................................... 9
4.1.2. The pain ........................................................................................................................................................................10
4.1.3. Conclusion of the first round of interviews.................................................................................................10
4.2. Phase 2: Customer Interviews & Results .................................................................................................................... 10
4.2.1. Interviewees’ input .................................................................................................................................................11
4.2.2. Conclusion of the 2nd round of interviews ...................................................................................................12
4.3. Phase 3: Minimum Viable Product & Feedback ...................................................................................................... 13
5. MARKETING PLAN ................................................................................................................................................... 14
5.1. Market Overview .................................................................................................................................................................. 14
5.2. Situational Analysis ............................................................................................................................................................ 15
5.2.1. Global Policy Framework .....................................................................................................................................15
5.2.2. Market Research.......................................................................................................................................................16
5.2.3. Applicable Laws........................................................................................................................................................18
5.3. Competition ............................................................................................................................................................................ 18
5.3.1. Competing Apps .......................................................................................................................................................18
5.3.2. SWOT analysis ...........................................................................................................................................................19
5.3.3. 4 Ps..................................................................................................................................................................................21
5.4. Roll-out Plan .......................................................................................................................................................................... 21
5.4.1. Pre-launch: Building brand awareness .........................................................................................................22
5.4.2. Launch: Major push ................................................................................................................................................26
5.4.3. Post-launch: User Retention ...............................................................................................................................26
6. FINANCE ....................................................................................................................................................................... 27
6.1. Revenue Streams .................................................................................................................................................................. 27
6.2. Costs ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 28
6.3. Investment .............................................................................................................................................................................. 28
6.4. Results ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 29
7. IMPLEMENTATION / NEXT STEPS ..................................................................................................................... 31
8. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................................. 32
9. ANNEX........................................................................................................................................................................... 33
10. REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................................... 35

I
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Overview

Food is the defining issue of our generation. We live in a world that has prospered tremendously from
the abundance of food thanks to modern farming technology and globalization, connecting billions of
people to a variety of foods that was previously inaccessible.

Along with it, an immense challenge has risen: food is now threatening the health of both people and
the planet. While the current global food system produces enough for all human beings, over 820 million
people still suffer from hunger and malnutrition and many more have diet-related health issues such as
obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Global food production is also the leading cause of environmental
degradation, accelerating both the climate crisis and food insecurity. As climate change threatens crops
through rising temperatures, extreme weather and increased droughts, food production, in turn, is a
major driver of climate change.

Agriculture is one of the top emitters of greenhouse gas emissions globally. And in cities, food is among
the biggest sources of consumption-based emissions. However, not all foods have the same impact:
consumption of animal-based food constitutes 75% of consumption-based emissions from cities. Within
this group, beef and lamb are the most damaging by far.

By 2050, the global population is projected to grow to 10 billion people and urbanization in cities is set
to grow dramatically, consuming 80% of all food produced in the world. We must ask ourselves -- can
we sustain feeding the global population without destroying the planet?

The answer is yes. Just as destructive, food is also the single most powerful lever we have to achieving
many of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations and the Paris Agreement of
keeping temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius. A 2019 report published by the EAT-Lancet
Commission concludes that a major transformation in the way we eat -- to a diet rich in plant-based
foods and few animal source food -- is the key to bringing our food systems back to operating within
planetary boundaries (e.g. within biophysical limits of the Earth system to ensure a stable and resilient
planet). This transformation would optimize the health of both humans and the environment and ensure
conditions necessary to foster prosperity for future generation.

We cannot sit idly knowing that we have a powerful tool readily available that can contribute to a more
sustainable and food-secure future. Even though animal products are two to three times more
environmentally damaging than non-animal source products, they are consumed daily and in large
quantities by many. If we want to see universal adoption of a diet that reduces highly carbon-intensive
foods (e.g. meat, dairy) by over 50% while doubling the consumption of planetary health foods (e.g.
foods healthy for humans and the planet) like fruits, vegetables and whole grains, we need innovative
and convincing solutions for consumers to change their behavior.

This is why we have created PlentiHealth, a mobile App that incentivizes consumers to switch to a
mostly plant-based diet. Currently there is a lack of tools that combine sustainability education of foods
with market-driven incentives for people to change their consumption behaviors. PlentiHealth combines
these two aspects to allow users to see the environmental footprint of land, water and greenhouse gas

II
emissions of food items as compared to others and be financially rewarded (e.g. discounts at restaurants
and grocery stores) for making smart purchasing decisions whenever they buy planetary health foods.

We want to make plant-based diets a norm in society and we want to make it easy and fun. With
education and a financial reward system, the App intends to create a positive feedback loop between
consumers, grocery stores and restaurants to continue driving each other to higher demands for foods
that are healthy for both people and planet.

Target Market, Competition & Strategy

PlentiHealth will be launched in Madrid with the goal of going global. Our customer base focuses on
millennials between the ages of 22 to 40 who do their own grocery shopping. Potential App users would
likely have a college degree and are concerned with sustainability, animal welfare, and/or their health
and therefore are actively reducing the amount of animal source foods they eat. They are also likely to
be concerned with their budget. In Madrid alone, there are 1.7 million residents between 20-39 years
old. Knowing exactly how many among this group falls within in our target customer base is difficult
however, as flexitarianism (e.g. someone who is mostly vegetarian but occasionally eats meat and fish)
is still an emerging market. Therefore, questions remain in terms of quantifying the number of
flexitarians that fall under our intended market segmentation.

Despite this challenge, research in general shows that the number of flexitarians is growing in
popularity, precisely because it is not a restrictive diet. The exponential growth of sales of alternative
meat and dairy products is also evidence that demand is rising. In the US, demand for vegan meat grew
20% between 2017 and 2018 and the trend doesn't stop there. Kellogg-owned MorningStar plans to
make its entire lineup of packages foods vegan by 2021. In Europe, flexitarianism is already very
popular in the UK and Germany while in Spain, the sale of plant-based products accelerated especially
during COVID-19 when supermarkets and vegan meat producers greatly expanded the production and
availability on shelves. All of this points to a rapidly growing market of flexitarians that our App can
tap into.

In terms of the mobile App market in Spain, it is one of the most developed in the world with 88% of
the population possessing smartphones. But competition in the mobile App space is high. Just in the
iOS Spain store alone, there are hundreds of Apps listed under the Health & Fitness category. Based on
detailed analysis of five potential competitors and our interview findings however, we have concluded
that PlentiHealth uniquely fills a gap in the market by combining sustainability education of food
products with market-driven incentives (e.g. cash-back rewards) to attract users.

PlentiHealth will be gradually rolled out in three stages every six months. The first stage will introduce
Version 1.0 which is detailed in the full report. Our marketing plan for Version 1.0 will be replicated in
pushing out Versions 2.0 and 3.0 as well. Specifically, the marketing plan is divided into pre-launch,
launch and post-launch strategies. A major portion falls in the pre-launch phase, where we actively use
wide-ranging tools to generate brand awareness and create a dedicated following for the App. Activities
will involve creating Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest accounts and our own website (see Annex) to amass
subscribers using a content calendar that includes news, blogs, photos, videos and articles. We will use
Google Analytics to analyze the effectiveness of our posting channels and frequency to continuously
improve our reach, as defined with click rates and number of subscribers.

III
We plan on tailoring a script of our pitch for influencers and the EAT Foundation to generate brand
awareness and traction. We will also use the same strategy to pitch to restaurants and grocery stores in
Madrid as partners prior to launching Version 2.0. We will fully utilize App Store Optimization
strategies to increase visibility of our App in both iOS and Android App stores as well as placing ads
to draw in users. In conjunction, our other post-launch goal is to retain existing users through reliable,
data-driven content and making updates to the App based on user-feedback.

Operational Overview

As the entire business is centered around offering an App, our business operations in terms of employees
and workload are completely focused on generating awareness, bringing in partners and creating a well-
functioning App that is easy to use with minimal glitches. The App will be free to download and use
(with a premium version launched after six months) and will be available in both Google Play and iOS
App Store.

The main areas of the company such as Outreach, Marketing and Finance will be initially carried out
by the partners themselves. For this reason, we are not planning on hiring any employees in the
beginning. Regarding the development and maintenance of the App, we will outsource it to external
developers. Any other function that the partners cannot carry out themselves will also be outsourced.

Leading up to the launch of Version 1.0, four of the five partners will have been working on marketing,
outreach and all other business logistics, including a crowdfunding campaign. In parallel, the remaining
partner will dedicate fulltime to map, select and pursue the most adequate acceleration or incubation
opportunities, as well as tournaments and bootcamps. That person will also be in charge of identifying
new partners beyond potential investors. One step will be to broaden the scope of stakeholders to
nutritionists, and experts in the healthcare sector in quest of validation. Another step would consist in
seeking the support of those in a position to expand our visibility: such as influencers promoting a
healthy lifestyle, or environmental activist youtubers.

A software company will have been identified and hired to begin App development. We will determine
an optimal date to launch the App, taking into account any other events that might overshadow the App
in order to avoid that possibility. In addition, the service that PlentiHealth offers in Version 2.0 requires
the participation of various partners, such as restaurants and supermarkets that will provide a discount
to the users of the App. Therefore, we will also begin to conduct early outreach to potential partners in
Madrid in order to ensure that Version 2.0 will be launched on time (six months after the launch of
Version 1.0). After Version 2.0, we will reach out to non-governmental organizations in order to feature
them in Version 3.0 after an additional six months. The idea is to amass as many subscribers as possible
in Version 1.0 so that restaurants and grocery stores will want to partner with PlentiHealth to gain
customers and visibility. The premium version in Version 2.0 will charge a small monthly fee to
customers by offering them cash-back rewards. Version 3.0 will be available to all users.

Forecasting & Investment Needs

There are four main sources of income. The first, and most profitable, is through in-app advertising in
the form of a banner that users will see in our App. This works through third-party companies that
provide the service and deliver an amount of income to PlentiHealth for each click from each user.

IV
Based on the strong marketing campaign mentioned above, we envision securing 500 users initially
followed by a monthly growth rate of 20% in the first year and 30% in the second year. Out of the total
number of downloads, we envision 30% to be active users (e.g. use the App daily). The second source
of income is during phase two, Version 2.0 -- users who want to access the premium version with a
cash-back rewards system would pay 1,99€/month. Also, during this phase, restaurants and grocery
stores that want to be featured in our App will pay a subscription fee of 20€/month. Finally, the last
revenue stream would come from franchising the App in other cities in the future to make our vision of
going global.

The costliest items are associated with the development of the App by a third-party company and with
marketing campaigns. These two areas alone will require 43.000€. The other costs are maintenance of
the App through this same external company, annual salaries for the partners, ongoing marketing, and
other operational costs. Once the App has been launched, there will only be one variable direct cost,
which corresponds with the commission fee required by Google Play and Apple iOS store when users
subscribe to the premium version.

We foresee an initial investment need of approximately 75.000€. Each partner will invest 5.000€
(totaling 25.000€). We expect to raise 30.000€ through a crowdfunding campaign and an equal amount
of 30.000€ from investors.

Based on our calculations, we begin to see an important growth in profit at the beginning of the second
year. The return on equity (ROE) obtained after the second period is of 89,6%, which is a very positive
gain. The return on investment (ROI) for the same period is 86.3%, again a positive number since it
returns on the investment at that rate. Finally, the pay-back period for the recovery of the initial
investment is 1.15 years.

V
GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
Alternative meat Mock meat made from vegetarian ingredients.
App Short term for application, it is type of software that allows you to
perform specific tasks.
ASO App Store Optimization.
CO2 Carbon dioxide.
EAT Foundation EAT is a non-profit startup dedicated to transforming our global
food system through sound science, impatient disruption and
novel partnerships.
EAT-Lancet Commission The first of a series of initiatives on nutrition led by The Lancet in
2019, followed by the Commission on the Global Syndemic of
obesity, undernutrition, and climate change.
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation.
HR Human Resources.
Flexitarian A semi-vegetarian diet, also called a flexitarian diet, is one that is
centered around plant foods and with the occasional inclusion of
meat.
GHG Greenhouse gas emissions.
LCA Life Cycle Analysis.
MVP Minimum Viable Product.
Millennials Born within the range of early 1980s to early 2000s.
NDCs Nationally Determined Contributions.
Net-zero emissions Net-zero carbon footprint, or carbon neutrality, refers to
achieving net zero carbon dioxide emissions by balancing carbon
emissions with carbon removal or simply eliminating carbon
emissions altogether.
NGOs Non-governmental organizations
Paris Agreement A 2015 international environmental accord that aims to
substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in an effort
to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees
Celsius above preindustrial levels, while pursuing means to limit
the increase to 1.5°C.
Planetary boundaries A concept involving Earth system processes that contain
environmental boundaries. In this paper, we refer to it as being
within biophysical limits of the Earth system to ensure a stable and
resilient planet.
Planetary health The health of human civilization and the state of the natural
systems on which it depends.
Planetary health food Foods healthy for both people and planet (staying within planetary
boundaries).
Plant-based food Foods derived from plants, including vegetables, grains, nuts,
seeds, legumes and fruits, and with no animal products.
ROE Return on equity.
ROI Return on investment.
SDGs Sustainable Development Goals.
Vegans A person who does not eat any animal-source products.
Vegetarians A person who does not eat meat or fish but eats dairy products.
WHO World Health Organization.

VI
1. INTRODUCTION

Innovation and technology in the food sector for the last 50 years has brought tremendous advances in
reducing world hunger, improving life expectancy and falling child mortality rates. However, rapid
urbanization, globalization and a vast growing middle class have shifted global diets to high in calories,
heavily processed and animal-based. In our lifetime, food has become one of the greatest challenges to
human health and the environment. In fact, food production is the single largest cause of global
environmental damage in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, freshwater use and land
degradation. The international community has tried to tackle these issues by setting the 2030 Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement target of keeping global temperatures below a
1.5°C rise. However, there are more carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the atmosphere today more than
any time in history and current projections show that we are nowhere near meeting the SGDs nor the
Paris Agreement.

Fortunately, there is one thing we can do. There is wide scientific consensus that avoiding meat and
dairy products is one of the biggest ways to prevent further environmental degradation and achieve the
SDGs and the Paris Agreement. According to a study by Oxford University, cutting consumption of
meat and dairy reduces an individual’s carbon footprint from food by two-thirds. This would be a
massive reduction when scaled globally. Our company, PlentiHealth, intends to tackle food insecurity,
climate change, and rising health issues with an innovative App, which provides education and financial
incentives for people to change their consumption habits to a mostly plant-based diet.

1.1. Food and the Environment

The food system and climate change have an undeniable connection. On one hand, rising temperatures
and extreme weather significantly impact crops and livestock and therefore our food supply. On the
other, agriculture -- together with forestry -- account for 26% of GHG emissions globally. However,
the environmental impact of different foods varies greatly. Livestock rearing contributes to methane, a
potent greenhouse gas, and also to deforestation due to expansion of pastureland and land used to grow
crops for feeding livestock. Hence, meat and other animal source foods generate more than 50% of all
food-related emissions, and within this group, beef and lamb are the biggest culprits. In cities,
consumption of animal-based food constitutes 75% of consumption-based emissions.

1
 Source: BBC

Another study from the US done by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that one kilogram of
beef emits 26 kg of CO2, the highest of all the 197 foods examined. It also found that between 2005-
2014 when there was a reduction in beef consumption, it was the “single biggest” contributing factor in
a reduction in total GHG emissions during those same years. In terms of water, it is estimated that
producing one kilogram of animal protein needs 100 times more water than producing one kilogram of
grain protein for human consumption. Animal agriculture is also the leading cause of deforestation, land
degradation and desertification.

Further, studies show that long-term consumption of increasing amounts of red meat, particularly of
processed meat, is associated with an increased risk of total mortality, cardiovascular disease, colorectal
cancer and type 2 diabetes. In Spain, out of the average meat consumed daily per person, 42% comes
from red meat such as beef, with the majority of that being processed meat, which according to the
World Health Organization (WHO), is why colon cancer is the most common form of disease in Spain.
Additionally, the increase in deforestation to create more farmland for crops and livestock breeding puts
human populations ever closer to wildlife and exposes communities to more pathogens than ever before.

By 2050, among the 10 billion people projected to live on the planet, 80% of all food produced globally
will be consumed by cities dwellers, as urbanization is set to grow dramatically. Without transforming
the global food system, we will face an acceleration of the climate crises, food insecurity, and increased
health issues.

1.2. Food as the Solution

In order to transform the food system, the way people view and consume food must undergo dramatic
shifts. On a daily basis, consumers make choices multiple times in what they eat. By consuming much
more plant-based foods over animal-based foods, consumers can act as major change agents in the
transformation of the global food system. However, current behavioral change interventions have been

2
mostly information and education led by governments and NGOs that has had some1 but not enough
impact at a global level. A study published by the World Resources Institute found that 70-80% of food
retail sales in the US and France in 2000 came from supermarkets in urban areas, while people were
dining out more than ever before. The report also found that consumers tend to buy products and brands
they recognize, and that price is an influential factor in their food purchases. So, if consumers are
making their food choices within supermarkets and restaurants, then the food & beverage industry has
a major role to play in shifting dietary habits. Together, they have the potential to transform the food
production system.

Now, for the first time, we have scientific data on what foods should be consumed in order to keep food
production within planetary boundaries. In 2019, a report published by the EAT-Lancet Commission
not only adds to the scientific community’s conclusion that a major transformation in the way we eat -
- to a predominantly plant-based diet -- is the key to bringing our food systems back to operating within
planetary boundaries but details exactly how much of meat, dairy, vegetables and other food products
people should eat.

Source: EAT-Lancet Summary Report

1Education is still a highly important factor as evidenced by its role in reducing the consumption of shark fin soup in China
and Hong Kong.

3
Source: EAT-Lancet Full Report. Developed using the planetary boundaries framework as a guide in
proposing a diet that encompasses human health and environmental sustainability.

4
1.3. Emergence of a Business Idea

This is how we came up with the idea of creating a mobile App that uses financial incentives to motivate
consumers to buy more planetary health foods and less animal source foods. We have named it
PlentiHealth because we want to promote foods that contribute to an abundance of health for both
people and planet. The App intends to combine education on a food’s environmental footprint with a
cash-back rewards system to help incentivize a shift in diet choices, with the end goal of transforming
our food system and ensuring the ability for future generations to continue thriving on this planet.

App Logo

In terms of education, users will be able to calculate how much impact a type of food has on CO 2
emissions and freshwater and land use compared to other foods in the same category. The food
calculator will be similar to one created by BBC as seen below, which calculates the impact of food on
the environment based on how often a person consumes it on a weekly basis. The deliberate decision to
take into account only the food product itself rather than provenance, is based on the finding that GHG
emissions relating to the transport phase remains relatively low. It accounts for less than 10%, and it’s
almost insignificant for the largest GHG emitters, such as beef (0.5%). Besides transport, processes in
the supply chain after the food left the farm, in extenso, processing, transport, retail and packaging
mostly account for a small share of emissions (see Figure 1 in Annex).

Once equipped with this knowledge, they can start being financially rewarded for making responsible
purchasing decisions. The healthier the food, the higher the points users can accumulate when making
purchases. Points will be totaled in the App and users will able to select how they want to apply it -- in
the form of discounts at restaurants or grocery stores or donations to NGOs.

5
 Source: BBC climate change food calculator. All figures for each food in the calculator are based on
global averages.

Another feature of the App, demanded by our early adopter interviewees, is a creating a recipe-sharing
function to build a community of conscientious consumers where they can add and share healthy recipes
with social network. Initially adopted by conscientious consumers, the App has the potential to achieve
critical mass and create a total transformation in our diet preferences.

6
2. OUR MISSION, VISION & VALUES

2.1. Mission

PlentiHealth seeks to promote plant-based diets and create new eating habits across communities that
is healthy for both people and planet. We strive to use the power of individuals and the food choices
they make daily as a powerful leverage to transform our food system to one that is healthy and
sustainable.

2.2. Vision

When US President John F. Kennedy set a goal of landing on the moon by 1970 in 1961, no one believed
it would happen. Astonishingly, this goal was achieved just a little over eight years later. At
PlentiHealth, we have set three moonshot goals that we are working to achieve. We want to 1) Make
plant-based diets a social norm; 2) Reduce animal source foods by at least 50% globally and double the
consumption of planetary health foods by 2040; and 3) Completely transform the way we view and eat
food as a society.

2.3. Values

Our actions are driven by four core values which are centered around our mission. We are deeply
committed to creating positive, long-lasting changes to the world. We are conscientious of the power
of individual actions in the well-being of future generations and the planet, and we want to see collective
action to living more sustainably. We want to strengthen our communities through inclusiveness, not
only encouraging diverse persons to participate but making it fun. Lastly, we are driven by trust in our
team, our scientific community, and the goodness in people to do what is right for future generations.

7
3. BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS

The segment of clients that we have selected as early adopters will be millennials, who have a job, do
not live with their parents and have a real concern for sustainability. In addition, they must be people
who are trying to eliminate meat from their diet or are flexitarians.

Our value proposition is to offer information on the environmental impact of food (CO2 emissions, land
and water use) and the option of creating and sharing both vegan and vegetarian recipes. In addition,
users can access discounts on vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Madrid as well as brand discounts.
Finally, we offer the possibility of donating cash to an NGO or plant a tree.

As for our key partners, we will collaborate with food producers, App developers, as well as the EAT-
Lancet commission (from where we have obtained the guidelines for a sustainable diet), and with
NGOs, restaurants and supermarkets.

In terms of the cost structure, we have two main costs: the development and maintenance of the App
and business operations, including marketing costs.

In terms of revenue streams, we have four main sources: ads placed in our Apps, the creation of a
premium version, subscription paid by our partners (restaurants and grocery stores) to be featured in the
App, and franchises of the App.

8
4. INVESTIGATION

4.1. Phase 1: Customer Interviews & Results

Once we had defined our customer market segment as those millennials, living in Madrid, who do their
own grocery purchases - as opposed to those who don’t because they live with their parents for example
- and are concerned about the environment, our next step was to identify who our early adopters might
be. Determining the customer market segment which would potentially constitute our first bulk of users
was key as they would be the first ones, we would contact for our customer interviews.

Because our product largely revolves around incentivizing a plant-based diet, our original hypothesis
was that this would be extremely easy and important to the vegan community. We believed that they
would be our early adopters. We therefore attempted to aim our interviews at people who were vegan,
or almost vegan.

We prepared a set of ten questions which focused primarily on diet and grocery purchasing habits, in
order to understand what their underlying motivation was to eat plant based as well as the pains they
encountered. We interviewed 16 people, amongst whom almost half (44%) were vegan and almost half
were vegetarian (44%) with a remainder of 8% of flexitarian and/or pescatarian.

4.1.1. The why

The first pitfall we hit was realizing that the primary motivation
or “biggest concern” for the vegan community lied with animal
welfare rather than the environment. Only half the interviewees
ranked the environment before animal welfare, whereas 44%
were more worried about animal-cruelty.

Consequently, since our product’s mandate is to foster a more

sustainable diet, which allowed a certain degree consumption of
animal products, (insofar as it would stay within “healthy
planetary diet” boundaries), it didn’t go far enough in addressing
liberation of animals.

9
 This is very important to the vegan community - more than
mere environmental considerations - and thus, when we asked
about whether they would be interested to track their carbon
dioxide emissions, we only hit a 75% of positive answers.

We thus concluded that we had erred in believing that our

early adopters would be vegan, and that the population
segment to which we could add most value to were those
people who were willing or in process of adapting their diets
to make them more environmentally friendly (i.e. flexitarians,
pescatarians, no-beef).

4.1.2. The pain

Fortunately, regarding the pain, we were closer to hitting the nail. Indeed, for those people concerned
with the environment, the two issues which were most recurrently mentioned, were on one hand (1) the
affordability (or at least, perceived affordability) of plant-based diets and on the other hand (2) the
recyclability of packaging. These were followed by (3) accessibility to vegan or vegetarian products
and (4) variety of products.

4.1.3. Conclusion of the first round of interviews

In conclusion, our first round of interviews allowed us to redirect our focus for early adopters from
vegans to those people who were willing or in process of adapting their diets to make them more
environmentally friendly (i.e. flexitarians, pescatarians, no-beef). It validated our hypothesis that most
people who are concerned with the environment would be interested in tracking the carbon dioxide
emissions of their diets. Furthermore, cashbacks could constitute a strong incentive to transition to a
more sustainable diet, seeing as the plant-based diet is perceived as more expensive. Therefore, our
products two main functions, first the ability to track the carbon intensity of food products and second,
the cashback rewards, have the potential to address these two concerns and thus, help transition to a
more sustainable diet.

4.2. Phase 2: Customer Interviews & Results

For the second round of interviews, we focused on people with some interest on reducing meat
consumption and we asked to classify between 1 to 5 if their diet matches the statement whereby 1
would mean “Strongly disagree” and 5 “Strongly agree”.

This is because we’re focusing this time in flexitarian which can be defined by a spectrum of self-
imposed and self-created rules, so we are looking at the spectrum from totally non vegetarian to
vegetarian.

10
This time, we obtained a higher score for sustainability versus animal welfare (see figure below). This
confirmed that we were interviewing the correct segment this time.

The pains or challenges associated with their diets remained the same: (1) affordability, (2) accessibility
and (3) variety of plant-based products.2

4.2.1. Interviewees’ input

This time, we allowed more leeway for our interviewees to make some suggestions and even discussed
our product with them. This had tremendous impacts on our product because many interviewees told us
that an efficient way to add value would be by including a recipes function. This would address the
challenge of variety.

2 N.B. Plastic in packaging remained a recurrent issue, which was brought up in answers to different questions, but this issue
is outside our scope.

11
The second impact was caused by the interviewees’ emphasis on the problems associated with having
to enter the foods consumed manually into the App. One concern that arose would be that users would
lose their interest in the App if it required frequent input (in other words, that it was too big of an effort).
Another concern was that it might foster eating disorders. These findings constituted a turning point for
our product, because it is at that point that we decided to include a barcode scanning feature which
would substitute the need for entering foods manually and focus on the grocery purchasing patterns
rather than the individual diet itself.

The third impact was as significant as the first two. It turned out that our interviewees, which are all in
the process of reducing animal products consumption, are already well aware of the carbon intensity of
the meat and dairy sectors. Their concerns were already a step ahead: they wanted to know the
environmental impacts of their quasi plant-based diets. They had heard about the deforestation problems
associated with avocados and the draining of the aquifers in California due to the production of almond
and hazelnut milks. They demanded that we go beyond what we originally intended. This also
constituted a milestone for our product as it made us decide to include the metrics for environmental
impacts other than greenhouse gas emissions; consequently, we added two new considerations: water
and land use.

4.2.2. Conclusion of the 2nd round of interviews

To sum up, this second round of interview is accountable for what our product looks like at the present
time.

Adding recipes would tackle two issues: that of variety as well as, to a certain extent, that of
affordability. Indeed, perception remains that vegetarian and vegan products are expensive, but as one
of the interviewees pointed out, this holds true only to those products which try to replicate animal
products (e.g. cheese, burgers). Eating raw foods (e.g. lentils, chickpeas) is actually cheaper, since meat
remains expensive. Furthermore, the cashback function also addresses this issue of costs.

Inserting the barcode scanning feature would render our App more user friendly.

At last, the inclusion of metrics for two new environmental impacts strengthens the informative
function of our product, ensuring that our users would not hit the pitfalls associated with a plant-based
diet (notably, the examples mentioned above of avocados, almond and hazelnut milks).

12
4.3. Phase 3: Minimum Viable Product & Feedback

Once we had consolidated our findings and ideas for new

features into a very basic prototype (e.g. minimum viable
product, or MVP. See figure on the right and access to the
entire MVP in Annex), we asked 7 potential early adopters
to interact with it and give us feedback (some of them had
been in the first or second round of interviews).

We were glad to note that our interviewees were extremely

happy to have information about environmental impacts
beyond just the carbon dioxide footprint. Indeed, there seems
to be a growing concern around water use, which is
becoming more and more of a pressing issue.

Secondly, those interviewees that validated our App were

glad that they didn’t have to enter their foods manually into
the App - this was a concern which had been raised in the
second round of interviews.

Thirdly, they appreciated that we included their idea of

recipe. Nonetheless, one of the improvements they
suggested, was to foster even more engagement by creating
a sense of community. So, we’re considering enabling the
creation of groups, and further categorizing recipes.

Therefore, this round of validation interviews resulted in no

major changes for our product, as it was validated by 6 out
of our 7 interviewees. The one reluctant interviewee was
more interested in tracking his diet (notably, looking at
protein intake) than his purchasing habits. This did not affect
our course of action because we deliberately chose to shift
away from problematics related to health.

An example of feedback we received from Camille, 27 years

old, and user of the Yazio App was the following:

“It’s awesome, I would definitely use it. I find it much more convenient to scan a barcode,
and I think you might get more users if it's quick and easy to use while scanning. And
besides, the goal is to make you think about what you're buying and consuming, so I think
it's actually more relevant to focus on that rather than the occasional meal at the
restaurant, which is usually more of a cheat meal.”

Considering how successful and comparable the Yazio App is, we felt that we hit the nail in the head.
Following the validation of the MVP, we created a more sophisticated prototype (entire version
available in Annex) and have featured it on our website (link in Annex).

13
 Screenshot of website and polished prototype

5. MARKETING PLAN

5.1. Market Overview

PlentiHealth will be initially launched in Madrid. There are 6.7 million residents in Madrid with roughly
1.7 million between the ages of 20-39. As mentioned, our customer base focuses on millennials between
the ages of 22 to 40 who do their own grocery shopping. These potential users would likely have a
college degree and are concerned with sustainability, animal welfare, and/or their health. They are also
likely to be concerned with their budget.

Gathering historical data and future trends on the flexitarian market is challenging as this type of diet is
a newly emerging market. Therefore, questions remain in terms of quantifying the number of
flexitarians that fall under our intended market segmentation. However, in general, research shows that
the number of flexitarians outnumber vegetarians and vegans combined and that flexitarianism is rising,
as evidenced by the huge boom in the market for alternative meat and dairy products. Research also
shows that usually female millennials are more likely to give up meat products than males, and that
higher income brackets are more likely to be omnivores. This is a positive sign of the practicality of the
cash-back rewards system.

We will be introducing the App first in Madrid but have a goal of going global, therefore we have
attempted to research both the domestic and global market. As we continue to monitor new market
research on flexitarians, we will be able to better quantify client share with data on diet preference,
income bracket, level of education, and monthly budget for restaurants vs. groceries vs. take-away.

14
5.2. Situational Analysis

Within the different internal and external situational factors in the current market, we would like to
highlight:

● The current global policy framework;

● The market for mobile Apps, flexitarians, and plant-based foods; and,

● Applicable laws.

5.2.1. Global Policy Framework

To provide context at a global scale, the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) are critically important in providing a policy framework that is aligned with PlentiHealth’s
mission, vision and values. The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate
change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. As a
contribution to the objectives of the agreement, countries have submitted comprehensive national
climate action plans (e.g. nationally determined contributions, or NDCs). The European Union and its
Member States are committed to a binding target of an at least 40% domestic reduction in GHG
emissions by 2030 compared to 1990, to be fulfilled jointly, as set out in the conclusions by the
European Council of October 2014. For Spain’s NDC, the government is currently drafting a law that
would achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

The SDGs specifically seek to end poverty, protect the planet, ensure prosperity for all, and eradicate
hunger and malnourishment. A global transformation in our food system can have profound positive
effects on natural ecosystems and human health. Agriculture takes up 40% of land in the world, is the
single most important driver of biodiversity loss, and is responsible for up to 30% of global GHG

15
emissions and 70% of freshwater use. Investing and transitioning to sustainable food production and
consumption are major components of meeting several SDGs at once.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Goal 2: Zero Hunger.
Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.
Goal 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt
biodiversity loss.

5.2.2. Market Research

Mobile Apps

According to the "Mobile Application Market by Marketplace App Category: Global Opportunity
Analysis and Industry Forecast 2019-2026" report, the global mobile application market size was valued
at $106.27 billion in 2018, and is projected to reach $407.31 billion by 2026, growing at a compound
annual growth rate of 18.4% from 2019 to 2026.

16
In Spain, the mobile market is one of the most developed in the world, with 88% of the population
possessing smartphones. Specifically, the Spanish mobile App market is valued at 47 million euros in
2020 and will grow at 7.3% to 63 million euros by 2024. Among Apps by Spanish publishers, 30% are
available on both iOS and Android. User penetration is 23.5% in 2020 and will be 27.1% by 2024.
Average revenue per user is 4.30€. There are hundreds of Apps listed in the iOS Spain store under the
“healthy & fitness” category and we have examined five potential competitors in detail in section 3a.
Competing Apps.

Flexitarians

Estimates for flexitarians vary widely due to the reason that it is not a restrictive diet, hence those who
are polled could range from very strict flexitarians to those who eat meat-less meals once a week, for
example. According to Innova Market Insights, in 2016 there were 38% flexitarians in the US, 53% in
the UK, and as much as 67% in The Netherlands and 69% in Germany. Meanwhile, a 2019 YouGov
study showed that only 14% of the UK population considered themselves to be flexitarians, but that it
was still 10% higher than those who identified as vegetarian or vegan. In the US, a 2018 Gallup poll
showed 5% vegetarians (unchanged from 2012) and 3% vegans (up 1% from 2010), meanwhile 31%
considered themselves flexitarians.

In Spain, consultancy firm Lantern surveyed 2,000 people in 2017 and found that 6.3% identify as
flexitarians, while vegetarians and vegans accounted for 1.3% and 0.2%, respectively. Two-thirds are
female and 51.2% live in cities with populations exceeding 100,000 while most fall into the 20-35 age
range. Although flexitarian data is lacking for Madrid, it could have a market of at least 1 million people,
as it targets a much broader base than pure vegetarians or vegans.

Plant-Based Foods

While data on flexitarians is inconsistent, experts agree that the flexitarian diet is increasing in
popularity especially for those who do not want to commit to full vegetarian or vegan diets. Strong
rising sales of plant-based foods also indicates a greater overall interest in alternative meat and dairy
products. Demand for plant-based products, such as vegan meats and cheeses, has grown remarkably
in the last few years. Even meat-eaters who don’t consider themselves as flexitarians are regularly
purchasing meat substitutes. However, availability and cost could be an issue: meat alternatives are
much less available than mean products and cost 6 cents more per gram compared to beef. In the US,
demand for vegan meat grew 20% between 2017 and 2018, led by increasing number of vegan
celebrities and athletes, attracting more consumers to vegan alternatives and increasing consciousness
for what they put into their bodies. For example, Kellogg-owned MorningStar plans to make its entire
lineup of packages foods vegan by 2021. Even Tyson Foods, a giant in the meat and poultry industry,
has invested in Beyond Meat, an alternative meat company, and plans to enter the alternative protein
space soon. In Europe, the growth is predominantly driven by the UK, Germany, Italy and France,
where awareness has risen over the harmful effects of meat consumption in digestion and high saturated
fat content. The fastest growth is projected be in Asia, particularly China, India and Japan, over the side
effects of non-vegan products on human health. In total, it is a market valued at 4.4€ billion globally in
2020.

During COVID-19 amid fears of human and environmental health concerns caused by animal
agriculture, even more consumers have turned to plant-based diets. In North America, sales of plant-
based meat “grew 200% in the week ending April 18th, compared with the same period last year,
growing 265% over an eight-week period” according to the Financial Times. Similarly, in Spain,

17
supermarkets expanded their vegan product offerings during the pandemic. Vegan meat producer Heura
expanded its retail distribution by 14.7% while conventional food producer Maheso launched a
vegetable protein line called Green Moments.

5.2.3. Applicable Laws

App functionalities and data usage would be in full compliance with the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR):

The processing of personal data should be “adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for
the purposes for which they are processed”.
The period for which the data is stored is limited to a minimum.
Personal data shall be accurate and kept up to date.
Personal data shall be protected from unauthorized access, illegal processing and loss. In this
instance, the regulation points out pseudonymization and encryption of data. Furthermore, the
“ability to ensure availability and resilience of processing systems and services” plays an important
role.
A data protection officer has to be designated who is responsible for monitoring. compliance with
GDPR and makes sure that personal data is safe and secure.
All relevant people have the right to receive a copy of their data, the right to correct and restrict
their data as well as the right to erase data.

5.3. Competition

5.3.1. Competing Apps

As we are entering into the market with a new product, it is important to screen and analyze the
competition. Although PlentiHealth brings new features into the market, it is not a completely new
product as there are similar Apps that allow users to access healthy products, check for recipes or count
calories.

Below we have analyzed five of those Apps chosen based on their popularity and number of downloads.

a) Yazio: It is a German App that allow users to follow a healthy diet by counting calories, coaching
them along their diet and providing recipes that adjust to each customer. It is a free App although
there are integrated purchased products. It has 4,5 stars and more than 10 million downloads. It is
available in Android, iOS and on its webpage.
b) Yuka: It is a French App that allows its users to scan a different number of products and gives them
information about its quality providing them also with recommendations of similar but healthier
products. It is also a free App but with integrated purchased products. It has 4,5 stars and more than
10 million downloads. It is available in Android, iOS and on its webpage.
c) HarvestMark: It is an App that let its users to follow their food back to the farm to learn where,
when, and how it was grown by scanning the barcode of the product or entering the barcode serial
number. It does not appear in Android or iOS but does have a website.
d) GoodGuide: It is an US App and although it appears to be out of the online market now, when it
was available it allowed its users to evaluate products through an analysis of their life cycle. Until

18
 its withdrawal from the market it was a free App and it was available to download in Android and
iOS.
e) MyRealFood: It is a Spanish App that teaches its users how to eat healthy by allowing them to scan
the barcode of products and providing their nutritional information. It also provides them with
healthy recipes that its users can share with the online community realfooders. It is a free App,
although there is a subscription plan if you want to access some of their premium features. It has
4,7 stars and more than 500.000 downloads. It is available in Android, iOS and on its webpage.

Based on the analysis of these five potential competitors and the interviews conducted, we have
concluded that PlentiHealth uniquely fills a gap in the market by combining sustainability education of
food products with market-driven incentives (e.g. cash-back rewards) to attract users.

5.3.2. SWOT analysis

In order to develop a good and compelling marketing strategy we first need to know the internal and
external factors that will affect our company’s future performance. To do so we did a SWOT analysis
that allowed us to be aware of and evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of
our company, PlentiHealth. In addition, the purpose of this diagnosis is to align our strategies with the
reality of our company environment in order to:

Maintain and build on our strengths

Take advantage of our opportunities
Fix or eliminate our weaknesses
Counter threats

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

Knowledge and New in business. Fast growing market. Strong competitors.
contrasted data.
No reputation yet. Meet customer Saturated market.
Easy to navigate. demands.
Not diversified enough.
Educational info on the Partnerships with
impact of food. Lack of restaurants/grocery
funding/capital. shops.
Point system.

Sense of community

Strengths

• Knowledge and quality data: All data found in the App comes from scientific data, the EAT-Lancet
Commission and verified footprint calculations. Plus, behind this App there is a team of people with
different masters in sustainability and environmental management.
• Easy to navigate: It’s a self-explanatory App with not too many elements of text that allows our
customers to visualize what they are looking for.

19
• Educational information on the impact of food: Every time one of our users scans the barcode of a
product, they will have access to the environmental footprint of that product and also will be able
to compare it to other products.
• Sense of community: PlentiHealth will not only allow people to obtain information about the
products they are buying but also will allow them to become part of a community to share recipes
and pursue a healthy and sustainable diet.
• Reward point system: This system will encourage our users to buy healthy sustainable products
because by doing so they will be able to get discounts in restaurants and/or grocery stores or donate
to NGOs.

Weaknesses

• New business: As any new business that goes out into the market it will take a bit of time to be
known and gather a fanbase. And as was mentioned before, there are hundreds of Apps listed in the
iOS Spain store under the “healthy & fitness” category.
• No reputation yet: PlentiHealth is the first App that our company will launch so we are still unknown
to the public. Although this could be considered beneficial as people are drawn to use new things
even if it is just for one time, some reputation (of any kind) would be better than none.
• Not diversified enough: Although PlentiHealth adds a new feature that none of our competitors
have (information on water, land and CO2 footprint of food products), all of the rest of the features
are similar to those in the Apps already in the market.
• Lack of funding/capital: Although we will use our money to have the App running in the first place,
as a new company we will mainly depend on money from our different investors.

Opportunities

• Fast growing market: As mentioned in previous sections, plant-based diet was already a growing
tendency among people in some countries and now after COVID-19 the sale of plant-based products
has been accelerated in many countries, with Spain being one of those countries.
• Meet customers’ demands: Our App has a community feature where our users will be able to share
recipes and experiences, enabling the creation of groups, and further categorizing recipes. This
feature was added after our second-round interviews as it was something our early adopters asked
for.
• Partnerships with restaurants and grocery stores: It will be a mutually beneficial partnership.
Because of their investment in PlentiHealth, users of the App will be able to choose to go to their
restaurants or grocery stores as part of the reward system.

Threats

• Strong competitors: There are similar Apps to PlentiHealth that have been in the market for years
and already have a huge community created around them. Some of them were shown in a previous
section.
• Saturated market: There are already similar Apps that allow customers to know product information
by scanning the barcode or have a community to share information with.

20
5.3.3. Four Ps

The four Ps of marketing are the four key factors that are involved in the marketing strategy of a service.
Product, Price, Promotion and Place will help determine a clear and effective strategy to bring our
product to the market.

Product Price

Mobile App (PlentiHealth) Free to download.

1. Shows sustainability scale of products. Possibility to subscribe to a Premium account
2. Financially incentivizes healthier, plant- after 6 months.
based products and less animal products.

Promotion Place

Influencers among our target audience. App Store and Google Play
Social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter) (compatible with iOS and Android).
Ads in websites, forums and blogs.

5.4. Roll-out Plan

We intend to roll out the PlentiHealth App in three stages:

Stage one: The initial version (Version 1.0) includes educational information on the impact of food
(GHG, water and land compared to other foods) and a function to create and share recipes. This is
intended for our early adopters who are already conscientious consumers and would like to form a
community to share recipes. We would also keep them posted on future features of the App to
generate a wider following.

Stage two: Within six months, the second version (Version 2.0) will the rolled out that will feature
partner restaurants and grocery stores who can give discounts to their plant-based products in return
for more customers and visibility. We intend to target vegan/vegetarian-friendly restaurants in
Madrid because they are usually family owned and would benefit by attracting more visibility to
their business.3 The grocery stores we intend to target initially include Aldi, Lidl and Carrefour, as
they already offer a range of vegan products that may be pricier than traditional foods (e.g. vegan
ice cream, alternative meat burgers). In this phase, App users would be able to accumulate points
with healthy foods they buy and obtain financial rewards for their sustainable purchasing decisions.
This would be a benefit enjoyed by those who sign up for the premium account at a cost of 1,99€
per month.

3Apus Vegan, Chilling Cafe, El Buda Feliz, Punto Vegano, Smok Mok, Viva Burger, Los Andenes Vegan, Kakuna Matata
Vegano, Thunder Vegan, Bunny’s Deli, Pixie & Dixie Pizza, Freedom Cakes, Delish Vegan Donuts).

21
 Stage three: The third version (Version 3.0) is to partner with NGOs where App users can have
more choices on how they want to spend their cash-back rewards. For instance, they could choose
to plant trees or donate to an NGO of their choice.

5.4.1. Pre-launch: Building brand awareness

A major portion of the marketing plan falls in the pre-launch phase of Version 1.0, where we actively
use wide-ranging tools to generate brand awareness and create excitement for the App. Cost-free
activities include 1) building a website where visitors can subscribe to our updates; 2) creating
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts to accumulate followers; and 3) creating a content
calendar including news, blogs, photos, videos, interactive content like quizzes and influencer articles.

Channel Instagram Twitter Newsletters Facebook Pinterest Website

Frequency 1-2 posts/day 3-10/ 1/month 1-2/day 5-10/day 1/week

day
8-16 stories/
2x week

Time 7-10:00 9-14:00 Last Fridays 9-12:00 19:00- Any

each month at 21:00
10:00

Paid activities involve generating content such as videos and publicizing content through various means
such as post boosts and influencers. The posting strategy of the various content would be spread across
different platforms at the most optimized times/days to generate traffic to our website where visitors
can subscribe. We intend to test and analyze this strategy with Google Analytics and improve reach,
click rates, and subscription numbers.

We plan on boosting posts on Instagram (4€ per post) and on Facebook (40€ - 80€ per post). The
Facebook posts are aimed at women in Madrid between the ages of 22-40 who are interested in
environmental protection and a flexitarian diet. One boost would last 5 days and reach up to 350,000
people.

22
Sample post:

23
Sample post boost:

24
We also plan on reaching out to influencers on Instagram that our early adopters follow, such as
@KnowTheOrigin (84.7k followers), @everydayclimatechange (144k followers) and @midietavegana
(165k followers). These three would target a combination of individuals who care about sustainability,
climate change and/or vegan recipes.

Additionally, we will reach out to the EAT Foundation to promote our app through their social media,
which is at the center of the planetary diet movement. Considering that the principal idea of our App
stems from their 2019 report, we hope for the EAT Foundation to become a major partner of
PlentiHealth. Furthermore, we will reach out to potential early restaurant and grocery store partners in
Madrid in planning for the Version 2.0.

We plan to design an elevator pitch tailored to each target audience, building off of the following script:

Who are: PlentiHealth is a mobile App company that gives users the ability
to see the impact that their food has on land, water and CO2 emissions, while
financially rewarding them for purchasing foods that are healthy for the
planet. Launched in Madrid’s growing community of conscientious
consumers, PlentiHealth has the potential to go global. We envision a world
where plant-based diet is the norm in order to safely and sustainably feed a
growing population of 10 billion by 2050.

What we offer: We provide a unique combination of: 1) Comprehensive

informative function on sustainability of food products which addresses
water use, land use and CO2 emissions; 2) Directly translated into a point
system enabling cashbacks; and 3) Broadening of the plant-based horizon,
by better access to plant-based shops, restaurants and recipes.

Collaborate with PlentiHealth: A collaboration means promoting this App

in your social network to drastically expand the network of conscientious

25
 consumers in Madrid and in the world. While the power of individuals is
immense, imagine what we can achieve together. A transformation in our
diet is urgently needed and you can be a part of this incredible movement.

Finally, we will determine an optimal launch date and blast it widely to our networks to generate high
anticipation by our followers.

5.4.2. Launch: Major push

After the launch of the product (Version 1.0), we plan to use App Store Optimization (ASO) best
practices to increase visibility of our App in both iOS and Android App stores. We intend to place in-
app ads in other popular lifestyle apps as well as paid installs of our own App. And based on Google
Analytics testing results in the pre-launch phase, we will target the most successful platforms with
continued marketing outreach via social media, influencers and now, customer reviews. The length of
this phase will depend on the number of downloads until we reach top ranks.

5.4.3. Post-launch: User Retention

In conjunction, another focus after the launch is on building trust with users through reliable, data-
driven content and making updates to the App based on user-feedback. Our overall goal is to become a
trusted brand in the food transformation movement community. Our detailed marketing goals include
a 20% monthly growth rate in App downloads in year 1 (and 30% in year 2); a 30% goal of active users
out of total downloads; and a churn rate of less that 5%. We will continuously check our metrics, fix
bugs in the App, and create new content to retain users.

Six months after the launch of Version 1.0, we will roll out further features for wider adoption in Version
2.0 when restaurants and grocery stores will be featured in the App for financial rewards. Similarly, to
the pre-launch marketing plan, we will conduct activities to build momentum and anticipation for the
new version. Another six months after, we will roll out Version 3.0 to feature partner NGOs for users
to have even more choices in using their reward points.

26
App rollout plan for Version 1.0. Similar online campaign strategies will be used for Versions 2.0 and
3.0.

6. FINANCE

6.1. Revenue Streams

Our sources of income are first divided into four. Each of these is detailed below:

1) In-App Advertisement: The application will have advertising banners that work through the
number of interactions that users have with them. There are several companies in the market that
provide this service.

The calculation of the profitability of each user was made using means offered by these companies
for an approximate income from the time a user uses the application daily.

We have made the estimation of demand based on the potential market found in Madrid, which we
have previously mentioned, along with the strong marketing campaign during the pre-launch and
launch periods. These users represent active users, that is, they use the application on a daily basis.
With a growth rate of 20% the first period and then, in the second, 30% due to a greater presence
of the brand. These same estimations are used in the following points (2) and (3).

2) Subscribers of the Premium Function: Corresponds to the users who, once the App with premium
functions has been launched, will use this service at a cost of 1,99€ per month. We have chosen this
price as it is competitive in the Apps market.

We have estimated that 10% of users will have gone from using the free mode to this paid mode
after it is launched.

27
3) Restaurants Subscription: Once the premium function has been launched and a user base
attractive enough for shops and restaurants has been obtained, we will initiate the visibility of the
latter in our App through a monthly charge of 20€.

It is estimated due to the size and quantity of supply in Madrid that in the first instance we will
reach 50 restaurants and shops.

4) Franchise: Once the App has been established in Madrid, we will open the possibility of
franchising in other cities, due to the easy replicability of our project in other markets with similar
characteristics. In the first instance, during the two-year evaluation period of this financial analysis,
we have set the price as 10% of the annual income for the second period.

We have left the sale of data as proposed for further study, because a more exhaustive analysis must be
carried out that considers the existing legal regulations in Spain on privacy, the income it would
produce, and a possible negative impact on brand image from our users.

6.2. Costs

1) Variable Direct Costs: The only variable direct cost found is that of the premium subscriptions
that are made through the iOS and Android operating systems that correspond to 30% of the value
paid by the user for this service.

2) Marketing Costs: Initially, during the pre-launch and launch period 13,000€ is required. Then,
once the application is launched, there is a fixed monthly cost of 500€.

3) Human Resources Costs: For the period of the first year, each partner will obtain a gross annual
salary of 10.000€, in order to reduce costs during the period of launching and obtaining users, when
margins are negative. From the second year it will increase to 20.000€ for the same purpose of
reducing costs, the company does not have employees. The creation and maintenance of the App
will be outsourced to external companies.

4) Other Operating Expenses: In this section we have the following expenses: subscription to iOS
and Android, repairs and maintenance, work done by other companies, insurance premiums, office
supplies - cleaning and others, and management - consultancies and others.

6.3. Investment

As a digital product, we do not have many expenses. We consider an average market price for the
creation of a mobile App to be 30.000€, investment for intellectual and industrial property to be 300€,
and, finally, 300€ for start-up and constitution expenses. Including taxes, an initial investment of
37.026€ is required.

Each partner has committed to contribute an initial amount of 5.000€ for the initial investment. In
addition, through crowdfunding we expect 30.000€ and from investors an equally amount of 30.000€
is needed. This covers and exceeds the initial investment costs.

28
6.4. Results

The following chart shows the monthly burn rate during the two periods under evaluation. The first year
and the first month of the second have negative results, but from the following months it begins to
increase considerably. The last month sees a greater growth due to the fact that we considered two
franchises being sold.

On the other hand, if we focus on the final balance, which considers the same monthly burn rate but
adding the balance of the previous period and the initial investment at the beginning we get positive
results for each month, as can be seen in the graph below.

The following table shows a summary of the financial results for the two periods. Clearly, the second
year has better results than the first, where negative income is observed, while the following is positive
and increasing significantly. With a difference between both of 548.260€.

29
 First Period Second Period

Euros % Euros %

REVENUE (Sales) 35.904 100% 871.286 100%

Direct Variable Costs 885 2,5% 21.430 2%

Other Variable Costs 0 0% - 0%

Revenue Costs 885 2,5% 21.430 2%

(1) GROSS MARGIN 35.019 98% 849.856 98%

Personnel Expenses 53.600 149,3% 103.600 12%

Other Structural Costs (Including Mk) 27.124 76% 13.799 2%

Total STRUCTURAL COSTS (Fixed Costs) 80.724 225% 117.399 14%

(2) EBITDA - 45.705 -127% 753.177 86%

Amortization 7.575 21% 7.575 1%

(3) EBIT - 53.280 -148% 724.881 83%

Financial Costs 1.086 3% 26.356 3%

FINANCIAL RESULTS - 1.086 -3% - 26.356 -3%

+ REVENUES / - Exceptional Expenditures 30.000 83,6% - 0%

(4) EBT - 24.366 -68% 698.525 80%

Provision for Tax on Benefits 0 0% 174.631 20%

(5) Net Result - 24.366 -68% 523.894 60%

The return on equity (ROE) obtained 89,6% the second year, which is positive, indicating that the return
on equity is important. The return on investment (ROI) for the second period is 86,3%, again a positive
number since it returns on the investment at that rate. Finally, the pay-back term for the recovery of the
initial investment is 1,15 years.

30
7. IMPLEMENTATION / NEXT STEPS

1. Operational structure: The elaboration of this MVP has already allowed us to identify the
qualifications, skills, strengths and weaknesses of each partner, but before we register our company, we
will clearly define the roles, tasks and responsibilities of each partner within PlentiHealth.

2. Preparation for Version 1.0: We will then map and shortlist of software companies, inside
and outside of Madrid. We will proceed to meeting with them, expose them our functional requirements,
be presented with a business and technical proposal (which will be evaluated internally), compare
proposals, in order to select one which will be entrusted with the development of the App. The technical
architecture of this App will have to be suited to integrate the features which are foreseen in Version
2.0 and our intention is to work with the same software company up until maintenance and support after
the launch of the final version.

3. Crowdfunding: As the first version of the App will be completely free, our income will come
mainly from advertising in the App itself. However, hiring IT services is quite expensive, so we will
carry out a crowdfunding campaign. In order for the campaign to be as successful as possible, we will
promote the App through social networks and build relationships with partners and key people. In this
way, we will not only publicize the App, but our intention to finance it with a campaign. It is important
to determine how much money is needed. One of the partners will be in charge of promoting the
crowdfunding campaign. The goal of building an audience and building relationships is that once the
campaign is launched, it will surely receive contributions on the spot.

We will also put in place a reward system, which dictates a reward that a contributor will receive for a
certain amount of money contributed. For example, free premium account for a limited time or exclusive
discounts in vegan restaurants. With the crowdfunding campaign we will not only raise money, but it
will also be an opportunity to create a solid user base that is loyal.

4. Preparation for Version 2.0: For our barcode scan feature to be developed, our very first step
shall be to gain access to the database of at least one major supermarket chain (e.g. Carrefour,
Mercadona). For our points system, we shall require consent by EAT-lancet to capitalize on their study
to quantify impact and allocate points to food products. This translation of impacts into points will be
elaborated internally. Once again, we will submit our functional requirements to our software company
and evaluate their proposal.

5. Partnerships: One of the partners will dedicate fulltime to this branch. The task will be to map
all possible stakeholders and broaden this list, by searching for collaborators or co-creators. We would
like to get as much involvement as possible from the health sector, with a focus on nutritionists, as in
Spain, 97% of people trust doctors and nurses according to the Welcome Trust Global Monitor (see
Figure 2 in Annex).

Another path we will pursue is the one of acceleration and incubation programs. We will map and
identify the most suitable opportunities for our type of product. Additionally, we will also consider
different bootcamps and tournaments which are held in the context of social innovation, as this is our
mandate.

31
We will also engage with the world of influencers. We will seek the support, in the form of giving our
product visibility, by Instagram influencers which promote healthy lifestyles and environmental activist
youtubers.

8. CONCLUSION

Inspired by the 2019 EAT-Lancet Commission’s report and numerous other studies that show
overwhelming scientific support for using food as the key to sustainable development, we came up with
the idea of creating an App with financial incentives to spur a transformation in society’s eating habits.
We were highly pleased to find out during the interview stage that in fact, there is a gap in the market
that needs to be filled, and that our App could do just that. After validating our product and incorporating
additional features based on customer feedback, we proceeded to create a website, more sophisticated
prototype, marketing plan and financial forecast.

While there are other similar Apps and a saturated mobile App market, we are confident based on our
customer segmentation – primarily flexitarians – that we can bring a much-needed solution: educational
information on a food’s environmental footprint plus a cash-back rewards system. We believe that this
will make our company stand out from the rest and create a community dedicated to transforming our
food system in an informative and fun way. We have a strong marketing plan in place to ensure a
successful roll-out of the App and strong financials forecasting a sustainable business model.

Funding a new company is always risky business. But PlentiHealth is an opportunity in a fast-emerging
market that is not to be missed.

32
9. ANNEX

9.1. Figure 1.

33
9.2. Figure 2.

9.3. Entire MVP can be accessed here:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ogsgrT_a3HFfETcwnUvGw7SCZo4ZsKFzNX_XG2lZ6sA/e
dit?usp=sharing

9.4. Entire prototype can be accessed here:

https://www.figma.com/proto/t2iiRi02hcZug2ZXEHdGwH/Christine-Project?node-
id=268%3A336&scaling=scale-down

9.5. The PlentiHealth website can be accessed here:

http://plentihealth.mystrikingly.com/

9.6. The finance plan can be accessed here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qPxB2p_dMG8tKgcUuaq1u2XqIcsQlh1v/view?usp=sharing

34
10. REFERENCES

A Sustainable Diet by 2030 is Key to Solving the Climate Emergency. C40 Cities. (2019).
https://www.c40.org/press_releases/a-sustainable-diet-by-2030-is-key-to-solving-the-climate-
emergency

Addressing Food-Related Consumption-Based Emissions in C40 Cities. University of Leeds, ARUP,

C40 Cities. (2019). https://c40-production-
images.s3.amazonaws.com/other_uploads/images/2269_C40_CBE_Food_250719.original.pdf?15640
75020

Battaglia Rich, Evelyne; Baumer, Beatrice; Contrad, Beatrice; Darioli, Roger; Schmid, Alexandra;
Keller, Ulrich. National Library of Medicine. (2015). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26780279/

Danziger, Lucy. Consumers are Choosing More Vegan Food During COVID-19, Expert Says. The
Beet. (2020). https://thebeet.com/consumers-are-choosing-more-vegan-food-during-covid-19-expert-
says/

EAT-Lancet Commission Brief for Cities. EAT-Lancet Commission. (2019).

https://eatforum.org/content/uploads/2019/01/EAT_brief_cities.pdf

Flexitarianism: Flexible or Part-time Vegetarianism. UN Sustainable Development Goals Partnerships

Platform. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=2252

Flexitarianism, What’s That? Scelta Mushrooms.

https://www.sceltamushrooms.com/en/stories/flexitarian-and-flexitarianism/

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Intersoft Consulting. (2018). https://gdpr-info.eu/

Global Hunger Continues to Rise, New UN Report Says. World Health Organization. (2018).
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/11-09-2018-global-hunger-continues-to-rise---new-un-report-
says

Harrabin, Rogers. Plant-based Diet Can Fight Climate Change - UN. BBC. (2019).
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49238749

Hernando, Silvia. The Vegan Era, or the End of Carnal Pleasures. El País. (2019).
https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/02/07/inenglish/1549556881_820642.html

How ‘Flexitarianism’ is Transforming Consumers’ Eating Habits. YouGov. (2019).

https://www.marketingweek.com/flexitarianism-transforming-consumers-eating/

How much money does a free app make from advertising? Quora. (2015).
https://www.quora.com/How-much-money-does-a-free-app-make-from-advertising

Is the Future of Food Flexitarian? YouGov. (2019). https://campaign.yougov.com/rs/060-QFD-

941/images/Is%20the%20future%20of%20food%20flexitarian.pdf

35
Pandemic Increases Number of Spanish Supermarkets Stocking Vegan Meat. Vegconomist. (2020).
https://vegconomist.com/market-and-trends/pandemic-increases-number-of-spanish-supermarkets-
stocking-vegan-meat/

Pomranz, Mike. Just How Many People Are ‘Flexitarian?' Food & Wine. (2019).
https://www.foodandwine.com/news/flexitarian-diet-popularity

Poore, J. Reducing Food’s Environmental Impacts Through Producers and Consumers. University of
Oxford. (2018). https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b0b53649-5e93-4415-bf07-6b0b1227172f

Ranganathan, Janet; Vennard Daniel; Waite, Richard; Dumas, Patrice; Lipinski, Brian; Searchinger,
Tim, and Globagri-WRR Model Authors. World Resources Institute. (2016).
https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Shifting_Diets_for_a_Sustainable_Food_Future_1.pdf

Ritchie, Hannah. You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not
whether your food is local - OurWorldInData (2020). https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-
eating-local

Spaniards Eat Too Much Meat, Especially Processed Types, Reveals WHO. Think Spain. (2015) .
https://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/26604/spaniards-eat-too-much-meat-especially-processed-
types-reveals-who

Spanish Supermarkets 'Are Launching Vegan Meat Due To COVID-19'. Plant Based News. (2020).
https://www.plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/spanish-supermarkets-launching-vegan-meat-covid-19

Study Says One in Three Americans are Flexitarian. Vegconomist. (2018).

https://vegconomist.com/studies-and-numbers/study-says-one-in-three-americans-are-flexitarian/

Stylianou, Nassos; Guibourg Clara; Briggs, Helen. Climate change food calculator: What's your diet's
carbon footprint? BBC. (2019). https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46459714

Summary Report of the EAT-Lancet Commission. EAT-Lancet Commission. (2019).

https://eatforum.org/content/uploads/2019/07/EAT-Lancet_Commission_Summary_Report.pdf

Sustainable Development Goals. United Nations. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300

Willett, Walter; Rockstrom, Johan; Loken, Brent; Springmann, Marco; Lang, Tim; Vermeulen, Sonja
et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food
systems. The Lancet. (2019). https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-
6736(18)31788-4/fulltext

Wohl, Jessica. How the Rise of ‘Flexitarians’ is Powering Plant-based Foods. AdAge. (2019).
https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/power-plant-based-food/317167

World population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100. United Nations.
(2017). https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-
2017.html

36