The “X-Factor” is the Secret Spice that Sets These 5 Brands Apart from the Crowd
The global value of the meal kit delivery services’ market is expected to reach $65 billion by 2030. In today’s article on positioning strategy marketing, we will explore some key ways in which companies position themselves to stand out in this growing marketplace. In the positioning strategies, all meal delivery services must account for the core elements of the industry, such as price, freshness, and convenience. Some services also step up their positioning strategy a notch by including an ‘X-factor,’ like a focus on healthy eating or the provision of a particular style of cuisine.
We will also see how all of these elements of positioning strategy marketing interact with each other (for example, freshness and convenience might trade off against each other). I compared five companies on each of these points, as summarized in the chart below. While this is certainly not an exhaustive list, I have attempted to select a variety of services that show the range of food delivery positioning strategy marketing. I have also included a number of different services owned by the HelloFresh group, to showcase how, by using different positioning strategies, these services avoid competing with each other.
| Service | Product | Selling Point | Pricepoint* | Freshness | Convenience |
| HelloFresh | Meal Kit | “Fresh and affordable” | $10/serving | Fresh ingredients | Low: medium: cooking required |
| EveryPlate (owned by HelloFresh) | Meal Kit | “Affordable, crowd-pleasing meals” | $6/serving | Fresh ingredients | Low: medium: cooking required |
| Factor (owned by HelloFresh) | Meal Delivery (pre-cooked) | “Healthy eating, made easy” | $12.5/serving | Refrigerated cooked food | High: pre-cooked |
| Territory | Meal Delivery | No gluten, no dairy, no refined sugars | ~$15/serving(depending on selections) | Refrigerated cooked food | High:pre-cooked |
| Cumin Club | Semi-prepared meal (most require simple preparation, like adding hot water) | “Authentic Indian, ready in a pinch.” | $6/serving | Shelf-stable cooked food | Medium-high:almost pre-cooked |
*Where dependent on order volume, price reflects ordering five meals a week for two people
The Ingredients of Positioning Strategy Marketing for Meal Delivery
Let’s begin our analysis with price. The service that is focused most on price in its positioning strategy is EveryPlate. EveryPlate was actually founded by the HelloFresh Group in 2018 as a value brand, and at about 60% of the cost of a HelloFresh subscription, an EveryPlate subscription promises value. The service even offers a student discount. By putting affordability front and center, which aligns with its focus on ‘crowd-pleasing’ meals (read: carb-heavy comfort food, usually made from inexpensive ingredients), EveryPlate positions itself as an excellent option for budget conscious eaters.
The importance of price to brand identity is in fact reflected in the website layout of each of these services. EveryPlate advertises its prices on the front page of the website, as does the other least expensive option, the Cumin Club. All of the other brands require some clicking before they’ll show you their cost. While HelloFresh does bill itself as affordable, price is not the very first selling point.
Second, we have freshness. With the word ‘fresh’ in the name, it is not surprising that HelloFresh is arguably the service that focuses most on freshness. This element of its positioning strategy is reflected, for example, by the images on their website, which showcase the vibrant colors of fresh produce. Freshness trades off against both price and convenience: we can see this most clearly if we compare HelloFresh, a service which delivers fresh ingredients that are put together according to a recipe, with something like the Cumin Club, which delivers mostly premade foods that simply need heating. Cumin Club is much more convenient and inexpensive, but its food is shelf-stable for weeks (unlike the food delivered by HelloFresh, which comes in refrigerated boxes).
Next, meal delivery service companies position themselves by selling convenience. The two services most focused on convenience in their positioning strategy are Factor and Cumin Club. Factor emphasizes the fact that its meals are ready-made, only requiring the consumer to eat and go. Cumin Club, describing its product as “5-minute meal kits,” also makes convenience a key selling point.
Surprisingly, while Territory offers ready-made meals, just like Factor, they do not lead with this fact on its website, instead focusing on the health and freshness of their foods. It seems that instead, Territory’s focus is on clean eating. This leads us into our final element of meal delivery positioning strategy marketing: the ‘X factor.’
What I am calling the ‘X factor’ in positioning strategy marketing is that unique element of a service’s identity that differentiates it from its competitors. Territory’s ‘X-factor’ is a focus on clean eating. It touts the nutritional content of its meals, displaying the macronutrient breakdown of several example dishes on the front page of its website. Territory writes that consumers can, “Customize [their] meals to meet [their] needs.” Furthermore, customers can, “sort by ingredient, [and] macronutrient range” when selecting their meals.
Territory’s price might also play into its super-premium, clean-eating positioning strategy: with its relatively high price point, Territory communicates the quality of its food offerings. Cumin Club, on the other hand, exemplifies another way that a service can position and differentiate itself. All four of the other meal delivery services that we have discussed make a wide variety of dishes, but, in general, most of the food that they sell might be found at a New American restaurant. By contrast, Cumin Club positions itself as a way for Indian Americans to enjoy foods they have grown up with. On its ‘Our Story’ page, the brand writes:
“as diaspora, we are always searching for that sense of belonging and a plate of our favorite comfort food is often the answer. However, creating those robust flavors from home is often difficult. Finding them can be impossible. We wanted to easily access the recipes we grew up with. The Cumin Club was our solution!”
Cumin Club focuses its brand identity on its X-factor, authentic Indian cuisine, addressing other elements of its product either secondarily (as in the case of convenience) or minimally (as in the case of price). Authenticity is the core of its positioning strategy. In the cases of both Territory and the Cumin Club, we can see how having a core, unique element of a brand identity can shape the entire positioning strategy.
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