Got Plant-Based Milk?

On September 24th, 2021 we reported a bowel-shattering statistic: One in five Americans describe themselves as lactose intolerant. That’s right, 20% associate dairy with dairy-rhea. For all those looking to cash in on America’s intolerance (looking at you, insert politician name here) and start a plant-based milk company, we’ve got you covered.

In the golden age of milk, where nipples aren’t a prerequisite, there are many considerations for the burgeoning milk manager. First, figuring out which type of plant-based milk is best to produce. Almost all Americans have tried (74%) or would consider trying (22%) almond milk, so the nutty beverage appears to be the safest bet. However, for those looking to tap into expanding markets like they’re a creamy keg, macadamia milk is the way to go: Only 15% of Americans who've tried plant-based milk have tasted the macadamia variety, yet a whopping 66% are willing to try the real Hawaiian punch.

Next, you'll need to identify any competitors in order to plant fear in the roots of their infrastructure. During the past three months, Americans in the plant-based milk market were most likely to purchase products from Almond Breeze (43%) or Silk (41%). Milk our words, Almond Breeze’s reign at the top will soon expire.

Lastly, you’ll need to know which brand equities to focus on so your full market takeover doesn’t go sour. To udder-stand which attributes are most important for moo-ving plant-based milk, we conducted a sales driver analysis. When it comes to driving purchase and consideration rates, the taste, coolness, and affordability of plant-based milk are the most influential drivers. For some valuable coolness points consider making Bart Simpson your spokesperson with the tagline "Don’t have a cow, man."

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Work/Life Burnout

We’re taking time out of our busy schedule to demonstrate that nobody feels like they can take time out of their busy schedule. Burnout—the state of mental, physical, and/or emotional exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress—is real. And everyone seems to be feeling the burn (sorry, Sen. Sanders, we don’t mean “Bern”).

Younger generations have overwhelmingly felt overwhelmed: The vast majority of Gen Zers have felt burned out both at work (90%) and with “life in general” (91%). Millennials are not far behind, as 84% have felt work-”inspired” burnout and 85% have felt it in general. Rather than global economic trends, we’re going to go ahead and blame the talking sponge these generations idolized for setting a bad working example. C’mon, his idea of a serene day at work is taking orders from his greedy boss and grumpy coworker while trying to prevent an evil algae from stealing the Krabby Patty formula!

Of course, burnout and subterranean corporate espionage aren’t the only issues facing working professionals that could potentially affect their career trajectory. Women in particular can face both subtle and overt barriers to career success. Do working women perceive the workplace differently than their male counterparts?

Working men and working women share similar perceptions of both workplace culture and their place within it. While more (but not significantly so) women than men in the workforce say masculine qualities are highly valued for leadership roles (63% vs. 59%), there is no gender disparity in comfortability interacting with coworkers (78% vs. 79%) and in worrying that hard work that is not voiced will go unnoticed (51% each). We clearly have SpongeBob and Sandy’s coequal and genuine friendship to thank for these surprisingly comparable results.

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Bad Neighbors 3: Into the Amazon Box

Inspired by our reference to Mad-Al, Steve, a Trendlines subscriber, asked us to investigate what makes a bad neighbor. Coincidentally, the Gradient family finally moved into the perfect house after many months of searching. While everything is running smoothly inside the house, Steve has us worried about being bad neighbors, especially since we don’t have Zac Efron’s abs to make up for some of our poor behavior.

We thought the noise level at our data analysis parties was normalized, but based on some angry notes we received, we may have skewed up. Gradient wants ANOVA chance to be a good neighbor, but we could use some direction. We turned to our trusted MaxDiff analysis to get a clear list of neighborly Dos and Don’ts. No longer will we be the standard deviants of the neighborhood.

Unless data is being delivered, it shouldn’t be too hard for us to be a good neighbor. However, it looks like we need to make it clear that we haven’t been “peeping through our neighbors’ windows,” we’ve been “collecting exploratory data.”

That’s a wrap, folks

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About Gradient

Gradient is a cross-functional team of industry analysts, market researchers, data scientists, technologists, and storytellers who help organizations uncover missed opportunities, find new layers of clarity, and pioneer new directions with confidence and statistical integrity. We work with startups, Fortune 100 brands, consulting firms, and political campaigns.