• by Steve Ellwanger , August 5, 2022

Country Crock is mixing food and humor to communicate the one-to-one swappable nature of its plant-based butter and cream so that people can proclaim “We Defied Dairy.”

A new brand campaign via Truth and Consequences aims to help “plant-curious” consumers easily figure out how to substitute Country Crock Plant Butter—launched in 2019—and the just-introduced Country Crock Plant Cream for traditional dairy butter and cream.

This “We Defied Dairy” spot opens with a woman preparing a meal while explaining how plant butter and cream whip, bake, thicken, simmer, splash and mash “like the dairy stuff.”

When her aunt asks “So when are you having another baby?” the woman ignores the question and responds “Better yet, it changes the subject without changing the taste.”

The target audience are people who Country Crock considers to be “plant-curious,” according to Country Crock brand lead Natalie Cooper.

“They’re people who are not strict vegetarians or vegan and honestly not interested in becoming such, but are looking to reduce dairy intake in their diet or incorporate more plant-based foods into what they’re eating,” Cooper tells Marketing Daily.

A key educational element is how to substitute plant-based butter and cream for their dairy counterparts without overcomplicating things.

“We created the products to be true one-to-one swaps for their dairy counterparts in the hopes that people who are using them won’t have to do things like additional math or conversions.”

For example, people have used coconut cream in place of heavy whipping cream.

“That has a very different measurement and taste profile, so it alters your dishes in a way that you would then have to counterbalance with additional spices or cooking temperatures and techniques,” says Cooper. “We take the guesswork out of it.”

Primary buyers of Country Crock’s plant-based butter and cream skew millennial and female.

“People do not have to have children [to buy these products], but we do tend to see a lot of millennial moms—people in their thirties and forties.”