Adoption patterns and marketing strategies for vegan products: insights from Amazon consumer reviews

This study addresses a theoretical gap in understanding how vegan consumption patterns evolve across the product life cycle – a dimension often overlooked in research that relies on cross-sectional or self-reported data. Using a dataset of 1,117 online consumer reviews (OCRs) of Amy’s vegan soup on Amazon from 2007 to 2023, we analyze how consumer priorities and sentiments shift across different adoption stages. Guided by diffusion of innovation theory and applying topic modeling and sentiment analysis, we identify distinct motivational patterns: early adopters focus on socio-psychological factors such as healthy ingredients, while late adopters emphasize practical factors like product offerings and convenience. Despite these changes, themes like healthy taste and delivery reliability remain consistently important. Our findings contribute to product life cycle theory and sustainability marketing by empirically demonstrating the shift from values-driven to utility-driven consumption. The study also highlights the usefulness of OCRs as a behavioral tool for tracking market evolution. Practically, the results offer actionable insights for tailoring marketing strategies to consumer segments at different stages of adoption.