Moonburger Shines in Four Locations Across New York
Moonburger, however, hardly looks like its plant-based competitors. It uses no environmentally conscious taglines in its branding and says nothing about environmental or ethical causes in its consumer messaging. Its first location, in Kingston, is drive-through only, and the Poughkeepsie location is the first plant-based burger spot at a gas station in America, ever.
Robinson-Leon made these branding choices to avoid some of the pitfalls that many small, plant-based burger businesses encounter. “Many of the similar burger joints are only really targeting a small subset of the population, primarily people that already identify as vegan or vegetarian,” Robinson-Leon said. While these places may sell a great product that is good for the environment compared to beef, they mostly cater to those who have already bought into the plant-based food movement. “We needed a way to actually reach the mainstream—people who love to eat meat—with a meatless product,” Robinson-Leon said. Moonburger’s answer is simple: sell a great burger and a great consumer experience, period. No frills, no hyper-targeted branding; just a burger joint that feels familiar and welcoming, and serves excellent food that just so happens to be plant-based.
Although Moonburger’s products are objectively far better for the environment than beef, Robinson-Leon felt that advertising this fact could be detrimental to Moonburger’s mission to be “for everyone.” “As soon as you start to add headlines like ‘burgers for a better world,’ you immediately alienate many consumers. People will immediately put up a barrier,” Robinson-Leon explained. Many customers, including Robinson-Leon himself, feel that places that heavily advertise their environmentally conscious mission are doing so in order to cover up a mediocre product. Moonburger aims to do what every other successful burger venue in America has done: sell a good-tasting burger.
Each of Moonburger’s locations looks slightly different but plays on the same blend of retro and futuristic, new and yet familiar. Space-age aesthetics and neon-accented interiors recall a golden age of American fast food without leaning on nostalgia and cheap imitation. Moonburger’s design demonstrates that it knows what successful fast-food branding looks like, and knows how to use those aesthetics to sell a product that, while new in its ingredients, remains in the lineage of great American burger joints. “People have expressed a great affinity for what this place feels like,” Robinson-Leon offered. “Moonburger speaks from a familiar design language.
“What excites me the most about Moonburger is reaching people who have not yet felt inclined to try plant-based food,” Robinson-Leon continued. Some customers recall getting in line at Moonburger’s drive-in locations in Kingston or Poughkeepsie without realizing they were at a plant-based burger stand and then, despite some apprehensions, deciding to try it anyway. The burgers then spoke for themselves. One couple, who spoke to Moonburger representatives after trying their plant-based burgers by mistake, said that they immediately got back in line for more. “As long as the people keep asking for Moonburger and being excited for it, we want to keep doing it,” Robinson-Leon promised.
“I would have been totally shocked if you told me at graduation that I would be where I am now,” Robinson-Leon said. Nonetheless, he still feels that his Vassar education has informed his life and built his social network in so many ways: “Moonburger would not exist without Vassar.”