In the summer of 2018, Aisha "Pinky" Cole founded Slutty Vegan, featuring signature burgers made fresh to order via Instagram and served from a mobile food truck in and around Atlanta. By October 2018, the first Slutty Vegan restaurant location opened. Three months later, a crowd of 1,200 gathered outside the restaurant in 45-degree-Fahrenheit weather, which is cold in Atlanta, for the grand opening. With a compelling name, a fun and upbeat vibe, and a robust social media presence across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok, the restaurant is now a national phenomenon and celebrity hotspot for vegans, omnivores, and flexitarians alike.
The brand's popularity is fueled by a clever combination of positioning, segmentation, and experimentation. It all begins by changing the narrative around vegan foods. A "slutty vegan," according to Cole, is someone who eats vegan but enjoys junk food "as long as it's not dead." Changing the perception of vegan food, especially in communities of color, which are often overserved by fast food and underserved by health food, is no small feat. To that end, Cole has strategically positioned food trucks and pop-up shops to appeal to people who are typically excluded from the vegan lifestyle. Opening the conversation on vegan food options for people who have never considered them in a community that has such high levels of hypertension, cholesterol, obesity, and a host of other food-based ailments is momentous.

Explore Slutty Vegan's website, social media presence, and press. What can you glean about how the firm segments the market and whom they target?