Firms can play an important role in addressing the issue of animal welfare by creating markets for animal friendly products. This essay analyses th e co-creation of a market for animal friendly meat products by the joint effort of a Dutch NGO and the meat industry. The different stages of the process, from opposition to alignment, are analyzed and general implications are derived. The process follows four stages: (1) adopting a strategy to cooperate in order to overcome a legitimacy crisis, (2) adopting a moderate conflict model and imposing limiting conditions into the negotiations with businesses. The limiting conditions provide a basis for a co-creation process, (3) aligning business for co-creating a new product brand, and (4) broadening the scope towards market creation for animal friendly products. The phases of the issue-life-cycle show that interventions are dependent on the nature of the interaction and the existence of a business model. In case this does not exist, collaboration between an NGO and a number of firms can help in creating a market for latent demand into a market-oriented solution to a wicked problem.