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07.21.2005

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For more Hartman Group articles on WELLNESS TRENDS, click here...

HARTBEAT
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09.27.2002 "Women's Wellness: What Drives Wellness Shopping Behavior"

09.13.2002 "Conversations With Wellness Consumers"

05.10.2002 "Will the New Wellness Consumer Please Stand Up"

Wellness Lifestyle Insights:
Evolution of Consumer Trends in Health & Wellness

Find out more about this exciting new report looking at how wellness lifestyles have evolved over the past five years and exploring where they are going in the future.

Click to browse through report summary, contents and list of figures.

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Growth Potential Of Wellness Product Categories

results from Wellness Lifestyle Insights

One way to uncover growth opportunities in the wellness marketplace is to ask consumers at different levels of wellness involvement to indicate how important a product is to their wellness. A product's perceived importance to wellness will, of course, vary across individuals. What's important, though, is how these perceptions change with interest in wellness. Consumers at the bottom of the wellness food chain are the least likely to view any products as especially important to wellness, while those at the core of the wellness world actively seek out and use products specifically for wellness. Precisely how these perceptions are distributed across consumers at different levels of wellness involvement provides important clues to the growth potential of products that are not widely used now.

Products established as mainstream wellness products

We know the majority of consumers already consider some products, such as fresh vegetables and water, integral parts of a wellness lifestyle. Consumers at all levels of wellness involvement use these products, which makes them an unambiguous reference point for judging other products' potential to gain wider acceptance. What we find when examining products with mainstream appeal is that the perceived importance of these products is generally high and it does not differ markedly as we move from consumers with light to heavy involvement in wellness. In other words, established wellness products are ones that consumers at all levels of involvement consider important to their wellness.

Several products we examined are widely regarded as mainstream wellness products, considered important by a solid majority of consumers. A good example is vitamins and minerals. Well over two thirds (70%) of consumers feel products in this category are "very" or "extremely" important to their wellness. Moreover, in all three wellness segments, more consumers indicate these products are extremely important than indicate they are very important and, likewise, a greater percentage indicate very important than somewhat important. Thus, support (measured by perceived importance ratings) grows steadily from low to high importance and the pattern repeats itself in all three wellness segments.

Products with strong potential to go mainstream as wellness products

Next is a group containing products that are somewhat established as wellness products, but their use varies significantly across wellness segments, enjoying the strongest support among core consumers. These products all exhibit the potential to solidify their position and further develop as mainstream wellness products. The pattern for herbal and specialty teas is representative of this group. Teas display similar support, and at fairly high levels, among all wellness segments for somewhat or very important ratings. But strong support (i.e., extremely important ratings) of teas is largely restricted to core consumers. The strong support among core consumers illustrates the potential for increasing mid-level and periphery support for these products, resulting in a movement from more tepid support (i.e., somewhat important ratings) toward strong support (i.e., extremely important ratings) among non-core consumers.

A common characteristic of products in this group is relatively high acceptance, especially by core wellness consumers, but distinctly different perceived benefits across the segments. For example, most consumers rate yogurt highly in terms of its importance to wellness; however, many in the periphery and mid-level focus on calories and calcium, while core consumers look for organic ingredients and specific strains of live bacteria. Similarly, periphery consumers praise olive oil for its culinary properties as much as its wellness benefits, but core consumers pay attention to olive oil's contribution to their daily intake of different omega fatty acids.

Products with slower potential to go mainstream as wellness products

A third group contains products that show some potential for entering the mainstream, but at a slower pace than the previous group. Compared to the groups described above, these products generally show lower levels of overall support. Soymilk is typical of this group. Both core and mid-level segments show some support (i.e., somewhat important ratings) for soymilk, which tapers off among mid-level consumers as we move toward stronger support (i.e., extremely important ratings). Among core consumers, however, support remains strong or increases as we move from low to high ratings. This combination of solid support among core consumers and enough support among mid-level consumers suggests good product awareness and reflects a product with the potential for further gains in the marketplace, as mild support among non-core consumers is transformed into strong support and regular use of such products.

Products with low potential to become long-term elements of a wellness lifestyle

Finally, a fourth group contains products that show signs of having made inroads, but now appear to have limited potential for market expansion as mainstream, long-term wellness products. Of the products examined, only nutrition/energy bars fall into this category. Unlike the products with potential for gains, nutrition/energy bars display sharp declines in support in all wellness segments as we move from somewhat important to extremely important ratings.

While products such as nutrition/energy bars enjoy some popularity in terms of milder support (i.e., somewhat important ratings), the decline in support as we move toward stronger levels of importance, even among core consumers, suggests that the potential to expand their share of the marketplace as mainstream wellness products is limited. We attribute this to several factors including the negative taste perceptions associated with many bars, the lack of recent innovation in terms of unique delivery forms and the perception that bars are not "real food," but rather "made in a lab," an association that runs contrary to the fresh food trend currently dominating consumer behavior. This is not to say that bars won't continue to play a role in consumers' lives, rather that their role will be relegated to non-wellness oriented occasions.

A caveat

Because we identify product potential by comparing the importance ratings of different wellness segments rather than time trend data, the realized potential of these products depends on influencing consumers. In other words, it isn't enough to sit back and ride a rising tide of consumer interest in a given product category. To take advantage of the opportunities identified here, it is necessary to take a proactive approach to marketing, promoting and innovating in these categories.

Would you like fresh fruit with that?

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