Two reports for one comprehensive view of today’s consumer 

HW-2025-and-Health-Benefits-2024

As the cultural imperative to “be well” has gained momentum in the U.S., wellness has grown from a niche marketing angle into a deeply embedded, complex value system shaping everything from product formulation to brand storytelling. Today, food and beverage companies are expected not just to nourish, but to empower, heal and inspire. And as the breadth of consumer needs has expanded, so too must the industry’s understanding. 

In response, we evolved our syndicated research approach for the topic in 2024-2025. Rather than a single report, we created two complementary, deeply researched reports: 

Together, these reports form the industry’s most comprehensive toolkit to confidently navigate the fast-changing wellness landscape. Whether you’re positioning a new functional beverage, rethinking your snack portfolio or expanding into supplements, this integrated view helps ensure you can properly anticipate and act on trends. 

Why we created two reports—and why you need both 

Health and wellness is much more than products with “better-for-you” labels or swapping sugar for stevia. It’s about how consumers construct meaning around food, supplements and lifestyle choices. It’s about the cultural forces that inspire someone to start intermittent fasting; the emotional needs that drive them to buy a calming beverage before bed. 

To truly unlock opportunity, brands need to see both the forest and the trees: 

  • Health Benefits 2024 gives you a close-up view of the benefits and outcomes consumers actively chase: weight management, better sleep, sharper cognition, healthier skin, improved gut health, stronger immunity, balanced mood and more. 
  • Health & Wellness 2025 zooms out to reveal the broader cultural drivers, emerging values and consumer segmentation models that explain why these benefits matter, how consumers prioritize them and where the cultural conversation is headed. 

Purchased together, these reports provide your team with both tactical and strategic insights—the “what” and the “why.” This dual perspective empowers product developers, brand managers, strategists and innovation leaders to: 

  • Identify and attract priority consumer segments 
  • Create on-point brand positioning rooted in real consumer values 
  • Guide resonant new product development and growth-focused category expansion 
  • Anticipate cultural shifts before they go mainstream 

Health Benefits 2024: From Energy to Immunity 

In Health Benefits 2024, we explore how modern consumers balance the idealized whole-food diet with practical constraints, and why many now turn to functional foods, beverages and supplements as “wellness shortcuts.” 

This report dives deep into eight benefit spaces that consumers see as essential to their well-being: 

  • Weight: The tension between body positivity and ongoing desire for weight management 
  • Sleep & energy: Consumers’ search for natural ways to sleep better and boost daily vitality 
  • Emotional health: The growing demand for foods and beverages that soothe stress and anxiety 
  • Beauty: How “beauty-from-within” drives choices around collagen, hydration and skin health 
  • Gut health: Why digestive wellness continues to resonate and what’s next beyond probiotics 
  • Cognition: Focus, memory and mental clarity as daily priorities 
  • Immunity: How immune resilience is a baseline expectation post-pandemic 
  • Emerging trends: Including hormonal health and sexual health 

Beyond benefit areas, the report offers: 

  • Actionable guidance tailored to national brands, private brands, retailers and ingredient producers 
  • Insights into restrictive vs. permissive consumption cycles—helping you decide when to lean into indulgence vs. discipline 
  • A look at why consumers often fall short of the whole foods ideal and how smart product design can meet them where they are 

Health & Wellness 2025: The Interplay of Vitality and Longevity 

While benefit trends answer what consumers want now, Health & Wellness 2025 explains why and where they’re headed next. 

In this report, we show how the cultural movement of health and wellness is centered on two intertwined aspirations: 

  • Vitality: Living better today, with energy, purpose and joy 
  • Longevity: Extending healthspan—not just lifespan—and staying vibrant into older age 

Through Hartman Group’s proprietary World of Health and Wellness segmentation, we reveal how consumers’ pursuit of these goals varies. 

The report explores: 

  • Modern definitions of vitality and longevity—and why both matter in brand storytelling 
  • Consumers’ strategies and the product categories they trust most to support these goals 
  • The cultural momentum toward personalization and proactive health 
  • How attitudes toward aging are shifting—and what that means for innovation 

Brand and innovation teams: consider this your cultural compass pointing you where the conversation is going.  

Why this matters now 

Wellness is the dominant cultural trend shaping food and beverage innovation. But the space has grown crowded and consumers are better informed than ever. 

In today’s competitive market, deep, nuanced consumer understanding isn’t optional; it’s your edge. For over three decades, Hartman Group has helped the food and beverage industry find that edge within the health and wellness sector. From the earliest days of low-fat trends to today’s era of personalized nutrition, we’ve partnered with industry leaders to interpret the evolving consumer mindset, reveal unmet needs and highlight where real growth opportunities lie. 

For more information about either or both of these reports and special bundle pricing, contact Melissa Abbott: melissa@hartman-group.com.