August 17, 2007
GHQ: The hot foods
By Suzanne Vita Palazzo
Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of a current article from Grocery Headquarters magazine, presented here for discussion.
Consumers have been examining ingredient lists for years, but the growth of the wellness industry has brought this behavior to the forefront. It is no longer sufficient for a granola just to be dubbed a granola; consumers want one that delivers more than just good taste.
“If you think of wellness as a hobby, like wine tasting or music collecting, consumers always want to find the next new thing,” said Jarrett Paschel, director of Tinderbox, a division of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Hartman Group. “It’s just much more fun to find something that draws your interest, and it’s also fun to have something new to talk about to their friends that are also into wellness.”
Currently, soy, flax and hemp are among the ingredients most sought after by wellness consumers.
Rich Martin, senior marketing manager at Tulsa, Okla.-based Genisoy notes that shoppers in this category are often well-versed on the nutritional components of particular healthful ingredients and armed with a wealth of information to be used when making a decision at the shelf.
“[Previously] you literally had to teach yourself all about it. It wasn’t as easy as it is now when you open up the paper and there’s some article about what you should eat or shouldn’t eat,” he said. “Most consumers that are eating these products are used to having to do some of their own research, and they’re looking to make wise decisions to begin with.”
Observers note that this constant fluctuation of trends and so-called hot ingredients creates an interesting dynamic for the wellness industry, indicating that while items may come and go within the segment, the industry itself is built on a healthy base. And since consumers’ desire for health and wellness is a lifelong pursuit, manufacturers of healthful products are encouraged to be innovative to keep up with ever-growing demand.
Silk Soymilk, for example, recently launched a line of products called Silk Plus, indicating that the success of its products in mainstream markets has them on track to become commodities. Priced at a premium to its current offerings, Silk Plus with Omega 3 and Silk Plus with Fiber have been developed “to respond to consumers’ need and demand for fortified foods,” said Scott Stevens, general manager.
Overall, many link the demand for fortified foods and functional ingredients to the baby boomers. While this population segment contains many of the pioneers who believed that food changes could positively impact an individual’s health, the tangible proof they’re receiving from their lifestyle changes only encourages their cause.
“As long as people age, there are always going to be issues cropping up inside of their body that they’re going to want to solve or be proactive with, and that’s where ingredients come in,” said Melissa Abbott, research associate for the Hartman Group. “It’s like they’re trying to find that Holy Grail, which we all know is pretty much impossible to find. So they’re always searching.”
Discussion Questions: How much is the wellness trend like fashion, where “hot” ingredients – e.g. soy, flax and hemp, currently – can drive trends across categories? Is it farfetched to compared wellness shoppers to hobbyists always looking for the new thing? What does this say about marketing to wellness shoppers?
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On the contrary, I think it’s a great metaphor as in hemp is the new soy. But for all this concern you still see a lot of Twinkies being sold.
“Wellness” shoppers often have the same profile as “diet” folks and vitamin buyers. All 3 of these groups, who often overlap, are driven by one fad after another. The fads start with nutrition or diet books, celebrity adoptions and endorsement, and great publicity. Sometimes there’s a smidgen of “science,” and sometimes there’s just pseudoscience, spread by charismatic evangelists (religious or not). This cycle has been strong since the early to middle 1800s. For example, it’s how Kellogg’s Corn Flakes became famous, starting in the 1890s.
Call them what you will–hobbyists, enthusiasts, junkies (as per the food miles strand)–there isn’t a great deal of difference. Many many people in our consumer society believe that functional food can serve the function that they are told it will and see it as a convenient shortcut to living healthy lifestyles. But as one million dollar/pound study after another comes out disproving claims or saying that something else is better, the flavour of the month will change. C’est la vie.
There will always be trends and trendy foods. Look no further than the Atkins craze of a few years ago. At that time supermarkets were devoting a great deal of shelf space to Atkins products including ice cream. Go find them now.
Hobbyist is an interesting way to think of this, but the term we have been using lately is “enthusiast.” When you examine how this croup of consumers live, you see that they are much like the auto enthusiast or the fitness enthusiast–in short, everything they do has a common theme. Whether it is food or household cleaning supplies, these “wellness enthusiasts” are interested in “what’s good for you.”
Of course another common trait of enthusiasts is that they have to have the latest thing. That’s how golf companies sell new clubs every year. But some innovations are significant enough to become part of the fabric of the industry. Carbon shafts in golf clubs versus the latest “miracle putter” for example. In food, a good example is whole grain and fiber versus “low carb.” One is a genuine improvement in how we eat, the other proved a fad.
Hemp is is more than a fad, it is a functional food that has omega 3 and omega 6–alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid (LA–in the optimum ratio. It also has SDA and GLA, longer-chain derivatives, which flax does not. The total value of annual sales of hemp foods in the United States is in the range of $14-$16 million and is growing at a rate of 35-50% per year.
I’m not certain that I would agree with the notion that wellness is a fad. While it is true that obesity is more prevalent than ever, it is also true that many Americans are are increasingly concerned with what ingredients they are putting in their body, and on their body. Wellness is becoming a way of life for many people, and while the example gets overused, the growth of Whole Foods is a great indicator of how prevalent this is becoming.
Food and Personal Care manufacturers who focus on the wellness market will inevitably see their revenues increase substantially as they produce products that are in line with the lifestyles of their consumers. This is not a fad, it is a new direction in product development.
This is a great example of the new “multidimensional” consumer. It is no longer adequate to segment consumers by demographic alone or demographic plus psychographic characteristics. Consumers now belong to several different, sometimes quite different groups–and they shift. For instance, people interested in nutritional labeling could be someone who is a teenager (or anyone of any age) allergic to a specific food, a young mother whose child is allergic to a specific food, a young adult wanting specific ingredients for what he or she has decided is important to his or her diet, or a senior citizen on a specific diet. Demographics can not be used for segmentation and many of these people are looking for very different ingredients in their “healthy” or “nutritious” food choices.
Segmentation of consumers into groups is no longer very effective on a macro basis. Which groups of people are coming to your store or buying your products, for what reasons, for what ingredients? Increasingly the groups are smaller and change over time creating a huge challenge in the marketplace.
Core health enthusiasts are driven by good science. This market segment has matured over the past twenty years and has become much more discerning. The facts panel is only the start. With numerous publications being distributed by informed doctors, the informed consumer now has a deep understanding of how the healthy support of physiologic pathways can lead to health aging.
The MD world itself is, in rapidly growing numbers, positively reacting to the amassing science that supports a nutritional approach to manage gene expression and achieve healthy aging, be it through functional foods or supplementation.
This movement has steadily grown for many years. With leading scientists, medical doctors and millions of consumers employing the products of this movement to allow fully functional aging, it can hardly be called a fad.
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On the contrary, I think it’s a great metaphor as in hemp is the new soy. But for all this concern you still see a lot of Twinkies being sold.
“Wellness” shoppers often have the same profile as “diet” folks and vitamin buyers. All 3 of these groups, who often overlap, are driven by one fad after another. The fads start with nutrition or diet books, celebrity adoptions and endorsement, and great publicity. Sometimes there’s a smidgen of “science,” and sometimes there’s just pseudoscience, spread by charismatic evangelists (religious or not). This cycle has been strong since the early to middle 1800s. For example, it’s how Kellogg’s Corn Flakes became famous, starting in the 1890s.
Call them what you will–hobbyists, enthusiasts, junkies (as per the food miles strand)–there isn’t a great deal of difference. Many many people in our consumer society believe that functional food can serve the function that they are told it will and see it as a convenient shortcut to living healthy lifestyles. But as one million dollar/pound study after another comes out disproving claims or saying that something else is better, the flavour of the month will change. C’est la vie.
There will always be trends and trendy foods. Look no further than the Atkins craze of a few years ago. At that time supermarkets were devoting a great deal of shelf space to Atkins products including ice cream. Go find them now.
Hobbyist is an interesting way to think of this, but the term we have been using lately is “enthusiast.” When you examine how this croup of consumers live, you see that they are much like the auto enthusiast or the fitness enthusiast–in short, everything they do has a common theme. Whether it is food or household cleaning supplies, these “wellness enthusiasts” are interested in “what’s good for you.”
Of course another common trait of enthusiasts is that they have to have the latest thing. That’s how golf companies sell new clubs every year. But some innovations are significant enough to become part of the fabric of the industry. Carbon shafts in golf clubs versus the latest “miracle putter” for example. In food, a good example is whole grain and fiber versus “low carb.” One is a genuine improvement in how we eat, the other proved a fad.
Hemp is is more than a fad, it is a functional food that has omega 3 and omega 6–alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid (LA–in the optimum ratio. It also has SDA and GLA, longer-chain derivatives, which flax does not. The total value of annual sales of hemp foods in the United States is in the range of $14-$16 million and is growing at a rate of 35-50% per year.
I’m not certain that I would agree with the notion that wellness is a fad. While it is true that obesity is more prevalent than ever, it is also true that many Americans are are increasingly concerned with what ingredients they are putting in their body, and on their body. Wellness is becoming a way of life for many people, and while the example gets overused, the growth of Whole Foods is a great indicator of how prevalent this is becoming.
Food and Personal Care manufacturers who focus on the wellness market will inevitably see their revenues increase substantially as they produce products that are in line with the lifestyles of their consumers. This is not a fad, it is a new direction in product development.
This is a great example of the new “multidimensional” consumer. It is no longer adequate to segment consumers by demographic alone or demographic plus psychographic characteristics. Consumers now belong to several different, sometimes quite different groups–and they shift. For instance, people interested in nutritional labeling could be someone who is a teenager (or anyone of any age) allergic to a specific food, a young mother whose child is allergic to a specific food, a young adult wanting specific ingredients for what he or she has decided is important to his or her diet, or a senior citizen on a specific diet. Demographics can not be used for segmentation and many of these people are looking for very different ingredients in their “healthy” or “nutritious” food choices.
Segmentation of consumers into groups is no longer very effective on a macro basis. Which groups of people are coming to your store or buying your products, for what reasons, for what ingredients? Increasingly the groups are smaller and change over time creating a huge challenge in the marketplace.
Core health enthusiasts are driven by good science. This market segment has matured over the past twenty years and has become much more discerning. The facts panel is only the start. With numerous publications being distributed by informed doctors, the informed consumer now has a deep understanding of how the healthy support of physiologic pathways can lead to health aging.
The MD world itself is, in rapidly growing numbers, positively reacting to the amassing science that supports a nutritional approach to manage gene expression and achieve healthy aging, be it through functional foods or supplementation.
This movement has steadily grown for many years. With leading scientists, medical doctors and millions of consumers employing the products of this movement to allow fully functional aging, it can hardly be called a fad.