Consumer Trends in Health and Wellness

At The Hartman Group’s A.C.T. (Anthropology. Culture. Trends.) Health & Wellness Now—and Next 2015 symposium in Seattle this past September 24, professionals and practitioners from across a broad spectrum of the food and beverage industry gathered for a one-day immersive learning experience into the cultural factors and trends transforming the food and beverage marketplace. Hartman Group analysts and executives provided diverse insights into a variety of topics ranging from how progressive consumers are redefining health and the emerging influence of Gen Z to lessons from brand disruptors in the health and wellness food and beverage market.

In her opening remarks, Hartman Group CEO Laurie Demeritt highlighted The Hartman Group’s more than two decades of work documenting and tracking the consumer journey in health and wellness. “About 25 years ago, most consumers and companies were looking to solve primarily baseline health and wellness conditions or find new approaches to them,” Demeritt said. “And those goals fell into one of two buckets. The first bucket was health condition management, and consumers were looking for food and beverage products that would help them treat or prevent specific conditions. The second bucket was around weight management. At the time, consumers were very much in a reactive mode to their approach.”

As the event unfolded, attendees learned about how today’s consumers are very much proactive—and even progressive—in their approach to health and wellness. Provided here are key highlights from the day’s presentations:

Progressive health and wellness consumers are increasingly influential in redefining food culture: While they may be a minority group in terms of overall numbers, the influence progressive wellness consumers have over food culture is disproportionate. Progressive wellness consumers are paving the way, sharing their enthusiasm and knowledge with mainstream consumers who are hungry for guidance and direction. As shoppers, progressives are no longer thinking about condition management (lowering cholesterol or blood pressure) or dieting (low fat, low carb) but are focused on real quality food, positive nutrition, fresh, less processed foods and beverages and fun. From a purchase and use perspective, this means moving away from products that are fat-free, diet products and 100-calorie portion packs to kale, dark chocolate and quality fats, such as found in nuts, avocados and butter.

The “new healthy” is a consumer journey of contradiction and discovery: Progressive health and wellness consumers are seeking alternatives to fear-based information, a phenomenon that has been driving wellness views for decades. Food is the most important cultural manifestation that we have because we have to eat. Two modern approaches to eating that progressive consumers are utilizing to stack the deck for optimal results are plant-based and paleo diets.  Such eating styles signal the fact that how we think about and understand nutrition and our bodies is changing. Each eating style differs, and yet ultimately both are all about wellness and human performance.