Wellness sector booms but vices linger
WALK through the aisles of most supermarkets and you may well be overwhelmed — and possibly confused — by the sheer amount of food and drink products that offer some form of health or guilt-free benefits. Never before has there been so much choice when it comes to low calorie, vitamin-enriched, bowel-cleansing, sugar and gluten-free food and drink products.
Or turn on a TV station and let your voyeuristic tendencies take over as you watch morbidly obese folk shed the pounds, families pitted against each other to see who is the fittest of them all or watch some poor sods volunteering to have their tummies tucked or a gastric bands fitted.
You can also open any number of newspapers or magazines and you will find no shortage of features about how to eat well, shed a few pounds before the office Christmas party or why by adding turmeric or pomegranate extract to your diet can boost your metabolism or your sex drive.
You may also be tempted to buy some of the anti-ageing serums and lotions that you see advertised in many glossy magazines or take up the special offer being promoted for a weekend spa retreat in any number of Midlands hotels that bolted on luxury spa facilities during the height of the Celtic Tiger.
Then of course there’s no shortage of digital apps available to help you manage your fitness levels, take greater control of your sleep or spirit you away for 10 minutes of meditation to the sound of the sea or a gently flowing stream. Welcome to the wellness economy. In case you didn’t know it, it’s big business and, whether we like it or not, we are all part of it in some little way. It used to be the case that when somebody talked about wellness, it was against a backdrop of being ill. Now wellness embraces a more holistic view of our minds, bodies and spirits as well as the many products and services that contribute to their well-being.
The global wellness economy was worth a staggering $4.22trn in 2017, according to a recent study of the market published by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) which examined 10 sectors before arriving at this valuation.
Top of the list is the personal care, beauty and anti-ageing market which was worth $999bn. It was followed by the healthy eating and nutrition market which was worth another $647bn.
The growing wellness tourism market was worth another $563bn while the fitness and mind-body market which was worth $542bn.
Other sectors include preventative and personalised medicine ($543bn), traditional and complementary medicine ($199bn), workplace wellness ($43.3bn), and the spa and thermal springs sectors which, between them, were worth $1.4bn.
The wellness economy is alive and kicking in Ireland too. According to a recent report by research firm Euromonitor, it is worth around €2bn a year and this is likely to rise to around €2.3bn by 2020.
The biggest chunk of this — €700m — was attributable to natural and healthy products while €685m was spent on functional and fortified foodstuffs.
Another €627m falls into what Euromonitor calls ‘better for you’ products.
The wellness revolution is largely being driven by consumers and their quest for healthier lifestyles and habits, some of which have been triggered by our inherent insecurities about our physical, and indeed mental, selves.
And therein lies a sweet-spot for marketers and their brands. In many cases they are preaching and selling to the already converted.
But the revolution has also led to a wave of new category and product innovation, new startups focusing on the wellness market as well as forcing brands to reorient their values to reflect those of customers. And this can only be a good thing for brands and consumers.
While we may be spiralising our carrots, drinking more turmeric and kale smoothies and adding Kimchi to scrambled organic eggs, we still have a long way to go before we become a nation of healthy Happy Pear-like evangelists.
The truth is consumers are also complex human beings and — as behavioural economists and marketers have found out a long time ago — we often do things that defy logic, bordering on the irrational as we wilfully undo any benefits that might accrue from some of our more wholesome day-to-day actions.
And this is another sweet spot for marketers and their brands.
One only has to look at the most recent Checkout magazine rankings of the Top 100 Brands, which is carried out annually by market research firm Nielsen, for evidence of this.
The accolade for the top selling grocery brand in Ireland this year once again went to Coca-Cola. Also in the Top 10 are brands like Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Tayto, 7Up, Red Bull and Lucozade. Hardly the types of brands we would associate with wellness.
And what about the proliferation of donut shops in many cities and towns around Ireland?
Am I the only one in Ireland who isn’t planning to make a trip to the new Krispy Kreme store in Blanchardstown at some stage?