Category draw & pandemic impact
When asked about consumers’ expectations, Jaume Reguant, healthcare director at Bioiberica, highlights that many are looking for quick and easy-to-consume solutions which offer multiple health benefits with increased functionality. As such, brands have responded by developing innovative solutions which facilitate the core principles of fuelling, hydration, and recovery, while also adding vitamins and micronutrients. Furthermore, Reguant says targeted products are increasingly incorporating several ingredients at once, citing next generation proprietary blends like native type II collagen, alongside well-known ingredients like glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate as examples. Eva Criado, communications manager at Pharmactive Biotech, also says performance consumers are demanding products which improve cognition and focus, outlining saffron extract as an ingredient of interest.
Maria Pavlidou, marketing communications director at the Healthy Marketing Team agrees, highlighting that performance goes beyond the traditional principles of fuelling, hydration, and recovery. Consumer expectations are now more holistic, encompassing physical and mental balance, with sports nutrition as an all-encompassing health category and the term ‘performance’ being highly malleable. This is consequential of a new phase of health post-COVID, with rising health-consciousness being a side-effect of the pandemic, making consumers more interested in physical activity, and thus, sports nutrition products generally.
Asked about the impact of the pandemic, Miller echoes Reguant, citing that the “work-from-home, exercise-at-home, tired-of-home cooking” paradigm shifted consumer needs towards convenient, no-fuss meal replacements and protein-rich powders and bars. Additionally, the need to support energy levels throughout the day thrusted pre-workout powders and energy drinks in front of new consumers, increasing sales further, despite a global increase in liquid milk costs impacting whey protein price. Furthermore, the pandemic increased consumer interest in immune health. Criado confirms this, noting ingredients such as vitamin C and D are becoming common in sports supplements. It goes without saying that proven immune health supplements will be beneficial to athletes overall, but as Michael Bentley, president at SierraSil Health highlights, it is too early to see completed research that supports the cross-over benefits of sports nutrition and immunity. Regardless, he notes the importance of brands investing in research to improve the efficacy of their products and reputation of the industry.
Exploring sports nutrition market trends, regulatory front-of-package labelling and commercial strategies — video