An interest in "wellness" used to be something exotic. And to the extent consumers gave any thought to the concept, it was often defined simply as the absence of illness. But "wellness" is now very much a mainstream preoccupation, and one that's viewed more broadly as a marker for quality of life.

A report released this month by The Hartman Group, a consultancy/research firm that has made a specialty of analysing Americans attitudes and behaviours in this area, takes a detailed look at what wellness now means to various consumer cohorts and how this affects their engagement with products and services, especially foods.

When asked about how they define wellness, 67% of respondents to The Hartman Group's polling included "not being ill." But just as many cited "being able to deal with stress." Even more included "being physically fit" (73%) and "feeling good about myself" (74%) in their definition of wellness.

As consumers define wellness more broadly, does this make the concept too vague to be a useful sales point for marketers of wellness-related products and services? And does this make it more difficult for brands that are seriously focused on wellness to distinguish themselves from those that have merely latched onto some of the rhetoric of wellness?

"While the notion of quality of life is very broad, consumers are still looking to markers of quality on a category-by-category basis, as they determine whether or not the product or service is authentic and can play a role in their wellness toolkit," responds Shelley Balanko, vp/ethnographic research at The Hartman Group. "Consumers are becoming more attuned to authenticity cues to discern the 'real' from the 'fake.' Authenticity is communicated through compelling product/company narratives with products containing whole, real and clean ingredients created by knowledgeable people who genuinely care."

'FRESH, REAL AND CLEAN FOOD'
Consumers understand the source of wellness largely as a matter of "you are what you eat." As the report states the matter, "More than ever, consumers view fresh, real and clean food as the foundation for [health and wellness]." In part, this interest takes the form of shunning things that are bad for you. "The top ingredients that consumers are avoiding are related to cardiovascular health: cholesterol, saturated fat, trans fat and salt," says the report, with older consumers especially apt to steer clear of these things.

One part of the survey (conducted in April) asked respondents to say how well they're described by a number of statements about shopping for food and beverages. 29% said they're described well by "I look for foods and beverages that are good for my heart." 27% said the same about looking for foods/beverages "with added vitamins and minerals (e.g., orange juice with calcium)." Also garnering sizeable "describes me well" votes from the survey's respondents were shopping for foods/beverages "that help lower my cholesterol" (24%), "that are minimally processed" (21%), "that are locally grown or produced" (20%) and "that contain only ingredients I recognise" (19%).

Fewer (11%) said they're well described by "I look for foods and beverages that are labelled 'organic.'" Why was that the case? It's not that consumers have ceased to be interested in the category, or that it remains a mere niche market. "Organic is mainstream, and has been since 2008," says Balanko. "While organic is still a salient quality cue, other cues have emerged as indicators of high-quality experiences/products. To be ahead of the curve, marketers need to communicate around the trend-leading quality cues, real and clean. However, it is important to note 'clean' is a construct and not a term to be used in marketing messages."

PREVENTING VS TREATING
The report emphasises that consumers are more apt to see foods as useful in preventing than in treating health problems. For instance, 56% said they're using foods to prevent high cholesterol, vs 30% using foods to treat it.

Similarly, respondents were much more apt to be using foods to prevent than to treat cancer (46% vs 10%), high blood pressure (41% vs 15%) and osteoporosis (27% vs 10%). Excessive weight is an exception to this pattern, as nearly equal numbers of respondents said they're using foods to prevent it (57%) or treat it (59%).

Sometimes, consumers' pursuit of wellness brings a burst of attention to a particular element in food. Vitamin D is a current case in point. The report says "interest in Vitamin D has exploded" this year. What gives? Balanko says it's a reflection of what can happen when consumers hear about something "from multiple sources" - a phenomenon that can transform mild interest into specific action.

"The mainstream media has been all over Vitamin D in the past year," notes Balanko. "People have been hearing about it on Oprah, or at the supermarket checkout, or from their babysitter." The upshot, according to the report's survey data, is that 60% of respondents said they're adding more Vitamin D to their diets.

More broadly, interest in wellness (and the products and services that link themselves to it) is prompted or intensified by different factors, depending on one's circumstances. "Aging and changing health are key triggers for older cohorts," says the report, "while energy and stress trigger awareness for younger cohorts."

DEGREES OF INTENSITY
Of course, while interest in health and wellness is widespread, it's not universally strong. Based on respondents' answers to the survey, the report classified 13% as "Core" participants in the "world of wellness" - meaning they're the "most intensely involved" and tend to be "early adopters, trendsetters, evangelists" for wellness. A majority of respondents, 62%, were categorised as "Mid-level" (broken down further as 23% "Inner Mid-level" and 39% "Outer Mid- level") in their wellness engagement. The Mid-levelers are "not as intensely involved with or committed as Core consumers, though they exhibit some attitudinal and behavioral characteristics of the Core." The remaining 25% were classified as being on the "Periphery" of wellness world, meaning they're the "least involved" with it.

The groups differ significantly when it comes to translating intention into action. As the report puts it, "Consumers in the Periphery and Outer Mid-level tend to have more wellness aspirations than behaviors." Those in the Inner Mid-level "engage in wellness more behaviorally and less aspirationally," while the "Core consumers' participation in wellness is almost entirely behavioral."

As you'd expect, these different kinds of consumers have different approaches to food as a promoter of health and wellness. "Periphery consumers are oriented to avoiding the bad stuff, whereas Mid-level and Core consumers are focused on seeking positives from their food/beverages," notes Balanko.

One characteristic shared across these different types is people's sense (warranted or otherwise) that they have some expertise about health and nutrition. 82% of Core respondents agreed with the statement, "I am knowledgeable about my health and nutrition." And so they may be. But, less plausibly, the statement also drew agreement from 70% of Mid-level and 58% of Periphery respondents.

'MARINATING' IN INFORMATION
Does misplaced faith in their nutrition-and-wellness savvy make lots of consumers a tougher audience for the messages of brands that are serious about wellness? "Consumers have been marinating in health-and-wellness information for the past decade," says Balanko. "Unfortunately, a lot of this information has been contradictory. Unless Core, consumers are confused by all the information available, and are resorting to intuition and pragmatism to determine what products will serve their needs. Marketers need not cut through ignorance, but rather emphasise their products' differentiators and authenticity."

Indeed, wellness marketers need to stifle the impulse to feel they're bringing enlightenment to the benighted. That's notably the case when it comes to moving mainstream consumers along from mere aspiration to tangible action.

"Although many companies would like to speed this process along, we believe that consumers do not respond well to attempts to 'educate' them," notes Balanko. "When spoken to as a peer, and presented with high-quality products (regardless of health-and-wellness positioning), consumers respond with interest as they seek high-quality experiences for a quality life."

There's a general tendency among brands (not just in health-and-wellness categories) to lament that consumers don't realise how wonderful they are, says Balanko. (She characterises this attitude as "If only they knew! If only they realised all the benefits of our product!") But marketers would be wise to resist letting this determine the way they address potential customers. "Consumers rail against a didactic approach that treats them as if they were children," she says.

Source: AdWeek