Food, Diet and Wellbeing

Heath & wellbeing is one of the world’s mega trends, and food and drink marketers are responding to the opportunity en masse. For example, the market for functional foods in the US is now calculated to be worth $60 billion annually, and – closer to home - Bord Bia recently found that nutrition, health and wellbeing is the primary motivator for planned new Irish food and drink products and reformulations in 2007.   

Consumers are keener than ever to be provided with more healthy foods, but they’re confused by the onslaught of messages being thrown at them. Over a half of consumers worldwide are cautious about food and drink products which claim to have proven health benefits, and a series of inappropriate and unbelievable benefits claims have ensured that the well-document failure rate for new products has not been reduced.

Of course, NPD is particularly unlikely to succeed without putting an understanding of the consumer first. For this reason, GfK launched its syndicated Global Food, Diet & Wellbeing Monitor in 2005, and wave 3 results are available in early 2007. The Monitor captures the health & wellbeing-related opinions and claimed actions of consumers in 18 countries globally, and provides insights in the areas of:

• Perceptions of own health and diet
• Confidence about, and ease of, eating healthily
• How health concerns are evolving
• Foodstuffs being actively limited and increased, and motivations
• Sources of reliable information about health and wellbeing (with detail relating to food package labelling)
• Actions in relation to weight control
• Eating habits (e.g. eating on the go, eating ready made meals)
• Understanding of topical foodstuffs - antioxidants and polyphenols.

This insight is provided amongst representative country populations, and a sub sample of mothers. In addition, analysis amongst Health & Wellbeing Influentials consumers, i.e. those who help drive actions and attitudes into the mainstream consumer base, helps to predict what the trends of tomorrow are likely to be.