Nlumn digs into understanding the personalized nutrition consumer

The report, which surveyed 3,000 people, included those interested in personalized nutrition programs as well as current and lapsed users, and provides valuable insights into attitudes, behaviors, motivations and barriers for the industry.

Speaking with NutraIngredients-USA, Nlumn’s Josh Anthony, Ph.D, explained that a dearth of reports that actually define what constitutes personalized nutrition consumers has oftentimes simply identified them as an existing part of the overall health and wellbeing consumer movement—an assumption that seemed a little bit amiss.

“One of two things weren't correct,” he said. “Either this idea that it’s a large and rapidly growing multibillion dollar market, or that the personalized nutrition consumer wasn’t simply a subset of an existing broader segment. So, we really went in to understand who they were and what the market really looks like.”

The value equation​

Commenting on those people who have walked away from the category, Dr. Anthony said that the value equation in a lot of cases isn’t quite right for personalized nutrition.

Cost is the number one reason people give for why they stop using different personalized nutrition services, he said, but drilling down into the data more revealed that a significant factor for many of these lapsed consumers was that support is lacking.

“Two thirds of personalized nutrition participants report not getting the amount of support they need, so they’re not realizing the value,” he said.

“It’s true that for some consumers, the cost is still prohibitive, but at the same time we recognize that people are simply not getting the information back that they need. From our data, there seems to be a couple of aspects to that. One is to have expert or professional support to help to guide them. The other aspect of the value equation seems to be a bit of a disconnect between benefits people may be looking for and what personalized nutrition programs are providing.”

Dr. Anthony also highlighted that interest in personalized nutrition is not dependent on income. “Our report helps to highlight the need to make personalized nutrition affordable and accessible to help everyone reach their health goals,” he said.

“We report on what types of data that individuals are already collecting so that companies can use that information to create precision nutrition products and services designed that reach more consumers.”

White spaces…​

Nlumn’s Katie Cleary added that, in some instances, the metrics of success may not be the right ones. “The benefits that consumers are seeking are physical… but there was also a big desire for benefits around mental and emotional health and wellbeing. I think those are some of the gap areas that we identified through the work that we did."

Watch the full video for all the insights from Josh Anthony and Katie Cleary.

For more information on the reports, please click HERE​​.