Q&A from the Dietary Supplement Trends: 2021 webinar March 24, 2021
The below questions were answered by industry expert, Steve French, SVP at the Natural Marketing Institute.
Question 1: Does NMI provide insights or data for Canada?
NMI conducts large scale, global, quantitative research. The recent study was conducted in over 20 other countries, not including Canada. Although there are some similarities between the US and Canada, NMI are looking at conducting research in Canada either this year or the next, but none has been done in this region recently. Research can be done on a custom basis though, over a wide variety of topics.
Question 2: Will you provide access to the deck after the webinar?
Access to the deck can be found here
Click to view the Dietary Supplement Trends slide deck
Question 3: Do you know how to analyze this significant growth for Prebiotics?
Part of the reason the growth was so high was because the usage of Prebiotics was so small to begin with. As more importance has been placed on gut health and microbiome, consumers are starting to investigate the Prebiotic route, as they had already tried Probiotics in the past. The growth is simply consumers looking for new solutions and looking at a variety of Pre- and Pro- biotic combination products, which is helping drive the growth rates of both of these categories.
Question 4: How do you categorize the age groups of the consumer (e.g., iGen) in your research?
Age definitions:
- iGen (born 1996-2001) age 20-25
- Millennials (born 1977-1997) age 26-44
- Gen X (born 1965-1976) age 45-56
- Boomers (born 1946-1964) age 57-75)
- Seniors (born 1900-1945) age 76+
The year of birth range does not change but the age range increases every year (for example Gen X will be 46-57 in 2022).
As we survey adults 18+, we have started tracking the next generation – Generation Z. Last year they only represented 18 and 19 year olds, so their numbers were not yet significant enough to count in a study of 2,000 adult consumers. In a study of a larger sample size, they would be a reportable group.
Question 5: How has COVID affected supplement use trends?
The biggest thing that COVID has done, beyond keep the industry growing, is that it has attracted new users. If you look at a category that already has 70%+ household penetration, to increase that is phenomenal. You usually don’t increase it that much. The biggest challenge will be to keep those new users coming back post-COVID, and for them to understand that immune health is not just a pandemic behavior, it is something that is important year-round, pandemic or not, and it’s a source of wellness for now and the future.