Revamping Growth for Health & Wellness Brands through Predictive Analytics [INSIGHT]

Everywhere consumers go, they are being bombarded by messages that tell them that brand A is ever so slightly healthier than brand B.  Consumers are noticing, and more purchasing decisions are being made on the basis of health and wellness. The 2013 Food & Health Survey: Consumer Attitudes toward Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health, commissioned by the International Food Information Council Foundation, found that for 64% of consumers, “healthfulness” is considered to be the most important factor driving foods and beverages purchase decisions, up 6 points since 2006 when 58% considered healthfulness the most important purchase driver and trumped only by taste and price.

Marketers must be smart about how they manage their brands’ messaging in order to attract the right wellness driven consumer. Maybe the brand can grow with “the Rookie” who exercises every day, but on the weekends, eats wings and beer.  Or perhaps, the brand might want to grow with “the Healthy Enthusiast” who is scrutinizing each product for its impact on nutrition and the environment. Wherever the opportunity for growth might lie, these different consumers’ mindsets and behaviors need to be influenced differently.

“Healthy” is not a one-size-fits-all concept. The fact is, there are different kinds of “Health Personas” that need to be understood through their nuances. Success for a brand will depend on clearly identifying growth opportunities as well as effectively crafting messaging for high-value targets.

Here is an example. A recent client was feeling pressure to reposition their brands since there was clear evidence that some of them were losing steam and the category was under attack. Their challenge is similar to that of food and beverages manufacturers, fast-food an casual dining, pharma, and health care.

Business Challenge:    A vitamins and supplements manufacturer with Private Label, company-owned stores and direct-to-consumer channels was experiencing market share and revenue loss with some brands.  Consequently, they wanted to assess what drove their loyal consumers, and which types of consumers they could target most effectively in order to boost their lower-performing brands and overall portfolio growth and share.

SSG Solution & Impact:    Working with company data and primary respondent level consumer data, and Big Data, SSG used predictive analytics to segment the respondents along Wellness dimensions.  Focusing on making the segments actionable, the model accounted for multi-channel shopping, customer touchpoints, media preferences, psychographics and lifestyles. This allowed their brands to overall craft along their ad agencies more fine-tuned effective messaging to the swayable opportunity segments.

Additionally using custom advanced modeling techniques, the company’s internal database was scored, in order to identify which wellness/opportunity segment each consumer fell into. This enabled the company to increase sales to existing consumers, as well as to apply the custom Wellness model to score external prospecting lists.

About SSG

SSG is a growth consulting leader driven by management P&L experience, Big Data and predictive analytics. We develop fact-based business models, insights, customer experiences and roadmaps that profitably segment distinct customer groups and drive revenue. We help clients focus their limited resources where the highest ROI opportunities exist and customize strategies advancing efficient Total Market growth fueled by Millennial, Multicultural & Hispanics segments.