In our report on Sports Nutritionals,
we primarily looked at two disparate product categories:
At Sports Drinks and also at Sports Nutrition Bars.
One thing that we were trying
to answer is, who was the
consumer for these products and has that changed?
What we found is that for
sports drinks, not surprisingly, the consumer
is predominantly younger men.
For sports bars, for food
bars, women become the predominant users.
Also, interestingly, for some of
your alternative products at the
periphery of the market, for example
whey protein products, we're finding
that women too, there, are becoming
very important consumers, changing the nature of the product base.
One of the most interesting findings of
the report in answering that question
was the role of women in this market.
For sports nutritionals, we might
traditionally think of men,
of younger men, of body
builders, in outlets like
GNC, buying products like whey protein.
What we in fact found is
that, yes, for sports
drinks, men and younger
men are the main consumers,
but for sports bars, nutrition bars, that's not the case.
Women constitute about 55% of
the consumers and a
very high percentage of the frequent consumers.
But also, and maybe even
more interestingly, we find that
women are really flocking to some of
the traditional products that we associated with being men's products.
For example whey protein mixes, or
other alternative protein mixes, like hemp.
Looking at this market, I went to Whole Foods.
There's actually a Barre bar -
barre in the ballet
sense, of the barre
that the dancers use to exercise
with, and it was formulated by professional dancers.
But it is a general athletes'
product, and even a general food nutrition bar.
So you find definitely new
types of products out there
catering to women who are very important consumers in this market.
In terms of sizing
the market, we found that the
sports drink category is about
a 7 billion dollar market in
the US and it is growing at
nearly seven percent in 2012
over the previous year,
which is a very healthy rate for the food market overall.
Somewhat down from the previous years but still a healthy growth rate.
About 36 percent of
consumers use sports drinks
and that's what's creating that $7 billion market size.
The nutrition bar
is a smaller
category of sports drinks, at
around 2.3 billion, but it's
growing at a 14% rate,
which is a very healthy clip in
the overall food market. And that again
ties into the opportunities for
marketing sports bars, especially to women.
What we found is that the
largest segment of sports
nutritional product users is actually
fitness walkers. Over 6 million
walkers are using sports nutrition products.
And that ties in really with
the aging of the U.S. population,
which is another challenge and opportunity for marketers.
What will these products become for a graying population.
Since health and wellness has
become so central to
consumer concerns with all
our food shopping, sports nutritionals,
sports drinks, sports bars are
no longer necessarily peripheral products.
And that will increasingly be the
case as we snack
more and more, rather than having sit-down meals,
and it will also become the case
for sports drinks as we
look for beverages as snacks and even as meal replacements.
So larger eating trends for
the consumer, this emphasis on health and wellness,
will also be reshaping the market
over the future.