Focus on healthcare and supplements 13 June

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Focus On Healthcare & Supplements

Publishing: 13 June

Advertising deadline: 22 May

Submissions deadline: 15 May

Contact Sonya Hook (sonyahook@gmail.com)

The Story

Brits are dosing themselves up with more and more multivitamins, minerals and other supplements, according to research for The Grocer. Why? What macro trends are behind this and which products, brands and retailers are enjoying most growth? And, following recent front page stories in the tabloids linking overuse of vitamins to cancer, what is the industry doing to address this health scare? Will it impact growth?

Key themes

Vitamins: This feature will explore the factors – including NPD, price, promotions, advertising and wider macro consumer trends – that have led to strong growth in multi-vitamins and vitamin supplements for adults and kids. How are players looking to sustain growth? And, given that fish oils suffered following a health scare, what impact will recent negative press have?

Glucosamine: This sector has suffered an ongoing decline in the past year. This feature will explore the factors that have led to this and how players are looking to resurrect growth. Is the decline of glucosamine terminal following negative press about its efficacy?

Fish oils: Cod liver oil may still be in decline, but other kids of fish oil are in strong growth. This feature will explore exactly which products are driving this growth and why. What is driving the decline in cod liver oil?

Herbal supplements: This sector is also in steep decline. This feature will explore the factors that have led to this and how players are looking to resurrect growth.

Age/condition specific supplements: Sales of multivitamins for the over-50s are flying and there has been a glut of launches for specific consumer groups (men, women, pregnant women, sports people, etc). This feature will explore the factors that are leading to this growth.

Diet pills: The diet pill market – often subject to peaks and troughs driven by the launch of new products and negative publicity regarding and at times unfortunate (and embarrassing) side effects– has fallen off a cliff in the past year. Why? And what will be the next big thing in this market?

Advertising and marketing: The market’s spending on ad space has dipped in the past year. This feature will investigate how the marketing and advertising strategies of the category’s biggest brands have evolved and how they will develop in the coming year.

Innovation: This will be key to this feature. We will be investigating how new product development has shaped the category over the past year and what is in store for shoppers in 2014. We will be profiling four of the most interesting launches in a separate innovation panel.

Promotions: Promotions, particularly multibuy deals, are of huge importance to this market. This feature will explore how the promotional strategies of retailers and brands have changed over the past year. Attention will be paid to the promotional strategies of retailers and how this has affected average prices, and of course sales and buying patterns, over the past year.

Key questions the feature is likely to address