Trends in product and dosage format innovation with Nextin Research by Marketplace

Sebastian Krawiec: To start, I wonder if you can tell me about what you think are some of the most important trends currently driving product innovation in the market right now?

Jake Klinghammer: Well, it really kind of depends on which specific consumer segment we're looking at. So, thinking about the overall market for supplement consumers, just for instance, we have consumers that are motivated by need for brain health, for energy, for gut health for GLP-1, support, and weight management. So one of the things that we like to do is a lot of audience and consumer segmentation in and of itself. I the buzzword of this show has got to be GLP-1. It's everywhere. I think I've seen it on half of the booths here. And there's a two sides of the coin, nutrition support for people who are on a GLP-1 drug and then also, we are seeing a lot of product innovation when it comes to products that have been shown to naturally increase GLP-1 production in the body. So, a non-pharma alternative to a GLP-1 drug, that's got to be one of the biggest things driving just what sort of products are going into market and then how they're being positioned as either GLP-1 alternatives or support companion products to GLP-1.

SK: In terms of dosage formats, what delivery systems outside of gummies, do you think are going to capture consumers in the long run and why?

JK: So, the latest study that we found is that gummies are still reigning supreme. They're not going away anytime soon, but we cannot discount more classic formats like simple pills and tablets or especially chewable tablets. We're finding that even if a consumer is consuming a gummy for maybe one supplement or one benefit, they're also taking something in a chewable tablet, even if it is available in a gummy format. I think that the underlying need for that has to do with specific, I would say, day parts. You might be more willing to consume a gummy at a certain time of the day. Whereas a tablet may be more needed in first thing in the morning, so you're not eating candy as the first thing that you do when you get out of bed. We are finding that consumers are also getting more concerned about sugar content of gummies. Simple things like, “Oh, I'm getting ready for bed, and I don't want that little gummy in my sucking my teeth as much.”

One of the other fun things that we're finding from the research is we ask the very specific question: if you can get the benefits you would normally seek from a supplement in a beverage format, which of these formats would be most appealing to you to receive, coffee, tea, sodas, shakes? And the most appealing format that comes to the top really kind of depends on what benefit they're seeking. So, brain health, cognitive health, if a consumer is seeking that specific benefit, tea and coffee are always going to be at the top of that list, mainly because of that halo effect that tea and coffee already have around cognitive health and productivity.