Understanding the sleep and stress category

Sebastian Krawiec: So ADM recently released a Sleep, Stress and Mood report, and I wonder if you can kind of talk about some of the key takeaways from that report.

Vaughn DuBow: What we found is that there's a lot of interconnectedness, or interplay between sleep, stress and mood. So, people who are feeling more stressed or more anxious are going to not sleep as well. And then if you're not sleeping as well, of course, it's that cycle of, you know, each one makes each other worse. With that being said, we found over 60% of people are having a hard time sleeping, yet only 29% are actively doing something about enhancing their sleep. So, there's a huge gap there that can be fixed. If we give a solution that really supports mood, stress and sleep all at the same time, people can see benefits in all those areas. And if you can reduce your stress, improve your mood, you're going to sleep better. If you're sleeping better, you're going to have less stress and feel better.

SK: What is a priority for most consumers? Is this the stress side, or is it the sleep side?

VD: We’re seeing a need for both. I can't say one takes more priority over the other. We are seeing a higher proponent of people having sleep issues, right off the bat, 60% or higher. Now that being said, the proponents of people who are having mood and stress issues are right around that 40 to 50% mark. So, they're both heavily needed. Now when talking about, how do you arm a customer, a company with the right claims. It really comes down to what consumer are they speaking to? So, we have one ingredient, for example, that handles both sleep, stress and mood, so while one customer might say, well, you know, I'm making a sleep product, we have a solution if they have a mood product, the same thing. So, by having one ingredient that offers multiple benefits, you can really arm your customers with being able to go to consumers with any need, state that they need.

SK: I guess the reason I asked was because of how popular melatonin has been as primarily a sleep product, but then I'm seeing now a greater emphasis on the stress support side for most companies.

VD: I think melatonin has been popular for so long, there's a lot of people who love it and there's a lot of people who don't like it for their own reasons, right? So I think consumers have are looking for something new and innovative in the space. They're looking for something that can solve that sleep issue. But again, people want more than one benefit at a time, so if we can give them sleep and stress or sleep and mood, they're going to be much more inclined to try it. All of the consumer research that we've done shows that that dual benefit is really what drives consumers these days. So a single benefit ingredient just doesn't have the same appeal. So, it's really going to keep compounding, I think, and people are going to keep looking for solutions that do more than just sleep. And that's what's so exciting about the space is that there are now, for the first time, offerings that really offer people sleep, stress, mood and all of the above.