Why Storytelling and Consumer Education Are Becoming Essential in Nutraceutical Communications

In an exclusive interview with Nutritional Outlook, Amy Summers, founder and president of Pitch Publicity, discussed leadership, mentorship, and communication strategies within the dietary supplement and functional food industries. Summers emphasized that mentorship does not need to exist as a formalized corporate program to be effective, particularly in fast-moving startup environments where resources and time are limited. Instead, she described mentorship as an ongoing daily leadership practice centered around investing in employees and helping them connect to a company’s broader mission. According to Summers, leaders who neglect team development risk undermining long-term business success because organizational growth depends on employees understanding and embracing the company’s purpose.

The conversation also explored how brands can communicate more effectively with increasingly health-conscious and skeptical consumers. Summers stressed that storytelling plays a critical role in supplement marketing because regulatory restrictions often limit the types of health claims companies can make directly. While scientific substantiation remains essential, she argued that brands must also present relatable human stories that simplify complex science and demonstrate real-world impact. Anecdotal consumer experiences, she noted, can help make technical concepts more accessible and emotionally engaging for mainstream audiences.

Summers additionally highlighted the growing consumer demand for transparency, validation, and authenticity. She explained that consumers now expect brands to “show their work” by providing clear information about sourcing, manufacturing, and scientific validation. The rise of AI-powered search tools and digital information access has accelerated this trend, making it easier for consumers to quickly research ingredients and brands independently. As a result, Summers said companies that fail to establish a strong digital presence risk becoming invisible in the marketplace.

Throughout the interview, she repeatedly emphasized education as a cornerstone of successful nutraceutical communication strategies. Rather than relying solely on direct advertising or sales tactics, she argued that brands must continuously educate consumers in ways that feel trustworthy and human. According to Summers, the most successful companies will be those that prioritize long-term relationships and transparent communication rather than simply marketing products. She also broke down where she sees the biggest opportunities and risks for ingredient and supplement brands trying to maintain authentic connections with their audiences in this age of AI.

A transcript of Summers’ conversation can be found below.

Nicholas Saraceno: Through your PR agency work with emerging and established brands, what communication or storytelling strategies have you seen resonate most with health-conscious consumers and industry stakeholders in the nutritional products space?

Amy Summers: Storytelling is absolutely critical in this space because there's just so much that we can't say in advertising or marketing. You're restricted, so when it comes to your health and whether people are going to feel better or improve their health by using the products that are available in this industry, we have to have stories. The best coverage I can get for a client is when I have a good story.

Although a lot of companies really focus on science and putting a lot of their budget into science, which is critical and very important, you have to balance that with also storytelling and gathering, because we have to simplify the science. The science isn't going to impress the average person enough to make them buy the product. They need to hear the story of somebody who went from using a walker to now maybe competing in a bodybuilding competition, because they figured out they had too many oxalates or whatever it is that you're trying to sell them. We need those stories, even if they're, just anecdotal stories. It's important to balance that with also the science.

Saraceno: What ingredient or wellness trends are you seeing gain traction right now, and how are brands adapting their messaging to meet evolving consumer expectations around transparency, efficacy, and science-backed claims?

Summers: From a communications perspective, we've always seen this trend, but I would just say that it's growing and it's getting stronger, and that is that consumers expect brands to show their work. They want to know where it's sourced, manufactured, how it's validated. I think the difference in what they're demanding, versus like ten years ago, is they have a lot more tools at their fingertips, so they can jump on, AI and just ask AI.

If you are not present in the digital world, first of all, you're not going to show up good or bad, you're not going to show up. That’s really important. Then, just knowing that science alone is not enough anymore. Brands really have to communicate science in a way that feels human and trustworthy, and they need to be able to understand it. We have a lot of curiosity with consumers, but the difference that we're seeing now is that they can get information a lot quicker.

I think it's very critical for brands to not abandon their communications. Campaigns and plans is probably the most valuable thing that they can do. I've always said that about this industry. That's why I love this industry because I'm in PR and this industry, you have to have that line directly to the consumer and you have to be able to explain to them what all these ingredients do.

That takes a lot of education, and so you need to pump out the consumer education all the time, balancing that with marketing and selling. But consumers, they just generally don't want to be sold. I mean, we have avoided ads every way that we can, so we have to educate them. We have to get creative with how are we coming to them with education. That's where trust is going to build. The brands that are going to be the most successful are the ones that are having relationships with their customers. They're not just marketing at them or selling stuff to them.