Personalised nutrition, when consumers can get food specifically catered, or even crafted, to suit their individual nutritional needs, may be a thriving business. But do consumers actually understand what it is?
It’s a complex process, Melissa Snover, CEO of personalised nutrition brand Nourished – which makes personalised 3D-printed gummies which contain nutrients specified to consumer needs – explained. Consumer education, through a number of different avenues, is needed.
A simple message
The nature of the product, and of personalised nutrition as a whole, is essentially one consumers are familiar with. “It makes a lot of sense (to them) because every person is unique, everyone’s life is unique, everyone’s individual goals are unique, and so having something uniquely made for you automatically rings true to people when you explain it,” told us at FoodNavigator’s recent Positive Nutrition Digital Summit.
However, beyond this simple message the brand must still communicate some of the complexities of the product. “Consumers in general are not experts in individualised ingredients,” Snover told us. When the business started off in the UK, Snover found that “there was a lot more education needed” for consumers.
Furthermore, individual consumer types must be taken into account. “Depending on the type of consumer, the messaging has been changed.”
Demonstrating the product
One of the ways in which Nourished communicates the benefits of its products to consumers is through high street retail. The product is available in high-end department store Selfridges in London, where it has a 3D printer on-site to show consumers how it works.
The purpose of this, according to Snover, is not necessarily to sell products, but to educate the consumer on what the company does.
“Due to food safety regulation about making product in a food safe environment, it’s not possible to make tonnes and tonnes of product in a store environment where space is constricted. But we are able to show the technology live,” Snover told us.
“I think putting ourselves into retail like Selfridges allows customers to come and see and feel and experience our concept which has a huge amount of value awareness and credibility.”
Inside the nutrients
Personalised nutrition, in terms of consumer appeal, has a lot of crossover with functional food. Both are driven by consumer desires for certain functions, for their food to fulfil certain needs.
“The majority of the time . . . consumers are looking for something to solve for a lifestyle . . . what most people are looking for is specific solutions,” Snover said. For example, she suggested that consumers may want something to counteract the negative effects of a screen-heavy lifestyle.
In order to communicate this to consumers, Nourished uses short pieces of information, simplified to a more accessible level, that explain what each nutrient can do for them.
This, Snover suggested, has been successful among consumers, who have shown a real curiosity in the potential functional benefits of Nourished’s 35 different ingredients. “We’ve been really surprised and delighted how many people actually click on the further links and read the further information about the individual ingredient. It just shows how many people really do want to learn more . . . so that they can have healthier lives and make more beneficial decisions which are coming from a data-driven or educated standpoint.”
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