What does the wellness consumer look like? How are they different than a traditional healthcare consumer? What brands are winning customers in the wellness economy? This piece looks to answer all of these questions and more..
4. The Wellness Consumer
Interested in Benefits That Include:
Protecting precious time, mankind’s most valuable
commodity;
Living a functional life enjoying the fruits of hard
labor, instead of sick and tired while mentally and
physically unwell;
Experiencing health data in a new and innovative
way designed to drive long lasting behavior change
Risk scoring and monitoring tools fed by continuous
outputs of patient generated biometric data
5. The Wellness Consumer
Benefits That Include - Cont’d:
Trade better health & wellness for more longevity,
success, affluence, and enjoyment;
Enjoyment of good health which guarantees the
value of life and the a family’s legacy;
Insurance against health challenges, so they don’t
deplete wealth and negatively impact financial
security and retirement
6. More Control
Over Health Data
Over Outcomes
Over Information
Over Pathways
Radical
Convenience
Better Access, Better
Information, Better
Decisions
Higher ROHI
Return on
Healthcare
Investment (Time +
Money)
Increased
Transparency
Improved Health
Literacy (Pricing &
Procedures)
WELLNESS BRAND VALUE
Patients & Consumers – Benefit Hierarchy
7. Problem/Opportunity
Accessing healthcare typically requires excessive amounts of time:
• WELLNESS BRANDS = Control (over health and time spent achieving it) =
higher return on health investment (ROHI)
Accessing healthcare and achieving an optimal outcome requires an above
average health literacy level :
• WELLNESS BRANDS = Transparency (understanding health options,
pathways, emerging treatments, therapies and alternatives). Cures
information asymmetry by level setting buyer/seller knowledge.
Health Insurance is opaque and complex; however, a better healthcare
experience can be purchased for less:
• WELLNESS BRANDS = Radical convenience, aligned interest, total pricing
transparency and regular support when accessing care
8. Problem/Opportunity
Achieving functional health and wellness is complex, like putting together a puzzle:
• WELLNESS BRANDS: work only with physicians and providers who are adequately
trained to assess the underlying causes of complex, chronic diseases and to apply
strategies such as nutrition, diet, and exercise to both treat and prevent these
illnesses in their patients
PCP Physicians aren’t trained to do puzzles and the system doesn't reward them
if/when they try:
• WELLNESS BRANDS: create a paradigm change, allowing physicians the freedoms to
stray from established networks which typically dictate how they provide care and at
what cost and how much time they could allot to each patient
Physicians are leaving the profession because of burn-out and feelings of cynicism and
detachment towards medicine:
• WELLNESS BRANDS: give providers more independence, more time with patients,
more revenue, more treatment options, less red tape and BS
11. The Wellness Economy – Looking Like $$
• “Additionally, wellness has become brag-worthy: a form of social
currency”
• “Looking like money; how wellness became the new luxury status
symbol”
• “For most people, spending so much on staying fit and healthy
would be a preposterous indulgence, but for a growing percentage
of individuals with high discretionary income, wellness has become
an important part of the luxury lifestyle”
• “Your fitness regimen of choice says a lot about you. And just like
there are Smart Car types and Porsche types, there are yoga types
and boot camp types; exercise has become another arena to
compare and contrast your personality and lifestyle with others”
12. The Wellness Economy
The Quest for Wellness Will Continue…
These wellness solutions come at the right time, when after years of
social influences and growth in health and wellness sectors of the
economy – wellness is a prominent status symbol.
A large focus on wellness has been driven by social media, where many
bloggers focus on the fact that the most important status symbol is no
longer a material item but rather a pronounced and socially catalogued
dedication to wellness. A small sampling of brands that have benefitted:
1) Cycling: Soul Cycle / Peloton
2) “Athleisure” Category: Lulu lemon / Athleta / Outdoor Voices
3) Fitness Classes: Barre / Orange Theory / Boxing / Yoga
4) Technology Led Fitness: Tonal / Mirror / Peloton
5) Food/Beverage/Appliance: Vitamix / Celery Juice
6) Natural Health Brands: Goop / Honest / Wellthy
13. A Powerful Cultural Shift
• Splurging on cars and gadgets does not equate to
success in the mind of the younger generations.
• Baby boomers may have their comforts, but
Millennials and Gen Zers believe the key to leading
fulfilling lives is through meaningful, holistic
experiences
14. What Wellness Looks Like
If Social Media is Any Indicator – Wellness is Lifestyle attained by
being Physically, Mentally & Spiritually Well - “Wellprenuers”
15. What Wellness Looks Like
For Many – Wellness Is Primary About Nutrition – Taking
Preventative Steps to Keep Chronic Disease From Attacking
16. What Wellness Looks Like
For Some – Wellness Is About Learning What Makes Their Body Feel Its
Best – Also About Discovering How Symptoms Are Connected To Actions
17. What Wellness Looks Like
For Others Its About Achieving Balance, and a Sense of
Community
18. What Wellness Looks Like
For a Growing Cohort - Wellness Is Defined By Exercise, Group Fitness
- Activities That Help the Individual Reach Their Full Potential
19. Competing for the Wellness Consumer
As the Wellness Economy experiences explosive growth, brands
will be competing fiercely for their loyalty;
Billions of dollars are at stake as the Wellness Economy takes
shape over the next decade
Expect Wellness consumers to be well informed, empowered
decision makers with strong preferences and digitally native
This may mean it is harder to influence the Wellness consumer
compared to a traditional health consumer
Understand these consumers don’t conform to the typical
(B2B2C) process. They are less likely to be pushed product or
services
Instead they will pull your brand to them to solve their specific
need (C2B)
21. SDOH
Social Determinants (SDOH)
Economic Stability, Education, Social & Community
Context, Neighborhood & Built Environment,
Stress, Work, Addiction etc
80%
Medical Interventions (MI)
Care provided by Physician or Healthcare
Provider, Pharmaceutical Context,
Surgery, Hospitalization, etc.
WELLNESS IS SOCIAL
20%
22. Questions | Comments
• Speaker Info:
• Nick is the founder and Managing Partner at Convergence Health –
Family Office for Health. Convergence is a health strategy consultancy
focusing on health & wellness space.
• Nick Gaudiosi can be contacted at the following:
• E: nick.gaudiosi@gmail.com
• C: provided by email once qualified
• Instagram: convergence_health
• Web: www.nickgaudiosi.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
Here is where we shift slightly away from healthcare as we all define it and try to understand the wellness phenomenon. Wellness is social – as healthcare should be. As healthcare gets the memo that 80% or more of their outcomes are dependent on social aspects and determinants, Wellness has embraced that it is indeed social. Wellness was birthed from social influences and will continue to grow around its focus on social determinants. Wellness is becoming a new form of currency – social currency, not currency as we think about money or monetary systems.
When marketing to the Wellness Consumer, the brand must first understand that the healthcare industry has been known for being stodgy, rigid, dry and not very creative. Wellness brands should always market with the patient in mind – speaking to them in a way that has mass appeal, is compelling, displays empathy, and is interesting.
They say the rich get richer – and I say the sick get sicker. The variable that affects these statements is time. When you have money, it is easier to pay other people to manage the things that you don’t want to manage – therefore providing you more time to invest in more accretive ventures. When you are sick you tend to get sicker. The time you would be spending doing other more exciting, rewarding and detoxifying things is now spent on doctors visits, hospital visits, tests. It is likely a sick person is placed on one or more prescription medications, therefore causing a litany of side effects and bodily changes. There are well documented studies that say physical illness then leads to mental illness and depression. Being sick creates a downward spiral that patients dread. Once treatment regimens begin – it can be exceedingly complicated to access what has been done by doctors – getting access to medical records can seem nearly impossible.
Brands that market solutions to some of the aforementioned problems are likely to capture the hearts and minds of consumers who want to protect their precious time and who want to enjoy the fruits of their labor by enjoying experiences with family and friends. That should be the main idea in your value prop.
This slide sets up the problem/opportunity matrix to follow. Here we look at wellness brand value. What are the key areas any wellness brand should focus on?
Creating a higher return on healthcare investment. This is a term I started using and haven’t heard anywhere else. But as consumers of health are increasigly responsible for the expese – they are changing the way they value goods and services. The time plus money they spend on staying or getting well will be measured.
Increased transparency – includes doing things or building things that improve health literacy – breakdown information assymetry and reveal true costs and benefits of procedures and options.
More control – over health data, outcomes, information, care pathways –etc.
Radical convenience – better access , better info, better decisions
This problem opportunity set puts it into perspective for health and wellness brands – whether you have an already established company or are biulding one – do so with these themes in mind.
READ bullets
Health and wellness is moving up the charts – quite possible poised to be the status symbol of the future. Despite the spending on health and wellness – nearly 5.3% of total global economic output – Americans are getting sicker and dying younger. One has to ask if there is an inflection point in the near future where all of the spending and focus on health and wellness starts to impact outcomes. For now we will have to wait and see – but the $4 trillion wellness economy is projected to grow precipitously.
Here is an infographic provided by CBInsights showing the segments of the wellness economy. As you can see the largest segment is personal care – or self-care, beauty and anti-aging, followed closely by nutrition, weight loss and healthy lifestyle brands and fitness. Later we will look at some brands who have contributed to this growth.
At $4.2 trillion, wellness expenditures are now more than half the size of global health expenditures ($7.3 trillion). spending on wellness grew 12.8 percent between 2015 and 2017, according to the Global Wellness Institute. The institute names a number of factors in the rise of wellness — including what they call “the failure of the 'sick-care' medical model to improve quality of life." The punishing expense of standard medical care and health insurance are also driving many people to seek out other treatments. “I do think that in part at least, what is driving wellness is a lot of women’s dissatisfaction with mainstream medicine, the sense that their symptoms are not being taken seriously or they’re just not getting the care that they need."Maya Dusenbery, author of "Doing Harm."
Retailers are looking at ways to offer wellness services that impact and change consumer lives. In doing so – they are looking for ways to differentiate their wellness experience from retail competition. Take a closer look at the diagram to understand the different categories.
In the END remember one thing. Health and Wellness is mostly social. Social Determinents determine the large majority of health outcomes. If you and your brand want to make a difference in the lives of consumers or patients figure out ways to impact their social situations in a positive way.