Two Billion Dollar Supplements Market | Do Indians need it?| Three market leaders
Feb 14, 2024
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Join the podcast to explore the supplements and healthy snacks industry with founders of Trunativ, Neulife Nutrition, and The Whole Truth Foods. They discuss transparency, education, and challenges faced in the market. Learn about their journeys and ideologies, and the growing trend of healthier lifestyles in India.
Transparency and education are crucial in the health industry for Indian consumers.
Building trust in the food industry through clean label options is essential for consumer health.
Offering nutrition products with maximum value and transparency is key for consumer satisfaction.
Balancing flavors to cater to both mass appeal and regional preferences is vital for product success.
Diversifying distribution channels based on consumer behavior and growth stages is critical for brand expansion.
Deep dives
Building a Preventive Healthcare Brand in India
Prana Netiv, Samith from New Life, and Shashank from The Whole Truth are innovators and founders building unique brands and products in the health industry. Prana Netiv focuses on simplifying nutrition for Indian families, while New Life develops performance nutrition solutions. The Whole Truth aims to rebuild trust in food by offering clean label options. These founders discuss their experiences, missions, and the challenges of building healthy eating and supplement companies in India.
Importance of Nutrition and Consumer Awareness
Prana Netiv's founder recognized the need to simplify nutrition for households, as the preventive healthcare model is growing rapidly in India. The extraction of protein science has been dominated by Western countries, but India is capturing a market share in this domain. Consumer awareness and education about nutrition are essential, as many products in the market claim to be healthy but contain misleading information. The founders discuss the importance of providing transparent and trustworthy nutrition products in a market where consumers are becoming more health-conscious.
Maximizing Nutrition per Calorie and Real Food Approach
Samith, founder of New Life, believes in maximizing nutrition per calorie and promoting a real food approach. He emphasizes the importance of eating real, nutritious food and avoiding processed products. He believes that nutrition products, such as protein bars, should prioritize transparency and deliver maximum nutritional value. The aim is to offer products that satiate consumers' nutritional needs and provide long-term health benefits, rather than just relying on calorie counting.
Targeting the Niche Market and Building a Mission-Driven Brand
Shashank, founder of The Whole Truth, focuses on challenging half-truths in the food industry and providing 100% clean label options. Though targeting a niche market, his brand aims to rebuild trust in food by offering transparency and genuine ingredients. While the market size might not be enormous, there is a growing demand for healthier food options in India. The founders share a mission-driven approach and emphasize the importance of addressing specific consumer needs and building a strong brand reputation.
Building Trust and Consumer Behavior
Trust is crucial for building a brand, and it can be established through expertise, community trust, and consistency. However, as brands scale, the strategies for building trust may need to evolve. Long-form content was effective in building trust for one brand, but as they aim to reach a larger audience, short-form video content becomes necessary. Another challenge is deciding which flavors to prioritize. While some flavors may appeal to specific regions, functional food brands focus on functional benefits rather than flavor. Additionally, determining which SKUs to continue producing can be complex, with factors such as sales metrics, repeat purchase rates, and gross margins coming into play.
Flavor and Consumer Behavior
Flavor plays a significant role in products like protein shakes and bars. Having a good-tasting product can increase customer loyalty and retention. Experimenting with flavors can be a retention strategy, as consumers may get bored with the same flavor over time. However, in functional food categories, flavor is not the main point of differentiation, as customers prioritize functional parameters over taste. It's essential to strike a balance between flavors that have mass appeal and flavors that cater to specific regional preferences.
Choosing Distribution Channels
Choosing the right distribution channels depends on factors such as impulse buying behavior, touchpoints with customers, and the brand's growth stage. For example, protein bars may become an impulse purchase for some consumers, leading brands to explore quick commerce and retail channels. D2C channels provide valuable feedback for product development and brand-building. However, as brands grow, they may need to expand into different distribution channels like quick commerce and marketplaces to reach a larger audience and increase sales.
Building Multiple Brands Under an Umbrella Brand
The speaker discusses the strategy of launching three separate brand names under a larger umbrella brand that focuses on health and nutrition. By creating micro brands within a brand, they aim to leverage the trust developed by the umbrella brand to introduce and promote different products. This approach helps to save costs and build a strong brand identity.
Listening to Customers and Balancing Price and Quality
The speaker emphasizes the importance of listening to customers and understanding their preferences and price sensitivity. They share an example of a failed product launch with high-quality ingredients priced at 100 rupees, which the market was not ready to accept. They stress the need to find a balance between price and quality to make products more appealing and affordable to customers.
Are you now weary of terms like "protein" and "supplements" because of the influx of information and greenwashing you see? Does your perception of a healthy snack align with "the whole truth?"
Join us on the podcast with Pranav Malhotra, the Founder of Trunativ; Samit Gupta, the founder of Neulife Nutrition; and Shashank Mehta, the Founder of The Whole Truth Foods, as we explore the supplements and healthy snacks industry.
This discussion deep dives into their inspirational journeys, underlying ideologies, and the challenges they've faced. It highlights the crucial importance of transparency and education for the Indian consumer regarding the factual aspects of health and nutrition.
More about what they've built:
trunativ.co
thewholetruthfoods.com
neulife.com
Listen to the full episode on
Youtube: https://youtu.be/ydh_vgTGze0
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2zdTKXrxpmckSFe79oafPd?si=600cb8bb8a184aca
Apple podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/two-billion-dollar-supplements-market-do-indians-need/id1659991514?i=1000645312468
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