|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nutraceuticals, available in various categories, novel health catalysts
|
|
Friday, 06 March, 2020, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
|
Sushil Khaitan
|
Origin of novel health catalyst
It was in the 1980s when the term nutraceuticals was first conceptualised. The term was used to define foods that not only serve their primary function of satiating hunger and providing nutrition, but also have additional medicinal benefits.
Foods such as nutritional supplements, functional foods, vitamins and minerals-enriched products, beverages as well as dietary supplements fall under the category of nutraceuticals.
Market opportunity for nutraceuticals
The biggest ally available for the nutraceutical segment are the doctors who are now actively co-prescribing nutraceutical supplements for numerous conditions patients might be facing.
This fact boosts the consumers’ confidence which directly reflects in the sales of the products in categories such as Type-2 diabetes, blood pressure management, immunity, heart health and even beauty. Patients are advised and encouraged by their physicians to opt for preventive healthcare products to lead a healthier lifestyle.
Another important factor that has helped tap into a whole new magnitude of opportunities is the growing awareness among today’s consumers, aided by rapid digitisation.
The knowledge about preventive healthcare and the market as a whole is making consumers increasingly skeptic about the efficacy and safety of allopathic medications and/or food fads.
The market for nutraceuticals in India is largely occupied by vitamins and minerals, which take up 40 per cent of the market share. The herbal segment occupies 30 per cent, while proteins take up about 25 per cent and the remaining five per cent is contributed by others.
Bridging the gap between food and medicine
In today’s fast-paced world, our diets often suffer, leading to nutrition deficiencies, chronic ailments at a young age, physical and mental stress, etc.
Our bodies and minds are further negatively affected by unhealthy lifestyle choices and limited physical activity. In such cases, nutritional supplements play a positive role in helping one stay on a healthy path.
A lot of food we consume today is not as pure and potent as we believe it to be. Harmful chemicals and fertilisers add to the long-term ill-effects on one’s health. A lot of pollutants also affect the food we consume directly or indirectly.
Data science meets nutrition
Brand awareness, consideration and last-mile sale are driven by using contemporary marketing tools across numerous digital channels.
A scientific approach to marketing by using the assistance of AI (artificial intelligence) to understand the patterns of past consumer insights to formulate specific communication aimed at invoking the desired action is at the crux of Pure Nutrition’s marketing strategy.
Data is crucial to what we do and we make use of various tools to understand consumer behaviour, gauge the product-level interest and to keep updates about competition in the market.
Human intuition paired with the power of these tools paves the way to conceptualise and implement holistic strategies that help leverage conversions as well as repeat purchases to an exceptional extent.
As digitisation picks up pace, awareness and interest about lifestyle-related diseases and nutritional deficiencies have increased.
This has resulted in a high demand for wellness products, and we are now able to reach the consumers directly.
The purchase of the product online from the manufacturers or reputed retailers makes the consumer more confident about the quality and authenticity of the products. Pricing options available online provide advantages to both the sellers and buyers alike.
Transience in the process, transparency in the dream
The nutraceutical market aims to bridge the gap between diet and medicine. Nutrition supplements are formulated keeping the ever-evolving nutrition requirements of the hyper-active lifestyle of an Indian consumer with the highest technological standards in mind, while still retaining the essence of the potent nature of the ingredients that are part of the formulation.
The quality and sourcing of the ingredients for the products is of utmost importance to us and we take every precaution to maintain the quality.
Having said that, transparency with regards to the efficacy of the product is key. For our brand, what sets us apart from the competition is the fact that since inception, we have been committed to creating premium quality, preventive care nutraceutical products that cater to the last-mile Indian consumer market.
Pure Nutrition specialises in the creation of nutraceutical products for outcome-based results.
We create premium formulations of plant-based supplements that have notably higher bioactivity levels, which ensures better absorption in the human body.
The consumer will continue to find plenty of synthetic products in the market that are not easily absorbed by the human body, which means that they have little to no effect. The only benefit, if any, is caused by the placebo effect.
For a nutraceutical brand, whether established or new, the precise focus should be on creating extraordinary, bio-active formulations that deliver the brand promise of being transparent, effective and true to its word.
The way forward for nutraceuticals
In the past, nutraceutical products like supplements and functional foods were primarily purchased by higher socio-economic groups, but this trend is changing quickly thanks to rising disposable income and higher purchasing power.
At the same time, there has also been an increase in levels of awareness among consumers about the impact of lifestyle and diet on health.
Consumers have, therefore, begun to appreciate the role of nutrition in preventing and dealing with ailments.
Additionally, awareness and appeal of natural health-focussed products have also grown multi-fold and most consumers see the cost benefits on spending now to prevent future ailments.
The government, too, has been immensely positive supportive over the last decade in streamlining regulations to a very large extent.
For example, previously eight different laws were trying to govern the sector which proved very inefficient. The FSS (Food Safety and Standards) Act and FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) brought everything under one roof and introduced a lot of necessary reforms.
We also expect to see government initiatives like Digital India, Jan Aushadhi programmes for the promotion of online healthcare initiatives further aid in providing quality healthcare delivery to even remotely accessible/completely inaccessible parts of rural India. This will immensely benefit in further strengthening our efforts towards category growth.
To summarise, nutraceuticals can be regarded as the future of intelligent food, and we have seen that 30 per cent of the world's dietary supplements are consumed in the United States, followed by Japan at 22 per cent.
We are sure that this trend is on a growth path in India too. I believe that this sector will see a considerable growth in the next five years.
As a brand, the idea should be to establish an exhaustive online and retail presence including both general and modern trade to ensure that the brand gets the visibility that it demands.
We also plan to sustain this effort by increasing our market offerings with new products and maintaining the product efficacy of the existing ones.
(The author is chief executive officer and director, Purenutrition.me.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|