MarketLooks: Weight Loss Trends and Products

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The following is the abstract from the full report:
With a primary emphasis on the low-carb product boom, this Packaged Facts report examines the important shifts occurring in the U.S. market for weight-loss foods and beverages, as product forms like food bars, shakes, and diet candy meld the promise of a smaller waistline and healthier heart with what Americans want most in their food products: convenience/portability and great taste. The report explores the principal hypothesis that America’s “overweight epidemic”—owing primarily by our excessive consumption of sugar and starch—has only just begun to come into the media spotlight, just as the opportunities this represents for food and beverage marketers (including those not traditionally associated with weight loss) are just beginning to be tapped. Sales of diet candy, for example, rose 51% for the 52-week period ending October 5, 2003, with market leader Russell Stover seeing sales rise by 70%. These assessments, as well as market size estimates and forecasts and new product trend analysis, are grounded in a thorough review of up-to-the-minute overweight/obesity, diet/weight-loss, foodservice, food ingredient/development trends, and retail trends—all with the aim of bringing today’s low-carb product explosion into perspective.

Springboarding from an examination of these underlying market drivers, the report quantifies weight-loss foods and beverages across key categories including Meal Replacement Powders & Liquids, Frozen Dinners & Entrees, Food Bars, and Diet Candy, while also reporting on low-carb and other key weight-loss product incursions into myriad other categories, including baked foods, beer, cereal, condiments, meat products, ice cream/frozen desserts, pasta, pizza and salty snacks. The report tracks mass-market sales to the rapidly shifting marketer/brand share level via the most current IRI data available (3rd Q 2003), and documents market size and composition by category and retail outlet; marketing, new product (focusing on the myriad low-carb entries through December 2003) and retail trends; and the role of the Internet. Also provided are competitive profiles of leading marketers like Atkins, Carblite, Carb Solutions (Rexall Sundown), Heinz (Weight Watchers Smart Ones), Kellogg (Special K, Kashi), Nestle (Stouffer's Lean Cuisine), Russell-Stover, and Slim-Fast; demographic profiles of key consumer groups (male vs. female) by product type, based on 2003 Simmons Market Research Bureau data; and “Looking Ahead” marketing trend forecasts and recommendations.