Nutritional Supplements in the U.S., 5th Edition

Throughout the recession and its “New Normal” aftermath of frugal spending, the nutritional supplements market held steady as Americans apparently embraced supplements as less costly alternatives to pure-play medical options like doctor visits and prescription medications. Now, with U.S. consumers beginning to loosen their budgetary belt straps, nutritional supplement marketers must work to keep their products at the forefront of consumers’ health regimens. Key to this pursuit are targeted products featuring trendy ingredients more heavily backed by science and increasingly taking a page from their functional food competitors. At the same time, supplement marketers must keep their sights squarely focused on their prime demographics:  those over age 65 and the up-and-coming aging Baby Boomers currently swelling the senior brackets. Nor can the industry afford to ignore the younger demographics who are its longer-term future but whose supplement usage rates have been declining, or the emergent Hispanic population, whose supplement usage rates are below average but gradually rising.

Marketwide, product efficacy and credibility remain crucial, with supplement developers increasingly relying on scientific evidence supporting the benefits of taking nutritional supplements to bolster the industry’s image in the eyes of consumers and healthcare practitioners. With market regulation and scrutiny at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever for the industry to produce and feature products able to substantiate their health benefit claims. In this vein, condition-specific supplements continue to grow in breadth and importance, and they will remain a key driver of sales and new product development across myriad segments including joint, brain, cosmetic, and heart, with many of these products homing in on age-related health issues. At the other end of the condition-specific spectrum, children’s supplements have been doing well, demographically book-ending the overall market in way that suggests solid future prospects. During 2012, supplement sales rose 7% to $11.5 billion, the report calculates, and sales are forecasted to reach $15.5 billion by 2017.

Nutritional Supplements in the U.S., 5th Edition, a fully updated Packaged Facts report, examines the market for nutritional supplements within the context of broader HBC trends in new product development and marketing, including vitamins, minerals, herbals, homeopathics and combination products. It charts industry sales and composition, providing retail sales breakouts for four main product categories (general supplements, multivitamins, 1 & 2 letter vitamins and liquid supplements) and for over a dozen condition-specific segments (children’s, joint health, calcium/bone health, eye health, women’s, vitamin C/immunity, digestive health/probiotic, men’s, brain health, heart health, omega, cosmetic, energy, and CoQ-10. The report also provides a thorough examination of market drivers, the competitive situation, mass-market marketer and brand shares, marketing trends, and consumer trends.

Key data sources include Experian Simmons national consumer surveys covering category and brand usage levels and trends as well as demographic and psychographic patterns; and Information Resources, Inc. InfoScan Reviews, quantifying nutritional supplement marketer and brand shares at the mass-market level across the four product categories. The report includes many product images, and as a special feature, late-breaking data from Packaged Facts’ proprietary consumer survey, which was conducted online in August 2012.