Sports Nutritionals Market in the U.S.: Sports Drinks and Nutrition Bars

Sports Nutritionals Market in the U.S.: Sports Drinks and Nutrition Bars

Driven by 77 million users of sports drinks and powered by 28 million consumers of nutrition bars, the sports nutritional market has experienced encouraging growth in recent years.  The new Packaged Facts report identifies trends influencing the sports nutritional market, highlights key market opportunities, and drills down into factors affecting the retail sales growth of nutrition bars and sports drinks through 2017, effectively analyzing the competitive positions of key players in the market and highlighting marketing and new product trends.

The report uncovers a number of developments creating both challenges and opportunities for marketers.  For example, the report pinpoints the vast demographic and attitudinal differences between those who are high-volume users of sports drinks and those who eat relatively large quantities of nutrition bars.  Only 45% of those eating at least one nutrition bar in the last 30 days are men, while 55% are women.  Female consumers of nutrition bars outnumber their male counterparts 15.2 million to 12.4 million and offer a major opportunity for nutrition bars as well as other sports nutritionals geared especially for women.

In sharp contrast, men account for 64% of high-volume users of sports drink; young men are most likely to use sports drinks.  Yet, marketers need to consider the population of males under the age of 25, their most prized marketing target, will decline over the next decade as the aging of America begins to accelerate.

The report also shows how consumers pursuing individual sports and fitness activities, rather than team sport players, are the key to success in the retail sports nutritional market.  When it comes to targeting consumers of large quantities of sports nutritional products, 6.3 million fitness walkers comprise the single largest and most attractive market segment.  Those taking yoga classes (1.3 million) as well as those pursuing outdoor activities such as mountain biking (1.5 million) and camping and backpacking (1.2 million each) are more numerous than soccer, football, softball, baseball or volleyball players.

Market Definition

The market for sports nutritionals includes sports drinks and nutrition bars, as well as product categories such as protein and weight gain powders, pre- and post-workout supplements, and energy gels.  This Packaged Facts report focuses on the market for sports drinks and nutrition bars.

The report defines the market for sports drinks and nutrition bars on the basis of product segments provided by IRI InfoScan Reviews, which tracks sales through U.S. supermarkets and grocery stores, drugstores, and mass merchandisers (including Target and Kmart but excluding Wal-Mart) with annual sales of $2 million or more.

The nutrition bar category includes bars that may also be referred to as energy bars, diet bars and sports bars.  SymphonyIRI tracks nutrition bars in the category called “nutritional/intrinsic health value” bars.

Methodology

The first source of primary data used in this report is IRI InfoScan Reviews as described above.  The second is the Fall 2012 Simmons National Consumer Study (NCS), which was fielded between October 2011 and November 2012.  Simmons National Consumer Survey (NCS) covers nutrition bars in the category called “energy/diet snacks/bars.” For the sake of clarity and consistency, the tables in this report using Simmons NCS data refer to “nutrition bars”.

The report is also based upon data collected from a wide range of industry sources, including company websites, trade publications, business newspapers, magazines, consumer blogs, annual reports, 10Ks, and other releases from public companies.