What We Already Knew. Detailed information is widely available regarding the vitamin category. Vestcom s Proprietary Research Findings

Transcription

1 November 2012 A Vestcom Quarterly With the majority of retailers addressing shoppers requests of food nutrition knowledge in-store, the question remaining is how do we link food to the pharmacy? Based on the growth of the Vitamin category, we believe vitamins and mineral supplements to be the first step in connecting food nutrition to emerging science, for a well-rounded health and wellness approach in retail stores. Vestcom s Proprietary Research Findings By Patty Packard, RD Vestcom Director of Nutrition & Regulatory Affairs While information is widely available on Vitamin category growth and drivers, little information is available in terms of the shopping behavior and decision-making process of vitamin shoppers. As such, Vestcom conducted third-party research to explore and understand: Behaviors of vitamin consumers Underlying motivators toward shopping at certain types of outlets Types of information the shopper is seeking while making a purchase Research was conducted during July of this year. We completed 454 online interviews with adults who have purchased vitamin or mineral supplements in the past six months and whose primary outlet for purchases was grocery, drug, health food and vitamin stores, or online. The research confirmed some things we expected; for example, that shoppers wanted more information at the point of purchase. It also revealed some noteworthy unknowns to us, such as grocery and drug store vitamin shoppers being decidedly loyal to those channels for vitamin purchases. The most important finding is the unique opportunity for brick and mortar retailers both food and drug to enhance their in-store communications programs and engage an already interested shopper to create loyalty and drive incremental sales. A synopsis of our proprietary research findings may be found on page 3. Vestcom s solution: vitaaisles With our findings as a base, Vestcom is building a vitamin shopper education program, which leverages the shelf edge to engage the Vitamin category shopper. Similar to healthyaisles, the program, which we call vitaaisles, is a white label program you can brand with your own look and feel. vitaaisles will enhance and align with your nutrition program to provide total store shelf-edge messaging. vitaaisles offers a suite of attributes utilizing FDA-defined claims and evidencebased science from reputable sources in accordance with the FDA s policy, Substantiation for Dietary Supplement Claims Made Under Section 403(r)(6) of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Furthermore, the program is validated by our regulatory and legal counsel with expertise in compliance, regulations and guidance documents of the FDA. (Continued) What We Already Knew Detailed information is widely available regarding the vitamin category Currently, it s a $11.5 billion industry Industry expected +6% compounded annual growth Consumers migrate purchasing toward traditional channels Largest health & beauty care category for supermarkets But that s not all. Take a look inside.

2 What We Already Knew $14.98 average spent on vitamins purchase per trip Vitamin purchasers are valuable to retailers In , the vitamin category experienced growth in drug store, supermarket and other channels 9.3% 10.3% 4.8% 79% drug store growth vs super market vs other growth household penetration in vitamin category Reasons for growth in vitamin category 81% are repeat vitamin buyers Aging U.S. population growth in senior-aged bracket Rising cost of health care What We Already Knew Detailed information is widely available regarding vitamin category size and growth, and the story is compelling. The vitamin category is currently valued at $11.5 billion in the U.S. and is expected to grow steadily at an annual rate of over six percent (6%). 1 Growth is especially strong for drug and grocery, as consumers migrate purchasing toward traditional channels. The vitamin category experienced 9.3 percent growth at drug stores during and 10.3 percent growth during the same time period for supermarkets, vs. 4.8 percent in other channels. 2 Further, vitamins are the largest health and beauty care category in dollar sales for U.S. supermarkets. 3 Vitamin shoppers are highly valuable to retailers with 79 percent household penetration, repeat purchase rate of 81 percent and an average of $14.98 spent on the vitamin category during each vitamin purchasing trip. 4 The category gains are primarily driven by population trends and the cost of healthcare: (1) U.S. population growth in adults age 65 and older and adult women, and (2) rising cost of healthcare. 1 Package Facts, September Mintel; SymphonyIRI Group InfoScan Reviews 3 SymphonyIRI Group InfoScan Reviews, Data for 52 Weeks Ending 6/10/12 4 Nielsen Company, 2009; Pharmavite, Data for 52 Weeks Ending 6/25/11

3 What We Found The majority of respondents have been to a grocery or drug store to buy vitamins. Eighty percent (80%) indicate shopping in grocery or drug for vitamins at least once in the last two years. Grocery and drug channel shoppers are highly loyal to the channel. Two-thirds of shoppers (67%) who primarily buy vitamins from grocery or drug always purchase vitamins in those channels. An opportunity exists to educate shoppers and increase basket size. Specialty (vitamin and health food) and online shoppers are not as loyal to their primary channel. For shoppers whose primary channel is specialty or online retailers, loyalty to their primary channel is significantly lower less than 30%. The majority of specialty store and online shoppers also shop drug and grocery stores for vitamins. This presents an opportunity to further engage these shoppers through enhanced shelf-edge communication and drive incremental sales in this profitable category as well as throughout the store. Just about everyone is looking for more information on vitamins. Seventy-four percent (74%) indicate they would like to have detailed information at the store shelf. Proprietary research in the vitamin category revealed More consumers buy vitamins at grocery and drugstores vs. other channels Grocery and drug store vitamin shoppers are loyal to their channel Online and specialty purchasers show lower loyalty to their channel 30% Detailed signage will aid drug and grocery shoppers where experts may not be readily accessible, which will help increase purchases from specialty and online shoppers. Seventy-one percent (71%) of grocery and drug shoppers are unable to find relevant information at the store shelf while making a purchase. Specialty store shoppers are especially likely (76%) to say there is not enough info and I feel the need to talk to someone. 80% buy vitamins at grocery and drug stores 67% grocery and drug store shoppers are loyal Shoppers want information regarding product benefits for specific health conditions. Shoppers are particularly interested in relevant supplements to heart health, bone health and joint health. Providing this information at the shelf edge will enhance the shopping experience and drive additional sales. To get more information about our proprietary study or hear about our new vitaaisles program, please contact Anissa Buckley at (585) or abuckley@vestcom.com. 74% of consumers want more information specific to vitamins at the shelf-edge Detailed signage will aid vitamin shoppers and increase purchases Shoppers want info specific to their condition

4 New Attribute Addressing Carbohydrate Management: Carb Aware The incidence of diabetes globally has been at epidemic levels for several years, and the problem continues to grow. The American Diabetes Association reports that 8.3 percent of the U.S. population presently has diabetes, with another 2.2 percent undiagnosed and a staggering 25 percent of the population considered pre-diabetic. Type II diabetes is by far the faster growing of the two types of the disease. Most important, Type II is 90 percent controllable through diet and lifestyle. These facts put food at the center of the issue specifically what kind and how much. Current and relevant information around food choices is often lacking altogether, or isn t available at the most beneficial places such as near the point of food selection. The overwhelming opportunity is for grocery and drug retailers to come to the aid of shoppers seeking useful knowledge in-store. Currently, retailers have the option of including pertinent information at the point of sale to aid in healthful choices for the shopper through Vestcom s healthyaisles program. To assist in healthful purchase decisions that might impact the growth of diabetes, Vestcom is launching a new attribute to its healthyaisles program: Carb Aware. Carb Aware is based on the American Diabetes Association s dietary guidance for one carbohydrate exchange/choice. The program aids shoppers in navigating categories with carbohydrates, such as cereals, crackers and canned fruits where carbohydrates are typically a higher percentage of food composition, and also identifies items that are sugarfree such as gelatins, puddings and artificial sweeteners. Retailers will now have a solution to assist dietitians, pharmacists and store personnel to market and merchandise food items along with complementary non-foods to help shoppers make better, more informed purchase decisions at the shelf. The new attribute will be available beginning December 2012 with Vestcom s monthly seed file release. For more information or to add Carb Aware to your in-store program, please contact Anissa Buckley, Vice President, Health and Wellness at (585) , or abuckley@vestcom.com.

5 Improving Communications: Monthly Seed Files and Image Specifications Are you receiving a monthly program update? Maintaining the most current and relevant data is critical to your store s nutrition program success. This gives you access to the most current nutritional tag adds, drops and changes for your program. Here are benefits from receiving a seed file: Simplifies the process to maintain up-to-date nutritional tags in your stores Vestcom does the work of discovering your new tag needs Automated reports delivered to you on the first Tuesday of each month to identify which tags need to be ordered, including: Adds: New nutritional tags to your stores Drops: UPCs that are no longer receiving a tag this month Changes: UPCs containing altered nutritional tag information Summary and Detail: Summary of all monthly tag changes Let us help you maintain your nutrition program! If you don t already receive a monthly seed file of updated UPC tag information from Vestcom, contact Stephanie Scott at sscott@vestcom.com about signing up. Want to add a new product to the healthyaisles database? We manage thousands of product images for over 180,000 UPCs in our database. There are certain image specifications that work best for our database to score an item for attributes. As a reminder, here are the details of what data we capture from usable product images to add a new product to the healthyaisles database: Brand Name Common Product Name Product Net Weight UPC Nutrition Facts Panel Data Ingredients Health Claims Allergen Warnings Ingredient Warnings Lifestyle Claims Meat still front and center Meat products are still the center of the plate for most shoppers, with 70 percent reporting that it s the first choice they make when planning a meal. With healthyaisles Fresh Perimeter in your meat department, you can assign nutrition attributes. Click on the image below to read our white paper, Driving Demand at the Meat Case: How to Motivate Buying Behavior with Nutrition Education. For additional information regarding image specifications and formatting preferences, please contact Stephanie Scott at (501) ext or sscott@vestcom.com. Vestcom International, Inc healthyaisles quarterly is a Vestcom publication Brought to you by Patty Packard, RD Questions/Comments may be sent to Vestcom International, Inc. All rights reserved.