How can stores alleviate Millennials’ healthy choice dilemma?

Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of an article from WayfinD, a quarterly e-magazine filled with insights, trends and predictions from the retail and foodservice experts at WD Partners.

Despite their tenuous financial state, with some often forgoing doctor visits to save money, young people are more passionate and committed to making significant healthy changes than Boomer or Gen-X consumers. They are also not averse to spending more to do so.

That’s the conclusion of our latest consumer research study about choosing healthy products.

The in-depth study, which not only included qualitative focus groups, but a quantitative consumer panel of 1,066 shoppers, isolated respondents to those with the proverbial "one foot in the door" of healthy living and eating. We defined this group as "healthy aspirationals" or consumers hemming and hawing their way on the road to healthy. Some days they want to get there, other days they want to indulge, but in the aggregate, they aspire to do better.

Overall, Millennials were found to already purchase healthier more often than older generations and, despite earning less than their parents, are willing to pay slightly more for healthy products.

Millennials

Photo: RetailWire

The implications for retailers are twofold: One is psychological. Despite the hubris of invincibility, the data indicates a massive shift to more healthy attitudes compared to previous generations. Young people want to take on more personal responsibility for staying healthy. This energy and motivation, along with somewhat limited resources, is now being rationally directed toward prevention. That’s the sweet spot where stores must position themselves — the one area where the Millennial cohort can exert some practical control.

The second implication is for store strategy. It’s time to simplify the buying experience for consumers eager to embrace healthy, instead of exacerbating the anxiety many young people face at the store shelf. In his groundbreaking book, "The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less," psychologist Barry Schwartz argued that fewer choices equate to less anxiety for shoppers, and that more choices lead to buyer paralysis. When developing ways to empower consumers to embrace healthy eating, healthy living and wellness, his theory seems more relevant than ever.

One area of immediate tactical change would be package design. Millennials ranked brand and packaging as the biggest drivers of healthy purchases, more so than Boomers. Out-of-store media — such as digital coupons, online reviews, mobile apps and social media — also ranked higher in influence for healthy purchase behaviors among Millennials than Boomers.

Retailers can’t ignore or make light of these very real and frustrating quandaries young people face. The moment has come for stores to empathize with young people and empower them to navigate to a healthier lifestyle. Stores should be the one place where Millennials can find honest and clear answers about what is and isn’t healthy.

BrainTrust

"Millennials will soon fade from the "must be healthy" agenda. They are starting to show signs of this with the amount of alcohol that they consume."

Tom Redd

Global Vice President, Strategic Communications, SAP Global Retail Business Unit


"Interesting question. I know of several anecdotal examples of this age group taking charge of their health. However, I also know of just as many who are not at all concerned about it."

Ralph Jacobson

Global Retail & CPG Sales Strategist, IBM


Discussion Questions

How should stores change their “better-for-you” messaging and merchandising in order to capture the limited-funds of the Millennial generation? Do you expect Millennials will remain more dedicated to healthy eating than older generations throughout their lives?

Poll

6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Tom Redd
Tom Redd
8 years ago

Millennials will soon fade from the “must be healthy” agenda. They are starting to show signs of this with the amount of alcohol that they consume. First, one out of every three Millennials prefers vodka to other liquors. They are into micro-brews and spend a good chunk of their budgets on wine and micro-brews. Smarter ones looking for a buzz go for PBR. This whole healthy food craze will become past news as food retailers offer normal food as more healthy, but it is up to the individual to consider the amount that they eat vs. the exact contents of what they eat. Same with drinking. Drinking will kill you faster than food.

Jen Johnston
Jen Johnston
8 years ago

Yes, I personally expect Millennials to remain more dedicated to healthy living than older generations, but their definitions of healthy will continue to change. Even now they don’t simply have one definition.

The article above states, “Stores should be the one place where Millennials can find honest and clear answers about what is and isn’t healthy.” Well, who gets to define “healthy?” Is the U.S.D.A. the one who gets to define it? Do the trends define it? Is low-fat “healthy?” Is Paleo “healthy?” Is low-calorie “healthy?” What’s unhealthier, vegetable oil or coconut oil? Are saturated fats healthy or unhealthy?

The truth is, there is no one definition of healthy food because the optimal way of eating is individual to the person. Example, apples are “healthy” but not to someone with fructose malabsorption. I truly believe science will support this concept of bio-individuality in the coming years. A one-size-fits-all approach to healthy eating will no longer be valid.

So where the stores will really be able to provide value is to employ health coaches that help shoppers create a tailored plan for an individual or their family based on their genetic make up, blood type, gut microbiota, health conditions and any other number of things that makes a person’s or family’s food needs unique. Great steps have been made by stores employing retail dietitians, but many of them still use a one-size-fits-all approach. What I am describing takes the retail dietitian concept to the next level.

*The above is my personal opinion and not necessarily that of my employer.*

Ralph Jacobson
Ralph Jacobson
8 years ago

Interesting question. I know of several anecdotal examples of this age group taking charge of their health. However, I also know of just as many who are not at all concerned about it. This is just one more reason why marketers should not consider all Millennials to be alike. They are not!

Marketers need to make compelling messaging that caters to the “foodie” in all of us (while keeping it healthy), along with highlighting the value and convenience. Keep it that simple, and you might be surprised on the uptake from all generations.

Vahe Katros
Vahe Katros
8 years ago

I think stores should recruit health conscious/healthy lifestyle expert Millennials in a few markets say city and suburban, or perhaps high tech and near a college, (throw in some young moms and other audiences) and propose the following:

  • we (the store chain) recognize that you know more than we do (as a group)
  • you care about prevention, food that supports exercise, brain health, and so on.
  • we (the store) have a powerful logistics and buying network – we can get what you want at a lower price.
  • we want you to be our buyers in this store-within-a-store and we will teach you some basics about store management.

They will develop the signage and so on, and they will make mistakes (like you do) but they will also do things that are authentic and others will believe. If you can help lower prices and work with brands to develop products than it will be a win-win. If you record the process and have educational video’s, you may be able to spread the know-how to other locations.

Living here in northern California, I have the benefit of seeing many people who adopted healthy lifestyles and stuck with them since the ’60s and it does take work, but the outcome is amazing. If you can take the work out of healthy lifestyles and help folks stay on the wagon, it will be consistent with where society and the world may be going. Yes, young people fall off the wagon, but it’s not cool to live unconsciously.

Older people who’ve had serious chronic problems and are resolving them through healthy choices also have know-how that exceeds grocers — you could have them do the merchandising as well.

PS: the millennials that I know that are into healthy living, just to be sure, are not into crystals, they read the latest from the NIH, the New England Journal of Medicine.

Matt Schmitt
Matt Schmitt
8 years ago

Retailers need to help customers cut through the noise. This means holding brands to a standard when they present products as health-smart (e.g. what does “natural” mean?)

Give customers a filter (labels, certifications, tools) to quickly cut through the clutter.

Alan Cooper
Alan Cooper
8 years ago

The dilemma with the statement “brand and packaging are drivers of healthy purchases” is that the healthiest products are usually the ones not advertised. Just one walk down the vegetarian aisle or the higher quality snack aisle in a supermarket will immediately confirm the inverse relationship between brand and “healthy” quality.

It takes a while for healthy foods to be mainstream — as soy and almond milk are now. The more educated the populace becomes, the better for the healthier choices. Unfortunately this requires a lot of marketing expense.

Find the sources where millenials get their “trusted” information (Men’s Health, Maxim in the print world for men?) and concentrate efforts there.

Getting a social media buzz and having a log-term strategy here is critical.

For Millennials, even more critical is not to deceive them. This can kill your product or get the class action group energized. There are many current cases of “healthy deception.”