Health & Wellness Industry Report 2019

Have you ever been Plogging? How about eating Keto? No? Well maybe 2019 is the year to start…

The global Health & Wellness market is worth over £500bn, and the UK market takes a considerable £23bn slice of this metaphorical pie (which would be increasingly vegan and gluten-free, if it were real).

The growing domain of the wellbeing market, with consumers inviting wellness into expanding areas of their lives, helps contribute to this market size. Consumer understanding of the importance of wellbeing, including self-care which now has a European market value of almost €150bn, is just one slice of the market that’s growing exponentially.

For centuries, people considered their wellbeing to consist of little more than exercising regularly and eating vegetables once in a while, but it’s now a worldwide phenomenon that means actively and conscientiously investing time and effort into one’s own mental and physical health. And while this upwards trend isn’t new, it also isn’t slowing. The Global Wellness Institute reported that, on a worldwide scale, the industry grew by 12.8% between 2015 and 2018, nearly twice as quickly as the global economy.

While consumers tend to keep an eye on their wellbeing throughout the year, Q1 is a particularly pertinent time for the fitness and healthy eating industries, in the regretful wake of Christmas feasting and celebrations.

You only need to look to the lengths consumers are willing to go to to ensure a healthy start to the year for confirmation. Veganuary 2018 broke all previous records, growing in popularity by 183% from the previous year, and while 2019 stats aren’t yet available, we don’t expect the trend to dip. In the very same month, over 4 million Brits have pledged to go alcohol-free.

Consumers clearly have their own health and wellbeing front of mind in the first months of the year. But which brands do they turn to for help navigating their meat- or alcohol-free, gym-based resolutions? In such a quickly expanding market, are challenger and young brands securing interest from consumers, or are the bigger brands still dominating the market? Read on to find out.

A quick note on methodology

The data for this report was gathered from 1,000 Nationally Representative UK consumers aged 18-65, surveyed in January 2019.

We asked respondents to consider the Health and Wellness industry, and proceeded with questions on three key metrics:

1. Unprompted Brand Recall – the first brand which comes to mind within the named industry.
2. Purchase Intent – the percentage of respondents who are ‘Very likely’ to shop with the brand they previously named, based on their response to a single choice scale from ‘Very likely’ to ‘Very unlikely’.  
3. Net Promoter Score (NPS) – how likely respondents are to recommend the brand they named to a friend or colleague, based on their response to a single choice scale from 0 to 10. NPS is calculated as the number of promoters (those who voted 9 or 10) minus the number of detractors (those who voted 6 or less), while passive respondents (who voted 7 or 8) are removed from the calculation. If 100% of respondents were brand promoters the brand would score an NPS of 100, and if 100% of respondents were brand detractors the brand would score an NPS of -100.

These three metrics are combined to give two further overall scores for each brand named in the report:

1. Brand Strength – irrespective of how highly recalled the brand is, how well the brand is thought of within the market. This is the sum of the brand’s Purchase Intent and Net Promoter scores.
2. Total Brand Equity – how well thought of each brand is in relation to how well recalled it is. This is calculated, using all preceding metrics, as Brand Strength multiplied by Unprompted Brand Recall.

Click here for more information on the metrics we use to establish the health of a brand.

Growing single brand dominance in recall

Emphasising the consumer-led Q1 focus on kick-starting year-long healthy habits, a gym brand (Pure Gym) and a diet support group (Slimming World), both received a high enough Unprompted Brand Recall score to make the top 10 Health and Wellness brands this quarter.  

These incoming brands pushed Fitness First and Nuffield Health out of the top 10. This isn’t any great surprise, though, as the outgoing brands only scored 20 and 10 for Total Brand Equity respectively in Q4.

The leading brand for recall, Boots, managed to grow their share-of-mind from 12.6% in Q4 2018 to 16.8% in Q1 2019, taking a considerable lead over the rest of the leaderboard (the next most recalled brand, Holland & Barrett, received a considerably lower 12.7% of recall). Boots’ focus on thoughtful gifting, which set their Christmas 2018 advert apart from other festive campaigns, might be responsible for their increased capture of the nation’s attention and imagination. Brandwatch ranked the health brand’s Christmas advert joint 8th of 15, noting it received the 8th most social shares, the 7th most mentions online and 70% felt positively toward the campaign.

All other brands who have remained within the top 10 from one quarter to the next experienced shifts in Unprompted Brand Recall of +/-0.4% or less.

This is reflected in the consistent placement of the top five brands ranked by Total Brand Equity, where no changes occured between Q4 ‘18 and Q1 ‘19. The second half of the leaderboard is more susceptible to change, though, where brands with Total Brand Equity in double figures are at risk of being replaced. And while unprompted brand recall is an important metric for making into the Top 10, it’s not the only one. . Once a brand has share-of-mind, they also need to ensure it’s for the right reasons, building positive purchase intent and NPS.

Industry-wide drop in NPS

Quite simply, not all brands are remembered for the right reasons. While Nuffield Health scored negatively for NPS last quarter and subsequently dropped from the leaderboard, Bupa continues into a second quarter with a negative NPS (dropping further from -13.5 to -15.4) and takes Nuffield’s place as the 10th brand for this metric.

Other brands that find themselves losing favour, despite being widely recalled, are Weight Watchers whose NPS dropped from 25 to just 6.3, Fitbit down from 52.2 to 16 and Nike who received 41.4 in Q4 and now have an NPS of just 20. In fact, every brand other than Vitabiotics (whose NPS grew from 6.7 to 42.9) experienced a drop. It seems that the increased attention on the health and wellness industry in the first quarter of the year is accompanied by increased scrutiny and higher expectations for brands predicted to assist with healthy resolutions.

In that vein, the industry-wide NPS dropped between Q4 and Q1 from 27.2 to 19.5.

The NHS continues to receive the highest NPS amongst the top 10 brands, although their likeability dropped from 64.2 to 60.9 in line with the industry-wide drop.

The newcomers to the table both scored well, indicating that their likeability assists with their memorability, securing them 6th and 8th spot, for this quarter at least. PureGym received a middling NPS of 21.4, but Slimming World entered the leaderboard with a second place NPS of 57.1.

There is, then, cause for Health and Wellness brands to up their likeability. It seems that while consumers might be happy with these brands’ offerings at other times of the year, when their focus is more acutely attuned to health and wellbeing at the start of the year, consumers demand more from the brands that are leading the way. It also leaves room for more newcomers to enter the leaderboard next quarter, if they’re able to make a good impression with consumers and be remembered.

Steadier levels of Purchase Intent

The most recalled brand, Boots, secured the highest Purchase Intent too. They experienced a marginal rise in Purchase Intent from 59.5% to 60.7%, likely tempered by their dip in NPS.

Holland & Barrett and the NHS, who table 2nd and 3rd overall, both experienced dips in Purchase Intent. Holland & Barrett had an 11% dip, and the NHS saw an 11.2% decline in those people who were ‘Very Likely’ to buy from the brands.

Fitness First, who have now dropped from the leaderboard, were last quarter’s Purchase Intent loser. This time around, it is Weight Watchers who bottom out with the lowest Purchase Intent in the table, just 18.8%. They will need to work hard to avoid falling out of  the leaderboard in Q2.

Meanwhile, Weight Watchers’ closest competitor, Slimming World, joined the table with a score of 42.9%. The other Q1 newcomer, PureGym, matched this respectable score.

While consumers might be less impressed with Health & Wellness brands this quarter (evidenced by the dip in average NPS), they’re not deterred from using the brands to reach their new year goals; average Purchase Intent over the same period has risen from 40.4% to 42.9%.

Key Attributes

New for 2019, we asked respondents to rank their named brand for a variety of qualities, to establish which brands are best known for their service, reliability, and price, as well as five other industry-specific factors.

1. Reliability

Within an industry that requires considerable effort from the consumer – regular exercise, healthy eating choices, weight loss, and so on – it’s understandable that consumers will want to use a brand that supports them in their personal efforts, challenging them without undermining their hard work. As such, reliability, and the safe knowledge that a brand won’t let you down, is an important factor determining consumers’ likelihood to use that brand.

Leaderboard newcomer, Slimming World, was voted the most reliable brand out of the top 10, with the highest weighted ranking for reliability (92.3%).

On the other hand, Weight Watchers – who provide a highly comparable service to that of Slimming World, received the lowest weighted ranking amongst the top 10 brands (84.4%), mirroring their bottom-of-the-leaderboard Purchase Intent score.

2. Price

Once again, Weight Watchers lags behind with a weighted ranking of just 68.8%, compared to Slimming World’s score of 90.4%.

Six of the top ten brands sit under 80%, and five of these six brands are within the top six brands in the leaderboard as ranked by Total Brand Equity. This indicates that, although consumers are willing to purchase from and recommend the most recalled brands, they would perhaps rather do so at a lower price.

It seems that you can indeed put a price on health, and that that price might currently be a little too high.

3. Quality of service

Vitabiotics, the leader in this category is not a brand you’d typically associate with in-store customer service. While bricks-and-mortar shops including Boots and Holland & Barrett did well, receiving a weighted ranking of 90.1% and 88.5% respectively, Vitabiotics just pipped them to the post with 93.6%.

4. Speed of service

To match their high quality service, Vitabiotics also take the crown for their speed of service (with 95.5%). It seems, then, that amongst those who recalled Vitabiotics as the first Health and Wellness brand that comes to mind, they’re particularly memorable for their service.

Despite sitting in the middle of the table for quality of service (89.9%), the NHS bottoms out with the lowest score of the top 10 for speed of service (74.2%).

5. Convenience

With 230 gyms nationwide, PureGym were voted by consumers as the most convenient brand out of the top 10, with a weighted ranking of 94.6%. Boots, Vitabiotics and Slimming World also scored highly in this category, each receiving over 90%.

6. Technology

Unsurprisingly, the only exclusively tech brand within the top 10, Fitbit, received the highest vote for their use of technology, with a weighted ranking of 91.7%.

The brands that consumers deemed least technologically advanced are Holland & Barrett (69.1%), Weight Watchers (77.1%) and even Boots (76.6%), who are making a conscientious effort to appeal more to a technologically focussed market.

Nike, who pride themselves on their market-leading approach to innovation and technology, came in 3rd place behind Bupa.

7. Trust

Gathering their third crown from the eight qualities included in our survey, Slimming World take first place as the most trusted brand with a score of 94.2%. Their direct competitor, Weight Watchers, was ranked as the least trustworthy brand of the top 10, with 78.1%. This is evidence that being one of the oldest brands on the board doesn’t automatically ensure you’ll be well trusted.

8. Branding

Vitabiotics is crowned as the brand with the most memorable branding out of the top Health & Wellness brands. This is despite having a relatively small 40 years of history behind them, compared to the 100+ years of history behind some other brands in the table.

However, the most modern brand in the table, PureGym, received the lowest vote (71.2%), indicating that it does indeed take some time to achieve a memorable brand based on logo, design, tone and other stylistic features. However, it also shows that a brand’s memorability isn’t an exponentially rising metric plotted against time.

The results go to show that some of the smaller, newer brands are recalled for all the right reasons. Slimming World and PureGym have clearly made waves in the last quarter to be thought of so highly as they proceed into a promising year ahead.

PureGym (founded in 2009), Fitbit (founded in 2007), Slimming World (founded in 1969) and Vitabiotics (founded in 1971) all received top votes for at least some of the qualities, meanwhile Boots (founded in 1849) and Holland & Barrett (founded in 1870) might be memorable, but in this first quarter of the year, they’re not quite hitting the top scores in any of the eight categories.

Health & Wellness Brand Index Leaders

The overall leaders of the 2019 Q1 Health & Wellness Brand Index were as follows:

You can see how this looks plotted as both Total Brand Equity (TBE) and against the matrix of ‘well known and well liked’.

Key Takeaways

It’s been a particularly impressive quarter for Boots. Their Unprompted Brand Recall and Purchase Intent scores are both up, despite a disappointing dip in NPS, meaning that their brand is succeeding in bringing in new customers, even though this isn’t translating to stronger customer satisfaction for them (yet).

The top five brands remain steady from one year into the next, but the second half of the leaderboard is quite prone to change. Two new brands entered with very respectable scores, PureGym and Slimming World, reflecting the Q1 consumer focus on achieving weight loss and fitness-based New Year resolutions.

Average Purchase Intent amongst the top 10 brands grew this quarter, with consumers still happy to purchase from the top brands, even though they’d be less likely than last quarter to recommend those brands to their friends.

While the stalwarts of the Health & Beauty industry held on to share-of-mind, the newcomers to the leaderboard (who also happen to be among the younger brands) like Fitbit and PureGym appeal more for positive factors above and beyond just being memorable. None of the top five brands for recall received the top score for any of the eight key features, not even for traditional metrics that you might expect the most well-established brands to own, such as ‘Trust’ and ‘Reliability’.

It also appears that Weight Watchers’ Q4 2018 rebrand hasn’t (yet) captured the attention of the wellness market that it was intended to. Each of their key metrics has dropped over the preceding three months since re-launching as WW. While there are always bound to be fluctuations in consumer opinion during a time of significant change, they will need to work hard to stay within the top 10 brands in Q2, and grow their Total Brand Equity score from 40 as it currently stands.

Conclusion

The Health & Wellness industry is a story of two halves. While well-established, traditional brands have a hold on the memories and attention of consumers, bolstered by big-budget advertising campaigns, there’s also room for smaller brands and ones focussing on quarter-by-quarter trends, such as gym membership in January.

Despite the top five brands remaining steady, there were many fluctuations across Purchase Intent, NPS & Recall, showing that a lot can change from quarter to quarter. And with the seemingly endless growth of the Health & Wellness market, it’s more important than ever to be aware of the brands operating in this space, the key trends and seasonal shifts it undergoes.

Understanding both the key revenue-focussed metrics – Unprompted Brand Recall, Purchase Intent and NPS – and keeping an eye on the words and qualities consumers associate with your brand can be crucial to marketing your brand successfully, and maintaining positive consumer sentiment that will result in loyalty and revenue in the long run.

Whether or not your brand featured in the 2019 Q1 Health and Wellness Brand Index, Attest can help you better understand your consumers, your market and your competitors. As you gear up for a busy year ahead, arm yourself with the data you need to succeed in 2019.

Get in touch with us to find out more.