Founder and CEO Melissa Snover says the company’s success not only demonstrates a strong consumer demand for personalized supplement solutions, but also what can happen when supplement brands deliver products that are strongly desired by the general public.
“What we’re finding is the consumer wants personalization very much,” she said. “They want to have a curated recommendation and an explanation as to why this product is right for them and why these ingredients are well-suited to their needs.”
Catering to consumer need states
Nourished’s gummies come in two forms: ready-made Tailored Stacks designed for needs like immunity, energy and sleep, and Personalized Stacks, which are custom 3D-printed using information gathered through a two-minute online consultation on consumers’ health goals, diet and lifestyle.
The company’s online questionnaire is answered by millions of people around the world on an annual basis, giving the company access to a huge amount of consumer data across a wide variety of markets.
Over the last 18 months, Snover says cognitive function and neuroprotection have emerged as top consumer health concerns.
“Cognitive function was almost non-existent three years ago, especially in the UK,” she said. “We give people a chance at the end to say, ‘What are your top goals?’ And it never came in the top five ever, and now it is consistently in the top three.”
Sleep and anxiety are also big hitters, she said, likely due the amount of time the general public are now spending on screens, with average global screentime sitting at roughly 6.5 hours per day, according to a report by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).
Snover describes sleep as one of the single biggest needle movers that can be improved to help people feel better across the holistic health spectrum, and yet there is still a lack of sleep solutions on the market.
“In the long run, the impact of not sleeping well has pretty horrific impacts on long-term longevity, so I think sleep is a really big topic,” she said. “In countries where melatonin is now allowed over the counter, such as the UK, there is a humongous gap in the market.”
These consumer insights help shape the pre-made, Tailored Stacks launched at retail, alongside retail considerations that help the company create products suited to particular retail channels and settings.
For example, Nourished recently partnered with Boots to launch its Formulaic range. By utilizing both Boots’ and its own existing data, Nourished is able to serve around 90% of Boots shoppers with 26 individual SKUs. Consumers are able to complete a questionnaire in store and receive personalized recommendations aligned with their individual health goals.
“This really bridges the gap between what we do online with this uber personalization and what can be still very effective personalization with recommendations happening in store in a retail location,” Snover said.
The road to Nourished
Snover started working in FMCG business 15 years ago, first creating a brand of gelatin-free candy: Goody Good Stuff.
Feeling unsatisfied with the capabilities of mainstream manufacturing, she sold the brand to Swedish confectionery group Cloetta in 2013.
“There are so many limitations,” she said. “You have huge lead times for new product development, usually two or three years, and massive minimum order quantities, which make innovation very risky and cost prohibitive.”
These frustrations pushed Snover into the world of 3D printing. Within six months, she had designed and developed the first FDA and FSA compliant 3D food printer, which was launched around the world for confectionery.
“While that was rolling out, I realized that the technology itself was far more powerful than the area we pointed at,” she said. “Confectionery is delightful, but it is not something that is really going to move the needle in people’s daily lives from a value-add standpoint.”
Dietary supplements, she decided, could have a tangible impact, and Nourished was born.
The rise of the gummy
Nourished’s focus on gummies may also have contributed to its success, with the company’s own consumer research indicating that adherence rates are 2.5 times higher for gummies than for traditional pills.
“This is something that not a lot of people talk about in supplementation,” Snover said. “But if you can’t get people to take the product every day, it doesn’t matter how great the quality is.”
Gummies are indeed becoming a popular format worldwide, with data from Informa suggesting that gummies now account for approximately 25% of the supplement market, holding the largest share compared to other non-pill formats. This is followed by powders (18%), soft gels (13%) and liquids (12%).
However, Snover describes Europe’s gummy market as “seriously underdeveloped”, highlighting an opportunity for brands that can deliver gummies which are both effective and enjoyable.
“This is something that the gummy delivers on, and I think that that’s why it will continue to grow,” she said.
