Health care products that were once dubbed the “IQ Tax” are now occupying young people’s shopping carts.
Different from traditional health products such as oral liquids and tablets, most popular health products among young people now appear in the form of customized vitamins, sleep gums, thermal control tablets, and enzyme jellies, which tend to be snacks.
”I used to eat vitamin tablets when I wanted to supplement vitamins. Now I might choose to eat some multivitamin gums, which are delicious and nutritious.” Chen Mengmiao is a member of the post-zero health regimen. She likes to take a few sour tablets every day. Sweet and sour vitamin sugar, as a daily nutrient supplement.
At present, the health products that are packaged into candies and drinks on the market are not strictly health products. Most of them do not have the “blue hat” logo. They are more inclined to the category of “functional food”, but most young people People are accustomed to collectively referred to as health products.
Data show that in 2020, the output value of my country’s functional food consumer market will exceed 270 billion yuan. Under the labels of “whitening”, “health care”, and “anti-aging”, functional foods have captured the “health care anxiety” of young people, and have frequently emerged on social media and e-commerce platforms, becoming the “new favorites” of the post-95s and 00s “.
With the support of concepts such as health and health preservation, capital is also optimistic about this track. Since the beginning of this year, functional food brands NELO, minayo and other brands have successively announced financing information.
The concept of “every consumer category deserves to be reworked” has aroused countless concurrences. Whether functional foods dressed in health care products are a good medicine to alleviate the health needs of young people, or are they aimed at young people’s health anxiety and become a popular Another sickle to capital and consumers?
Health care products have become a new “net celebrity”
meal. Come to a thermal control tablet to block carbon water to keep you in shape; stay up late with your dark eyes, and then drink a cup of “stay-up water” with ginseng, red dates, royal jelly and other raw materials as a remedy … Contemporary young people practice punk health by themselves, “while they die, they save themselves”.
At the same time as the workers carried the banner of health preservation, it also promoted the renewed popularity of the health care product market.
Li Xixi has been drinking the collagen drink for more than a month. As an overtime worker and staying up party, she feels that health care products are the life of the staying up party. “I heard that drinking this health care product for a long time can supplement the skin’s nutrients and prevent sagging face. I don’t think it will have any obvious effect, but it’s always okay. Drinking collagen is better than drinking.”
On an e-commerce platform, the collagen drink mentioned by Li Xixi is priced at about 200 yuan per box. There are 10 bottles in a box, and the price is within her acceptance range. “You only need to drink one bottle a day for the money of a cup of milk tea, and this health product advertises zero fat, zero sugar, low calories, and it’s not a burden to drink.”
When staying up late and losing hair become the new social currency for young people, Health care anxiety has gradually spread among the post-90s and 00s, and the status of health care products is “not what it used to be”; in addition, with the product’s “reborn” in taste, marketing, positioning and other aspects, the term health care products will no longer be used. Young people will not be “shunned”.
In terms of efficacy, under the labels of “health preservation”, “beauty” and “anti-aging”, health care products have precisely captured the pain points of the new generation of consumers. They are advertised as dietary supplements that can regulate body functions and relieve youth. People’s health anxiety.
At the marketing level, health care products adopt the popular marketing model of new consumer products, enter social media such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu, or enter short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou for marketing bombing. Open the Xiaohongshu and search for “health products”, and there are as many as 240,000 notes related to it.
In addition, based on the consumption preferences of young people, the current product packaging design of health care products is more in line with the aesthetics of the new generation of consumers. High-value designs such as punk style and national tide style have certain social attributes and can be more mobile. Young people’s desire to buy and share.
”Multi-vitamin gummies are good-looking and delicious, and they can also supplement trace elements.” Chen Mengmiao, who is still a junior, is a member of the post-zero post-zero health regimen. Under the “planting grass” of a friend, he will eat it every day during this time. A few vitamin sugars, “Sweet and sour tastes like QQ sugar, I will continue to repurchase in the future.” The
brand leader of functional food brand NELO also told Lieyun. Taking into account the effectiveness and affinity, choose relatively relaxed and casual gummy, chewable tablets and other dosage forms to reduce the feeling of “taking medicine”, plus coffee, fruit and other flavors, and feel the welcome of consumers with the taste of healthy snacks.
Moving in the direction of snacking, light weight, and high-value appearance, health care products have appeared in the world of young people with a new image, which has attracted a lot of goodwill.
Capital seeks health products
With the continuous growth of national health awareness and Chinese consumers’ demand for “refined” and “higher-end” nutrition, the dietary supplement industry has continued to flourish in recent years. However, while being hailed as a sunrise industry, compared with the relatively mature nutritional supplement market in foreign countries, there is still a lot of room for growth, and
capital is moving by the wind. Since the beginning of this year, health care brands represented by KOOYO, NELO, Minayo, BUFX, etc. have obtained financing. Sensitive capital has already smelled this cake, including Sequoia Capital and Meihua Venture Capital, which have entered the health care track.
On August 26, functional food brand minayo announced the completion of a round of financing, invested by Lenovo Star and HARMAY Huamei. Prior to this, Minayo also received two rounds of financing from Lehua Entertainment and Northern Light Venture Capital. It was only a year since this new brand was officially founded.
In June of this year, aiming at the trend of health, the health tea brand “Hetian Shuipu” announced that it has received two rounds of financing of 10 million yuan. With the concept of “health” and “national tide”, it has created hyaluronic acid for skin-beautifying and fat-reducing meal replacements. , Fresh health preservation, Guofeng refreshments and many other series of products.
At the beginning of this year, the functional food BUFFX, which was established less than a year ago, received tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing. Its main product Sleeping Gummy has only been sold for 3 months, and it has won the No. 1 sales of Tmall Sleep Gummy.
The “2020 Functional Snacks Innovation Trend” released by Tmall shows that functional foods are expected to reach a market size of 500 billion yuan in the next few years, of which functional snacks are expected to account for 150 billion yuan.
Less than two years after its establishment, the functional food brand BUFX has received three rounds of financing. Its founder, Kang Le, said in an interview with Lieyun that the market for functional foods has a very high ceiling, and various data shows that domestic The development potential of functional foods has attracted capital attention in the entire industry in the past two years. “The key element for brands to emerge is the product, which is an important condition for increasing the repurchase rate.”
In addition to the emergence of new brands in the past two years , The innovation of established health care products companies in the health track is also increasing day by day. In addition, players such as Huaxi Biology and Hankou No. 2 Factory are even more cross-border.
Benefiting from the rise of the young health-care consumer market, established health care products companies such as Tomson Beijian, Dong Ejiao, and Jiangzhong Group have successively innovated and launched functional foods such as jujube protein powder and collagen drinks. In addition, some time-honored companies have also begun to pour into new outlets. Tongrentang has created national style health teas, launched herbal coffees such as goji berry latte, spleen appetizer American and other herbal coffees, and deployed functional health-preserving drinks.
At the beginning of this year, Huaxi Biotechnology launched the first domestic hyaluronic acid food brand “Black Zero”, and created products including “Slimming Chewable Tablets”, “Hyaluronic Acid American Ginseng Drink” and other products, focusing on healthy weight loss, whitening and antioxidant effects. In March of this year, Huaxi Biotechnology launched the first hyaluronic acid drinking water product “Shuijiquan”. The second factory of Hankou launched hyaluronic acid sparkling water, hoping to use the tuyere of functional food to help it stand out on the sparkling water circuit.
With the improvement of mass consumption, the rise of new brands has become inevitable. Statistics show that the penetration rate of health care products in the United States is as high as about 73%, while that in China is only 11%. The huge market potential allows capital to accelerate into this blue ocean.
Real health care or IQ tax?
The field of health products used to be the hardest hit area for “scam money” and “IQ tax.” Article 38 of the Food Safety Law stipulates that foods other than health foods shall not be claimed to have health care functions.
In our country, the current laws and regulations only divide ordinary foods and health foods. Products such as functional soft candies and hyaluronic acid drinks that have not obtained the “blue hat” health food special logo are not health products in the true sense. Known as “general food”.
In fact, due to the lack of relevant supervision of health foods, the authenticity of the various “detoxification and beauty” “whitening and anti-aging” functions promoted by many health products at present is in doubt.
”I stay up all night every day. I can’t sleep if I stay up. I will take two melatonin, which is also helpful for sleep. The sweet and sour jelly is also very greedy.” Lin Xiaoxiao told Lieyun. Internet companies do operations, and occasionally work overtime to stay up late, turning day and night upside down to make them feel weak and sleep poorly, and melatonin, which is declared “must stay up late for the party”, really helps you start a deep sleep.
However, there are consumers who hold the opposite attitude. Regarding the efficacy of functional foods, consumers see the benevolent and the wise. “It works when I eat on the first day, and I fall asleep groggy, but then I wake up in the middle of the night, feeling that my body has no rest, and my mental state is not good. If you have insomnia, you should go to a professional Chinese medicine doctor.” Cao Ziyang felt, Melatonin jelly was more like an IQ tax to him, and he couldn’t sleep well after spending the money. “I don’t think it’s very useful, it’s more of a psychological comfort.”
Regarding the term “IQ tax”, Wilson, the founder of NELO, told Lieyun.com that the form of traditional health care products and medicines makes consumers easily “daunted.” , And it is easy to have too high expectations, but it is easy to reduce its value. However, the new generation of consumers have more personalized and subdivided nutritional supplement needs, no longer “solving problems”, but “prevention” and “improvement.”
According to the forecast by the China Business Industry Research Institute and Euromonitor, my country’s functional food market will exceed 600 billion yuan in 2022. Sky Eye Check data also shows. In the first half of 2021, more than 490,000 health care products-related companies will be added in China, and there are currently more than 3.62 million business scopes including “health care products and health food”.
The industry’s enthusiasm continues, and the importance of supervision has become more prominent.
The “Regulations on Excipients Available for Filing of Health Food and Their Use (2021 Edition)” and “Formulations and Technical Requirements of Health Food Filing Products (2021 Edition)” show that powders and jelly candies will be included in health food filing dosage forms from June 1, 2021. It will come into effect today. This may be a good trend for functional foods.
The health anxiety of young people has created new demand for the health care product market. Health care products that put on “new clothes” such as calorie control tablets, stay-up water, and collagen jelly are being accepted by more and more people. But whether this is a good medicine to solve the health needs of young people or another sickle to harvest consumers, we can only wait for time to verify.
