What’s the current state of supplements within the convenience sales channel? While I might be a bit biased considering my background, I've always believed the best and brightest of specifically the sports/active nutrition space could compete against any large food/beverage CPG incumbent. And if you walked around The NACS Show expo within the "in-store merchandise" section...you undoubtedly started to see that happening. For one…the sheer volume increase of exhibitors that would be considered “birthed/incubated within the supplement industry” was extremely noticeable. Secondly, many of these brands that are on maybe year 2 to 5 in their convenience sales channel strategy definitely went bigger in terms of event marketing. Big CPG are sneaky voyeurs…using strategists/analysts like me that are deep in the niche to help them spot the mainstreaming ideas within the influential epicenter of the CPG world. They could implement watered-down copycat innovations without much fear of competition. That’s mainly because the previous era of sports/active nutrition entrepreneurs "stayed in their sales channel lanes of specialty.” But that isn’t the case anymore…and it should make large food/beverage CPG incumbents a bit nervous.

We live in wild times! With an internet connection, credit card, and a few clicks of your mouse, you can create a global retail distribution point and create marketing that has global reach. To be honest, we take for granted just how easy it is to go from idea to a multinational functional CPG brand. We’re living in the golden era of CPG entrepreneurship because of these borderless ecommerce and social media platforms. It’s VERY important though to not misconstrue that ease for believing a one-size-fits-all commercialization strategy is acceptable. Globalization is at a crossroads. Connecting to the global economy stimulates competition and innovation and gives access to other markets. While it has reshaped global economies, it also came at a cost to our environment and our communities. Being a multinational functional CPG shouldn’t mean you seek parity globally. A better balance between global and local, so-called glocalization, would offer a better mix of both worlds. Global template…local adaptations.

Many people focus on a CPG brand’s amazing marketing, innovative products, or great leadership. We love that stuff too, but without the fundamentals of a company being incredible at financial management, there is no storybook ending. Simply put, if you’re running a CPG brand, you should be measuring and optimizing your cash conversion cycle regularly.

Did you know that the specialty supplement retailer GNC had a venture investing platform? This is what they call corporate venture capital. It’s essentially a practice where a large corporate entity takes an equity stake in a small but innovative or specialist company with the objective of gaining a specific competitive advantage. As an alternative to traditional acquisitions, companies are making more of these minority investments. In fact, corporate venture capital now accounts for nearly a quarter of all venture capital investing and its deal value have increased more than tenfold over the past decade. When most people familiar with corporate venture capital think about the concept, they tend to beeline towards large tech companies like Google or Facebook, but this type of investing is done by every sector in the economy. That includes retailers, especially those that have the financial wherewithal. These retailer-owned (or affiliated) venture funds and/or incubators formed by retailers is becoming more common as retailers are having to evolve more rapidly to meet the needs of customers.

Condition-specific versus multifunctional. This juxtaposition in product development approaches has been on mind for a while now. There are so many considerations at play here coming from both the brand-level and supply side of the supplement industry, but also with how it all interacts to consumer behavior. So, what’s the future of product development within the supplement industry heading towards?

Saying NO to some revenue creating opportunities will help minimize business continuity risk long-term in today’s market! Huh? Isn’t a company’s main goal to maximize shareholder returns, and it would be tough maximizing returns if you are turning down revenue, right? Seems counterintuitive…unless you understand that not all revenue is created equal. When you can master sales velocity, you really have something that is valuable long-term to shareholders…and the best way to do that is by controlling your distribution to focus on partnerships that enhance your company’s goals.

Who doesn’t enjoy a trick, shortcut, or innovative method for accomplishing familiar tasks more easily and efficiently, right? While these type of “life hacks” are heralded throughout society, it’s fraternal twin, known as biohacking, feels like a strange cultlike mix of amateur DIY medicine and things you’d read in futuristic sci-fi novels. Maybe there’s now a “perception is reality” problem happening now, and it’s time for a much needed biohacking rebrand to “best self” for it to be a commercially valuable movement to the CPG industry.

The first significant business to serve an uncontested market has an advantage over competitors coming into the space at a later stage, right? If you’ve read the famous business book Blue Ocean Strategy, it essentially focuses on the first-mover advantage and how it allows you to build brand ubiquity and loyalty before everyone else. While there are many strategy games (or consumer marketplaces) where the player who goes first has a greater likelihood of winning than their opponent…the supplement industry is no longer an example of one!

The fourth-largest beverage brand in the U.S. market just launched an energy drink, which is cool, but shouldn’t industry professionals be more interested in what the Gatorade Fast Twitch product innovation means to PepsiCo’s entire sports nutrition portfolio strategy?

Maybe it’s the mere 300ish miles between their respective company headquarters. Or maybe that both own a leading global sports nutrition brand that does north of $500 million annually in mostly the protein powder category. Or that each company has a vertically-integrated business model. Regardless, it’s natural to see that Glanbia versus The Hut Group (THG) is turning into the sports nutrition “battle of the ages.” If we had this battle handicapped by the Las Vegas sportsbooks, Glanbia would be the huge betting favorite heading into this year’s “All Valley Karate” championship. But as anyone knows the classic 80s movie storyline, Glanbia shouldn’t underestimate the Crane Kick from The Hut Group.

Isotonic beverages, sports drinks, hydration products…whatever you call them, blurring lines and new positionings are creating a fascinating CPG category. The hydration CPG category isn’t so much about invention today as it is about innovation. Invention is creating a totally new thing. Gatorade was something totally new. Today, if you want to create something that has a lasting impact on the CPG world, it needs to be combo of “new” yet “familiar.” Do something too closely related to the market leader and people won’t take notice but do something too novel and they’re confused. In the CPG industry, most successful products do not arrive out of nowhere; they’re remixes of existing ones.

As in-person trade shows come roaring back harder than Mike Tyson hitting you with an uppercut, it’s the perfect time to talk about how you can make an impact at these events without spending 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars exhibiting…

Supplement brands should be thinking about licensing opportunities more strategically. Common sense, right? Yet, many recent brand licensing deals felt more defensive than offensive business strategies. Innovation to parity isn’t going to cut it in this next phase…

What do I see in my crystal ball this year for the Top 5 Supplement Industry Trends in 2023? Gut Performance (purchasing Gut Health Ingredients for athletic performance), Load Up on Only What You Need (Affordability and Value-Orientated Consumer Behavior), Big Brick Poppin' (Large Retail channels winning the share of dollar sales and contribution to growth), Flex Your Brain (proactive consumption for a high achieving life), and Supplementing with Purpose (Rise of purpose-drive sports nutrition brands).

I recently had the opportunity to visit the 1st Phorm headquarters in St. Louis, MO. I've probably visited a few hundred corporate offices/facilities over the last decade of J. Schall Consulting, but none of them gave me a feeling like this one. It had an energy that was distinct, unique, and inspiringly different! 1st Phorm is successful by any traditional capitalistic metric. More importantly though, 1st Phorm is also wildly successful by a non-traditional capitalistic metric. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.” At its best, capitalism is beautiful and can be the biggest positive change agent for humanity. Any company can say they have a mission, but only authentically mission-driven companies can show actual proof. The most powerful proof will come from its customers and employees. 1st Phorm has changed countless customer lives...that's super evident even with the quickest glance at social media, but what was really cool about yesterday was that I got to see the other side. Even with the highest of expectations of walking in those doors, I was blown away...

The supplement industry continues to change faster than Garfield can eat a tray of lasagna. Much of that can be attributed to new technologies and shifts in consumption habits. These massive disruptions dramatically accelerated ecommerce migration, which is creating both new opportunities and predicaments for supplement brands. This article will cover a handful of significant ecommerce trends that supplement brands must watch out for heading into 2023…

In a “choose your own adventure shopping” world, consumer speak with their actions (and wallets). By 2025, the Nutrition Business Journal predicts that categorical sales will be evenly distributed across e-commerce, mass, and natural/specialty retail. Whether it’s Wal-Mazon or another large retailer, it’s apparent that recent merchandising strategies shows us they want more than entry-level buyers…they want the whole category. The question remains, will being a “Wal-Mazon brand” still have some level of negative (yet always misplaced) connotation in the next 3, 5, 10 years?

If you mention proprietary blends (aka prop blends) in the supplement industry social media groups, you tend to get a visceral reaction. In any other CPG category, a “prop blend” is considered a highly valuable trade secret. Do you know what goes into a can of Coca-Cola? How about that Oreo cookie? And the list goes on…Those formulas are a main part of what makes them $1B CPG brands. Which side is right? Is the supplement category unique? Should “prop blends” still be around today or not in the supplement industry?

Challenges notwithstanding, frictionless omnichannel retail is here to stay. It’s more than a trend, it’s a reflection of how today’s consumers live, and brands are well advised to take this into account. Just like the Choose Your Own Adventure books, alternate paths to the shopping journey speaks to the desire of control that consumers seek. Choice will become more important in an age of personalization. The future will be rich with personalized products, endless customer service options, 1-to-1 marketing, and loyalty programs that make us feel like special snowflakes. For all that, I guess we can thank Edward Packard.

It’s irrefutable that “COVID-19 Effect” headwinds/tailwinds changed almost everything about the supplement industry. With markets evolving quickly because of elevated consumer interest in the space…it positions the supplement industry as a key gateway into the $1.5 trillion global wellness market. This increased market growth is also bringing additional commercialization activity to an already ultra-competitive space. The fact is that brands must stay ahead of the curve by identifying specific trends earlier and being more aggressive in their actions to fill demand. My intent for this content is to provide supplement industry professionals with a snapshot of what benefitted, evolved, paused, and was damaged by most powerful “COVID-19 Effect” headwinds/tailwinds. These insights will surround the following marketplace variables; product Categories/Attributes, Business Strategies, and Shifts in Consumer Behavior.