Get Wellness Soon

“Be well” is a common valediction in our society, an offer of best wishes on taking leave from a friend or relation. Yet for many consumers, being well has become a more personal pursuit. The “wellness” lifestyle trend has merged once disparate interests — such as vitamins and nutritional supplements; yoga, meditation, massage and biofeedback; organic and natural ingredients; healthy eating; fitness and of course, bath and body products — under a single sustaining goal. Supplementing traditional healthcare, which presumes that something needs fixing, wellness focuses on positive, preventative action — getting the body into shape and keeping it that way in spite of stress, germs, age, and anything else that ails us.

“It used to be that we had to explain to people how they could participate in the wellness movement,” explains Wendy Goldner, vice president of marketing for Wild Divine, an Eldorado Springs, CO-based home-biofeedback system manufacturer, which sells to specialty retailers as well as spas and wellness centers. “Now people are saying, 'I'm looking for something to meet this need.' In the spa industry, consumers are looking for long term wellness. The conversation is about how [spas] can stop providing short term relaxation and become a long term wellness provider.”

One major aspect of the wellness trend in personal care is a greater emphasis on soothing the inside of the consumer, as well as the outside. Amy Galper, president of Buddha Nose Ltd., New York, started her career as a shiatsu massage practitioner, and therefore was already accustomed to encouraging clients and customers to follow a healthy lifestyle. “Creating my products was just a natural extension of that,” explains Galper. “I was working mostly with women, and they were using a lot of beauty products.”

Galper sees a symbiotic relationship between beauty and wellness. “I can't really separate the two. People ask 'How can I be less stressed?' 'What can I do to get rid of this rash?' As soon as you feel better, you also [look better] because you can't really express and experience and celebrate your beauty unless you're feeling really healthy. No matter how much makeup you put on you're not going to have that glow.” Galper's products address beauty through assisting health; her girl balm, for example, soothes hormonal distress.

“Consumers are seeking a more holistic approach to beauty, and the dominant trend is to combat skin, hair and nail damage from the inside and out,” says Carrie Mellage, industry manager of the research division of consumer products practice for Little Falls, NJ-based Kline & Company. According to Kline & Co., sales of nutraceuticals (food products and supplements intended to aid health) totaled nearly $1 billion in 2006, and are expected to show double digit growth in the next five years.

Consumers are also beginning to pay more attention to the internal effects of products that are applied externally, according to Laura Kauffmann, co-owner of She Essential Beauty, Brooklyn, NY, “People want products that are multidimensional; it's not just about smelling good or feeling better, they want [the product] to actually do something.”

Along with the emphasis on health, there's also an increased instance of medical doctors launching their own personal care brands, thereby lending credibility to products' claims. For instance, dermatologists Dr. Nicholas Perricone and Dr. Carolyn Dean are two of the better known crossovers from medical practice to product development.

But it's not just Western medicine that influences personal care. Kauffmann and co-owner Beth Hooper studied Chinese medicine before they began making their products, which are based on Chinese herbal therapies, and according to Kauffmann heal users internally as well as externally. “Zhenzhu, when applied topically, has an anti-aging effect, and internally has a calming effect on the mind,” she explains. “Dang gui we use to heal the skin and move the blood — so it has a very invigorating quality, but at the same time a healing quality.”

Kaufmann notes that her products occasionally encounter skeptics who think that the owners' story is part of a marketing scheme. But she and Hooper recognized the benefits of their background. “We've spent four years studying Chinese herbal medicine, and we really understand how the herbs work together,” she says. “You see people put ginseng or green tea into a product because a report just came out that says they're antioxidants. We try to use the herbs actually used in Chinese medicine and beauty treatments to get the results we want.”

When it comes to Eastern influences on wellness, probably nothing tops yoga in popular adoption. The number of Americans who practice yoga at least twice a week doubled between 2001 and 2007, according to a survey by Mediamark Research. And more than 10 million had practiced yoga at least once in the last 12 months.

Of course, all that practice creates commerce. In 2004, Americas spent $2.95 billion on yoga (that includes classes, related products, retreats and vacations), according to a survey conducted for Yoga Journal. And there are plenty of giftable products for this growing market. In addition to workout wear and yoga mats, items such as candles, incense and even yoga soap can appeal to practitioners. Galper's Bodhi balm (named after the tree the Buddha sat under to achieve enlightenment) has, she says, become popular in yoga studios as a relaxation tool.

Another favorable feature of yoga is its broad base of appeal. While practice is growing fastest within the 18–24 age group, Gen-Y is hardly the only demographic with an interest. In 2005, Businessweek identified Yoga Mamas as a demographic with plenty of income to spend that is “focused on active, fashionable and fit pregnancies, and then on the fitness and wellbeing of their offspring.” These are the clientele of mommy-and-baby yoga classes — and the clientele of specialty retailers. Even eldr magazine, targeted toward readers over 60, featured a yoga-posed elder on its cover, and regularly highlights the practice in its fitness section.

Arylessence's 2007–2008 TrendWatch identified health and well-being as a lifestyle trend in all sectors of consumer packaged goods, and estimates the size of the marketplace at $228.9 billion. But perhaps even more interesting is that Arylessence defines that marketplace as “Goods and services that promote health, the environment, social justice, personal development and sustainable living.”

Increasingly, in personal care as well as groceries and cleaning products, concern for the well-being of the global environment is part and parcel of concern for the well-being of the shopper and family. Organic and natural ingredients play to both concerns.

“I'm very committed to using only organic ingredients, no synthetics or parabens,” says Galper. “You can have a beautiful product that doesn't need chemicals. You can have a package that can be recycled. Women especially are starting to realize that a lot of what we've been putting on our bodies isn't so good, and the skin is an organ just like anything else, it absorbs what you put on.”

Many retailers, it appears, are already on board. Says Kauffmann, “What does wellness mean, in terms of what retailers are asking us about? Are we using natural and organic ingredients? Are we paraben-free? Are we a Green company, and what does that mean?”

Whether it's with Eastern practices, by being Green, or by focusing on the internal benefits of personal care lines, wellness is a factor that consumers are embracing in increasing numbers. And retailers should follow suit, both for their own and their customers' benefit. After all, It's a win-win situation when you can do well by being well.