Our recently released wellness intensified trend report dives into the extreme ways young consumers are focusing their efforts to live healthy…
Recently, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey appeared on fitness podcast where he went into detail about his extreme—and questionably healthy—wellness habits. Along with regular exercise, the Twitter CEO meditates, takes ice baths, uses the sauna, stands near an infrared light, journals, and keeps track of his sleep daily. His restrictive diet especially raised eyebrows: according to Dorsey, he eats one meal per day—except for Friday or Saturday, when he eats nothing.
Although Dorsey’s interpretation of living healthy is an extreme one (and has not escaped harsh criticism), many of the wellness practices that he described have become increasingly popular with young consumers. Gen Z & Millennials have been passionate about health for years, but lately the frenzy has reached a fever pitch—it’s clear that the standard for wellness has become much higher than hitting the gym for an hour. Now, they’re becoming mini-experts with Google and social media as their research catalogs, scanning ingredient labels, tracking their sleep, buying products that promise stress relief, and crafting elaborate skin care routines.
Our recently released trend report Wellness Intensified dives into this phenomenon, revealing that more than six in seven 13-36-year-olds have focused on improved an area of health in the past year and they’ve spent an estimated total of $158 billion to do so. Nutrition and fitness are the top topics they’re interested in, with the majority having researched a health topic in the past year. While online articles are their top source for health information, doctors and health experts follow, revealing that they’re putting their trust more into the expert than YouTubers, Instagrammers, or fitness bloggers. They are optimizing their efforts, and vanity is not the main motivation. Instead we found, it is a feeling of control in a chaotic world and the desire be happy that are intensifying efforts: 81% of 13-36-year-olds say focusing on their health and wellness helps them feel in control of something tangible and 90% agree that a healthy person is a happy person.
This craze has presented an opportunity for brands. While established brands are rushing to tweak their offerings to appeal to health-ified generations, startups that sell wellness products and tools are cropping up and cashing in. And the craze won’t just matter for brands that are directly tied to the wellness industry, as everything from travel to entertainment is getting a wellness twist. Click here to see our full report on Wellness Intensified, and check out our infographic for a brief spotlight into the trend:
