Welcome to the Community Call Podcast.
I am Melissa Travers, Director of Community here at BevNET & NOSH, here with my co-host, Sarah Casagrande, Principal and Sales Advisor at Generation CPG.
If you're enjoying the show, please follow and review us wherever you listen.
Sarah, it's been a minute.
It's been a minute or two, it's good to be back.
I missed our bantering, I'm so glad that we get to do it again now.
I missed it as well, but I think from what I saw and heard, you had a good time at BevNET Live?
Man, it's just, and I guess I'm biased, right?
It's like asking like, oh, is your kid a good student or whatever, like a good kid?
So I mean, sure, I guess I'm biased, but like, I just thought they were so much fun.
I mean, everyone I talked to said they had a great time, the content was fantastic, the pitch slam and new beverage showdown was really exciting.
And yeah, I mean, I always leave those feeling so energized and grateful for everyone out there for our community.
I've heard the same thing from everybody who attended.
I have never been to BevNET Live.
We're going to change that, Sarah.
When is the next one?
The next one is in June in New York City.
And you know what?
You can actually buy those on bevnet.com and nosh.com right now.
Wow.
I might do that as soon as we're done recording today.
I want to get my tickets for BevNET Live in June.
Well, maybe that can be one of your New Year's resolutions.
We are looking at a new year.
Are you a resolution person?
Not normally.
I always do a dry January.
So I'm going to do that again, but that's not really a resolution.
I think it counts though.
I don't look at it as a resolution.
It's just like, yeah.
But I do have a resolution this year.
What is it?
All right.
Well, I've decided that it's okay to say you don't know the answer to things.
When somebody asks you a question and there's a lot of complex questions, right?
In CPG especially, like, am I going to get to $26 million next year?
How do I make my pricing work for me if my cogs are X amount and there's no wiggle room?
There's a lot of unknowns.
I've decided instead of saying I completely know the answer, I'm just going to be, sometimes you have to say, I don't know.
I don't know the answer.
And that's okay.
You can speculate.
But I think in our society, I think it's important for people to say when they don't know the answer and that's okay.
I think that's a great resolution and it actually reminds me of something that would come up a lot when we were rodeo.
There were so many brands who wanted to make sure they didn't look stupid in front of an investor or retailer.
And then I remember someone making the point, this is your time to take advantage of that, play the new kid, ask all the questions, because this is the time when you should look like you don't know things because you don't.
So I think that's an amazing resolution.
That's so thoughtful.
Thank you.
What about you?
So last year, I resolved to really take care of my dental health.
So I bought an electric toothbrush.
And then it was also to get an alarm clock, so I didn't have my phone by my bed.
But now I have an alarm clock and my phone by my bed.
So that was like, I got somewhere.
I guess I didn't necessarily get all the way.
But this year, so I've started making sure to try and go for a walk every day, even if it's just 15 minutes, and I try and time it with the sunset.
So we live in New England and it feels like the sun is up for, I don't know, four hours every day or something.
Two hours.
So there's just something about being outside when the sun sets and understanding that it's going to be dark and getting out for a little fresh air.
So that, and then I think I want more turmeric in my life.
You know I'm a fan.
Yeah, you're a fan, I know, and I think that makes so much sense.
We are young women of a certain age.
Emphasis on young.
Very young women of a certain age.
And you know, I sort of feel like all of my joints starting to feel a little bit less young.
So I feel like turmeric can help me in the quest to feel a little bit more limber.
It's great for a lot of things.
You know, I juice it, right?
And then freeze it.
And yeah, I put it in my tea.
We've talked about this before, but have you ever thought about starting a no?
Nope, I have no interest in, you know, there's already some great Ju-Shot brands out there that have Turmeric Core Shots, Vive Shots.
Another one that I can't think of the name of, but somebody else is doing that.
I'm going to stay in my lane, Melissa.
OK, OK, fair enough.
Well, I'll have to come over to your house and read your freezer for your turmeric shots.
Maybe your turmeric shots will be one of my favorite new products in 2025.
But what were some of the products in 2024 that you would buy no matter what the price?
This was actually your idea.
I like this a lot.
But if it was on your Spotify wrapped playlist, what are some of the foods on that list?
This summer, when I was at Fancy Food, obviously I toured all the high end grocery stores around New York City because that's part of our job.
I discovered a brand called Something and Nothing, which I hadn't seen anywhere else.
It has beautiful packaging, it's sparkling water.
It was just delightful, but I've been ordering it online because I can't find it anywhere near me.
So that was a nice surprise discovery for me to share.
Other standbys, meat sticks.
What brand of meat stick do you find yourself reaching for?
I'm a Chomps girl.
Yeah.
It's pretty good, consistent, always, it doesn't matter the flavor.
It's always a good experience.
But trying to think of what else, fly by Jing, my husband.
I feel like we go through a jar a week, he puts it on everything.
I do too, but he's really into it.
So we buy that.
When we first started buying it, it was only when it was on sale at Whole Foods.
And actually, I saw it at Costco, I think, at one point.
And so then the rotation was done and I couldn't get it again.
And now we just buy it no matter what.
Like when it's on sale, we double up, triple up.
But that's something, it doesn't matter what the price, we're buying it.
So that might have been your number one on your food playlist.
Yep.
Well, I actually have a couple of fly by Jing products here because these were truthfully two of the things that I really enjoyed this year.
I have the Daily Crunch and fly by Jing collaboration.
I thought these were just so tasty.
And I actually spoke with the Daily Crunch team at NOSH Live, and they were talking about how they've moved through R&D evolution, and they've continued to work on their formulation.
And I just think they do such a great job.
They're such tasty nuts, and they're sprouted, and they're so crunchy, but the flavor is so there.
And I just loved the fly by Jing collaboration they did.
And then also, this came in a media kit that fly by Jing sent, it's the fly by Jing chili crisp vinaigrette.
This is so good.
I didn't know that existed.
You know me, I don't buy salad dressing.
No, you make it.
I mean, I make a big thing in a big mason jar.
This is a salad dressing I would actually buy.
It has Szechuan chili crisp, preserved black beans, garlic, sesame oil, salt, shell.
I mean, it's just, so you have to try that.
Can I take this home?
Just kidding.
I think Mike might grab it from you before you before you hit the door.
I'll fight him for it.
Yeah, I think Mike Schneider is also a big fan of that as well.
But those are two things I really liked.
And then I also really, really liked this Lapos Negroni.
So I've been trying to cut down my alcohol intake like everybody else because it really does affect the amount of migraines I get.
So I've been trying to drink a bit less than I normally would.
But in this Negroni, I think is so on point.
They get the bitterness factor that you're looking for in a cocktail, I think, right on point.
This really is something that for me takes the place of, you should take that home.
I'll take it home.
Yeah.
You can drink that during your dry January.
See, this is why I'm glad I'm here recording this today.
I can stock up.
So in preparation of dry January, this looks awesome.
The founder of Lapos Negroni, Sean Goldsmith was at BevNET Live.
He's also the founder of Zero Proof, which is an e-comm site for which you're probably familiar with.
But we were talking a little bit about Lapos, and his intention was to get that bitterness factor right.
I think he did such a good job.
And actually, he brought some samples of a new product he's working on, which is very exciting.
So definitely, everyone keep your eyes out for that.
That's awesome.
I know you're a big Negroni fan.
So your endorsement means this is a really good beverage.
The Negroni, I feel like, might be the official alcoholic beverage of BevNET.
I'm just making that up right now.
Okay.
So I may be stepping out of turn here.
So that's like their Spotify wrapped as Negronis.
Yes.
Every year, number one.
Got any trend predictions for 2025?
I think global flavors, right?
So that's been a trend for a while.
I imagine that will continue.
I also think food as medicine, right?
So eating to balance your hormones or eating to lower your blood sugar, I think we're going to see a lot more of that.
The food as medicine makes so much sense.
One of the things that I put in my list was magnesium.
For me, magnesium was one of the few supplements that I can feel almost immediately.
We got samples in of Recess's Mood Magnesium drink.
So that's one.
And then the founder of Everlane started a business called Magna, which is a magnesium-based sports powder.
I just continue to see more and more products pop up.
Though for me, I mean, Natural Cum is my best friend, really.
That is a great brand.
They've been around for a long time, but I also big fan of magnesium.
I take it every day.
Magnesium, paring down ingredients.
We just keep getting more and more oat milks in that don't have any gums or oils.
California's Food Safety Act banned for food additives.
So I think we'll probably continue to see food brands trying to simplify their ingredient panel.
Protein.
That's another one, right?
I think that's going to be a trend forever.
I also am keeping my eyes on any alternative cocoa products because of the high price of cocoa and then alt coffees as well.
The alt cocoa, I think I could probably get more into than alt coffee.
Alt coffee, and I can imagine having alt coffee and regular coffee, but man, if I had to give up real coffee, I think I'd be really sad.
That's like 12 dry January's.
Right, right, right.
But I mean, also certainly the price of Arabica beans has gone up in the last year.
I don't know what the price of Robusto beans has been, but that would certainly position brands like New Win Coffee to win if they're using an ingredient that maybe isn't suffering some of the consequences as Arabica beans.
So that'll be interesting to watch.
Definitely.
Well, one trend that remains top of mind is the growing focus on women's health, particularly in later stages of life.
In this episode of Community Call, we're joined by Kate Stevenson and Julie Murphy of Brightfield Group, a leading social listening and consumer insights organization.
They share data and trends on the ingredients, products, and value propositions that are resonating with this important consumer demographic.
Please enjoy.
Today on Community Call, we couldn't be any more thrilled to welcome Kate Stevenson, Director of Client Strategy, and Julie Murphy, Insights Director at Brightfield Group.
We will be discussing insights gathered through social listening, highlighting wellness trends within women's health.
This growing area of interest for a high value demographic presents food and beverage brands with opportunities to innovate and craft targeted marketing strategies.
Julie and Kate, thank you so much for joining us.
This is a topic that I think certainly the three of us and probably half the population are very interested in, if not the whole population, because everybody can benefit from understanding.
Yes, thank you so much for having us, Melissa.
We are very excited to chat all things women's health.
We're very passionate over here.
That certainly makes three of us.
We were talking a little bit before we hopped on about how we still don't really hear a ton about women's health and CPG.
You know, both of you were saying it's sort of buried in other trends and other movements, but I'm happy to be breaking the mold a little bit and just coming right out with it, that women's health is a really important trend for all of us to understand because there's plenty of opportunity.
Yes, definitely.
And it's related to a lot of different needs states.
So that's what's so interesting about this topic of women's health and paramentapause is it covers and spans so many needs states and product types that will be impacted.
And I think there are so many brands and products who may already be targeting an issue that is really important to this demographic, but may not just be taking advantage of that opportunity.
So we're going to get to the bottom of all of that.
Before we do that, let's hear a little bit about the Brightfield Group.
What is your methodology for collecting data?
And please, who is the Brightfield Group?
Yeah, Brightfield Group, we're a consumer insights and market research company that specializes in emerging trends and niche product categories.
We use a multi-source methodology.
So we're using social listening, which is taking conversations on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, spanning both kind of topics.
And we tag those conversations so that we can see how consumers are talking about their needs and the products that they're using and really spot emerging trends that are happening on social conversations because we know that social media is used for knowledge sharing, right?
And that's typically where consumers are going to try and set out what they should use for a specific need and to talk about their experiences with different products and ingredients.
So we have social listening that we're using and monitoring.
And then we also validate what we see on social listening through our consumer surveys.
So we're running quarterly consumer surveys of 5,000 US adult consumers.
Those surveys help us understand what actual trends are being adopted by consumers, how consumers are using different products.
So if we see a conversation spiking about paramedipause and the different ingredients that people are using or conditions that women are suffering from during that time of their lives, then we can go into our survey and ask the actual consumers more questions about what products they're using to help treat their symptoms.
Those two data sources are really powerful for helping understand what unmet needs consumers have and really uncover innovation opportunities.
They're both really robust too because social listening, I think we have over 20 million conversations in their tract since 2021.
And quarterly consumer gen pop study we've been running since 2021.
So we do have some nice trends that we're able to track over time.
And can you tell us a little bit more about why social listening is such an important source of data?
I think so many of us are used to the data that's collected from point of sale.
But why is social listening such an important source of information for us to pay attention to?
So point of sale data is a very important data source for answering kind of what consumers are purchasing or the specific skews that might be picking up traction.
Consumer research in general is really going to help you understand the why behind a purchase.
So why are people using a certain product?
Why is protein becoming more prominent?
Who is driving that?
And it gives you more of that qualitative input to help understand what might be driving a trend forward and explore unmet needs and opportunities that consumers have.
So often times we're talking about the problems that we have using social media, and we don't even know the solution as consumers.
So companies and brands that want to find solutions for consumers first have to identify the needs that they have.
And that's why social media is so powerful.
It's really a resource where a lot of people are going to talk about different things that they're trying to fulfill.
So Julie, any other?
Yeah, I would just say it's a piece of the puzzle.
So I've been in Consumer Insights for 20 years and every data source is important.
So I like to see sales data and see the actual behavior that's happening, but I also like to see how perceptions are changing over time, how attitudes are changing.
It used to be that you would look at data and where consumers' attitudes or perceptions were changing, then their behavior would follow suit.
With social listening, because they're having so much access to information, we find that that's happening so much quicker.
Like we are seeing that, you know, we might see a conversation spiking on social listening, and within six months, we'll see that following suit with consumers' behavior.
So it's happening at a much more rapid pace.
So certainly it sounds like you're great at explaining the way that social listening factors into the data that you collect to your clients.
Tell us a little bit about who Brightfield Group's clients are in terms of CPG entities.
Is it typically larger brands, smaller brands, and how are they purchasing the data?
We work with from larger CPG brands to more emerging brands and startups.
And the way that you can access the data is kind of through a variety of ways.
So for some of our larger clients that have analysts on staff and like to get their hands dirty in the data, they can subscribe to the actual platform and get the ability to filter and segment with different parameters of their choice.
And then we also do work with smaller brands with a variety of subscription models, where if you tell us that you just need a report pulling all of the interesting insights about gut health or digestive health, we can do that too for you.
So there's a lot of flexibility with the data sourcing.
Well, that certainly helps frame the conversation.
Now let's dive in to the topic at hand.
When did women's health even become a topic of interest for Brightfield Group?
I would say probably around 2019, 2020.
We found a lot of clients, a lot of bigger CPG brands were coming to us.
And women's health was kind of in their innovation sector, that they were starting to explore how they could get into women's health, what kind of products they should develop for women's health.
And we are getting asked a lot of questions about women's health.
So we started broadening what we were asking.
In our consumer study, we started tracking a lot more on our social listening.
That's kind of where it got started.
And as a female heavy company and a female heavy executive team, it's something that was close to our hearts.
So we were really paying attention to what we were seeing going on.
And it was fascinating to watch around late 2022, early 2023, we started seeing para menopause starting to go off the charts in social listening.
And so we can show you some of that data.
And it was just super interesting to see all the different conversations that were starting to happen about para menopause, women's health, PCOS, PMS, all of these conversations that really weren't given a big spotlight before.
So women have been going through para menopause and menopause in the dark in a closet probably since the beginning of time.
Why all of a sudden are people talking about this and in a way that you're even able to track that information?
It's kind of a perfect storm of things going on.
So we've seen in our tracker over time, and I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone, that people are looking to alternative medicine, to functional medicine, to ways to take control of their own health.
So that's been growing over time.
We also see that consumers are focused on aging smartly.
We don't have a cool name for it yet, but it used to be that you wanted to age gracefully, or you wanted to look younger, but it's really all about staying healthy and strong as long as we can.
So it's less about how you look as you age, and more about staying strong so that you can stay independent for as long as you can.
And so it was really interesting, because we saw a big phenomenon in 22 and 23, with women starting to really focus in on protein, and trying to make sure that they're hitting their protein macro for the day, and in order to build those muscles and stay strong, because that's what's going to be important as we age.
We saw women starting to use supplements that they weren't normally using before, like creatine, and getting into more protein-based conversations.
I think there's also frustration with the medical community, and the fact that a lot of doctors aren't trained a lot on paramenopause and menopause, and it's been really reassuring to see on social media a lot of these doctors that were OB-GYNs starting to specialize in the paramenopause, when trying to really understand more what was going on.
So I think women were kind of getting shoved under the rug when they went to the doctor to say what they were feeling.
They weren't sure what was going on.
Also, obviously, doctors' appointments nowadays are much quicker.
So when you come in saying that you're experiencing 15 different things, they are like, I don't know what's going on with you.
Let me give you some medicine to deal with that.
I think it's no longer taboo to talk about.
It was something that was kind of joked about.
You're going through the change or it was just talked about the hot flashes.
Just with your neighbor or something?
Yeah, just with your neighbors.
But it's been interesting that I think it's this Gen X woman and the older millennial woman, which it's crazy to think older millennial women are starting to hit this age group, this older thirties, that weren't shy about talking about it and seeking out solutions and using social listening as a community to tap into and talk about.
Like, is this normal?
Is this a symptom of paramedicopause?
Who knew that eye health issues could be a symptom of paramedicopause?
We know a lot about the hot flashes and trouble sleeping.
Those are kind of established in the conversation, too.
But there are so many women looking just for reassurance of what they're going through is normal.
What are some things that you've tried that work for you?
And it's just a nice kind of example of how social media can actually be a positive resource for so many people and a way to get information and reassurance that what you're going through is either typical or just get some kind of just reassurance that you are going through something that many women experience, but.
We're going to show you data, but it's something crazy now that women and paramedicines could experience up to 30 or 40 different conditions slash symptoms.
So it's like all over the board.
For some women, it's great.
They skate right through it, right?
Other women deal with it and they deal with it for sometimes almost over a decade, which is crazy to think about.
But I think it's empowering this younger generation to get a hold of their health.
It's half the population.
Every woman goes through it, and it's one of the highest spending demographics.
I think I saw in your information that the years of perimenopause and menopause can affect women in their late 30s up through their 50s and sometimes even later.
So it seems like a no brainer to message directly to this portion of the population.
It's something like 46% of the female population are post-menopausal.
And that's important too.
Once you've gone through it, you have a lot of needs there too.
8% right now identify that they're in perimenopause.
I would argue that's probably a little bit higher that maybe they're not realizing that some of the symptoms that they're dealing with are actually perimenopausal.
And it is interesting to think that we start this already in late 30s, early 40s.
So we got those millennials who are starting to phase in, and they're just as big as the boomer population.
Let's get right into your data.
You have some fascinating information on need states, ingredients of interest, over-indexing supplements, products and ingredients.
So let's get into that.
First of all, why don't we talk about the symptoms and need states that come along with perimenopause and menopause?
So obviously we could talk about this for hours, and we could drown you with all sorts of data.
So we tried to keep this as high level as possible, looking at the perimenopause and menopausal conversations over time.
And you see on this chart that it was in 2023 that these conversations started to pick up.
Those conversations have tripled in a year, from September 2023 to September 2024.
If you're on social media, I am sure that you are seeing all sorts of posts.
Like I said, a lot of doctors starting to specialize in this.
We've got a lot of celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Eva Mendes talking about it.
We have influencers talking about it.
We have everyday people.
So there's all sorts of different conversations being had by all sorts of different people.
It's grown so big that it's at 4% of the conversations, which if you look at that relative to other conversations that we track, it's the same as acne.
So it's gotten quite significant.
It's fascinating to look at the different phases of women and what they're over indexing the conditions that they're experiencing.
So with menstruating women versus perimenopausal women versus post-menopausal women, and this list is showing you all of the conditions that they over index for, that they're more likely to have.
And you can see that the lists are quite more extensive for perimenopausal and post-menopausal women.
Anything from insulin resistance to digestive issues, to pain, to migraines, to depression, anxiety, insomnia.
So it's all over the board.
I think it's really interesting when you're talking to you about this specific topic is it spans both the mental health issues that they're experiencing like anxiety and depression to just the physical issues of pain, chronic pain, hot flashes.
So it's like this wide variety that's impacting their entire life and could be more on the mental health side or more on the pain side or discomfort side.
So when we talk about like innovation opportunities, that's where you can choose if your brand is more equipped to help women handle the physical side of this time of their lives, then that's what you can lean into.
If your brand is more equipped to help with that mental health kind of portion of what they're experiencing, that's where you can lean into.
So there's such a wide variety of things that women need at this stage.
You know, we're talking specifically about paramenopause, but when you look at menstruating women, they have specific needs too, during that kind of time of their lives and post-menopausal.
So thinking about that gamut of the whole person, what they're experiencing, mind, body and spirit, and where there's opportunities there, kind of.
Absolutely.
We have conditions, but a new question that we added about a year ago has been fascinating to look at in the Consumer Survey, and that these are things that maybe people aren't aligning with a specific condition, such as tiredness, trouble sleeping, brain fog, a stomach ache, forgetfulness.
And this chart here is showing women that are currently in perimenopause that said that they deal with this issue almost daily.
So we have 44 percent saying that they deal with tiredness or fatigue on a daily basis versus 28 percent of the general population.
37 percent trouble sleeping, 26 percent gen pop, 30 percent achy sore muscles versus 20 percent of gen pop.
So you can see that there's a lot of over indexing there, which is dealing with these issues that they can't really identify to a specific condition.
And when you're tracking this information in social listening, how are you able to pull out these issues, such a wide array of symptoms?
Is there a way for you to help us understand how you pull that information out of the social data that you're collecting?
So this is actually from our consumer survey.
But basically anything that you want to tag in social listening, you can tag.
So we have those 20 million conversations.
We develop dimensions to tag the specific words.
It makes it really flexible that if something isn't being tagged, we can easily put it in to tag it and we can look at it retroactively.
So it makes it very flexible to add stuff in.
Also, it's working in the background.
We have AI working.
So it's also suggesting stuff to us that like, hey, you might want to create a dimension from this because this is starting to uptick.
Yeah, with Parametapause in particular, we started by looking at 20 million conversations tagged by condition.
So we looked at condition equals Parametapause.
And then we started playing around with different parameters.
So ingredients was the first one that we looked at.
So conversations about Parametapause coinciding with ingredients.
And that's where you can see share of voice is kind of like our metric that shows you what's established in this world of Parametapause conversation.
So within that, you would think like collagen or calcium.
And then when we look at the growth areas, those are indicators that there might be some future innovation opportunities for that.
So when you look at Parametapause with ingredients, things that are growing like saffron or probiotics, and we'll talk a little bit about those specific trends.
But that's where you kind of look at what's established in the conversation, what's growing in the conversation.
Those are the ways that we discover new trends.
It sure does.
Yeah.
And this list of established ingredients, opportunity ingredients, really interesting stuff.
Can we take a closer look at those?
Sure.
So the first one Kate mentioned, this is looking at Parametapausal conversations.
So this is sorting to see what has the largest share of voice.
So these are the things that are most commonly mentioned in the conversations.
And you can see some of them do have growth there, but it's often you want to see what is most talked about in conversations.
So we have like collagen, calcium, and caffeine.
Then we look at opportunity, which has had some strong growth, but oftentimes also has a significant share of voice with it.
So it's not too small, it's showing growth, and it's got a considerable amount of conversation still happening with it.
The potential future growths are often what we're keeping our eye on as that could maybe be turning into something.
Those oftentimes, like for example, saffron here has 5,000% or 15,000% growth.
They often have like fraysy amounts of growth, but are really small conversations.
So those are ones that we kind of keep an eye on to see what's going to happen with that.
Is it going to progress into something or is it kind of just a quick flash in the pan?
This is some fascinating stuff.
For any of the folks who wind up listening to this as a podcast, I just want to read through some of the top ingredients here.
So in established, we see collagen, calcium, caffeine, magnesium, probiotics and prebiotics, vitamin D.
And then down at the bottom of the list, we see omega 3 and 6, honey, vitamin C and pumpkin.
I see that collagen, it has the highest percentage share of voice, but the lowest actual growth.
Is that because collagen is something that's been trending for a while anyhow?
Yeah, we basically want to look at, is it saturated?
So it could be that collagen is kind of saturated when it comes to paramedipause or women's health topics.
The other thing about collagen is that it shares across a lot of women's health stages.
So it might not be growing amongst the paramedipause conversation because it's growing amongst women's fitness or something.
So that's kind of helpful to keep an eye on.
If you're just entering the paramedipause game, maybe you don't go into collagen.
Maybe if you don't have collagen in your repertoire of products and you have not thought about marketing towards paramedipausal women, maybe that's not where you innovate and enter.
If you have collagen though, and you haven't been targeting paramedipausal women, that seems like an easy way to get some more eyes on your product and to meet some more consumer's needs.
So that's kind of where we try to help guide in terms of this might be the top conversation, but that might not be where you want to play if it's not growing and it's already saturated.
So there's lots of other areas, so maybe you have magnesium in your repertoire and that's a better way for you to enter.
That's the nice thing about this topic in particular is that it spans supplements to beverages, to all sorts of things, so yeah.
And we have to remember this data is collected on a daily basis.
So the conversations are very volatile, like you'll see in these charts here that we have for calcium, magnesium, and collagen.
They have a large share of voice, but sometimes they are volatile depending on how much traction that they're getting.
What's great too is in the tool is that we're able to look at a certain point in time or a collection of posts and actually see what's being posted.
So the screenshot that we have on here are actual posts that were in the conversation.
So let's say, for example, we see that collagen really had a big uptick in May 2024.
We can go look at the posts from that time and see what was the conversation that was being said right then.
What was driving that up so high?
Because maybe there was a viral moment or a series of viral moments for collagen that existed within a certain timeframe.
That makes perfect sense.
And I just want to reiterate what you just said.
So that list of ingredients that I read off, those are the established ingredients.
And your note here is it would make sense for brands to emphasize these ingredients within their current portfolio of products.
Whereas the second list of ingredients that you mentioned, and I'll just read those off again, pumpkin, vitamin D, biotin, calcium, probiotics, prebiotics, ginger, saffron, chamomile, melatonin, and lavender.
Those are high actual growth, so those may be a good consideration for innovation.
And then your third group of ingredients or potential future growth, those were saffron, beef liver?
Yeah, it's having a moment.
Kate and I were talking about this morning.
I don't know that I can go back to liver and onions as we grew up possibly eating in our homes, but maybe I would take a liver supplement.
When I was pregnant, I did try eating grass-fed beef liver, and I lasted a few bites.
That's a tough one.
Well, hopefully, that's sort of an invitation for all of the food and beverage brands out there to innovate something that perhaps tastes good as well.
I also see lion's mane, licorice root, cava, inositil, beef tallow, chamomile, yuba mate, and pumpkin.
What is inositil?
Inositil is a supplement that helps with insulin resistance and also helps with anxiety.
So it may be in a functional beverage that you're drinking and not realizing.
You can also get it as a powdered form.
So it is sometimes one of those hidden ingredients and something that is for anxiety or insulin resistance.
Fascinating.
Would I be able to share this deck with our community in our Slack community?
Yeah, sure.
Absolutely.
All right, please, let's move along.
That was fascinating.
Well, we can talk a little bit about the opportunity areas then.
So these are on that chart, gut health, probiotics, prebiotics, saffron, and eye health.
Where are those options that they have strong growth rate, so they're growing like crazy, but they're still small conversations.
So these are an example of things that we would keep our eye on to see what is going on with them.
What's interesting is you often see like, why is saffron?
And then you'll look into the properties of the ingredient or the supplement, and then it actually does help with sleep and hormone balancing and nervous system palming and it's a mood enhancer.
So there is some merit to it being in conversations about paramenopause.
Gut health is a big one, a lot of digestive issues as women are going through paramenopause.
And probiotics and prebiotics are one of those things that you think is kind of a no brainer.
And it was definitely growing, but what's interesting is when you look at women in the different phases of their life, women in paramenopause overindex for taking probiotics versus menstruating women or postmenopausal.
So there is some truth there that they realize they're having gut health issues and they're turning to probiotics and prebiotics.
I think it's also a good example of you're treating both a physical symptom and an emotional symptom because we talked a little bit about the NARCA.
Last week we had a webinar, and the mind-body, mind-gut connection is just becoming more commonplace to consumers, kind of making that choice of, I need to take care of my gut if my mental health is going to be taken care of as well.
So that's kind of interesting with paramedicopause as an area where those two things are coinciding.
No matter what your digestive issues are, if you can't address them, you're not going to be a very happy person.
Right, exactly.
Yeah.
No, and it's just interesting.
There's so many more stories and evidence showing that the gut health actually does impact so many different things.
A lot of inflammation issues, a lot of things that you are experiencing could actually be stemming from gut health issue.
I also know that I see weight management in that, in the picture above the gut health and probiotics and prebiotics.
How does weight management play into some of the data that you're seeing?
Because I mean, that's also of course a huge one.
Yeah.
So we've really focused in this discussion on the coinciding conversations with paramedipause and ingredients.
But when you just look at paramedipause and other conditions people talk about, obviously weight gain is a huge one.
Looking for weight loss options, it's so much harder.
Your metabolism is changing and it's harder to lose weight at that stage.
So we have seen weight loss or weight gain as a common condition that's being mentioned in this conversation, but also new innovations that are being showcased, like that Halle Berry one.
It's a probiotic that also has GLP properties.
Because there's acromandia in it.
Yes.
And it's being marketed towards paramedipausal women.
So it's kind of like the trifecta of all the things that we talk about with GLPs and paramedipause and women's health and gut health.
So that's definitely an important need that women are looking to solve for.
But it's also really important because it's like, how can I healthily lose weight or healthily stave off these issues?
Because I don't want to starve myself because I have all these other symptoms that I'm experiencing.
So you still need nutrition, you still need to grow your muscle mass to protect your body from getting injured and you're losing calcium.
So it's like, women need healthy ways to address that issue versus just less consumption.
Not eating anything.
I mean, this plays into that as well.
You can cut the number of calories that you're eating drastically and ramp up how much you're exercising.
But if you're in that period of very menopause to menopause, it may have no impact on any kind of weight management that you're trying to attack.
From my understanding, inflammation has something to do with that as well.
Are you also seeing inflammation come up as a need state for this women's health trend?
Absolutely.
I mean, inflammation is almost in everything.
When we look at any condition, any issue, any product, inflammation comes up a ton in conversations.
I think it's becoming part of our vernacular that we understand that, like, who knew that we would even say that word 10 years ago?
You know what I mean?
And we talk about it so much, but it is such a big factor.
And, like, nutrition changes that you can make.
I don't want to necessarily have to be taking some kind of painkiller for my inflammation.
It's what can my diet do to help me manage that?
And what can I incorporate into my diet that will help with my inflammation, whether it's, like, my inflammation is specific to a skin disease, like eczema kind of symptoms, or I have more aches and pains with arthritis coming in to the whole two.
And so a lot of people looking for those functional benefits in everything that they're consuming and the reducing of processed foods and that kind of thing just to help manage those issues.
Because we do see that.
Paraminopausal women look for products that have allergen free, dairy free.
We have a slide in here at the end that'll be really good for the brands.
It's like kind of a cheat sheet, but they want things that promote the free from additives, you know?
Which we know a lot of those are coinciding with issues like allergens and stuff like that.
This is a fun little chart like Kate mentioned that basically pits menstruating women versus paraminopausal women versus post-menopausal women, and where are they overindexed, and this is based on our consumer survey.
So it's really interesting to see what are the label claims, or the health claims that they're focused on, the need states, where are they overindexed for using certain supplements or products or ingredients.
And it is interesting because you need to adjust how you're marketing your products based on which segment you're going after.
This is, again, fascinating.
I'm going to read through some of these again so the folks who are listening can benefit as well.
I see in the menstruating column, women who are currently menstruating, the conditions include acne, ADHD, Crohn's, dysphasia, celiac, gluten sensitivity, and a nut allergy.
And some of the supplements that I see here are Baobab, Elethero Root, Chase Berry, Primrose, Maca.
And then in terms of the products, I see Tapache, Green Coffee, Sports Gummies, and Cava.
And then for the ingredients for this group, I see, what is HMB?
It helps with muscle retention.
It's often found in supplements for fitness.
It was like amongst the fitness community.
Post-workout.
Yeah, post-workout supplements, that kind of thing.
I see Tulsi, Turkey's Tail, Camu Camu, and Valerian.
So that's all of the information I see under menstruating women.
Then when we get to perimenopause, the symptoms triple.
Yeah.
Just a few of them.
I see endometriosis, insulin resistance, digestive issues, lactose intolerance, migraines, chronic pain, PTSD, nausea, eczema, psoriasis, insomnia.
I mean depression, obesity, anxiety.
And then in terms of the supplements, I see SAMI, HMB again, benfotamine, red clover, camu camu and charcoal.
And then for the products, I see HMB water, low alcohol spirit, CBD, kratom and non-alcoholic wine.
That's also such a good point.
I'm glad you have that on there.
We have such a huge portion of our audience who offer non-alcoholic beverages.
Again, I'm not sure that I've seen a ton of those brands market specifically to women who are in perimenopause, but cutting down on alcohol is, I think, one of the first things that I heard that can help.
Yeah, we saw amongst GenX women year over year, a 7% decline in wine usage reported in the survey.
So that's a huge group that uses wine.
When you think of GenX women, and wine comes to mind for what they're drinking.
So there's a huge opportunity there because we know a lot of the symptoms get exacerbated with alcohol consumption.
So if you are in the non-elk game or low-elk game, and you're not speaking to women experiencing paramenopause somehow, that's a low-hanging fruit option.
That's a great point.
We do a lot with people moving away, a lot of research, and we have a lot of reports about people starting to embrace no alcohol options and moving away from alcohol.
And it brings up the point that even if you're not going to develop a product or you don't currently have a product that might fit in a paramenopausal woman's life, this fact that this is blowing up and it's getting a spotlight and people are paying attention to it, it's going to shift usage of a lot of products.
It's going to shift a lot of the foods that they're eating or consuming.
It's definitely going to affect the alcohol consumption.
Like Kate mentioned, we already see it in our data.
So you have the older millennial and Gen X women that are starting to cut back on alcohol because they're starting to experience paramentopause.
And then we have Gen Z who's not even coming into the elk space because it's just not their thing.
So an industry like that is going to get hit hard.
So it's something to keep an eye on and understand what these women are experiencing and how it might shift their behaviors.
Because out of a macro trend, we do a lot of digging with the GLP ones.
And that too, it's going to shift a lot of people's behavior.
And you know, it occurs to me, it may be an opportunity not only for non-elk brands, but also for alcohol brands.
There may be certain kinds of alcohol or maybe functional ingredients that could be added.
There may be something else that could be done to make digesting the alcohol easier.
Because oftentimes, perhaps you would normally have two drinks, you just have one.
So it seems like an opportunity for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic products.
Yeah, definitely.
If you want to savor that one drink, like maybe there is an opportunity to just make sure that the women are reaching for your product, are feeling heard and spoken to.
And then we'll move on to the post-menopausal group.
I see a lot of the same symptoms that I see in perimenopause.
So again, that presents a really great opportunity to address a wide demographic with a few simple messaging tactics, marketing tactics, labeling claims, high cholesterol, cancer, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes, spinal cord disease.
I won't read all of them, but weight obviously is another issue.
And then in terms of the supplements, I see glucosamine, rhodiola, vision supplements for ingredients.
I see sauerkraut, beets, cottage cheese, diet soda, and crackers.
Any information that we should understand about the postmenopausal group versus menstruating and perimenopause?
I think what's interesting is the postmenopausal, as you see, not as many things over index.
And I think it's just, you know, they've done what they've done their whole lives and they're kind of set in their ways.
But if you look at perimenopausal women, they over index for the needs state and functional health.
So it goes back to that idea of taking control of your health, finding options outside traditional medicine, looking in the functional options, changing habits with food and beverage, or taking supplements to kind of help your overall health.
I think also like postmenopausal women, part of the baby boomer age group and above, they are more likely to be pragmatic about what they're doing.
So we see like a lot of the needs that they're willing to kind of go outside the box for are still pain relief.
So not as much focused on the mental health.
We know baby boomers are starting to become more part of the conversation and paying attention to their mental health, but just historically, they haven't had that opportunity to bring that into their lives in so many ways as millennials and Gen Xers and younger generations.
And so if you are trying to appeal to that group, which is still very important, make sure that your message is more pragmatic and has more of a tie to the exact symptoms that they're experiencing, that they're prioritizing in their lives and are willing to try alternative products for essentially.
So you've both presented such fascinating information that I think could help so many brands message to a specific group of people that really do need some support.
Do you have any advice around how should they pull keywords?
How should they understand which parts of what we've talked about today they can use directly in messaging, marketing, social media, that kind of thing?
I think it's about aligning what you're, you don't need to kind of come out the box with a bunch of new things.
I think what we learned from this example, here in Menopause is just one example of many examples that we can explore, but it doesn't mean that you have to create a new product.
It just means like looking at your audience differently, maybe if you have products that fit some of those needs states, know that that's a consumer that you can target in that way and appeal to people that are using different hashtags related to Paraminopause.
So things like Paraminopause, hormonal balance support, all of those are hashtags that are trending that have to do with this topic.
So, I think it's sometimes hard because it's like, it feels like you're boiling the ocean when you're looking at social media, and there's a lot of conversations out there in many ways that you can slice and dice it.
I think we often just try to find two different parameters to look at the intersection of.
So like a condition with an ingredient, you could do that with a condition and other conditions or claims.
So you pick a path and you find the areas that just relate to what you're currently doing and are an easy transition to finding a new consumer group to target.
And like this topic is so easy because it's like, there's a lot of different needs that women are experiencing.
So you just start incorporating some of those hashtags into your posts related to Paraminopause and that might get more eyes on your product.
And it doesn't require a ton of like formulation and you don't need to reach for the HMBs necessarily, which is super niche.
If you have Collagen, that's easy.
But I think it's just about looking at the consumers and kind of the whole picture of what they're experiencing and picking a lane, if that's helpful.
And I would say just keeping your finger on the pulse of what's going on with the consumers.
So important to keep track of their attitudes, their behaviors, their shopping behaviors, their perceptions, but I think social listening is a huge component and just making sure.
I know a lot of companies go on a reputation management route.
That's very important as well for their brand, but it's also understanding to the extent and actually putting numbers behind these conversations that are on social media.
So it's such like a huge focus group to mine insights.
And up until now, you could see different videos, but you didn't have numbers behind it.
And it's so great that we can actually see numbers behind to see how much it is growing or how significant the conversation really is.
Kate Stevenson, Julie Murphy of Brightfield Group.
I can't thank you enough for helping dive into this topic.
And I'm sure help so many brands out there who may already have some of the ingredients that we talked about today and just needed a little more information to help understand how to target this demographic.
So thank you so much for joining us today on Community Call.
It was such a pleasure to have you.
And we'll see you next time.
That concludes another episode of the Community Call podcast.
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