Food and beverage delivery have grabbed much of the cool factor attention in the sports nutrition market. However, the most bang for the buck is still in supplement form, which can deliver higher amounts of beneficial ingredients for building muscle and improving recovery/adaptations, among other body goals. Where supplement brands have a tougher task in innovating delivery—will gummies infiltrate the sports supplement space?—they can create unique products in areas such as formulation and flavor.
How is your brand innovating in the sports supplements market? NEXTY Awards at SupplySide West 2019 is a chance for such brands and products to win recognition for quality innovation.
Flavor licensing is one area where some brands are winning consumers. While pre-workouts that break free from the usual common citrus flavors to bring candy or mocktail flavors, for example. Protein powders that go beyond the Neopolitan ice cream flavors to bring a wider array of dessert (think pie) and indulgent flavors (e.g. crème brulee and hazelnut latte).
Industry market specialist Josh Schall, J. Schall Consulting, explained Man Sports first introduced flavors based on famous candy brands like Sour Patch Kids and Starburst, but the company had to use similar sounding names. Then Ghost Nutrition licensed actual consumer brands such Warheads, Swedish Fish and Chips Ahoy. Licensing flavors is part of what Schall calls creating an exclusive experience for consumers.
Schall and Ghost CEO Dan Lourenço will present during SupplySide West’s sports summit, Finding New Pathways in Sports Nutrition, on Wed. Oct. 16 in Las Vegas.
Novel and emerging ingredients may also help sports supplement brands standout. This is a bit harder to do on the protein side, even with the slight whey protein tweaks like native and grass-fed whey. New Hope’s NEXT data analysis (based on Expo West exhibitors) has shown a big dip in innovation in the whey, casein and milk protein categories, with more opportunity for these ingredients in food and beverage. Egg protein was the only animal protein showing positive innovation numbers in supplements. Most protein innovation activity in supplements was on the plant side, with pea and rice dominating and hemp lagging—a real opportunity area, NEXT said.
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