Schuyler Rooth, Content Manager
What does “health and wellness” really mean? It isn’t just your annual checkup anymore. It’s a more accessible, phone-friendly, and aspirational part of our lives, fitting right into our personal narratives of self-care, image and overall well-being. It’s a few steps from the Richard Simmons videos of decades past, but the pitch from brands remains the same: Our products will improve your physical and mental health, and you’ll become a better version of yourself in the process.
Smart health and wellness brands have honed their messages further, putting the customer's well-being front and center. These narratives aren’t fad-focused. They are about longer-term goals and outcomes like taking medications, exercising and remembering to just…breathe. And the best version of each person is unique. This is why, in the third installment of Brands That Are Changing The Narrative, we’re taking a look at brands who are have recognized this and crafted strategic and engaging narratives to build a healthy customer base.
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Take Your Vitamins
Care/of & Ritual
Vitamin supplements are old news in the health and wellness community – but because of the overwhelming volume of information out there, it’s hard to know where to begin. Recently, several future-focused brands have started revolutionizing the way audiences purchase and consume vitamins. Supplements, meet home delivery. Brands like Care/of and Ritual offer monthly subscription plans to customers who are seeking a more personalized experience, much like a doctor’s prescription. As part of Care/of’s personalization process, users take a five-minute survey about their lifestyle and health goals, allowing the brand to personally tailor a vitamin plan for each individual. In addition to personalization, the brand also provides research-backed benefits behind the vitamins it recommends, something you’ll be hard-pressed to find on the nutritional facts label.
Relax Your Mind, Find Your Center
Headspace
Meditation: another age-old practice in health, wellness and spirituality circles. Recently, meditation has experienced a surge in popularity due to social media and apps. Headspace is a prime example of a brand that’s taking the anxiety-alleviating practice known for its transformative healing powers and pulling it into our tech-heavy present. The app is providing a new narrative for meditation: don’t be intimidated by the practice, we’ll help you find your calm. Headspace capitalizes on this idea: 5-10 minutes of meditation per day can lead to a greater sense of calm, focus and compassion. The low time commitment and high reward potential evoke a feeling of reassurance in users. Headspace rewrote the meditation narrative, making it easily and instantly accessible to an audience that might traditionally stray away from it.
Endorphins Make People Happy:
Nike, Strava, Aaptiv
Workout apps have become increasingly popular since our smartphones become welded to our hands. Access to hundreds of workouts and trackable data is at our fingertips. Brands like Nike know how important data is to athletes these days. The Nike+ Run Club app helps users customize their workout plans, track their progress and prepare for events. What’s more, many of the workouts within the app come with motivational cheers from famous athletes and public figures. Nike, along with apps like Strava (for running and cycling) and Aaptiv (for audio and video-guided fitness classes), is appealing to tech lovers who crave variety and whose favorite workout companion is their smartphone. These apps encourage users to believe that the journey to fitness is a marathon, not a sprint.
Wellness: It’s A Lifestyle
Goop
There are hundreds of blogs and lifestyles that are capitalizing on the surge in popularity of health and wellness. The term “self-care” has become a blanket term for many forms of lifestyle maintenance. A holistic approach to health and wellness is very en vogue right now.
Enter, Goop, a multidimensional lifestyle brand and the brainchild of actress Gwyneth Paltrow. While Goop has many critics (customers, fellow celebrities, doctors, major news outlets, the list goes on) and the efficacy of its products is questionable at best, Goop has gotten something right: aspiration. Goop falls at the intersection of wellness, style and spirituality and its success is a direct result of our infatuation with wellness as a lifestyle. At the end of the day, the brand has a lot of haters. But Goop has one thing down: a unique, alluring, aspirational brand voice that leads its readers/customers into a “must have” mindset.
Final Word
Being in tune with your physical, mental, and spiritual body is all the rage right now, and it probably won’t go out of style anytime soon. Successful brands in the health and wellness space will do best to provide their audience with aspirational content, easy access to results and the tools to look good while embracing a healthy lifestyle.
