More consumers than ever before are engaged in health and wellness, and regardless of how you look at the research, one fact is undeniably clear: women dominate the wellness market, comprising 80 percent of all wellness consumers. Not only are women the primary consumers of wellness products and services—accounting for over $60 billion in annual household spending, excluding prescriptions and over-the-counter medications, according to the Hartman Group’s 2002 report “Women’s Wellness: Identifying Women’s Wellness Trends”—they are also a powerful influential force to get others involved in wellness.
Historically, women have shaped the scope and depth of the wellness arena through their ongoing interest in new health information, commitment to wellness products and channels, and traditional involvement in social networks and community-building. Women are charting new territory today through their desire to increase knowledge and use of health and wellness products. Their tendency to respond rapidly to cultural shifts and trends shapes and defines the wellness marketplace.
It is often assumed women share common interests, goals and ideals; however, research shows consumers vary dramatically in different stages of their lives (i.e., single college student, busy professional, new mom, empty nester, retired grandmother, etc.) lifestyle orientations; and the communities and local institutions of which they are a part. It is important to identify how women differ and how they describe their differences in order to better understand the challenges American women face.
Women go to great lengths to articulate how they are unique and how they find their own identities as a precursor to celebrating what they share with others. Health and wellness consumption plays an integral role in expressing these distinctions, as well as in helping to create community with and between other women.
Women today seek to express their identities and voices through personal choices, unique experiences and strategies for re-invention. Women’s wellness consumption is increasingly motivated by less tangible, emotional states. Now a mix of new anxieties about aging and well-being, valiant efforts to create and sustain hope, and the broadening impact of traditional American self-improvement are playing a much more significant role in women’s wellness consumption.
Challenges to Achieving the ‘Good Life’
In years past, engagement in wellness was largely due women’s need to take back control of their personal health and the health of their families. The Hartman Group initially identified this type of behavior in 2000 and saw it intensify by 2005. This year, we have witnessed the emergence of another underlying motivation. Consumers are reclaiming control over their health and wellness in order to achieve “quality life experiences.” These experiences include being fully engaged in life, having fun, enjoying authentic experiences, not living with restriction or denial, and permitting play and imagination.
Interestingly, industry (e.g., food and beverage manufacturers) and social institutions (e.g., medical institutions) rarely perceive consumers as consumers perceive themselves. For instance, while industry and institutions view consumers as obese and at risk for multiple health conditions and illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, consumers rarely share that view, despite objective evidence such as health statistics. Consumers are inclined to see others, and society at large, as struggling with weight issues and predispositions to illness. Consumers may acknowledge they could “lose a few pounds” to benefit their health, but seldom do they admit serious risks.
This is not to say condition management and illness prevention are unimportant. They are salient to the extent that consumers do not want to be encumbered with poor health. Less an end goal in itself, illness management and prevention is a means to a greater and more appealing quality of life. The more compelling reason to participate in health and wellness today is acquiring “the good life.” More consumers want to be healthy so they can enjoy life today and into tomorrow; freedom from illness, once a strong motivator, is now a necessary and expected condition of modern life.
