
APAC: Herbalife’s Asia-Pacific Health Priority Survey of 5,504 consumers aged 18-78 years across 11 APAC markets reveals that 77% became more health-conscious, owing to the pandemic. Some 72% are willing to increase their spending related to health & wellness, particularly in Vietnam (95%), the Philippines (90%), Indonesia (86%) and Taiwan (85%).
Respondents shared how they would like to use their increased expenditure to make healthier food choices (65%), purchase / consume dietary supplements (52%), go for regular health check-ups (48%), engage experts for advice (28%), and seek mental health consultation (25%). Improved overall health (51%), better sleep (46%) and enhanced immunity (46%) are the Top 3 health goals, followed by improving eating habits (42%) and mental health (40%).

Nicholas Hall Writes: I haven’t seen the Herbalife questionnaire submitted to more than 5,000 consumers in Asia, but at face value the results are both predictable and also provide a simple script for CHC growth in the region and globally. Consumers told Herbalife that they are more health conscious since the pandemic and willing to spend more on improving their health. The direction this would take favours self-care very much, whether it be healthy eating or purchasing dietary supplements, with the role of HCPs relatively unimportant. Improving sleep and greater immunity were the most desired outcomes.
As I’ve written before, sleep comes up time and time again, and we have some impressive growth brands in the world, such as P&G’s ZzzQuil, but we do not yet have the ideal product, even in the pharma market, in the sense of being effective but not addictive. The ideal sleep remedy sends you to sleep; keeps you asleep; overcomes nocturia, the biggest source of waking up in the night; and ensures that when you do wake up you feel refreshed and can get on with your day. Whoever brings a brand like this to market will have a licence to print money.
Immunity is another matter and we have some evidence from the recent past that shows how this plays out. Consumers in the first year of the pandemic spent some of their disposable income on multivitamins and other general immunity products, but not on antiviral sprays such as ColdZyme and Vicks First Defence. As I’ve said repeatedly, if brands like these cannot succeed during a pandemic when can they? And immune supplements like Sambucol, well known to be a favourite brand of mine, had stunning growth at the beginning of Covid-19, but then evened out as the pandemic ran its course. In the rush to bank innovation mega-profits, the company that cracks the code on immunity in terms of product, benefits and communications will stand just behind the sleep-aid entrepreneur in the queue.
Nicholas will explore the challenges and opportunities mental health and wellness pose for the CHC industry, as well as other crucial topics in his upcoming signature New Paradigms report. To explore full coverage, pre-order your copy at a discounted rate, or to find out more about optional add-on presentations and quarterly updates, please contact melissa.lee@NicholasHall.com.