In business, being able to anticipate what the next big product or service will be and reacting quickly to consumer trends is crucial. Whether you are producing kitchen appliances or children’s snacks, a capacity to understand what the market wants now and in the future will give you the edge over your competitors. Being able to develop and manufacture these products quickly will also give you a competitive edge.
Working in the ever-evolving world of health and nutrition, the need to be agile touches on everything we do at Nourished, but the lessons I have learnt as CEO and founder could just as easily apply to other types of companies. Customer preferences, emerging research, and social attitudes can shift rapidly, and any business needs to adapt to remain relevant.
When operating in any industry you should constantly be aware of new social trends, such as a desire for greater sustainability or smaller. Our teams at Nourished are constantly monitoring the health and beauty press, social media, influencers and TV, as well as speaking with customers. What we learn from them is a key launching point for product development.
It has allowed us to pick up on the rise in popularity of certain slimming methods, for example. This led us to create a nutrition gummy, the Slimming Support stack, that ensures dieters aren’t missing out on certain vitamins and minerals that may be lacking during a weight-loss regime. We also noticed that collagen and healthy ageing products have gained significant momentum over the last few years. After sourcing Ovoderm, an ethical, high-quality vegetarian collagen ingredient, we launched the Collagen+ range to cater for people who want to boost their agility, skin and nail condition, energy and joint health.
But it’s important for all companies to create products that don’t just follow fads, are backed by strong science and offer something to consumers that will endure long after a trend has fallen away. For the Slimming Support stack, we commissioned independent research to discover what nutrients people really needed as part of any healthy, well-managed weight-loss programme, for instance.
Since launching four years ago, Nourished has moved into many different foreign markets, including Japan, the US and France. This has meant developing products that suit local, rather than just UK, needs. Market research and working with overseas partners who understand the desires of local consumers, such as European pharmaceutical firm UPSA, has been extremely important.
We constantly review the latest scientific studies to make sure our existing line-up of products and ingredients remains relevant and is of the highest quality possible. When new research emerged about the substantial effects of Vitamin D3 on immunity, for instance, we enhanced this ingredient so that this selection could offer even greater potential health benefits to customers.
Providing great, attentive customer service and analysing feedback should be a key part of a company’s attempt to produce leading-edge products, too. Our online, personalised quiz allows us to directly communicate with consumers and provide them with a targeted stack recommendation that will meet their particular health needs – from combatting potential heart issues to poor sleep. This quiz data also allows us to see patterns in lifestyles and health concerns, which can identify trends before other companies and even sometimes before academic researchers.
Our customer service team engages with customers daily, allowing us to gather further direct insights and feedback in real-time. We regularly conduct customer surveys to gain feedback on their experiences with our products. For example, before launching our Collagen+ range, we ran a trial with selected customers to assess the stacks’ effectiveness.
Some firms may not have quite as many customer-interaction mechanisms as Nourished, but review platforms, such as Reviews.IO, are also very helpful to see how your goods could be improved. Everything from talking to people at trade shows to looking at social media feedback is also very valuable.
The ability to be agile in your product development also comes from your company’s manufacturing and other internal processes. Unlike most of our nutrition competitors, we manufacture our own goods. Our patented 3D printing technology allows us to create on-demand, personalised nutrient stacks very quickly. It also allows us to adjust products in response to feedback or new research without the lengthy lead times often seen in traditional manufacturing.
Additionally, our close-knit, dedicated team and vertically integrated supply chain give us complete control over every aspect of production, allowing us to experiment, tweak formulas and create limited-edition products rapidly. For instance, after research indicated that some customers prefer smaller stacks, we quickly launched a limited edition mini-stack range.
Keeping as much control over your manufacturing methods and influence over your suppliers as possible can come with big upfront costs and complex negotiations. But these problems may well be outweighed by the advantages you get in being able to respond to the market quicker than other companies.
