In recognition of international women’s day, Lumina has taken a deep-dive into its sports nutrition data to see how women’s products are faring in terms of product availability, consumers engagement and reviews.
Its findings were somewhat bleak.
Thomas Morgan, market analyst for Lumina Intelligence, told NutraIngredients that from the over 4,000 products captured, just 2.1% targeted women.
“In sports nutrition overall, consumers are not happy with women’s products. They get less engagement overall, they get lower scores, and the majority of products aren’t really connecting with their target audience.
“Problems endemic in sports nutrition, like transparency in labelling, are magnified in women’s products as brands are hiding their ingredient levels in proprietary blends".
The research shows that women’s pre-workouts are less likely to announce ingredients levels eg. 75.6% of pre-workout blends state beta-alanine levels, yet only 37.5% of women’s products do this.
Another issue revealed by Lumina is that smaller serving sizes are leaving women wanting more.
“More generic problems for women’s products, like pinking and shrinking, are also evident,” Tom explains.
“The pink-and-shrink effect is well known, especially so in the online world. Women are hesitant to engage with products that they think are ripping them off, and as such are going for products targeting a more generic audience.
“As #strongnotskinny and #fitspiration take off, for a brand targeting women to succeed, they need to have the trust of the consumer. In us as a society, women are more empowered than ever before. Products in the gym just need to reflect the gains that we are making.”
