Lessons learned: Consideration of nutritional deficiencies
Through evolution, companies have entered and exited the market. What courses do they offer for industrial development?
In a webinar titled ‘Failures, F*Ups and the Future of Whole Foods’ organized by the Qina platform this week, consultants discussed the circumstances that led to the closure of companies they were part of. of them.
Niche audience?.
Nard Clabbers is the founder of NCNC Nutrition Consultancy based in the Netherlands. He created Happ, an end-to-end app that provided a platform for companies to provide consumers with access to a variety of nutrition providers and services.
“We found that it wasn’t easy to do that because you need to have a lot of partners on the platform to be relevant,” he said. “It would take a lot of time and money to bridge the gap in time from where we had to have a viable platform with a viable business model.”
The company created small initiatives that would feed into the larger platform to bridge the gap, but it meant that the organization was widespread.
There was a place for Happ in the nutrition environment, Clabbers added, but the company’s investment wasn’t enough for the time needed to build the infrastructure. Happ.
Clabbers also advises that one good business strategy is not to be all things to all people, as Happ initially targeted the general public.
“It’s very difficult to have such a wide audience,” he said. “It’s definitely possible, and it can be successful, but it takes time and a lot of money to get there.”
He said: “We were working on many new routes. When the funding stopped, that was a very quick end. ”
Getting people to pay 5 to 10 euros a month for a nutritional app is also a drawback, Clabbers said. They may be willing to pay initially, but to get customers to do so in one to three years, “you really need to explain what the benefits are throughout that customer journey.”
Joshua Anthony, founder and CEO of Nlumn, was the founding chief science officer at former nutrition company Habit, which he says is one of his proudest career experiences. home. Although the company has had some “surprises along the way,” Anthony says the lessons he’s learned from it continue to inform his consulting work.
“We positioned ourselves as the first nutritional testing company, and the way Habit worked was we had testing tools that combined biomarkers, genes genetics and questionnaire.”
People would take the tests, get their results after a few weeks, and then be paired with a nutritionist to guide them through an individualized plan, based on their macronutrient and total caloric intake. At that time the company experimented with new personalized meals, which Anthony noted were popular.
However, he said that although Habit was building the latest test at the time, the $300 equipment was expensive, creating barriers to entry. The company also needed to start slowly with customers, which was difficult to do when users were asked to provide their DNA and blood samples.
“I mean, it took hours to take the tests, weeks to get the information back, and for some customers, they felt the information wasn’t as personal as it could be,” he explained. “In some cases, this was because of the laws or because of us improving our message. It was a mistake. ”
Investing in value.
Sometimes companies provide information that consumers already know. For example, journalist Loek Pijls, founding director of LookintoFood, said that the platform may have all the right features and a functional tool, but to make customers buy the service, they have to be told to change their lifestyles. a way they don’t already know.
“From the point of view of scientific nutrition, if a person already knows a lot about what to eat, he probably eats his vegetables and plants and grains, not animal fats and things everything,” he said. “What is ‘personalization’ if people eat according to these standard dietary rules? If they already adhere to them, follow them, what can [companies] then you add?”
Anthony responded by explaining that when he was part of Habit, the company conducted a clinical study, and found that people were eating more consistently and following dietary guidelines in general.
“I think that’s an important part because people often think that nutrition can go against dietary guidelines,” he said. “And, of course, we saw a 20% reduction in sodium intake, a 20% reduction in sugar, an increase in fiber, an increase in fruits and vegetables, which was good. We also saw changes positive in terms of things like weight loss, body composition, changes in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol.”
Anthony added: “What we see with consumer research is that people are still looking [broader] health solutions. Is it food or supplements? Is it food or attention? And of course where consumers are today they want that whole and complete picture. You still have to start small, but if you’re on a program and you’ve been following a diet, most of the time, it probably won’t be enough. ”
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