Author: Mintel Group Ltd.
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Immunity Management After COVID-19 - China - May 2020
Overview
 
What you need to know
Chinese urbanites continue to invest in proactive healthcare, while COVID-19 has fuelled mass consumer demand for better immunity management – expanding beyond medicines to include food therapies and lifestyle changes. Mintel expects this positive impact will continue over the long term.

In China, the majority of new product launches with an immune-related functional claim sit within the health supplements category, and are limited in food and drinks, leading to massive new product development opportunities via category expansion into more types of everyday food and drink products.

The majority of consumers now have a good understanding of the signs of low or poor immunity, and this has triggered demand for more product occasions than ever before – such as targeting skin problems for young consumers aged 18-39, or chronic diseases for older consumers aged 50-59. In addition to solving physical issues, brands could engage early middle-aged female consumers via products or services with stress and fatigue relief benefits.

When it comes to ingredients, COVID-19 has brought new growth opportunities for natural ingredients as “safer options”. Beyond popular ingredients that are the result of years of market education (eg multivitamins, ginseng, protein, probiotics and propolis), Mintel has identified a growing preference towards a broader range of botanicals (eg exotic botanicals such as quercetin and curcumin, in particular among more affluent people). This provides favourable market conditions for basic nutrition products to include botanicals as additional ingredients to boost nutritional value as well as natural perceptions.

Besides occasion expansion, Mintel has also identified market opportunities for integrated product-service solutions to meet consumers’ growing demand for professional guidelines regarding holistic immunity management – particularly about nutrition and fitness. Consumers place high trust in health experts such as doctors and accredited nutritionists while being cautious about information from online channels, newspaper/magazines and brand advertisements. This indicates that “being professional” has an indispensable role in the business. Brands could consider collaborating with health experts to increase credibility.

Key issues covered in this Report
●	Impact of COVID-19 on consumer demand and usage of immunity management products and services
●	How brands, companies and manufacturers could react to market opportunities and threats post-COVID-19
●	Understanding today’s consumers’ perceived definition of ‘poor immunity’
●	Consumers’ approaches to managing immunity and barriers for trial
●	Consumers’ interests in nutrients and botanical ingredients related to managing immunity

Report scope
This Report investigates consumers’ knowledge, behaviours and attitudes towards immunity management, as well as level of trust in different information sources related to health.

For the purposes of this Report, the following areas have been covered:

●	Lifestyle regime on managing immunity, including diet, exercise, sleep, personal hygiene habits, vaccination etc.
●	Micronutrients associated with immunity, such as vitamins, minerals, protein, probiotics etc.
●	Botanical ingredients associated with immunity, such as propolis, Ganoderma spore powder, cordyceps, green tea etc.

Excluded
Medical solutions to treat autoimmune diseases, such as hepatitis, HIV etc.

Subgroup definition
Mintel divides consumers into three groups based on their MHI (Monthly Household Income).

FIGURE 1: Definition of low/mid/high MHI groups, by monthly household income and city tier
 
| Sample Size | Tier one cities | Tier two, three or lower cities
Low MHI | 1,046 | RMB6,000-9,999 | RMB5,000-8,999
Mid MHI | 1,101 | RMB10,000-17,999 | RMB9,000-15,999
High MHI | 1,153 | RMB18,000 or above | RMB16,000 or above

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