Health and wellness grew to become a priority for many consumers in the Asia Pacific region during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and new data from analytics firm NielsenIQ indicates that this is unlikely to change any time soon.
“Our research shows that 53% of APAC consumers are consciously trying to improve their health, and this is one of the few areas where they are open to increase spending on in the coming year,” NielsenIQ Executive Director Craig Houliston told the floor at our Growth Asia Summit 2025 held in Singapore.
“That said, we have also found that food prices are consistently one of the top three concerns in almost all markets in this region apart from China, coming in as the top concern in most countries, so product affordability is naturally going to be an important factor here.”
As such, he advised all companies in the food and nutrition space to adjust their innovation and growth strategies accordingly by giving precedence to those focused on ‘Wealth + Health’.
“The only way to grow is for companies to understand what consumers really want and how it impacts their businesses, [and the fact is that] consumers want food and nutrition products that can enhance their health but also want these to be affordable,” he said.
“The demand for this link between health and wealth is strongly supported by the data – when asked how manufacturers and retailers can help to drive healthier diets, 65% of APAC consumers responded that they should make healthier products more affordable.”
This change is already fairly visible in both the supplements and FMCG foods space, with supplement brands entering discount outlets such as Daiso, and functional foods and drinks becoming increasingly common on supermarket shelves.
“Everyday, affordable health is going to be the key opportunity and growth battlefield for food and nutrition – this will be the sweet spot that brings affordability, health, value-for-money and convenience together for consumers,” Houliston added.
“A good example of this is PepsiCo’s recent acquisition of prebiotic beverage brand Poppi – this is a functional drink but demand has become high so Pepsico bought it, and this will boost the affordability and availability of Poppi further.”
In short, the message is clear: Brands and retailers cannot sit on their laurels and hope to continue success or survival based on strategies used in the past, but need to incorporate much more proactive measure that combine health and wealth as key components.
Localisation also affordability-driven
The pandemic also brought out localisation and purchasing local products as a fast-growing industry trend, but NielsenIQ has found that a lot of consumer choice in this area is also being driven by affordability and lower prices.
“Since 2022 we have seen more and more APAC consumers choosing local products for their purchases, with this growing at 0.5% yearly – but the driver behind this is not nationalism as many might assume, but in fact because these products are cheaper,” he added.
“The only exception to this rule is South Korea, where 81% of consumers choose to buy local because they feel local product quality is better, and not driven by pricing.”
Premiumisation can drive mass market products
NielsenIQ also foresees increasing polarisation of the consumer market in APAC, meaning that solely focusing on the mainstream market may no longer be a sustainable growth strategy.
“It’s often said that innovating for the mainstream market is most important, but our data shows that this is changing – we see a bifurcation in APAC in terms of consumer finances, where large proportions believe they will either be better or worse off by this time next year, so it is luxury and economy products that will be increasingly important,” Houliston said.
“This polarisation of the market means that companies need to redefine value, and their product assortments need to match these shifts in consumer demands.”
He added the growth of premiumisation also has the potential to help mass market, economical products grow, for example via the creation of ‘dupe’ products.
“We’ve seen dupes perform well in categories like personal care, where a dupe brand found the top SKU of a luxury brand like Laneige and found a trademark lawyer to replicate the product as far as possible without breaking the law – then selling this at far lower prices than the original,” he said.
“This is an example of how a mass market product managed to find significant success in a premiumising economy, and we are certain that this will be seen in other categories as well.”
The top categories in which consumers are willing to pay a premium for are: Health, pets and beauty and cosmetics, highlighting opportunity in these areas for innovation.