Latest Trends in Sports Nutrition: The Athlete Incubator Project

What is the next trend in sports nutrition? In October of 2021 Fonterra embarked on a 12-month long sports nutrition innovation journey in the form of the Athlete Incubator Project; a consumer research exercise to inform future performance nutrition innovations and concept design.

This journey originated when reviewing the state of the sports and performance nutrition market in 2021. There was data suggesting that the previous strong growth and innovation was starting to slow as the number of new products launched globally had declined in 2021 (1). 

With a crowded protein shelf, and a stable but arguably stagnant sports nutrition category, it was clear that there was a need to innovate to drive differentiation and growth in this space.

The Athlete Influence: Establishing the Athlete Incubator Project

Athletes often have a significant influence on popular trends, including nutrition. Because of this, athletes are widely acknowledged as first movers in performance nutrition as they seek to optimize their diets and fuel their bodies with the latest and greatest nutrition to get results; pioneering many now mainstream trends such as high-protein diets or specific eating patterns like intermittent fasting. So, for nutrition brands, athletes are a demographic to watch for inspiration on the next moves to make in the performance nutrition category.
 

To ensure that innovation is customer-centric, there is a need to gain nuanced understanding of athletes’ needs, challenges, perspectives, and behaviours in sports nutrition, whilst working with them throughout the innovation process. The intention being, to unlock the next trends and growth catalysts in the performance nutrition space.

For athletes, nutrition is one of four critical enablers of performing at their best – alongside a robust training programme, mental resilience, and quality sleep. 

To achieve a deeper understanding of the athlete demographic and their nutritional needs and product preferences the Fonterra Athlete Incubator Project was established and divided into three phases:

Each of these phases provided indepth insight into the athlete demographic with valuable opportunitiy identification and key learnings about the next potential growth drivers for sports nutrition. 

These project insights, conclusions and result findings are shared alongside five new tailored performance nutrition concepts designed to address key opportunities and drive growth in the sports nutrition category. 
 

Unlock these insights and more by downloading the Fonterra Athlete Incubator Whitepaper or contact us.