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Now that you have a grasp on the concept of health and wellness it’s time to understand the health and wellness industry from a commerce point of view. This is important as The AIM Companies™ is one of the key players within the Health and Wellness sector, so understanding what fuels this industry will help you better educate your audience by supplying them with facts and stats that are difficult to counter-argue.
The Trillion Dollar industry
To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. Health and wellness have been a major concern from earliest times. As populations increased over the years, communal living and inadequate nutrition provided formidable health barriers to overcome. Fortunately, in the last 150 years, we have made a huge leap in our knowledge and quest for healthier living. In today’s world, we strive to better understand the correlation between health, wellness and fitness – This is the rise and continuous growth of the health and wellness industry.
Today the health and wellness industry has an estimated global worth in excess of $3.7 trillion and boasts with double-digit annual growth across all wellness sectors since 2010. This makes the “wellness industry “one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries” today.
Key sectors that make up the Health and Wellness industry include:
- Beauty & Anti-Aging
- Healthy Eating, Nutrition & Weight Loss
- Wellness Tourism
- Fitness & Mind-Body
- Preventative & Personalized Medicine and Public Health
- Complementary & Alternative Medicine
- Wellness Lifestyle Real Estate
- Spa Industry
- Thermal/Mineral Springs
- Workplace Wellness
Take a look at the following graph and see how large the wellness industry is globally.
Source: global wellness institute www.gloabalwellnessinstitute.org
Joining the dots: Take note that The AIM Companies™ products, business opportunity and networking structure makes The AIM Companies™ a key contributor in the following categories:
- Healthy Eating, Nutrition & Weight Loss
- Preventative & Personalized Medicine and Public Health
- Complementary & Alternative Medicine
- Workplace Wellness
Chrysalis Tip
Knowing and sharing the size of the industry and the sectors that make up the industry and overlaying what big cross section The AIM Companies™ actually covers, can make a sound argument for why people should join an industry and company that shows this kind of growth.
Eg: “The estimated size of the Wellness industry is over $3.7 trillion with double digit growth since 2010. The AIM Companies™ is testimony to this with annual revenue growing each year. Show me any businessman or woman who does not want to be part of an industry and company yielding these kind of results”
Later in this course you will be exposed to more facts about The AIM Companies™ their opportunity and products, which will help you further, make the connection between the 4 sectors explained above and how The AIM Companies™ offers a solution within these in relation to the 8 dimensions of wellness. Are you starting to see a bigger picture?
Factors influencing industry growth
In 2008, the world saw one of the worst economic crises in history. The global financial crisis hit many industries hard. Ever since, the world economy has grown at snail pace. Nearly ten years on, some industries are still fighting for breath. Some never recovered.
So how did the wellness industry manage not only to survive the crisis but also to prosper against all the odds? Let’s have a look at some key factors driving this.
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Rise of lifestyle-related illness
Compared to previous generations, the modern population is more sedentary – we spend hours watching television and sitting in front of computers, rather than being constantly physically active at home and at work. We’re also unhealthy eaters. Not only do we overeat, the food we eat is poorer quality – a typical modern diet includes chemicals, preservatives, additives, fast-food and processed foods. We do anything we can to save time on food preparation, grabbing the nearest takeaway, pre-made sandwich or candy bar while on the run, at home with family or at work.
These poor modern lifestyle choices have dire consequences on our health. In 2014, nearly 40% of adults (over 18) were overweight. As for the US only, that number stands at 70%, making it the country with the most overweight people in the world. Stress, mental illness and disease are also at an all-time high. According to the latest South African Demographic and Health Survey, almost 70% of local women are either overweight or obese. The country has the highest rates for women in Africa. More alarmingly 13% of South African children are overweight or obese which is more than double the global average of 5%. Data from 2015-2016 show that nearly 1 in 5 school age children in the USA have obesity.
As a consequence of the alarming state of global health, both supply and demand for services and products that promote good health have increased exponentially. As the number of individuals looking for ways to improve their overall health increases, so does the number of businesses capitalizing on opportunity.
Take the modern organic movement, for example. In the last ten years, amongst the growing awareness of the health risks involved with using pesticides, the market need for organic products, such as foods and cosmetics, has grown rapidly. The number of businesses offering organic products have multiplied and will continue to do so. The organic foods market is predicted to grow 16.7% over the next five years, hitting $212 billion by 2020.
Chrysalis Tip
If you look at your own life – how much of the things that negatively affect any aspect of your health or wellness could you attribute toward your lifestyle choices?
Using your own experiences is a nice way to personalize your journey and story with the audience.
Influence of the social media health and fitness movement
Recently, health and fitness have become a social media phenomenon. Whether we like it or not, social media has given a platform to health and fitness professionals and nonprofessionals alike to share their knowledge and advice with the 2.5 billion social media users worldwide. Whether the information they offer is reliable or not, social media influencers are one of the driving forces behind the success of the health and fitness industry.
Social context strongly influences human behavior. The huge number of health and fitness influencers on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter normalize exercise and healthy eating and motivate people to follow suit. Image-conscious millennials who use social media more than any other generation are strongly influenced by what celebrities, friends and the general public, buffed and filtered to perfection, post on their profiles. And as social media becomes more disruptive, increasingly used by businesses as an advertising tool, it’s becoming difficult to ignore the constant stream of messages that encourage us to subscribe to a fitness blog, invest in a workout program or buy a pair of training shoes.
Social media has also opened doors to fitness enthusiasts wanting to create a business out of their passion. Influencers such as Kayla Itsines have used social media to build hugely successful brands. After just 12 months of blogging about fitness and nutrition on Instagram, Kayla now has around 1.7 million Instagram followers and an estimated worth of $46 million.
Chrysalis Tip
Food for thought: Social Media has changed and will continue to change the world and how we live in it. How are you utilizing social media in your personal life and in your business? If you want to know more about how to harness social media you are at the right place, but easy does it, let’s build your knowledge foundation first.
What and how you communicate is more important than where you communicate.
Information at your fingertips and awareness
Aside from social media, there’s a wealth of information out there that aims to educate the general public about health.
There’s a growing number of public health initiatives that promote healthy living. With an increased public awareness about how to lead a healthy life, many people are now treating themselves rather than visiting a doctor or paying for a personal trainer.
The media in general also plays a significant role in driving the health and fitness phenomenon. For example, magazines with dedicated health and fitness columns or supplements. On the web, we’ve got online health and fitness forums, nearly 8,000 fitness apps available to download and, of course, Google –– the search engine that can answer any health and fitness question you have.
Chrysalis Tip
Engaging with your audience:
Who has googled a symptom they might have or cause of a certain negative or unwanted health or wellness related issue?
Who has ever googled for answers on how to approach a tough circumstance you might have at family level, relationship level or work level?
Who here has some sort of fitness or healthy related app on their phone?
Gauge your audience and make the connection. If they answered yes to any of these you’ve made your point on why this industry will continue to grow.
A shift in attitude towards health care
Medical professionals traditionally practice curative medicine –– that is, they seek to cure existing medical conditions. However, preventative health care started to become more popular in the medical world in the 60s and 70s, and is now a fairly common modern practice.
The rise in popularity of preventative methods in the health world is also one of the reasons for the staggering popularity of alternative, non-traditional medicines. These practices have existed for centuries, but have skyrocketed in popularity in the past few decades.
So what does this mean for the health and fitness market? There’s now a constant high demand across all sectors of the health and fitness industry, from fitness facilities and classes, alternative medicines to nutrition. It also means plenty of opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs looking to get involved in this highly lucrative industry.
An industry fueled by consumers
Many factors play a part in making the health and fitness industry the success it is today. But there’s one thing that unites them all: changing consumer behavior. Consumers are more informed about health risks and the importance of maintaining good health and businesses are responding by filling the many gaps in an ever-expanding market.