Sodexo, Global Marketing Vice President: How Functional Nutrition Opens Up Marketing Opportunities
07 Oct, 2022
Libby Escolme, Sodexo's Global Marketing Vice President, argues that as we become more aware of how nutrition impacts our performance and our well-being, marketing opportunities grow and evolve as well, in the latest episode of MAD//Fest's partner podcast, Shiny New Object.
Having worked across B2B and B2C marketing in hospitality, retail, FMCG and property, Libby Escolme is now the Global Marketing Vice President and a keen follower of trends in functional nutrition – her Shiny New Object. As we become more aware of how nutrition impacts our performance and our well-being, Libby argues that marketing opportunities grow and evolve as well.
Brands like Deliciously Ella are becoming increasingly popular as they harness the trend of functional nutrition and respond to the needs of consumers today. Libby believes that individuals and organisations alike are starting to see the impact of nutrition on all aspects of their lives and performance, and with this comes a huge range of marketing opportunities – especially in terms of product development.
We all have this ship called our body that we have to look after
What we eat is infinitely more connected to how we feel than you might expect. As a result, the big question is how to help ourselves to feel good, live longer and think better, through better nutrition choices. This is a question that consumers are beginning to ask more and more, perhaps as a by-product of the lockdowns and the pandemic. So, brands that pay attention to solving this riddle and create products that respond to market needs are going to be successful.
Be more issue oriented
Brands that try to match products to what people are looking for, including from a holistic health perspective, are going to achieve more sales and more loyalty. The question should be: what problem are their products solving? Issues like brain fog, low energy, or bad sleep are all actively being researched. There is a lot of targeting that brands can do from a marketing perspective, to actually help people to make positive changes.
Organisations are making functional nutrition a priority
The interest in holistic health and how that is impacted by our inputs goes beyond a personal preoccupation. Organisations are understanding that, along with caring about how people identify with the company culture, looking after their team’s wellness is correlated with better performance and retention. Investing in people at the earlier stages to help them feel better will yield lots of benefits down the line.
The host of the Shiny New Object podcast is Tom Ollerton, founder of Automated Creative.