---
title: "The Advanced \"Health Preservation 2.0\" Era: How Can Food Brands Leverage a Trillion-Yuan Market?"
description: "The once-popular \"punk health preservation\" among young people, characterized by behaviors like staying up late while applying face masks and drinking cola with goji berries, reflected their self-deprecation and helplessness. Now, young consumers are embracing a more advanced \"Health Preservation 2.0\" era, focusing on healthier diets, lifestyle choices, and brand preferences, presenting new opportunities and challenges for brands."
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published: "2021-05-17"
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# The Advanced "Health Preservation 2.0" Era: How Can Food Brands Leverage a Trillion-Yuan Market?

> The once-popular "punk health preservation" among young people, characterized by behaviors like staying up late while applying face masks and drinking cola with goji berries, reflected their self-deprecation and helplessness. Now, young consumers are embracing a more advanced "Health Preservation 2.0" era, focusing on healthier diets, lifestyle choices, and brand preferences, presenting new opportunities and challenges for brands.

"Staying up late and applying a face mask, drinking cola with goji berries..." The "punk health preservation" that was prevalent a few years ago actually reflected more of young people's self-deprecation and helplessness. This approach of "consuming while compensating" can be tentatively called the "Health Preservation 1.0 Era."
Now, young people have new perceptions and practices regarding health and wellness: in diet, they emphasize zero sugar, light salt, and low fat, eating healthier from the source; in lifestyle, various offline "health preservation gatherings" are emerging, such as food therapy, tea talks, and SPA; in brand selection, they prefer high aesthetics, national trend styles, and ready-to-eat products... **The advanced "Health Preservation 2.0 Era" is coming.**
According to data from the "2017-2022 China Health and Wellness Industry Market Development Status and Investment Prospect Forecast Report," the current health and wellness market in China has exceeded one trillion yuan, with each urban resident spending an average of over 1,000 yuan annually on health and wellness, and young people aged 18-35 accounting for as high as 83.7%.
Young consumer groups are rightfully and actively becoming the main force in health and wellness consumption.
Young people are increasingly valuing daily health preservation. Image source: Huaren Health Network
**The successive emergence of new brands focusing on specific categories represents the pain points and opportunities of this era.** More and more health and wellness brands and capital are entering, joining the "battlefield" of young people's health preservation.
Health preservation is gradually becoming a healthy lifestyle for young people.
This article will discuss: In the "Health Preservation 2.0 Era," what new demands do consumers have? With the rise of the health preservation trend, how can brands leverage the trillion-yuan market? What challenges might brands face when entering the market?
**-01- Young People's Focus on Health Gives Rise to the Health Preservation 2.0 Era**
"Not yet grown up, but already old" is a self-deprecating phrase often used by some young people.
According to Analysys's "Post-90s Health and Wellness Secrets," over 50% of post-90s in China are troubled by issues such as hair loss, hair fall, and weakened vision. Meanwhile, nearly 40% of post-90s face problems like weight gain and reduced athletic ability. The entanglement of various health issues makes young people pay more attention to physical health and wellness.
Data source: "Post-90s Health and Wellness Secrets"
Image source: Young People's Health Preservation Consumption Trend Report, CBNData
On the recent "World Book Day" (April 23), Baidu, together with People's Daily, released the "Baidu National Reading Search Big Data Report," which showed that post-90s prefer reading health preservation books the most. Health preservation is no longer exclusive to middle-aged and elderly people; it has quietly become a consumption upgrade for young people pursuing physical health and quality of life.
Young people who increasingly cherish their bodies are beginning to actively explore healthier and more scientific health preservation methods. According to data from Alibaba Health Pharmacy, "health preservation" was searched 230 million times within a year; among health preservation orders, post-90s accounted for 43%, showing the attitude of the younger generation through actions.
The demand for health preservation among young people is growing, and capital with a keen sense of smell is also entering the market. Zhulu Capital invested in health snack brand Sgongzi's Xinyi, while IDG, BAI, Northern Light Venture Capital, and Plum Ventures have all invested in food brands with health and wellness benefits.
According to incomplete statistics, large pharmaceutical companies such as Jiangzhong Pharmaceutical, Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, and Health Element have also entered the health and wellness field. For example, the time-honored brand "Tongrentang" has also set its sights on the health preservation market, opening the "Yanyueshan" health tea shop, focusing on herbal functional beverages, and even blending Chinese herbal medicine with milk tea.
The tea shop "Yanyueshan" co-founded by Tongrentang and Moti Kobo. Image source: LOGO Master
FMCG brands are also targeting the young health preservation market. Three Squirrels launched three health snacks: black sesame pills, red date and goji berry pills, and red bean and coix seed pills; Wanglaoji, perceiving consumer pain points, integrated pharmacological properties and launched two "health milk teas": Lotus Leaf Dudu Milk Tea and Green Sugarcane Crispy Fresh Milk...
Wanglaoji's Lotus Leaf Dudu Milk Tea and Green Sugarcane Crispy Fresh Milk. Image source: Tencent News
Even the catering industry is beginning to emphasize "healthy wellness." KFC opened its first green restaurant in Hangzhou, featuring vegetable salads and fresh juices, allowing consumers to see more green beyond fried chicken and burgers; in the same year, Dicos opened a "future store" in Shanghai, where salad-based light meals occupy a relatively high proportion of the menu, responding to young people's demands for low oil and low fat...
KFC's green restaurant in Hangzhou. Image source: Hangzhou Food Detective
The combination of traditional elements with contemporary needs has formed a new round of consumption trends and perceptions. New health preservation brands that are healthy and nutritious, while fitting modern life rhythms and wellness concepts, are winning the favor of more young people.
**-02- The "Health Preservation Revolution" of Generation Z: What New Trends Are Emerging?**
Young groups represented by Generation Z pursue a more personalized and happy life. Young consumers have become the main force in health preservation, and their continuously upgrading demands not only reflect the pain points of their era but also provide direction for brands.
The following young people's health preservation trends are leading the new health preservation fashion.
**1. Younger Demographic Structure**
More and more post-90s and Generation Z are joining the health preservation ranks, and their consumption share is increasing year by year. According to the "White Paper on New Product Trends in the Health Food Industry," post-85s and post-90s in second- and third-tier cities are the main online consumers of health foods, with women showing a significantly higher willingness to consume than men.
These trends bring insights for brands: First, young people with awakened health awareness will take more practical actions to improve their physical health.
Second, health preservation is not only a concern for young people in first-tier cities; online health spending by young people in lower-tier cities is also growing rapidly, and the market potential is yet to be tapped. **Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng once said that consumption upgrading is not about letting Shanghai people live like Parisians, but about letting people in Anqing, Anhui, have kitchen paper and good fruit to eat.** Brands should not only focus on the pockets of young people in first-tier cities; the "sinking market" also has huge potential.
Third, attention should be paid to the "she economy." On Women's Day 2021, Alibaba Health released the "Women's Health Consumption Data Report," showing that women's health consumption expenditure has increased year by year, with an average annual growth of 20%. In 2019, women's overall health expenditure was 38% higher than men's, and in 2020, the gap further widened to 63%. It can be seen that women have become the main force in health consumption.
**2. More Specific Functional Pursuits**
In addition to widely concerned issues like sleep, anxiety, and gastrointestinal problems, skin condition, obesity, and hair loss, which are related to appearance, have also become new health concerns for consumers. These issues are changing consumers' attention to health preservation and their consumption direction. Young people today face significant work and life pressure. Helping them solve physical and psychological stress through product innovation is key for new health preservation brands to open up the young people's health preservation market.
Snacks with health preservation functions have been extremely popular in recent years. They have both the functional components of health products and the taste of snacks, and are small in packaging, easy to carry, and suitable for consumption in fragmented scenarios. In the past, people ate snacks for leisure, but now eating snacks has become a health-based need and desire.
**3. "Ready-to-Eat" Health Preservation Is Sought After**
Ready-to-eat supplements, fancy mixing, regardless of season, beauty "internalization"... Health preservation methods are becoming more diverse, and "ready-to-eat" has become the first choice.
In young people's "health preservation methods," food supplementation is the main direction. Unlike the gentle nourishment preferred by the previous generation, young people, although worried about their health, cannot spend too much time on health preservation due to their fast-paced lives. "Ready-to-eat" has become a term that attracts Generation Z consumers.
According to the "New Foodism Report," ready-to-eat health products have grown by over 20% for two consecutive years. This aligns with the fast-paced lifestyle needs of young people and the pain point of "open and eat." Health products on the market are gradually showing a trend toward snacking and convenience, with a focus on ready-to-eat selling points.
**4. "New Health Preservation" Foods Attract Attention**
"New health preservation" foods, compared to traditional health foods, are new products that, based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine food supplementation, integrate modern nutrition perspectives, and innovate in ingredients, nutrients, processing methods, and consumption methods, targeting the living habits, health issues, and dietary structures of the new generation of food consumers.
Compared to traditional products like donkey-hide gelatin, bird's nest, and cordyceps, new health preservation foods have less obvious traces of health products. Innovative single products such as functional candies, ready-to-eat bird's nest, ready-to-eat donkey-hide gelatin, instant yam powder, instant porridge, and instant grain pills are becoming popular.
**5. "Light Health Preservation" Becomes a New Trend**
"Light health preservation" is mainly reflected in two aspects: easy to carry and consume, and relatively low cost. Light health preservation products can be carried as snacks, such as donkey-hide gelatin yogurt, ready-to-eat bird's nest, ginseng jelly, black sesame pills, and enzyme soft candies. Compared to traditional health preservation, "light health preservation" does not require excessive investment; with "light luxury" or even relatively low prices, one can achieve "light" health preservation.
**-03- Young People's Health Awareness Awakens: How Can Brands Win in the Trillion-Yuan Market?**
**Every era has its consumers.** The new style of health preservation that combines traditional health knowledge with modern health concepts is attracting more and more young people to join the health preservation army.
The awakening of young people's health awareness brings huge market opportunities for health preservation brands. However, to truly enter the trillion-yuan health preservation market, brands still need to work hard on young people's preferences, doing well in both "internal and external skills" to gain a place.
Health preservation has entered the 2.0 era, and here are "6 postures" for brands to consider when entering the market.
## **1. Use Hit Products to Open the Market, Use Segmentation to Establish a Solid Foundation**
Xiaoxiandun Bird's Nest. Image source: Guoguan Culture WeChat Official Account
Xiaoxiandun, a pioneer in the fresh stewed bird's nest category, deeply explored the pain points of new consumer groups and innovatively launched the fresh stewed bird's nest category, opening a new track in the bird's nest industry—fresh stewed bird's nest. It solved the pain point of not knowing how to stew or eat dried bird's nest, and also solved the difficulty of ready-to-eat bird's nest not being fresh enough, achieving category innovation.
Social media platforms favored by young people, such as Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Kuaishou, all have hundreds of millions of traffic. Some KOL creators in specific fields even have traffic comparable to celebrities, and KOCs also have their own small circle of fans. Therefore, as long as a brand solves the unresolved pain points of segmented users in the market, merchants can create a product and service model through this pain point, achieve a hit product, and quickly grow with the help of relevant traffic channels.
In brand promotion, Xiaoxiandun positioned itself for female users on Xiaohongshu, the mainstream young demographic, and used KOLs to create a large amount of high-quality content, forming a word-of-mouth that expanded its circle. Thanks to the "traffic dividend," the Xiaoxiandun brand successfully broke through and grew.
## **2. From Pleasing Others to Pleasing Yourself: Seize the Opportunities Brought by New Trends**
As Chinese social values become more diverse, consumers' shopping motivations are quietly changing. One typical trend is the evolution from "pleasing others" consumption to "pleasing oneself" consumption.
The rise of new life attitudes and the popularity of "self-pleasing" consumption have brought opportunities for innovation in many tracks. Brands can innovate and optimize products from the perspective of consumers' "self-pleasing" to create new market opportunities.
Jeonggwanjang Korean Ginseng. Image source: Jeonggwanjang JD Store
**Add a boost to your health in your busy daily life.** The Korean ginseng brand "Jeonggwanjang" concentrates the essence of Korean ginseng, retaining the sweet aroma of ginseng, and is easy to carry and consume daily. It has the effects of enhancing immunity, nourishing without causing heat, beautifying the skin, and regulating endocrine. Seeing such a product, do you feel a little sense of happiness? Health preservation is no longer just the old ginseng in grandpa's wine glass; young people can also supplement anytime, anywhere.
Zimeitang "Pure Fruit and Vegetable Enzymes". Image source: Zimeitang Mini Program
Consumers' "self-pleasing" health preservation is becoming increasingly popular. Summer is approaching, and the season for showing skin reminds young friends to enter a new round of body management. Zimeitang, a domestic brand deeply rooted in the health field, has subverted the traditional beauty industry's concept of "controlling the mouth." Its cutting-edge product "Pure Fruit and Vegetable Enzymes" makes "removing oil after meals" a popular post-meal conditioner among young people. Using snacks to "shape the body" is hard to resist.
## **3. Make Health Preservation a Social Scene**
Scene innovation can build a more three-dimensional and immersive experience space for health preservation.
After work, young people's offline "health preservation gatherings" are becoming increasingly popular, becoming their favorite new social "posture." Meituan's 2020 "White Paper on Single People Born After 1995" shows that post-95s love "health preservation gatherings" after work, especially in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, where people like to go for tea and chat, relax with SPA, and soak in baths.
Denglao Herbal Tea Store. Image source: Denglao Herbal Tea Official Website
Denglao Herbal Tea opened its first "health tea drink" concept store in Beijing. In addition to its signature national medicine herbal tea, the products also include herbal tea drinks made from extracted herbal raw liquids, such as herbal sweet tea, herbal fresh milk, and herbal coffee, which have the characteristics of light fat, light sugar, and health preservation, attracting the attention of a group of young consumers.
## **4. Both "Supplement" and "Control": Solve Young People's Current Pain Points**
In the health and wellness market, in addition to enhancing physical fitness through "supplementation," it is also necessary to "control" to avoid excessive intake of various nutrients affecting health. For example, "low oil, light salt, zero sugar" have become the main selling points of many food and beverage brands.
"Future Keqi" Xiaoxiao Brick. Image source: BrandStar
Founded in 2019, "Future Keqi" developed a healthy, low-calorie food—Xiaoxiao Brick—which focuses on "fewer calories" and "better nutrition," with the marketing point of being delicious and healthy while maintaining a light body, attracting young people with weight loss and fitness needs.
Image source: Haowangshui Taobao Store
New-style herbal sparkling juice brand "Haowangshui" combines traditional herbal boiling characteristics with local temperate fruits and local specialty ingredients. Unlike traditional blended drinks, Haowangshui uses traditional original fruit boiling technology, without adding sweeteners, flavors, or preservatives. Functionally, it can meet consumers' needs for "relieving spiciness, removing greasiness, and aiding digestion."
"Ningchun" New Product Xiaohongtiao Juice Jelly. Image source: Mengniu Ningchun
In April, Mengniu's brand "Ningchun" launched a new product, Xiaohongtiao Juice Jelly. It uses Haematococcus pluvialis, paired with elastin peptide, to supplement collagen while improving resistance. Compared to the bitterness of medicine, the juice-flavored jelly gives a sweet and sour snack taste. At the same time, the small packaging allows consumers to carry it easily and consume it quickly, suitable for various scenarios.
## **5. Appearance Is Justice: Make Consumers Fall in Love at First Sight**
Many affections are at first sight. Packaging innovation is a quick way to attract consumer attention.
When health preservation becomes a daily routine, young people also begin to demand high aesthetics and fashion sense in health product design, such as "artistic aesthetics," "high-end design," and "beautiful." Often, for today's young people, the important impulse factor affecting their purchase decisions may simply be whether it looks good.
Yantang Sugar-Free Old Guangzhou Yogurt. Image source: "I Love Big Foshan" WeChat Official Account
Yantang Sugar-Free Old Guangzhou Yogurt, with its lively orange color and retro Cantonese packaging, is very eye-catching. The zero-sucrose yogurt uses natural crystalline fructose and European LABS probiotics, is low in calories, and is also suitable for people who want to lose weight and shape their bodies.
NetEase Yanxuan "Night and Tea". Image source: NetEase Yanxuan
In 2020, NetEase Yanxuan launched its first national trend design "Night and Tea," also known as staying-up-late tea. Targeting the current problem of young people being "addicted to staying up late," it uses an old Chinese medicine formula and incorporates the concept of "medicine and food homology." In product design, it draws on the poster style of the Republic of China period, balancing the sense of age and fashion, satisfying young consumers' aesthetic, cultural, and emotional experiences and needs from visual, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory perspectives.
## **6. Marketing Techniques That Resonate: Playing Together for "True Love"**
"Vision determines the world, and perspective determines value." Young consumers' horizons and consumption habits have changed significantly. For the well-informed and particularly picky post-90s and post-00s, brands need to be novel and playful enough to catch their "eye."
Compared to older consumers who value product quality more, the needs of the younger generation mainly tend toward purchasing products with personality and attitude. This is also true for health preservation products.
"Coffee So Much Collagen" Series Drinks. Image source: CBNData
Dong'e E-Jiao and Pacific Coffee boldly crossed boundaries, jointly launching the "Coffee So Much Collagen" series of drinks. The collision of E-Jiao and coffee, Chinese and Western, aligns with young people's love for trying new things and playing with new styles, hitting the psychology of young people who enjoy novelty, further expanding the incremental market.
In the past, the health category's usual approach was to sell products seriously and rigorously to highlight professionalism. However, today's young people prefer fun and interesting social communication methods that can resonate emotionally or spiritually to gain their "true love."
**-04- Opportunities and Challenges Coexist: These Problems in the Health and Wellness Industry Need to Be Solved**
Where there is demand, there is business opportunity. As young people become the main force in health preservation consumption, more and more new health preservation consumer product entrepreneurial opportunities will emerge in the future, and competition among brands will become increasingly fierce.
There are opportunities, but also challenges. It is not simple for enterprises to participate in the "health preservation wave" of young people. Face the industry's pain points, solve the problems that may exist within, and prepare before setting out.
## **1. Industry Cognition Is Not Unified, and Consumption Concepts Need Education**
Although everyone's awareness of health preservation is strengthening, the Chinese health preservation industry has not yet formed a unified understanding. The existence of some irregular phenomena in the past has led to certain doubts and distrust of Chinese-style health preservation, including traditional Chinese medicine physiotherapy.
Consumers' cognition in the health preservation field needs to be strengthened and cultivated by brands entering the market.
## **2. The Matthew Effect Is Prominent, and New Brands Face Significant Challenges**
The Matthew effect is also becoming prominent in the health preservation industry. Leading enterprises have a strong agglomeration effect in the big track and can gain consumer awareness and acceptance at a lower cost.
The book "New Retail Opportunities" mentions that "any business is worth redoing." As long as it is sufficiently "new," every industry is a high-quality "experimental field." However, new brands entering the market need differentiated products, strong innovation capabilities, and channel capabilities.
In recent years, many new brands have emerged in the market. They avoid direct confrontation with leading enterprises in the same industry, instead looking for links or details that big brands have not done well, meeting consumers' new era needs, and cutting in from segmented tracks to open up a new world.
## **3. Industry Transparency Needs to Be Improved: Only with Trust Can There Be a Sense of Security**
In the past, the health preservation market was too chaotic for various reasons, and various scams exhausted consumers' trust, making them more cautious.
Consumers' distrust largely stems from insufficient understanding of brands, which is the issue of "transparency." Transparency is a powerful tool that brands can use to regain consumer trust, and the assistance of social networks amplifies this transparency, bringing challenges to brands but also providing greater returns.
In today's health supplement consumption, consumers' trust in products has far exceeded the consideration of "price." In the past, consumers bought from whoever was cheaper or gave more gifts, but now they buy from whoever is more reliable. The health supplement market has entered the stage of consumption trust.
## **4. Gimmicks Over Substance: Be Beautiful Outside and Wise Inside**
During festivals, when giving or receiving gifts, everyone sighs that the packaging is better than the product itself, with the "box" better than the "pearl." For example, mooncakes: many people don't actually eat them; they are more for formal gift-giving. How to win consumers' love with innovative flavors and low-oil, low-fat products is the fundamental effort brands need to make. Flashy packaging to some extent brings waste of resources.
People pay attention to health preservation, hoping it can bring tangible improvements to physical health, and they have higher demands for product effects than in other categories. Especially with the rise of "self-pleasing consumption," when consumers buy for themselves, "beautiful outside" is important, but "wise inside" is even more important!
## **5. Too Ambitious, Positioning Not Precise Enough**
Some health preservation brands are too ambitious, with insufficiently precise consumer positioning, always hoping to be loved by all age groups. However, the products they launch often fail to hit the pain points of specific groups, especially failing to resonate with young people.
Today's young people have very different needs for health products compared to the elderly. For example, for the same vitamin C product, young people not only need to supplement nutrition but may also hope to whiten their skin.
To better align with young people's lifestyles, health and wellness enterprises can further segment product development for different consumer groups. For example, sports nutrition products for sports enthusiasts, beauty and health foods for young women, and anti-fatigue products for white-collar workers.
**Conclusion**
With social progress, technological development, policy support, internet assistance, and the competition of major health enterprises, the development of the health industry will be further explored. The health and wellness industry is bound to become one of the industries with the greatest development potential.
**Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, once said: The greatest danger in turbulent times is not the turbulence itself, but acting with the logic of the past.** The new era's market and new consumers require brands to respond with new play methods.
As young people become the main consumer group in the health preservation market, how to solve and meet their era pain points and needs, new health preservation brands need to do their basic work well while adapting to the times, daring to subvert, daring to innovate, and truly walking together with consumers.
The trend of health preservation among young people is blowing stronger and stronger. Are the new brands that want to enter the trillion-yuan health preservation market ready?
Source: FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation (ID: FoodInnovation) Author: Pupu
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