Selling Brain Health

How do you, as retailers, get consumers to come to “your side" by seeing the need to preventively and proactively supplement (and eat the rights foods, and get their butt moving) for better brain health?
“This really is the six-million dollar question for our industry. How do we get the consumer to be prevention oriented in a culture that is all about a symptomatic orientation?" said Mark J. Kaylor, vice president of education and research, Mushroom Wisdom Inc. “The first and possibly biggest step is the retailer and staff need to adopt a prevention focus rather than the dominate disease/symptom mode. The majority of our stores are still built around a disease-focused mentality, and the vast majority of the products we carry and promote are oriented in this same fashion. This is a shame in many ways because prevention and life enhancement really is something we do better than anybody else. The reality is Western medicine just isn't designed, intended or even disposed to this type of perspective."
To get consumers thinking on the right track, it helps to have brochures and articles available. Even if your customers don’t stop and read everything, just a headline can spur preventive thinking. “Third-party written pieces, each addressing a specific health condition, are perfect to merchandise as a community service," said Andreas Koch, Barlean’s marketing director. “Consumers value this because this builds customer loyalty and trust as they begin looking at your retail store as a comprehensive health resource center." But as Kaylor mentioned, retail stores need to change their approach, and in turn, hopefully break the cycle of “symptom thinking" that is embedded in so many Americans.
“Many consumers do indeed address their health conditions when symptoms arise, or following their physician’s diagnosis or health status report," noted Rod Burreson, CEO/Founder, Roex. “Remember, this is a long-time conditioning of how Americans think about health—fix it after it breaks. Forget this, be proactive and not re-active."
And that’s our industry’s job: to get consumers to think proactively. It may seem like a long, hard road, but the goods and the research is there; now all you, as retailers, need to do is get these products and resources to the masses.