Keeping up with Ashwagandha

11-Oct-2022 - Last updated on 11-Oct-2022 at 17:31 GMT

Image courtesy of Lemme

Related tags ashwagandha Ayurveda influencer marketing

Is Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s new wellness brand signaling a turning point for the Ayurvedic herb?

While you may not be keeping up with the Kardashians, chances are if you’re reading this, you are keeping up with health and wellness trends.

Kourtney Kardashian Barker recently introduced Lemme, a new supplement brand that the company said are science-backed, clean and packaged in 100% post consumer-recycled materials.

After launching wellness platform Poosh in 2019, Kardashian Barker began learning about products and health issues that were important to her community. Three years later, Lemme has debuted, described as a culmination of the reality star’s decades-long passion for health and wellness, with five years of research leveraging a team of scientists, MDs and botanists.

Under the influence

According to research from Statista, influencer marketing has more than doubled since 2019.

“Over the last several years, influencers have leveraged their public image and personal brands to not only market products, but to create ones of their own. The Kardashians are not new to this concept and with Kourtney Kardashian being extremely health-driven, it isn’t surprising to see her launching a wellness brand, specifically one that utilizes one of the industry’s hottest new ingredients: ashwagandha,” said Haleigh Resetar, SPINS Corporate Communications Specialist.

“Given her and her family’s public image, her promotion and creation of a product that uses ashwagandha could further bring this ingredient into limelight for both her brand and others. On Instagram alone, her 201M followers have seen her post about this product and mention the main ingredient being ashwagandha; which is big press for an up-and-coming botanical. While ashwagandha’s popularity is already pretty well established, this extra publicity may certainly lead to additional growth,” Resetar said.

Adding to the growth is TikTok, a platform where, according to Glimpse, Ashwagandha is talked about more than any other social media channel. This may be due to the fact that the channel skews younger and is more focused on new trends in health and wellness.

Ashwagandha is having a moment

“Whether it's Jennifer Lopez saying the ingredient numerous times in Goli Nutrition commercials or Kourtney Kardashian Barker including it in her new ‘celebrity packaged good’ brand, ashwagandha is certainly having its moment,” said Joshua Schall, MBA, Owner & President of J. Schall Consulting.

“I think anytime you have A-List celebrity influencers promoting or utilizing a legitimate ayurvedic herb, it helps increase awareness of it within the mainstream public. Now, mix that with a macro environment that's in-part causing an evaluated interest in products that address mood and stress. It's no wonder the sales of ashwagandha have been exploding over the last few years,” added Schall.

The new gummies include Lemme Matcha, a supplement formulated with ingredients like B12 and CoQ10; Lemme Focus, which contains branded nootropic Cognizin Citicoline; and Lemme Chill, a gummy formulated with a botanical blend and hero ingredient KSM-66 Ashwagandha.

“I must hand it to Kourtney, she chose a great quality ingredient, at the right dose, which you don’t always see in the gummy supplement format. KSM-66 Ashwagandha is the brand I personally trust and use, because it offers a standardized 5% concentration of withanolides and is backed by science. Deservingly, we saw ashwagandha gain more attention over the past few years as people were looking for stress relief during the pandemic. Once consumers realized how beneficial it was for reducing their stress, they started to incorporate it into their ongoing daily routine,” observed Jen Palmer, ND, a dietary supplement education consultant.

Going mainstream

“Seeing Ashwagandha in a high-profile celebrity brand like Lemme confirms its surge in popularity in the mainstream. I predict it’s a herb that we will continue to see increasingly more of in the long term, as the dietary supplement industry continues to expand due to a renewed consumer focus on wellness,” added Palmer.

Indeed, ashwagandha has been a trending ingredient for the past several years with consistent growth in dollar sales and the format has also gained massive popularity.

“Looking specifically into the Calmative & Mood Support Supplements (the subcategory that Chill would most likely fit into), the gummy form is the most popular delivery method at 67.3% growth and $57.04M in total revenue,” Resetar noted.

Market

According to SPINS, compared to 2021, ashwagandha dollar sales have increased 12.8% with a total revenue of $293.50M; compared to 2020, this ingredient has grown 59.8%. “Ashwagandha has already been making a name for itself in the natural product industry for the last few years, but it’s starting to see growth in the conventional channel as well. Top subcategories by revenue include Calmative & Mood Support Supplements, Body Lotions & Moisturizers, Shelf Stable Wellness Tea Bags, and Refrigerated Juice and Juice Drinks,” said Resetar.

“Are we witnessing the early phase of the next truly mainstream ingredient? Maybe...but we aren't there yet and it will likely take 3-5 more years of strong growth before that label could be rightfully placed on ashwagandha,” predicts Schall.