Amy Marks-McGee of Trendincite LLC shares her expert opinion on wellness and the sensorial experience.

Consumers have always been interested in their health journey. Covid-19 accelerated consumers’ interest in self-care behavior with an emphasis on improving the quality of life, mentally and physically. Smell and taste, which are often overlooked, became more important due to COVID-19’s impact on our sensory wellness. Because smell and taste play a vital role in our daily experiences, interactions with consumer products were altered. Suddenly these invisible senses were temporarily or permanently lost or distorted. Research indicates that about 80% of the flavors we perceive come from our sense of smell. Despite this, sensory wellness is frequently neglected in health and wellness trends. Consumer packaged goods manufacturers and fragrance and flavor suppliers need to recognize the importance of nurturing, optimizing, and expanding our sensory experiences to enhance our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Health & Wellness

According to the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), the global wellness market reached a record $6.3 trillion in 2023. 82% of US consumers now consider wellness a top or important priority in their everyday lives, which is similar to what consumers in China (87%) and the United Kingdom (73%) reported, according to McKinsey & Company. Over three-quarters of grocery shoppers say transparency is important when making a purchase decision—they want to know the true impact of their spending behavior, according to NielsenIQ. Americans say they are focused on wellness priorities such as mental and emotional health (35%) and sleep and rest (33%), according to a Vitamin Shoppe Consumer Survey. Circana reported the complexity of personal well-being, with consumers turning to solutions as varied as physical activity, social media, food, pet ownership, beauty and books to harmonize their physical, mental, and social well-being.

Covid-19 Impact on Smell & Taste

Before the pandemic, individuals suffered from smell and taste disorders such as anosmia(inability to detect odors), hyposmia (reduced ability to smell/detect odors), parosmia (altered perception of smell in the presence of an odor), and phantosmia (perception of smell without an odor present, an olfactory hallucination), but most of the public was unaware of these conditions. Now, approximately 27.5 million people worldwide suffer from long-term smell or taste loss due to COVID-19. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), more than 13 million people 40+ in the US have smell dysfunction. Furthermore, nearly 10 million people in the US have anosmia, and more than 6 million people 40 + in the US experience phantom odor perception. COVID-19 brought attention to smell and taste dysfunctions, which continue to be underreported. Either individuals are unaware that they have a disorder, or they are embarrassed to discuss it. For brands that offer scented or flavored consumer products, these statistics should be an eye-opener. The way people interact with your products is a personal connection. If they are unable to properly smell or taste the products, you may risk losing a customer or potentially alienating them. In response to the lack of research, the World Taste and Smell Association has launched its first research initiative, a US survey created in collaboration with PhD chemosensory experts Rachel Herz and Martha Bajec. This survey aims to collect data on fleeting and permanent sensory taste and smell disorders to better understand their impact on people’s lives and to foster innovation in sensory health. (To take the survey, visit https://www.tasteandsmell.world/2024-survey.)

Inclusive Design

Consumer packaged goods are designed to enhance pleasure, diminish pain, or solve a problem. Inclusive design has been slowly entering the conversation to cater to diverse needs. Inclusive design in consumer packaging often focuses on creating products for individuals with physical disabilities, such as those with low vision, blindness, or hearing loss. Inclusive design for visually impaired individuals is the most common in beauty and personal care with a default to braille. For example, L’Occitane has been a leader in inclusive packaging design for the visually impaired since 1997, with 70% of its products featuring braille. A recent launch is Australian Hair care brand Wilde’s Blonde Enrich Shampoo and Conditioner, which caters to consumers with blindness or low vision. Wilde partnered with design agency By Ninja and the packaging features braille using 3D-raised printing and blind embossing on the bottles. On the food side, Kellogg’s has adopted the NaviLens technology on their packaging to make information about their products accessible to blind and partially blind consumers. The technology enables smartphones to detect on-pack codesup to three meters away and allows shoppers to access product information, like ingredients, allergens and recycling info, through audible playback or on-screen text.

Brands are broadening the conversation by developing products for minority and historically ignored groups, like the transgender community. For example, this summer, Vaseline launched a body lotion specifically targeted to transgender women, who often experience skin-related side effects of hormone therapy, like dullness, irritation, uneven skin tone, and proneness to allergies. The lotion was developed in collaboration with Thailand’s transgender community and launched exclusively at Watsons retail and ecommerce stores in Thailand. Finnish sanitary product manufacturer, Vuokkoset, introduced a new product line of menstruation products for trans and non-binary consumers. The initiative aims to broaden the conversation around menstrual health, making it more inclusive of diverse identities. The CEO of the brand’s manufacturer explains how some people who menstruate do not identify as women and on the other hand, not all individuals who identify as women experience menstruation, so they want to highlight this diversity of menstruation and gender. Although nascent, the category for products for non-binary individuals and those transitioning is one to watch. Research conducted by Circana and SeeMe Index found that more inclusive beauty brands are growing faster than less inclusive brands. These brands saw an 18% collective growth rate, compared to 12% for less inclusive brands, outpacing the industry.

Opportunities & Challenges

Smell and taste impairments are invisible disabilities that can be crippling and should be considered in inclusive design. Imagine using any consumer packaged goods you use daily such as shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, coffee, and a meal and not being able to smell or taste them or having a distortion. Your experience would be dramatically different. It’s difficult to truly understand the impact of losing your sense of taste or smell until it happens to you. To bring more awareness, the World Taste and Smell Association created the Voice of Experience and asked individuals living with these conditions to share what they wish others understood about their experiences. For example, Belinda S. from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada states “Smell and/or taste loss is not an insignificant matter. It can have devastating dietary impacts (overeating or undereating), as well as causing emotional distress.” “The quality of my life is just horrible since losing my taste and smell. My social life is nonexistent, and the loneliness is painful.” Vicki A. from Andover, MS shares. “I’ve had to pretty much change all my life! I live in my own world/bubble. My whole eating process has changed, and my awareness is more acute since I can’t smell anything,” says Paul D from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Consumers have an unwavering interest in improving the quality of life, focusing on mental and physical well-being. Our five senses, particularly smell and taste should not be overlooked. Our sensory wellness is based on experiences that enhance our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The opportunity and challenge is for brands to tap into all five senses in product design. For example, can the fragrance or texture of a product signify the difference between products such as shampoo and conditioner? Can brands use other sensory cues such as texture, color, and sound to enhance the experience of individuals on the smell and taste spectrum?  Australian-brand Sisterwould is a notable newcomer who exemplifies inclusive design for the visually impaired. The brand launched Give Me Life Shampoo and Give Me Life Conditioner. For easy identification, the brand worked with Vision Australia and had Braille included on their packaging, incorporated a tactile imprinting system, and placed an emphasis on the sensory experience, including tactile ingredients to help with the differentiation between products. The Give Me Life Shampoo has horizontal lines imprinted on the bottle, is pink, contains watermelon seed oil, river mint extract, and finger lime, and is formulated with microgranular microbeads for texture. The Give Me Life Conditioner features dots on the package, is neon-green, contains sheabutter, aloe vera and ginger roots, and is super thick to differentiate it from the shampoo.

I hope to see consumer packaged goods continually evolve and offer consumers—all types of consumers—products and experiences that elevate their lifestyle and enhance their wellness journey by tapping into all five senses.

Amy Marks-McGee is an award-winning creative marketing professional with over thirty years of success within the fragrance and flavor industry. Her work experience includes fine fragrance, air care, and personal care marketing for three leading fragrance houses. She founded Trendincite LLC, a fragrance and flavor consulting company to help clients cull through, distill, and translate pertinent trend information into tangible products. Amy’s strength is her ability to identify and analyze emerging trends early. Amy recognizes patterns across a variety of industries and concisely synthesizes the information into new product ideas. The company’s core values are to engage all five senses, capture inspiration from unexpected places, and make the creative process enjoyable. Her clients include fragrance and flavor suppliers, consumer packaged goods manufacturers, and market research firms. She has been recognized by Women in Flavor & Fragrance Commerce, Inc. for the 2011 Woman of the Year Award for her excellence in marketing and leadership. In addition, Amy is a board member of The World Taste and Smell Association. She is a writer and public speaker and contributes articles to industry-specific trade publications. Her is email is: amy@trendincite.com. You can reach out via LinkedIn and follow her on Instagram.