Words by Nozomi Hariya, Consultant at Euromonitor International
The evolution of technology, inflation, climate change, global conflicts, and the economic landscape are just a few factors that have slowly but surely led to shifts in what consumers value and place importance on in today’s post-pandemic world.
Euromonitor International’s 2025 Global Consumer Trends report reveals emerging insights into consumers’ values and shopping motivations for the year ahead. Among the five global consumer trends unveiled in the report, the trends ‘Healthspan Plans’ and ‘Wiser Wallets’, are particularly impactful to the food and drink industry, underscoring the need for food and drink players to tailor their business strategies in line with consumers changing expectations.
Healthspan plans: Innovating for lifelong wellness
Consumers are on their longevity journeys, making behavioural changes now for the betterment of their future selves. The goal: live healthier for longer. According to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey, fielded January to February 2024 (n=40,236), 52 percent of global consumers believe that they’ll be healthier in the next five years than they are now.
Euromonitor International refers to this trend as ‘Healthspan Plans’, where consumers not only want to live longer (lifespan); but want to feel better for longer (healthspan). Their desire for longevity shapes their current wellness choices. These consumers are proactive in their search for preventative, specialized solutions and products with proven efficacy to help mitigate or alleviate specific concerns.
This trend is especially important for Asia Pacific, given the region is rapidly ageing. The region, which already has the highest number of people aged over 65 years old and the population of age 65 and over, is expected to grow further by 69 percent from 2024 to 2040, according to Euromonitor’s Economies & Consumers industry data.
Recognising this huge growth potential, a number of players in the Food and Drinks industry have already begun to cater to increasing consumer needs for healthy ageing. For instance, Danone, one of the leading dairy companies globally, is offering Ganmai brand powder milk products targeting consumers aged 40 and above in China. The brand name means daring to take a step out, advocating the spirit of taking up challenges and accepting new things.
Looking ahead, growth opportunities for this trend exist beyond traditional health categories, such as personalized nutrition, which has been gradually gaining traction in the Asia Pacific. For instance, in partnership with health-tech companies Metagen and Cykinso, Calbee Inc., one of the major packaged food players in Japan, launched a subscription service called Body Granola in 2023. The subscription service offers personalized muesli and granola tailored to their gut environment.
With tech integrations like AI continuing to refine accuracy and expand tracking capabilities to include indicators like mobility patterns and stress levels, personalised and data-driven solutions through either in-house capabilities or strategic partnerships is important for the companies to success in 2024 and beyond.
Wiser Wallets: Spending strategically becomes the norm for consumers
While global inflation eases to 4.2 percent in 2025, 72 percent of global consumers were still concerned about the rising cost of everyday items, and 44 percent of consumers felt financially secure according to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey, fielded January to February 2024 (n=40,236). Due to the prolonged economic uncertainties, those temporary shifts to relieve financial strain seen until 2023 have become embedded into consumption habits, and now created new spending norms, a trend which Euromonitor International refers to as ‘Wiser Wallets’.
These consumers are not simply chasing the best deals for instant gratification, which was seen in 2023. Purchase decisions have become more strategic and intentional. People now weigh the worth of their purchases against their priorities—both in terms of current needs and future demands. In fact, 57 percent of global consumers extensively researched products or services, and only 18 percent said they often made impulse purchases, according to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey, fielded from January to February 2024 (n=40,236).
While private label brands across several consumer goods sectors saw some of the largest retail sales gains compared with other category players in recent years, premium brands in some categories, such as premium lager, performed well even in volume terms in 2024. This also shows that cost-effective options aren’t always the preferred choice for “Wiser Wallets’ consumers.
When it comes to Asian consumers, functionality and quality are some of the most important factors that influence their purchase decision, with ‘health and nutritional properties (e.g. omega-3)’, ‘all natural’ and ‘superior taste’ ranked Top three food and drinks features that Asian consumers willing to pay more according to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey, fielded January to February 2024 (n= 14,080).
Looking ahead, brands need to capture these consumer needs and demonstrate credible added value in order to gain from this trend. However, this does not necessarily mean a new product development, with 59 percent of professionals said their company plans to improve existing product or service portfolios to drive growth in the next five years according to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Industry Survey, fielded September 2024 (n=819).
One successful case of leveraging their existing brand portfolio is ‘Premium Ghana’, from Lotte Co Ltd. The company expanded its existing brand, ’Ghana’, one of the leading chocolate brands in South Korea and Japan, to launch ‘Premium Ghana’ with the concept of affordable premium to offer chocolate tastes like those from speciality shops in 2021 in Japan and later in South Korea. Despite its higher unit price than the regular one, the products have been performing well as the company successfully catered to consumers’ needs for ‘Superior taste’, which ranks as the third top food and drink feature Asian consumers are willing to pay more.
As the world’s most diverse region, health is the top priority for consumers in many countries in Asia. Asian consumers are becoming more diligent in researching products before purchasing, driven by a strong desire to avoid mistakes. For long-established brands, consumers have a high level of trust in the taste and quality, making strategies that leverage the recognition of existing brands effective when introducing new brands, as seen in the example of Premium Ghana. Additionally, for new brands, it is important to provide extensive information about the product through websites and social media so that consumers can conduct their research and feel confident in their choices.
his story first came out in our “From Farm to Future” issue.
