Meal kits. Biohacking. Energy. Lifestyle. The latest wellness trends are homemade-quality health foods with the convenience of delivery. What lessons do they offer other brands in the space of food, beverage, and wellness?
For those with a busy schedule, freshly delivered meal kits are the joy of their day. You can enjoy a restaurant-quality meal without having to spend hours cooking. Meal kits have a predicted annual growth rate of 17.4% from 2022 to 2030 and the industry was valued at $15.21 billion in 2021. It’s not just among busy Millennials, but Gen X as well.
Hence, tons of options - Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, Thistle … But one that stands out is Sakara Life. Two best friends started the brand from their 500 square foot New York apartment and developed it into a $150 million annual revenue service across the US. Sakara Life is a premium meal kit delivery service that claims to replace your nutritionist. It touts an abundance of benefits from eating their meals - bloat-free digestion, healthy weight loss, hormone balance, and glowing skin. A golden package, right?
So what makes Sakara Life so special?
Sakara Life speaks to us through a combination of values; Achievement, Security, and Hedonism, all especially important in today’s rapidly changing food and health landscape post-COVID.
As soon as you open the website the words “Transformation, Delivered” pop out, especially resonating with anyone looking to improve health and well-being. Sakara Life is mainly focused on ambitious and achievement focused women who have a packed schedule and a busy lifestyle but want to eat aesthetically pleasing, healthy meals. They've named their community of ambitious members “Sakaralities," - a group of women who share their admiration for the brand on social media much like wellness influencers, doing much of the brands's promotional legwork. The weekly meal plan can cost up to $479 for 5 days worth of food. By solely eating Sakara Life meals, one becomes a part of an elite group.
Sakara Life provides the opportunity to connect with their audience on a deeper level by reflecting the personality and values of their consumers back to them. Being achievement oriented is both the reason someone might be drawn to Sakara Life, and the way Sakara Life hopes to make them feel. We all want to align with brands that reflect positively on ourselves, and even better if it helps us achieve a version of ourselves we aspire to. In the age of fashionable wellness influencers and instagram food-porn becoming markers of status, even at-home meals can be the stuff of social and personal value, helping a brand grow into a community.
Sakara Life also claims to replace your nutritionist (or be one for those who don’t have one) which provides a lot of security around health. While delivered food might have had a reputation for lacking healthfulness, this service takes all the guesswork out of ordering.
“With Sakara, I am nourishing my body exactly how I want to, but in a way I never had time to.” - One of the Sakaralities
Sakara Life meal planners carefully source organic foods and combine them for their best nutritional value to promote wellness, so theres no need to search for organic, nutritious and climate conscious options on your own.
In a post-COVID world, with health consciousness higher than ever and many looking to cut back on how much takeout they eat, busy people are looking for reassurance that convenience doesn't cost them their health. There is a big gap of trust for companies to fill in - “is the food going to be as good and as healthy as I could do it myself?”. Brands that cover good health and taste with the security of feeling ‘homemade’ allow people to feel good about themselves and their ability to provide for their family, even if they’re too busy to cook. The emergence of this option shows there’s a desire to simplify decision making while also retaining what's most valued, like health and taste.
Finally, who said eating healthy shouldn’t be fun? Or at least look fun? Sakara Life taps into the value of hedonism by providing their meals in an “Instagram ready” manner. Not only are they making healthy meal options but also tapping into the aesthetics of food where the photographs look like they were taken by professional influencers on vacation.The recent breakfast option - “The Ultra Violet Donut” has bright colors that feel just as at home in a Dunkin Donuts ad, but they claim to deliver antioxidants that help protect your immune system, ease bloat, and enhance your skin’s radiance. By eating these meals one can bridge hedonism with achievement and security: look how fun and easy it is to eat healthily!
Now more than ever, people are looking to feed their minds, bodies, and taste buds. Not only do products need to have a high nutritional value but also be pleasant to look at and enjoyable to consume. We can see this trend expanding to colorfully packaged protein bars, nutrition infused breakfast cereal, fun flavored muscle milk, and more options that show there’s no excuse for healthy food to look bland.
Sakara Life Lessons for Food Industry
Questions to Ask for Your Own Company
Is there a sense of achievement or aspiration in your own product that can help grow a virtual or in-person community?
How clear are your product benefits and how well do they align with trends in health and wellness?
How is your product delivering joy and how does your flavor of joy align to your overall brand?
Keep in Mind…
Sakara Life's success tells us that we have a way more conscious consumer than ever before. People do not only increasingly care about looking after their health but also take it a step further - they care where their product comes from, what are the benefits of consuming it and maybe even becoming a part of the community. We are striving for a deeper connection not only to our peers but also to what we put into our bodies - the foods we eat and the drinks we drink.
From Human to Human,
Gabi
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