General Nutrition Centers sponsors a TV personality's cross-country bike ride to promote a line of strength-training products targeted for average consumers. A small New England startup, Muscle Mints, hopes a local launch of its carbohydrate and whey protein mints will lead to national distribution.

In between these companies at opposite ends of the dietary supplement industry are manufacturers, marketers and distributors of all sizes competing to sell sport nutritional products to a broad spectrum of consumers.

A common challenge to increasing sport nutritionals sales is growing beyond the demographic of serious exercise enthusiasts -- reaching the mainstream market.

"There are obviously certain products in our assortment that are more targeted to people who are more serious bodybuilders, but we have a huge assortment of products, so I don't think our customers say, 'Oh, GNC doesn't carry something for me. They're only for big huge guys who lift weights,'" says Beth Kaplan, GNC's marketing chief.

PacificHealth Laboratories' predominant market has been endurance athletes, but the firm wants to change that and is putting more research and development into adapting its proprietary blends into supplements that consumers use independent of rigorous training regimes.

"We're now much more consumer-focused. What we're doing is we're taking products that have worked to the high end, which are very specific to high loads of training and applying the same science around some of the concepts of carbohydrate-to-protein ratios to lower-carbohydrate products, more palatable, lower-calorie, easier-to-use variants."

"It's our job here to just bring that message out in terms of how people can use it to benefit their daily lives," PacificHealth CEO Jason Ash says.

Providing a product with appeal for a broader audience also drove Tony Cesta's development of Muscle Mints' products.

"I don't care how much you train or how intensely you train -- it's a great ratio and lower calories," Cesta says. "For the average person, instead of having a candy or a food item when you want to have a snack, it's a good source of protein/ carbohydrate."

Ultimate Nutrition product executive Eric Howard realizes any significant sales growth will come from consumers other than "the hardcore fitness type."

The company expects that serious athletes consistently spend about the same amount monthly on vitamins and supplements, $180 to $200. "So you have to try to grow your market outside of that," Howard said.

A Celebrity, But Also Everyman

GNC found a "great fit" for promoting the launch of its AMP sports supplements in Phil Keoghan, host of "The Amazing Race" series on CBS.

The manufacturer and retailer sponsored Keoghan's "Ride Across America" to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

GNC nutritionists helped develop his nutritional plan for the 40-day ride, which included stops at 16 GNC stores along the 3,500-mile route starting in Los Angeles March 28 and reaching New York City May 9. The trip also included open casting calls for ''The Amazing Race's'' next season.

"Our hope obviously is that we will use this as a springboard for new customers into the store," observed Kaplan, Pittsburgh-based GNC's president and chief merchandising and marketing officer.

"We looked at this as just an ideal opportunity to marry someone who is genuinely passionate and involved in our kind of business and in nutrition with a sport that's growing and a following of people who really care and are about MS, care about Phil, care about 'The Amazing Race' and who care about overall health and well-being."

"It was a great fit for a lot of interests. He's got a very broad appeal. It's a little bit like, 'If Phil can do it, I could do it,'" Kaplan added.

The AMP line includes "Amplified" whey protein, creatine, amino acid, nitric oxide supplements and blended products in powder form. Keoghan used some of the products during his cross-country ride.

Kaplan said GNC markets AMP products to "what we call avid athletes, not just bodybuilders, which have been a mainstay of our business, but also obviously consumers -- both men and women -- who take their athletics very seriously."

Whether someone runs marathons or an occasional 10K, GNC sees them in the AMP target market.

"They are people who take it seriously and they're the kind of people who are in cycling clubs on the weekend and they're the kind of people who've got standing competitive basketball games during the week. There are all kinds of people who take their athletics and their own personal performance pretty seriously and those are the customers we're trying to attract to the store," Kaplan said.

All Human Bodies

PacificHealth wants people to know that no matter how serious they are about exercise, they can enhance the benefits of physical activity with supplements.

The Matawan, N.J.-based firm distributes its products to more than 8,000 U.S. retailers, from large vitamin chains to specialty supplement stores, bike shops and other businesses popular with endurance athletes.

"What happens when you're exercising or training -- be it 30 hours or an hour or two a week or even go out for a hike on Sundays -- is actually the same as it relates to the tissue in the bodies," CEO Ash said.

"When you move, you break muscle. What happens to the tissue, how it breaks down and how it rebuilds, is actually the same."

While exercise rejuvenates the body, it also stresses the musculature. PacificHealth expects that as more people understand that, more will turn to nutritional supplements to help their muscles as they exercise to improve their physical health.

"Any time you exercise or anything you do outside of our generally sedentary lifestyle these days, you break down tissue. The better nutrition, the right nutrition that you have for that occasion, the better able you are to recover and maintain a level of health," Ash observed.

While PacificHealth aims to grow mainstream market sales of its products, the firm does not plan to switch to mainstream marketing. The competitive athletes who use PacificHealth products will continue as the firm's primary marketing vehicles.

"If you've got products that work and work for the right people and they tell other people about it, and you get those products into their hands and they believe it works, good things will happen for the business," Ash said.

What PacificHealth is doing differently is offering versions of its products designed more for mainstream consumers. For instance, its Accelerade Hydro fluid-replacement drink mix has fewer calories than the original Accelerade formula.

More casual fitness enthusiasts "still need the protein and the ratio efficacy of carbohydrate-to-protein, but you don't need the calories," Ash said.

PacificHealth also recently launched a meal-replacement bar, Forze GPS . While the spark for developing the product was endurance athletes' concerns about weight gain while maintaining sufficient calorie intake, the firm is targeting the general market with Forze GPS.

"I see that being much more mainstream in terms of people can get their heads around that a lot quicker and use it to great effect in their daily lives," Ash said.

Serious About Nutrition Niches

The way Ultimate Nutrition of Farmington, Conn., sees it, offering more niche products will attract more customers outside the serious athlete demographic.

Average consumers may not follow exercise disciplines as advanced as serious fitness buffs, but their nutrition preferences can be just as advanced, product development manager Howard said.

"As our market kind of evolves and realizes the different niches, we'll see a lot more products that fit each niche. This product is for the athletic woman, this is for the stay-at-home mom who is trying to get more energy to keep up with the kids," Howard said.

Ultimate Nutrition already distributes to 150 countries, and the company knows there are more consumer segments it can identify in each one.

"You can't market anything for the masses anymore. People want a specialized product that says, 'Hey, this is made for me,'" Norman said.

Ultimate Nutrition offers a niche product with one of its latest launches, the adreNOline beverage mix.

Howard said the company developed adreNOline for the "during" workout stage of the "nutrient timing" cycle. Products have been plentiful for other stages of the cycle -- immediately before and after and evening recovery -- but not for providing hydration and protein during workouts.

Ultimate Nutrition also is developing brand extensions to meet the growing "nutrition to go" demand, Howard added. "This category is just booming right now."

"Sports Drink You Can Chew"

Candia, N.H.-based Muscle Mints markets its products for use on the go. VP Cesta, also the lead product developer, said the idea driving his work is providing the right carbohydrate-protein ratio in a palatable and convenient product.

"It's always been in a drink or a powder," he said.

Cesta said previous attempts at carbohydrate-protein pills, including his earliest tries, were too powdery and would disintegrate too easily.

"We overcame that. Now it's a great texture, it's like an actual mint candy. We got it finally tweaked right."

Muscle Mints' formulation is a 2.6-to-1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein, within the range that Cesta's research and experience in the field indicated as the most effective blend.

The protein is whey isolate and the carbohydrate is a dextrose-fructose blend, which provides "two different pathways," Cesta explained. "The actual uptake is quicker in your stomach and intestines when you have a fructose versus a dextrose."

Muscle Mints launched online sales May 12 after shipping in the local area for two months. The company does not plan a marketing campaign. Instead, it expects word-of-mouth advertising to spread interest in its products, which also contain electrolyte ingredients sodium potassium and calcium phosphorous magnesium.

Cesta is confident Muscle Mints' convenience coupled with the carbohydrate-protein blend's efficacy will have people talking.

"You can just munch as many as you want for an ongoing supply of carbohydrates and protein," he said.

"It's like a sports drink you can chew, and it really would replace a sports drink but you have to have water. But it makes it a lot easier. You just take a tin, no more bars that melt in your pocket."

Consumer Confidence In Play

Growing market share also depends on consumer confidence in a supplement's ingredients, particularly about whether a product contains steroid substances.

Testing organization NSF International added to its services with the May 12 launch of an online resource focused on sport nutritionals.

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based organization says its NSFsport.com site offers information to guide consumers on choosing nutritional supplements.

The Web site includes a list of products evaluated in NSF's Athletic Banned Substances Certification Program. NSF launched the certification program in January 2008 to certify sports supplements that meet the organization's certification guidelines and provide firms with preventive measures to protect against adulteration of products, verify label claims with product contents, as well as identify any banned substances in the finished product (¹ Also see "NSF Expands Sports Product Testing, Appoints GM At “Crucial Time”" - Pink Sheet, 21 January, 2008.).

-- Malcolm Spicer (m.spicer@elsevier.com)

Growing Sport Nutritionals Sales Requires Reaching Beyond Athletic Arenas

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