Longevity Marketing: How Brands and Customers Find Each Other

Having nine lives would be brilliant, but alas, we’ve only got one. That’s why longevity is becoming increasingly important. Certainly, concepts like „eternal life“ or „avoiding reincarnation“ are fascinating topics, but here we’re focusing purely on our earthly existence.

Medicine plus „Life“style = Longevity

What do people truly want: To reach an ancient age? Not really, because nobody wants to vegetate between their 60th and 120th year of life. That’s why the concepts of „longevity“ (healthy long life) and „healthspan“ (staying fit and healthy for as long as possible) are rightfully in vogue.

The era of simplistic „anti-ageing“ marketing is over. More and more consumers are no longer searching for the „miracle pill against ageing“—which doesn’t exist anyway—but rather for scientifically sound solutions for a healthy, active, and long life. What does one need for this? A healthy diet. Dietary supplements can, well, supplement nutrition. However, their effect is naturally significantly less potent (and different) than medications; otherwise, they would be pharmacy-only or prescription medicines. This raises the question:

How does one market longevity ingredients?

Bonus question: How do we deal with the fact that we don’t have testimonials from people who, thanks to a longevity lifestyle, reached 120 years in top form? Spoiler: Offer a potential customer benefit—more on this later.

This article is based on elements from a presentation I gave at the Vital Nutrients Symposium on 3 April 2025 in Kassel.

The Market Is Growing

The market for dietary supplements is growing steadily, including in Germany. According to a study¹ by Mintel, 65% of Germans use dietary supplements, mostly in the form of vitamin, multivitamin, and mineral products. Women use them more frequently and regularly, partly due to vitamin D supplementation—the bestselling individual vitamin. For minerals, magnesium is, unsurprisingly, number one. And who uses supplements most frequently? Again, no surprise—it’s the 55+ age group.

The supplements used primarily show two things:

• A supplement is what the study design asks about. In the Mintel study, the focus is on vitamins and minerals. Macronutrients such as protein (powder) are not included (as they are considered food), creatine is not included (it’s firmly anchored in the fitness world), and „enriched“ vitamin products aren’t included either—think of multivitamin juice, for instance.
• People buy what they know. People have stored knowledge about what vitamin D is good for. Communication here runs partly through GPs (anamnesis, diagnosis via blood values), and distribution partly through television advertising with celebrities. In any case, a diagnosis—either self-made or from a doctor—precedes the purchase.

This means for longevity products:

• You must know and understand your target groups (age, gender, health status, health goals)
• And you must enable them to make sensible decisions—and for this, people should understand which longevity products they might consider, appropriate to their life situation and health goals (ideally in alignment with medical advice).

Understanding Target Groups – The Matrix

For successful longevity marketing, we must view our target groups in multiple dimensions. If you scroll down, you’ll find a target group tool!

Multidimensional means: You need to address a 40-year-old biohacker differently than a 50-year-old BBQ enthusiast who’s just received a wake-up call diagnosis from their GP. And if you don’t have the budget for precise targeting, you should still keep these „personas“ in mind.

Target Groups by Maturity Level:

Insiders (1%):

• Familiar with concepts like „longevity“ and „healthspan“.
• Already eat healthily.
• Have changed their lifestyle or diet.
• Serve as valuable multipliers.

Crossovers (9%):

• Know ingredients like creatine from other contexts (e.g., sports).
• Have heard about longevity in media.
• Need more knowledge and specific product recommendations.

First-timers (90%):

• Starting from zero, know neither longevity nor specific ingredients.
• Have little medical knowledge.
• Must first understand what „healthspan“ even means.

By Attitude:

Prevention-focused:

• People with prevention understanding
• Interested in connections
• Have changed their lifestyle or want to
• Need confirmation for their pleasure sacrifice and functional product promises

Repair-focused:

• The majority who live unhealthily and don’t want to change
• Unwilling to sacrifice
• Often already confronted with „lifestyle diseases“
• Need simple messages and uncomplicated products

By Age:

Gen Z (born 1995-2010):

• Interested in mindfulness, health, and sports
• At the margins, can be enthusiastic about longevity

Millennials (born 1980-1995):

• First niggles, but nothing serious
• Entry into prevention
• Focus on „healthy living“

Gen X (born 1965-1979):

• The warning shots are getting closer
• Open to prevention, sometimes already need repair
• Core target group for longevity/healthspan

Boomers (born 1946-1964):

• Slowing down ageing is highly interesting
• Some damage may be irreparable
• Want to get the best out of their remaining lifespan

The ideal marketing strategy considers these three dimensions and develops appropriate messages for each intersection.

Successful Marketing Strategies

Clearly Communicate Customer Benefits

Simply getting very old is not a benefit in itself. The customer benefit must be tangible. Examples:

• There’s a brand that specialises in the target group „women 40+“. A creatine product with Creavitalis® can be positioned with the customer benefit of (more) „strength“. Simple, to the point, with a health claim. Precise target groups significantly facilitate communication, from imagery to media.
• Another brand distributes combination preparations as 30-day packs with the name addition „Complete“. The customer benefit: Convenience. It targets people who are overwhelmed by the complexity of the market. With combination preparations, brands must build trust. Branded ingredients help here, as they a) provide a health claim and b) offer certified quality—like Creavitalis®.
• Even taste is already a customer benefit—for products that are powders to be mixed, etc., not capsules. Better-tasting products will prevail, and interesting (or familiar) flavours more easily achieve trial contacts.
• Rituals are good. Think about marketing products with a consumption ritual (or fitting a point in the daily routine). Example: A food item as part of the daily breakfast.

Build a Strong Umbrella Brand

Invest in your umbrella brand or create a longevity sub-brand (or multiple sub-brands) and charge it with branding & storytelling.

Market Longevity as a Lifestyle

For the fit amongst consumers, longevity is a genuine lifestyle with sacrifice as investment (no alcohol, no sugar, etc.). To make a brand part of this lifestyle, three elements are needed:

„Preachers“:

• Thought leaders, prayer leaders, missionaries
• They communicate insights, benefits & to-dos
• Think of influencers here (or „advertising figures“, from celebrity testimonials to cartoon cows)

Community:

• Create homes for the community: Online, offline, events
• Develop platforms for your brand, also together with partner brands

Rituals:

• Offer rules: Food preferences & dietary taboos
• Support the daily routine with consumption rituals
• Make suggestions for everyday life

Longevity Marketing: Practical Implementation

Develop and Position the Brand

• Develop clear messages that communicate the benefit for your target group.
• Discard your first ideas, such as „We show a fit pensioner doing Nordic walking“; the sport is a means to an end, but not the benefit. The benefit is „enjoying life“.
• Think outside the box and surprise with metaphors. Example: „Feel like a teenager“.
• Be entertaining—or stimulate thinking.

Content Strategy

• The foundation is packaging design—you must reach your target group with this. Users might have their first contact with your brand when they see your pack shot on Amazon. So pay attention to design and messaging.
• Create a mix of basic information for beginners and more in-depth content for advanced users
• Use various formats: Blog, video, podcast, newsletter…
• Work with real experts (scientists) but don’t forget „normal people“

Conclusion

Successful marketing for longevity brands is based on three pillars:

1. Target group-appropriate communication: Know your target group(s) precisely and address them with suitable messages. „Become fitter than your old self“ addresses different people than „Stay forever yourself“ or „Because your bucket list is long“.
2. Scientific credibility: Use certified ingredients and communicate transparently. Build trust through quality.
3. Lifestyle integration: Make your brand part of an attractive lifestyle with community and rituals.

The key lies in the balance between accessibility for beginners and well-founded information for advanced users.

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1. https://store.mintel.com/de/reports/deutschland-nahrungsergaenzungsmittel-markt-report ↩︎