Prompt: How can we redesign the nutritional supplement experience to reduce waste and increase sustainability?

Proposal: A new consumer service, the Bulk Bar Experience, that creates sustainability while offering consumer education and customization.

Collaboration with Anthony Tripp

Process

Burning Platform

As an athlete, Tony learned how he could increase his muscle gains by taking supplements and incorporated them into his diet but he noticed the waste these containers produce. First, many supplements come in huge plastic tubs with nearly half of it being empty. Second, these tubs are discarded as often as every 9 days as trash or occasionally, recycled. As trash, they will never biodegrade and even when they are recycled, they can only be downcycled, which invests a huge amount of energy into making a new plastic object that then gets sent to the dump itself.

The current lifecycle of these containers is wasteful and short. We asked ourselves, how can we redesign the supplement experience to reduce waste?

Value Proposition

To dig deeper into the supplement industry, we focused on two types of consumers. We noticed that heavy users consume them every day and like to come up with their own blends to match their training plans. And they are enthusiastic about swapping blends and offering guidance to each other. However, there are also many people who are just wading into using supplements. These newbies are looking to get advice and build camaraderie in the fitness community.

But there is not a lot of conversation about sustainability in the bodybuilding world. How could we draw people in?

Consumer Trends

We researched various sustainability initiatives and found beer growlers are becoming popular as a way for people to reuse glass containers while interacting with their favorite brewery more often. There is also a rising interest in customization across retail experiences. From Subway to Chipotle, brands are succeeding by offering customers the chance to Have It Your Way. Finally, consumers are becoming more concerned about waste and demanding more sustainable options from every category of products.

We found ourselves asking supplement users, “You tailor every part of your life. Why not the supplements that you’re putting in your body?”

New Offering

This led to the creation of The Bulk Bar Experience, which can be broken down into three aspects: First, it is a physical station, The Bulk Bar, with bulk containers of all popular supplements. Customers use this station to create their own blend, based on their goals. These stations can be set up in gyms, juice bars, supplement stores, or even as a pop-up location like a food truck. By having all of the major supplements in one place, we eliminate the need to buy from multiple locations or go online. Customers can skip buying huge amounts of each supplement and only buy as much as they are interested in. Second is the Bulktender, a helpful expert who can discuss fitness goals with customers and create a custom blend for each customer. The Bulktender uses their own knowledge about supplement uses and trends as well as the Bulk Bar Mixology Guide that recommends proprietary blends as well as blends developed by fitness celebrities and influencers. The third and final aspect is the Bulk Bar’s reusable growler, made of biodegradable plastic. The user fills this growler with their custom blend and places a paper printout of their blend in the back plastic pockets. They can take this growler to the gym, to work, to the supermarket, etc as the user mixes shakes throughout the day. By having just one growler, the user cuts out the potentially dozens of plastic tubs they would be buying for their blend.

User Testing

We went to Tony’s gym to test our service. As Bulktenders, we chatted with gymgoers about their gym goals, what mix could work for them, made a blend, and poured it into a sample growler. In the end, we gained important insights from thirteen testers. Overall, the service idea was very well received and our testers were enthusiastic about its potential. Several people felt that they were too lacking in knowledge to create their own blend but they would like the bulktender’s guidance. People appreciated the growler as a way to cut down on empty tubs and bags. We were frequently asked if the blends could be vegan.

Target Market

The interest in vegan options was a surprise and we realized that vegan bodybuilders could be our service’s entry point into the supplement space. “Vegan Bros,” otherwise known as Power Vegans or Plant Power People are a group of people including celebrities like Bill Clinton, Russell Simmons, Mike Tyson, and several MMA fighters who see veganism as a premium diet because it is environmentally conscious and they feel it unlocks unique abilities to create and maintain fitness. They are sensitive to environmental waste, many already take vitamin and protein supplements, and they are passionate about sharing their diet and their fitness results.

If we can capture the interest of vegan bros, we could expand to omnivores, curious newbies, experienced supplement users, and anyone else who is interested in helping the environment, customizing their supplements, and becoming part of educational fitness community.

We imagine that the Bulk Bar will spread by word-of-mouth with a lot of social media traction for the Bar, the Bulktender, and the custom mix. Beyond that, the Growler is a walking advertisement for the Bulk Bar that will spark curiosity as it travels with its user and like-minded supplement users could see each custom blend.