Wellness brands have a trust problem. Here’s how to fix it

How we define and approach wellness and the products that assist us is evolving. The rise of GLP-1s and brands that deliver testing and personalized interventions —think Zoe’s individualized nutrition advice or Hims Hers consultation services —means consumers are becoming accustomed to solutions that drive real, root-cause change. Consumers are becoming less tolerant of vague promises. Wellness brands are now competing with medical-level expectations. From collagen powders promising glowing skin and joint repair, to creatine moving from bodybuilding circles into everyday routines, the category is full of fast-moving trends and bold claims. Just look at the rise and fall of detox teas or cellulite patches. Unlike other categories, wellness brands can’t always point to immediate, tangible results. It’s not like wiping a surface and seeing it clean. Instead, they are selling something more subjective and harder to measure: better sleep, improved mood, sustained energy, even better gut health. In fact, 25 of global consumers say a lack of trust in whether wellness products or services will be effective is stopping them from making healthier choices, while 82 say labels need to be more transparent and easier to understand. That tension is reshaping the category: The brands gaining ground are not necessarily the loudest, but the ones that make their products feel clearer and more credible. In wellness, trust is becoming the biggest competitive advantage. In a category where outcomes are gradual and difficult to measure, brand plays a critical role in helping consumers understand and believe in what a product is doing. Demonstrating efficacy As outcomes become harder to prove, brands are finding new ways to make how they work easier to grasp. One of the clearest shifts has been a focus on ingredients. When they are brought forward in the design, they make the product feel more tangible and grounded. In the absence of measurable outcomes, ingredients have become a shortcut to credibility. With the wellness brand Jude, the focus was on making its efficacy easier to grasp. In a category where brands are limited in what they can claim, ingredients become a way to show, rather than tell, how something works. Ingredients signpost efficacy and make the mechanism easier to grasp. Since Jude’s rebrand, the brand’s total stocking points have seen a 135 increase in the last six months. Bringing those ingredients to the front through high-definition, hyper-real renderings gives them clarity and presence. A more technical visual style suggests a connection to lab environments and scientific process, helping people understand that the product is grounded in something real. Alongside this, Jude’s brand line, “strength from the floor up,” reinforces the idea that the product is addressing more than just surface symptoms and solving the problem at the root cause. It makes the function clearer. This kind of visual language matters. It acts as a bridge between complex science and everyday understanding. It also reflects how consumers are engaging with wellness now. They read labels, research ingredients, and compare product reviews before committing. If they are going to invest in something long term, they want to understand what it is, why it is there and why it works. The brands that resonate most are the brands that make efficacy easy to understand. Science needs a human edge As consumers look beyond surface-level benefits, clinical credibility has become more important, but it’s not enough on its own. Many brands sound overly technical in their attempt to prove credibility. When a wellness brand looks and feels like a pharmaceutical company, it can come across as distant. The nutrition brand Zoe, for example, uses grounded scientific language but pairs it with bright, positive imagery, making the brand feel more approachable. This has allowed it to scale quickly, raising 15 million in a recent Series B funding round as it expanded into the U.S. market. Consumers want to know a product is grounded in real expertise, but they also want to understand it and see how it fits into their lives. Warmth and personality are what make that possible. That balance can show up in how brands present themselves. The product in hand is the moment of truth, where credibility and detail need to land, but the wider brand world plays a different role, creating space for emotion and personality. The fast-growing haircare brand K18 reflects this shift. Its product design is pared back and focused on its “biomimetic hair science,” while its wider identity is more expressive and colorful, bringing to life the emotional benefits of the product, separating proof from emotion. Within a year of launch, K18 generated 75 million in retail sales, and it was acquired by Unilever in 2023. The packaging can remain clean and minimal, while social, website, and other communications carry the emotional side of the brand. Trust is built not just on what brands say, but how accessible and human they are. Transparency has to be felt, not claimed As consumers are becoming more informed, they are also becoming more skeptical of outlandish claims. Brands increasingly need to show not only what is inside their products, but why those ingredients matter and what impact they are designed to have. Ritual does this well—the vitamin start-up recently announced it was launching in the retail giant Costco—with its clear capsules. You can see exactly what you are taking, which removes a layer of uncertainty. It signals that the brand is confident in what is inside. The supplement brand Heights takes a similar approach, making its science easy to follow through straightforward packaging and accessible language. Rather than obscuring information, it presents it in a way that feels open and easy to understand, and the brand has grown rapidly, reaching a £57.8 million (77.4 million) valuation in its latest funding round. This kind of openness is becoming increasingly important. In a category where information is constantly shifting—one week it is collagen, the next creatine, then hydration—it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Clarity helps consumers feel that they are making a considered decision, rather than reacting to the latest trend. It also reflects a broader shift in what people expect. Consumers increasingly want evidence that products are doing something meaningful, that they’re not just promises wrapped in good branding. Transparency is no longer only about showing ingredients or simplifying labels, it is also about helping people understand impact. When a brand is open about what it contains, how it works, and the change it is designed to create, it feels more trustworthy. Wellness brands are operating in a more demanding landscape. Trust in wellness is rarely built through bold promises. In many cases, brands are not able to make them. The brands that succeed will be the ones that make consumers feel confident that what they are buying will genuinely work.