January is a new start for many, a time of personal pledges and promises. Two popular challenges that make the most of this time to encourage new habits are Dry January and Veganuary.
Dry Jan challenges people to go alcohol-free for the whole month, and Veganuary challenges them to eat only vegan foods.
This month, we’ve seen many new products launched in-store as companies innovate to meet the increasing consumer demand for alcohol-free drinks and vegan products, and this has been evidenced by popular retailers like Sainsbury’s seeing this increased demand in their shopper data.
To find out how many people took part in these challenges this year, and how they fared, we ran some research with the nationally representative Vypr Community of consumers.
How many people are participating?
Running research around the end of January, we found that 35% were taking part in Dry Jan, and 28% in Veganuary.
Interestingly, these figures dropped since we asked consumers in early Jan, when they were 39% and 32% respectively, indicating some may have dropped out of the challenges part-way.
Why are people participating?
We asked consumers for the main reason they are taking part in each challenge.
Popular reasons for Dry January were…
- 42% for the health benefits
- 33% to save money
- 30% to detox for the new year
And for Veganuary reasons were…
- 33% to save money
- 31% for the challenge
- 28% for their long-term health
Why are people not participating?
We also followed up with the groups that voted they’re not taking part in the challenges, to ask why.
Reasons we received for Dry January were…
- 57% enjoy having a drink
- 22% don’t drink much anyway
- 4% thought it was too much effort
And for Veganuary…
- 72% enjoy meat and dairy too much
- 15% thought it may be too costly
- 14% thought it was too much effort
How have consumers found the challenges?
Now, let’s look at an evaluation of how consumers fared in each challenge.
Firstly, how easy has each challenge been for consumers?
Dry January was found to be much easier than Veganuary, and it’s no surprise as Veganuary involves a more difficult dietary change for those who have never tried this diet before, and sourcing of alternative meals 7 days a week, for 4 weeks.
As evident below, 38% of participating consumers found Dry Jan very easy, compared to just 15% of those participating in Veganuary.
Secondly, has it been cheaper to take part?
As we saw before, many people are taking part to save money. When it comes to Dry January, consumers have indeed benefitted financially by taking part – 53% agree that it has saved them money. 33% thought it had no impact and only 14% said it had been more expensive for them.
On the other hand, for Veganuary, 39% thought it saved them money, however a big 32% said it had been more expensive for them. 29% thought it was around the same as their normal budget.
So, do consumers plan to continue their new habits?
All in all, many consumers are indeed pledging to continue their challenges in the coming months, at least to a smaller degree.
- 47% say they’ll continue not drinking/drinking less
- 32% say they’ll continue with Veganism, and 34% will do so in-part (for example by choosing a vegetarian diet instead of one that’s completely Vegan)
Want to find out more? Get free consumer intelligence on this, or a topic of your own choosing, with a free research question here: https://vyprclients.com/free-steer/
