The Culture Contract Series Part Six - Wellness Will Win.
Wellness is a Business Standard, not a Perk, and Shows Whether Brands Care About People.
From Trend to Baseline
For more than a decade, wellness was marketed as a lifestyle upgrade, an add-on beside fitness or beauty. That framing no longer matches consumer reality. By 2025, 82% of U.S. consumers identify wellness as a top priority, and 51% report facing mental health struggles in the past year (Global Wellness Institute, 2024). With the wellness economy projected to reach $8.5 trillion by 2027 at nearly 9% annual growth, wellness has shifted from niche aspiration to daily expectation.
The implication is direct: wellness is now a condition of legitimacy. Customers judge whether brands care about their wellbeing through the effect of products, services, and policies—whether they reduce stress, support health, or build resilience.
Wellness Built into the Model
When wellness is designed into core operations, it shows that a brand’s stated purpose is being acted on.
Rituals redesigned parts of its European flagship stores as meditation and mindfulness spaces. Customers shop and recover in the same visit—wellness is integrated into the retail environment, not bolted on.
Westin Hotels institutionalized wellness long before the term became a trend. Its “Heavenly Bed” reframed sleep as central to travel. Today, in-room workouts and nutrition menus extend wellness across the guest experience, embedding care into the identity of the brand.
These are not campaigns; they are operating choices that turn wellness into part of the business system.
The Cost of Superficial Gestures
Token gestures in wellness now backfire. A single yoga class pop-up or a short campaign around “mental health days” creates skepticism if working conditions or products contradict the message. For example, a beverage brand cannot credibly market mindfulness while selling high-sugar drinks, and an employer cannot market wellness while enforcing burnout-level schedules.
Customers evaluate wellness by consistency across touchpoints. Any contradiction accelerates distrust. Superficial activations erode credibility faster than silence.
Wellness in the GCC and Beyond
In the GCC, wellness is not optional, it is embedded in national growth strategies.
Emirates Airlines redesigned inflight dining and entertainment to include plant-forward menus, hydration programs, and mindfulness content. Wellness is built into the travel experience, not treated as a premium upgrade.
Careem expanded beyond transport into telehealth and nutrition services. Wellness became part of daily customer engagement, reinforcing its role as a utility that improves life.
Chalhoub Group integrated wellness into luxury retail, from spa-like store design to wellness-focused product lines. Luxury is reframed as care, not only aspiration.
Governments are reinforcing the standard: Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 health objectives and Dubai’s wellness tourism agenda make wellness part of the region’s cultural and economic baseline. Brands that fail to act appear disconnected from progress.
Wellness Embedded in Business Practice
Wellness is now the minimum condition for credibility. To ignore it is to communicate indifference to the most basic human need: the ability to live well.
Brands that succeed will embed wellness into product design, partnerships, and workplace culture. They will treat wellness as infrastructure. Brands that fail will not just lose market share, they will lose the ability to claim they care about people.
Bottom Line: Wellness Decides Credibility
Wellness is no longer a perk. It is a daily standard. Brands that integrate it into their operations retain cultural legitimacy; those that don’t signal disregard.
