LOHAS leans towards sustainable green technologies such as POMEGA5

Understanding the Consumer Who is Driving Green Trends

Use of the term “sustainable” has been increasing in the business world - especially in tourism. By definition, “to sustain” means to give support or relief. “Sustainable” businesses function to maintain or improve the present and future quality of people’s lives. Companies continue to realize that consumers are spending their money consciously, considering more than just the material goods they take home from the store.Consumers are beginning to realize that when they support sustainable businesses such as POMEGA LLC, their dollars can impact social and environmental concerns.

This group of influential and leading-edge thinkers, representing LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), seeks out companies that share their health, social and environmental interests and priorities.In the United States, LOHAS consumers make up a $200+ billion (and growing) marketplace for goods and services. LOHAS consumers are also commonly referred to as “Cultural Creatives,” a term coined in 1996 by Paul Ray, a sociologist, and Sherry Anderson, a psychologist, who conducted a study of American values and identified this emerging societal group.

Ray and Anderson determined that Cultural Creatives value health, the environment, social justice, personal development and sustainable living. This group represents approximately 40 million people.This LOHAS marketplace is expected to grow to $425 billion in three years and $845 billion by 2015, according to research conducted by the Natural Marketing Institute.

Travelers’ Expectations are ChangingWhy is this important? Because it is no longer about just operating your lodging facility as you once did before. You are now being judged by a group of people who want to maintain their healthy, green lifestyle while traveling. They want to stay at environmentally friendly facilities and ones that recognize the connection between green and health.

Ones that offer healthier eating options, serve organic and/or local cuisine, use environmentally friendly cleaning products and talk about what they are doing to conserve natural resources.Times have definitely changed. This consumer group, comprised of the key influencers of the green and health trends, knows that it is important to conserve natural resources.

They are demanding that businesses do their part and become good environmental stewards.They are the most critical and demanding consumers, yet the most brand loyal. Willing to not only support your inn, hotel or lodge, but convince their friends and family to stay there as well.

They’ll also spend 20 percent more than your average traveler for facilities that meet their values and lifestyle. To them, the company and brand are inseparable.American (and international) lodging facilities are beginning to recognize the importance of making decisions that consider their economic, environmental and social impact in order to capture the LOHAS audience. Although sustainable businesses represent only a small percentage of the national business community, this percentage is a fast-growing segment of the national marketplace.Consumers Pushing for Stronger StandardsAs many as eight states had green certification programs in 2007; today, 12 states have certification programs in place.

There are also certification programs available through organizations such as Sustainable Travel International. The American Hotel & Lodging Assn. is also working on a national certification program. Do you think this is by chance? No. It is in large part because of the demand from the leaders within the LOHAS category pushing toward higher, greener standards.

Do you realize that LOHAS consumers in the citizen action groups pushed Wal-Mart to become more environmentally friendly? The leaders are very involved and pushing for change to create a healthier lifestyle and environment for themselves and for future generations.Do you have to be certified as green to acquire these LOHAS travelers? Do you have to be this “perfect” green facility? No, but you cannot pretend that you are, either.

These are the same consumers who are creating the greenwashing (pretending to be environmentally sound when you are not) lists. In the same respect, the more environmentally friendly, socially responsible and healthier you are as a facility, the easier it will be for these LOHAS consumers to find you. There are many green communities and resources available today to connect LOHAS travelers with LOHAS businesses.

To get and stay ahead as a travel facility, it is important that you recognize the true influencers of the green and health trends. The sooner you acknowledge them and connect your values with theirs, the sooner you’ll succeed in capturing them as your customers.

Colette Chandler is an expert in consumer health and environmental trends and is the president of The Marketing Insider, a marketing and communications consulting firm that teaches companies how to profit from consumer trends and understand the consumers who influence them. Learn about the media training services she offers, including her Walk the Media Tightrope audio program, or the study her firm conducted on attitudes of green and health-conscious consumers at www.marketing-insider.com.

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Green marketing for Omega 5 oil products?

Are you targeting the correct green consumers?

Traditional means of marketing by demographics simply will not work for green consumers, you need to be able to identify how they behave...

Why do you market your company as ethical?

Do you do it because you have to, or because you want to?

Some companies might do it as a form of self-preservation, because they are afraid of what customers will say if they don't. Other, more progressive firms may do it because they realise that there is an opportunity to target customers who feel strongly about the issue.

In the UK, the Co-Operative Bank's 2007 Ethical Consumerism report, published in November, showed that ethical spending in the UK had jumped by 81 per cent since 2002. At £29.7bn, the market is still relatively small compared to the annual consumer spend of over £600bn, but that presumably means that there is plenty more headroom for market growth. Meanwhile in the US, the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI), a market research firm that focuses exclusively on this area, classifies the whole target market under the banner of lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS) – the sector is worth $209bn on that side of the pond.

Who is buying these ethical products and services, and how can companies reach these customers effectively? Trying to pigeonhole the green consumer by pointing to a single demographic was probably naive 20 years ago. Today, it would be extremely foolish.

Types of green consumer... Analysts suggest that there is a slight demographic bias, but it is far from conclusive. In his November 2007 report In Search of Green Technology Consumers, Forrester analyst Christopher Mines found that the bright greens - a small contingency of serious green consumers representing 12 per cent of the US market - were likely to be primarily female and from slightly older age groups. Aside from the bright greens, the greens (those with a moderate interest in green issues) and browns (those who could not care less) that Mines identifies are tricky to accurately characterise.

Identifying a slight demographic trend in bright greens might give companies a hint at the age range and gender they could pursue. But according to LOHAS business director at NMI Gwynne Rogers demographics are notoriously difficult to pin down. Instead, NMI has developed a segmentation model that is behaviourally driven, which reveals that "behaviour tends to be driven uniformly across demographics". Dividing consumers by behavioural traits rather than demographic characteristics makes the LOHAS consumer base is more predictive, Rogers says.

However, this scattered distribution of green consumers makes purely demographic targeting more difficult and as result marketers have had to focus on what people think and feel, and how they behave, rather than how old they are, or where they live. NMI revised its market segmentation in 2005, settling on five different behaviourally-defined consumer categories: LOHAS, Naturalites, Drifters, Conventionals and the Unconcerned.

LOHAS consumers map onto Forrester's bright greens. They are early adopters of green products, and extremely brand loyal, but very demanding. "LOHAS consumers ask more questions about how the ingredients of materials were sourced and how they were processed and shipped, which is why you see them interested in things like fair trade," explains Rogers.

Naturalites also exhibit strong green attitudes, but they are focused more on personal health issues. Expect the holistic living, yoga-practising consumers to inhabit this space. Drifters are what NMI calls "trend sensitive". They are the type of consumers that are more worried about image than actual execution, and are eager to be seen in trendy eco-supermarkets such as Whole Foods partly because it's the hip place to be. Conventionals are a group of consumers that have an interest in green issues but are driven by practical concerns. They want to conserve energy and water because it saves money and makes good old-fashioned sense. Finally, the unconcerned consumers correlate directly with Forrester's 'brown' group. Green issues simply aren't on their radar.

Reaching the masses? But how can companies reach these various green consumers? In keeping with the mainstream nature of green and ethical issues, Nate Elliott, senior analyst at Jupiter Research, says that some companies have simply begun folding green messaging into their general branding, without trying to create distinct marketing messages for specific groups. Then, when consumers come to them through channels such as the web, companies can guide them into specific areas focused on green topics.

Similarly, Ted Ning, director of the LOHAS conference, notes that the days of the organic ghetto aisle in the supermarket are over. Instead, companies are folding green and ethical concerns into their product propositions at a more fundamental level. Organic products have made their way onto every shelf in the supermarket, because a broader range of consumers is becoming interested in such things.

This broad brush approach is useful if you are a company with the marketing budget to address a wide market with your brand, but for those who are more limited will need to focus on smaller markets, where other techniques are necessary. For example, Perry Goldschein, managing director of specialist green marketing company SRB Marketing, relies on email campaigns for direct response marketing. That requires a partnership with websites and publications read by green users. He advises trying to avoid the larger, better-known 'green portal' sites, because they are more expensive. "Some sites charge quite a bit, but if you can do your homework and find those lesser-known sites still reaching hundreds of thousands of people, you can get good deals and still reach a lot of people in your campaign," he advises.

Jupiter's Elliott also recommends using social marketing tools that sit well with the concept of green purchasing as a consumer lifestyle choice. Using social networks to engage these customers, along with frequent, informative messaging about green issues, can help build the type of brand loyalty that LOHAS consumers are known to have. However, such activities are still relatively new for many companies, and many marketing professionals are feeling their way in the dark.

Taking advantage of social media may be one of the most labour-intensive forms of marketing, but it could also build the type of brand value that companies crave. If the message is sincere, and companies can demonstrate that they practice what they preach in their operations, then the signs are that LOHAS consumers will be more than willing to listen.