Understanding the LOHAS Market: A Focus on Foods & Beverages

This 130+-page report provides a general overview of the LOHAS marketplace and of the five NMI LOHAS segments. It explores how NMI' s proprietary LOHAS consumer segments differ in attitudes toward the environment, society, corporate social responsibility, and health. It also provides an introduction to their behavior, sources of influence, and demographics and provides an in-depth focus on foods and beverages.

In the green industry, 2007 may be marked as the proverbial “tipping point.” Never has so much corporate activity, media attention, and consumer involvement been directed toward sustaining the planet, improving the lives of people around the world, and protecting the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

It is a confluence of factors that heralded in the recent market activities. Certainly, An Inconvenient Truth raised awareness of the severity of climate change among many consumers. Subsequently, mainstream media, including Discovery Channel and NBC, have incorporated green topics into their programming and further raised awareness among many consumers.

Meanwhile, many companies have identified very profitable ways of being good environmental stewards, allowing environmental issues to move from a “liability” to an “asset.” GE' s Ecomagination campaign is just one example of how selling green products can produce clear, bottom-line results: GE reports making billions of dollars on Ecomagination products. A corollary change is that product development has improved - many green products can compete not just on their green credentials, but also on the traditional benefits consumers seek. For example, some consumers are primarily drawn to hybrid cars for the gas savings, with lowering CO2 emissions as a secondary advantage. Similarly, compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) last longer and save energy.

The price and availability of LOHAS products has also shifted. Green products are now widely available at Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Safeway, Staples, and other retailers. Moving the products from niche, sometimes hard-to-find retailers to the mainstream has made them available to millions of consumers who previously did not have any viable purchase options. Simultaneously, the price of many LOHAS products has declined, making them a more viable option for many consumers.

These shifts have resulted in products and services that appeal to general population America, not just LOHAS consumers. Consequently, there are significant opportunities for marketers as the size of the total market pie grows rapidly.

As in previous years, NMI has applied its proprietary segmentation model to the total U.S. population. The model NMI developed in 2006, identifying LOHAS, NATURALITES, DRIFTERS, CONVENTIONALS and UNCONCERNEDS, will be trended and analyzed throughout this report.

New to this year' s report are four major insights NMI observes in the LOHAS marketplace. These trends affect every industry, and it would behoove readers to give them pause and consider the applications to their own business.

• 1. From Purchaser to Participant
• 2. Sustainable Style
• 3. Shades of Green for Everyone
• 4. Greenwashing Washout

Each of the above trends is explained and referenced throughout the report.

NMI continues to believe that the LOHAS marketplace is very opportunistic and will remain so for the foreseeable future. That said, the time for corporate action is now. Sustainability concerns are unlikely to diminish over the coming years, and ignoring this trend only gives your competition more time to establish market leadership. Alternatively, understanding what the trends mean to a business and brand allows an organization to frame the conversation with its consumers and/or customers and capitalize on this exciting market transformation. It may be necessary to start small, but doing so is critical for long-term business sustainability.

These reports are based on research that was fielded in July 2007 via a primary consumer survey of 2,074 U.S. general population (GP) adults. The results of this survey are nationally projectable to the U.S. adult population and statistically valid at the 95% confidence level +/- 2%. The data have been post-weighted to match multiple U.S. Census demographic measures.