From The August/Sepember 2003 Issue of Natural Grocery Buyer

The Organic Source

Everybody in the Organic Pool

Elaine Lipson

It's a fundamental rule of marketing: Know your customer. Companies spend untold amounts of money to identify who's buying what, and why. This information influences everything from product mix to advertising decisions to marketing strategies.

In the rapidly evolving sector of organic foods, market research can become outdated very quickly, leaving us with a profile of the organic foods shopper that's no longer representative or adequate. Retailers hanging on to a limited stereotype of the organic shopper might be surprised at the diversity of people expressing a strong interest in buying organic.

The "typical" organic consumer has often been portrayed as a young, affluent Caucasian mother with liberal leanings, a high level of education and a suburban address. In part, this profile may have emerged from the locations of natural foods stores, often situated in affluent college towns and suburbs of major cities on the coasts. The organic shopper was the shopper with organic foods readily available.

The dramatic growth of the organic market, supported by implementation in 2002 of a national legal standard for use of the organic label, has pushed the tiny organic niche into the mainstream. Organic foods are now sold in a significant majority of supermarkets, as well as big-box stores like Costco and Wal-Mart. That's in addition to the still-expanding presence of natural foods stores and supermarkets. And in an "if you offer it, they will come" sort of scenario, the buyers of organic foods are proving to be as varied, in demographic terms, as the purveyors.

More Than A Number
In fact, if you try to pin down the organic consumer in demographic terms, you're likely to get nowhere. Social researchers such as Paul Ray, author of The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (Harmony Books, 2000), contend that purchasing organic is likely to be a values-driven decision and that values know no boundaries of age, ethnicity, gender, income level, voter registration or other quantifiable category.

Recent data, both anecdotal and statistical, seem to bear out this notion. Research by the Bellevue, Wash.-based The Hartman Group shows that Asian-Americans, African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans are all more likely to choose organics for food purchases than Caucasians (Organic Purchase Index, The Hartman Group, 2001). "Contrary to common industry beliefs," the company writes in its Natural Sensibility newsletter, "we at The Hartman Group understand that the organic consumer is no longer represented by a single ethnic group." Research by Food Marketing Institute also supports this realization.

Other data tend to undermine the idea that only the affluent or wealthy buy organic foods. According to a 1999 report by The Hartman Group, the mean income for heavy organic buyers is $43,280. Families or individuals with lower household income were more likely to be heavy organic buyers; those with higher incomes were more likely to fall into the light-buyers category. Why? Some speculate that values-driven individuals may choose to work in jobs with lower incomes but high social impact, such as teaching or working with nonprofit organizations.

Recently, the Utne Reader dismantled perhaps the stickiest of organic stereotypes—that buying organic is solely the province of those on the left side of the political spectrum—with an article on "crunchy conservatives." Republicans who choose organic and natural foods say that concerns about health, wellness and the environment are by no means limited to liberals.

Wide Range Of Motivations
Organic consumers vary widely in both their personal characteristics and in their reasons for making organic purchases. It's one thing to categorize organic purchasers as values-driven, and another to clearly identify those values. In a survey of 517 adult organic buyers conducted by Walnut Acres (an organic manufacturer) and RoperASW, the primary reasons for purchasing organic were stated as "Organic is better for me and my family," or "Organics are healthier." Other reasons included "Taking good care of family," "Organics are safer" and "Organics are better for the environment."

The concept of organic foods as healthier is a big umbrella. It may mean that consumers perceive that organics have more beneficial nutrients than conventional foods. That's not a claim that the organic foods community has generally made, since it's as yet unproven. Others may see organics as healthier because of the absence of pesticides, genetically modified organisms, antibiotics and growth hormones, irradiation, and other agricultural and food processing components prohibited in organic production. This idea of organic as a safe harbor from a host of technologies may be especially compelling to parents of infants.

Some people are buying organic because they find these foods to be fresher, more flavorful and better tasting. And some are deeply committed to the idea of a more sustainable agricultural system than factory and industrial farming allows.

Why It Matters
All of these food safety and health issues are likely to continue to drive the organic market, which is growing at double-digit rates annually. At the same time, some of the cultural groups that we now know to have a relatively high interest in organics are also growing, as a percentage of the population and in purchasing power.

The 2000 U.S. Census identified Hispanics as the fastest-growing ethnic group in the nation, for example, and few industries can afford to ignore their buying preferences and interests. Certainly, no one interested in selling and promoting organic foods should overlook the diversity of the organic consumer base; it's good business now and for the long term.

In terms of marketing strategies, the target audience for organic foods is complex in its social makeup and in reasons for buying organic. This presents both opportunity and challenge for retailers. Clearly, any attempt to reduce organic buyers to a few simple characteristics is likely to backfire.

The answer may be to return to the notion that your store serves a unique community. Only by broadening your vision of who will buy organic foods, and then examining and understanding the particular health, wellness and environmental issues that interest these buyers, will you be able to maximize the rewards and benefits of strong organic sales.

Elaine Lipson (elorganic@aol.com) is a contributing editor for Natural Grocery Buyer and author of The Organic Foods Sourcebook (McGraw-Hill Contemporary, 2001).