Consumer Pathways and Barriers to Usage for Organic Products

By Maryellen Molyneaux


In 2006, sales of organic foods and beverages reached nearly $17 billion, an increase of 22 percent over 2005. Organic introductions across all product categories both in the United States and globally have been on the rise since 2001. This has led to growth in household penetration—57 percent of consumers in 2006 indicated usage of some type of organic product, including packaged foods, produce, milk, beverages (excluding milk), personal care items and clothing and linens.

Clearly, organic products have penetrated the mainstream but there are unique consumer pathways and barriers for organic products of which manufacturers and marketers need to be aware.

The data and insights presented are based on a variety of Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) proprietary research vehicles including the “Health and Wellness Trends Database,” the “LOHAS (Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability) Consumer Trends Database,” the “Evolution of Personal Care Study, HealthBeat Interactive,” and NMI’s Product Attribute Trend Identifier (PATI), along with qualitative insights from NMI in-depth interviews. These databases contain more than 10 years’ worth of information from more than 400,000 consumers.

Six-Year Trends: The Importance of Organic Foods
While it’s not a top driver to health, consumption of organic foods is significantly more important in how consumers maintain a healthy lifestyle now than it was five years ago. This is in contrast to the roles other activities play in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, some of which have declined over the same time period. Therefore, this growth is much more noteworthy.

Whether or not this upward trend continues could have a significant impact on the overall size of the organic marketplace, as the primary reason that consumers use organic is to improve their own personal health. So, while it’s not of top importance to many consumers, consuming organic foods/beverages does have ancillary value.

Top Reasons to Use Organics
As shown in Figure 1, organic category users state the top three reasons prompting them to start using organic products (across produce, packaged foods and beverages) are: they are better for them and their families (52 percent); to promote overall health (51 percent); and to avoid additives, pesticides and toxins (50 percent). These are statistically equivalent and primarily health-related. Until the last few years, there has not been much scientific evidence to show that organic is healthier and skeptics would point to past studies that showed no difference between the nutritional benefits between organic and conventional products. However, consumers’ perceptions of the health benefits of organics has been enough to change their shopping behavior, and this may increase as more and more studies emerge that prove the health benefits of organics. So while health-related messaging directly tied to organic can’t be used in labeling, it’s clearly a benefit that consumers seek. Manufacturers should support, and address this interest in other ways.

Across the three product categories—produce, packaged foods and beverages—motivating factors vary. For instance, within produce, “better for me and my family” is the primary reason for use. However, this reason ranks second for beverages. A similar variant is evident for “to avoid additives, pesticides and toxins” which is much more of a motivating force for produce than for beverages.

Environmental benefits, thought to be a major force in organic usage, are clearly not the primary motivation to many consumers. “To help protect the environment” ranked number nine out of the top ten factors. This is likely a function of the growth of the industry. As organics become increasingly mainstream, personal motivations will take precedence over global/societal benefits for the majority of the population.

Given the motivations that consumers cite, marketers may find that in general consumers respond more positively to messaging that addresses their personal interests first.

Trended Understanding of Organic Regulations
Since 2001, consumers’ understanding of what the term “organic” refers to has increased significantly. This understanding is obviously crucial to the continued expansion of the organic marketplace.

As shown in Figure 2, consumer understanding of the fact that organics do not contain genetically modified ingredients saw compound annual growth (CAG) of 5.4 percent between 2001 and 2006. This coincides with other NMI research that shows that awareness of the term “genetic modification” has grown 1.2 percent in the same time period.

Consumer understanding of the fact that organics do not contain artificial colors, flavors or preservatives shows a CAG of 2.9 percent and that they are grown without chemical pesticides shows a 3.6 percent CAG.

While the increase in understanding of these elements of organics indicates that consumer outreach campaigns have had some success, an examination of the net of all three measures clearly indicates that more education may still be needed. Approximately half of the general population/primary grocery shoppers agree with all three of the statements, which means that half have no, or only partial, understanding of the regulations. Continued education efforts will need to play an important role in the marketing of organics.

Barriers to Trial
Recently, organic foods, and in particular organic produce, have been challenged by locally grown/locally produced offerings. Local products offer consumers several key attributes: freshness, belief in higher nutritional content and “hometown” industry. An equal number (38 percent) of organic users and non-users feel it’s more important to buy local than to buy organic.

Buying local is believed to support local economies and possibly the small “hometown” producers. The affection for small hometown stores is particularly strong among organic users and results in purchases of non-organic products.

A secondary, but important, attribute of organic foods/beverages is freshness. Consumers now have the opportunity to buy fresh products (produce, perishable products, sauces, dressings, etc.) from local producers in many mainstream retail locations where they once were not available.

Taste is also an important factor for all food/beverage purchases. For a quarter of all consumers, the perception exists that conventional foods taste better than organic packaged foods. This is significantly higher for non-users than organic users.

Since taste and trial are so closely linked—you cannot have taste without trial and taste drives trial—companies must look for ways to encourage trial, whether it be via free samples, in-store tastings, or compelling visuals in all marketing materials that create the expectation of great taste.

Consumers are often cited complaining about the high cost of many organic products and in fact, cost does prevent many consumers from purchasing more of them. Almost three-quarters of consumers state that organic foods are too expensive but they are responding positively to lower-priced, private label products.

Emerging Platforms for Organic Growth
Devoted users of organic products are demanding and the classification of “organic” is often not enough to persuade them to purchase a product. Consumers are looking for additional ethical and nutritionally-oriented qualities for their foods.

So in addition to simply being “organic,” consumers also want their products to be local, fair trade certified, sustainably packaged, grown on farms with a commitment to sustainable agriculture, etc.

Consumers are also looking for organic foods when eating away from home. Twenty-eight percent of general population consumers indicate that they would like to purchase organic foods at restaurants. That percentage spikes to 76 percent among DEVOTEDS™, the NMI organic consumer segment that is most committed to organics. Organic offerings away from home clearly represent a potential opportunity worth exploring.

Maryellen Molyneaux is president of The Natural Marketing Institute, an international strategic consulting, market research and business development company specializing in health, wellness and sustainability. Data sources in this article are from a variety of NMI proprietary research databases. More information on this subject is available by contacting NMI at info@NMIsolutions.com.