of consumer conversations surrounding organic usage, overall
consumer interest in “organic”
may be changing primarily because the term “organic” has
come to mean so many things to
consumers that it represents no
one thing for everyone. Also combine the premium required for
most organic food and the growing economic constraints on aver-
Figure 2. Frequency of Organic Use, 2000, 2006, age Americans—including the
2008 rising cost of food in general—
Note: Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding and it is entirely possible that
Survey question: “How often have you used organic foods
heavy usage of organics is becom-
or beverages in the past three months?”
Base: All respondents. Sources: Healthy Living Survey, Aug ing too expensive for many
2000 (n=4942); Organic 2006 Survey, Dec 2005 (n=2109); Americans, especially in cate-
Organic 2008 Survey, Feb 2008 (n=2161). gories that they consider
nonessential. In essence, over the 2007 to 2008 period, consumers
were already starting to make tradeoffs in terms of organic categories
that matter and those that don’t. The recent economic downturn has
only intensified this trend.
Organic Consumer Lifestyle Segmentation
Of the U.S. consumers who use organics, the majority (65 percent) is made up of Mid-level organic consumers, with smaller segments at the two extremes: 21 percent are Core consumers and 14
percent are Periphery consumers (Figure 3).
Among these consumers within the World of Organic Food and
Beverages, the intensity
and meaning of “
organics” varies depending upon which
consumer segment is
participating. Core
consumers, for example, who have adopted
organic foods, have
Figure 3. Segment Percentages within the World of
done so with the ex- Organics
pectations that the Survey question: “How often have you used organic foods
food has been grown or beverages in the past three months?”
with the intent to take Base: All respondents (n=2161). Source: Organic 2008 Sur-
vey, Feb 2008.
care of the planet and
the consumer’s health. In contrast, “organic” for the Periphery consumer may simply mean something “new” with only a vague understanding of any health or environmental benefits.
Changes in Organic Usage within Segments
As shown in the “Hartman Core to Periphery World Model” on
page 15, organic consumers are broken down into three categories,
Core, Mid-Level and Periphery. In the 2008 study, a “regular” user of
organics is defined as someone who uses organic foods or beverages
at least weekly, and the Core consumer is most likely to be a regular organic user (75 percent are), while
occasional usage (monthly or “
occasionally”) best describes the Mid-level
and Periphery consumers(Figure 4).
This wasn’t the case in 2006, when
just over half ( 54 percent) of Core organic consumers were regular users
and the majority ( 60 percent) of regular users were in the Mid-level.
The findings of the Many Faces of
Organic 2008 report clearly show that
the Core organic consumers of today
are more intensely involved in the
World of Organics than were those of
just a couple of years ago. The transitions in usage frequency over the past
two years are:
• Core organic consumers are intensifying their usage, as the number
of regular (at least weekly) users
has increased from 54 percent in
2006 to 75 percent in 2008.
• Mid-level organic consumers have
decreased from 37 percent to 26
percent. This could represent a
cooling off, or it could mean that
some of these consumers have
moved up into the Core category
and intensified their usage.
• Periphery organic consumers have
grown from 16 percent in 2006 to
25 percent in 2008, reflecting a
slight upswing in those using organics at least monthly.
Considering that there are fewer
regular (at least weekly) users of
organics now ( 19 percent of all
consumers) than in 2006 ( 23 percent), there seems to be a widening chasm between today’s Core
organic consumers and those in
the Mid-level. This implies that
while those remaining in, or recently entering, the Core of organics tend to be deeply entrenched
in the organic lifestyle, many of
today’s Mid-level consumers are
having second thoughts about how
“deep” they want to go into organics at this point in time. Aside from
