Conscious Branding Versus
Conventional Branding
Conscious branding stands in stark
contrast to traditional, manipulative
branding. Both tap into consumers’
emotional centers. However, where traditional branding often manipulates
people into having an emotional experience, conscious branding strengthens
an emotional connection the consumer already has. While traditional branding
relies on mindless acceptance, conscious branding relies on conscious deci-sion-making. And, most importantly,
while traditional branding treats the
consumer as a passive victim, conscious
branding sees the consumer as an
active participant in a community of like-minded thinkers.
In essence, conscious branding
offers each consumer the ability to be
a representative of what they want to
see in the world, enabling them to be
“responsible” contributors to society with
each purchase.
Connect with Consumers on an
Emotional Level or Get Left Behind
No one can fail to acknowledge the
great gains that organic products have
made in increasing market penetration over the past few decades. According to Organic Trade Association data,
U.S. sales of organic foods and beverages have mushroomed from $1 billion in 1990 to an estimated $23.6
billion in 2008. Yet over the past year,
there has been a dramatic slowdown in
the growth of the organic industry.
What’s going on? The widely held
assumption is that it’s the economy.
But consumers only switch brands
based on price when there is no brand
loyalty, when they haven’t developed
an emotional connection to a brand.
The real culprit behind the slowdown in the growth of organics isn’t
simply the economy—it’s the way we’re
promoting organics.
As mentioned, the majority of organic product manufacturers today engage solely in traditional attribute-
based marketing, basing everything on
just the facts: no synthetic pesticides or
hormones, good for the planet, etc.
What the NOP standards represent in
terms of better growing, processing,
and husbandry practices is critical to
retaining the integrity of organic—but
these practices are not the basis for
making someone feel connected to
your brand. Simply turning the NOP
rules into a list of product attributes
not only misses the opportunity for
consumers to be more actively involved in the causes your brand represents, it also puts organic brands at
risk of becoming price-driven
commodities.
Moving Consumers Toward the Core
Some organic consumers buy based
mainly on price and attributes, while
others’ purchasing habits are based on
how they identify with key brands. To
understand why, we must take a look at
the types of organic consumers. The
Hartman Group, a research consulting
firm, has divided organic consumers
into three categories.
The periphery consumer is the occasional buyer, purchasing organic
products only on the periphery of the
store: the meat, dairy, and produce
aisles. She is motivated by personal
benefits of product attributes with a
focus on price: “Organic milk is on
sale, I think it’s a little better, so I buy it
when it’s on special.”
The mid-level consumer always buys
organic in the peripheral aisles and
sometimes buys organic processed
products from the center aisles. She is
motivated by personal benefit with a
focus on fresh products: “I have an 11-
year-old daughter and I will not buy
anything that has hormones in it, but I
am not so sure of the value of a
processed cookie. I mean, a cookie is a
cookie, right?”
The core consumer is committed to
organic products and will buy them
throughout all parts of the store. She is
motivated by personal, planetary and
social incentives: “I buy organic because I want to eat food free of toxins,
preserve the planet, and buy foods
produced by workers treated fairly.”
The Hartman Group’s “Many Faces
of Organics” report states that in a
recent three-month period, 69 percent
of surveyed consumers purchased organic products. Of this group, 79 percent were identified as mid-level and
periphery consumers. These statistics
reveal several key insights. First, a huge
percentage of the population—over
two-thirds—is engaging with organic
products. We have likely reached saturation; the other 31 percent might
never buy organic. Second, the majority of organic consumers—nearly four-fifths—are buying on the periphery of
the store. It is only the other 21 percent that are fully vested in buying organic products.
“The economy has exacerbated the
trade-offs between organic and conventional,” says Laurie Demeritt, president of The Hartman Group. “People
will buy the products that clearly offer
personal value, such as hormone-free
milk, but are less clear on the packaged goods that do not present the
same tangible value. The periphery
and mid-level consumers understand
why it is preferable not to consume
hormones or antibiotics in meat and
dairy products; they don’t perceive the
value of an organic cookie.”
What this tells us is that the reason
organic growth has slowed is because
we have maxed out the number of
people who are shopping on the periphery. That is where organic growth
was coming from and now the market
is saturated. Therefore, growth of the
organic sector will not really pick up
again unless we can persuade peripheral and mid-level consumers to cross
over and begin to affiliate with organic as a core consumer. The need
to build the relevance of organic
on an emotional level is pressing.
Fortunately, the market is ripe for
transition.
