Prior to writing this blog post, I have spent the last 2 or so hours pouring over consumer magazines at Barnes and Noble. Why, you might ask?
I like to have my pulse on what is happening in the green and LOHAS marketplace. Going through magazines looking at articles and the green and LOHAS ads is just a way for me to do informal research to see what is being talked about, advertised and marketed.
After perusing around 30 magazines including, but not limited to: Oprah, Discover, Sierra Club, Experience Life, Health, Mother Earth, Discover, Organic Spas, National Geographic, Dwell, Kiwi, Natural Solutions (formerly Alternative Medicine—we’ll talk about this new trend in a separate post), Weight Watchers, Real Simple, Real Travel, Travel & Leisure, I found some common themes. I’m not sure that I would call them trends.
Here is what they are:
• Very few companies/brands in the travel and tourism industry are advertising that they are green, eco-friendly, etc. Although, there are not that many truly green hotels, I did expect to see more mentioning some eco-options, especially since ecotourism is one of the fastest growing tourism trends.
• In the travel magazines, articles on “transformational travel,” travel to places in fear of being extinct, etc.
• Many products, especially in the food & beverage industry and cosmetics industry being touted as eco-friendly, green and “natural.” We’ll be talking more about the infamous word, “natural,” in my next thread. It’s a topic within itself.
• Companies relying on third-party endorsements to sell the fact that they are organic, green, etc. Some of the ones I found where mentions of being a member of the Organic Trade Association (surprisingly, I only found one ad mentioning this), a housing community mentioning that they are a part of HGTV Green Home, using celebrity faces and names as implied endorsements (The Nature Conservancy), various green endorsements and so forth.
Helping You Understand and Profit from Consumer Health and Green Trends
Colette Chandler
