My last two blog posts covered eco-tourism and how to help people stay healthy on the go as well as why there is this connection between green and health.
Think about it—would you want to breathe air that you knew was extremely polluted and would cause health problems? Probably not. Neither do these consumers and they also realize that their health can be impacted by their environment and what they eat.
In our research, LOHAS consumers indicated that they can control many health problems by the food that they eat. If the foods that they eat are full of pesticides, full of preservatives, and grown in soil that is polluted, will this allow them to keep their health in tip-top shape, they do not believe so. This is why there is a large connection between health and the environment and why you’ll often see green expos having a health component to them.
Here is something else to consider, if you are trying to appeal to the LOHAS consumer and green consumer, and you’re in a situation to either source locally grown food that is non-organic versus sourcing and offering nationally grown organic food, what do you do?
This question was presented to me when we interviewed an inn. To understand the correct answer, you need to understand that to a green consumer, a product needs to be equal to or superior than a conventional one. Use this same logic with food, in my opinion, a LOHAS consumer would probably not be okay with you giving them food full of hormones and pesticides.
What can do in this situation is let the consumer know that you are sourcing it from x, yet continuing to find ways to source it local. In addition, you can reduce your carbon footprint from the shipping by going to a site such as Terra Pass to purchase a carbon offset.
Next time, I’ll discuss the importance of training your front-line people to understand the green and LOHAS consumer, and know how to communicate with them.
Helping You Understand and Profit from Consumer Health and Green Trends
Colette Chandler
