Source: LOHAS Weekly Newsletter
Published: Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Tell your product's story, says NMI

As part of its Top 10 Trends of 2004 list, the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) concludes that the trend of consumers buying products whose origins are aligned with their values is having a significant effect on the health and wellness marketplace. NMI says the key to reaching and appealing to the LOHAS consumer is to educate them on the details of a product's origin.

Using data from its fifth annual health and wellness trends and second annual LOHAS consumer trends databases, which is based on research studies from more than 2,000 households in the U.S., NMI notes that 90 percent of LOHAS consumers agree that they "will usually buy products from companies whose values are most like my own," according to a Dec. 16 announcement. Sixty-two percent of the general population agreed with that statement. NMI says that LOHAS consumers comprised 32 percent of the general population in 2003.

LOHAS consumers, states Steve French, NMI managing partner, "are actively seeking those products endowed with additional characteristics that are associated with personal belief systems related to concepts such as sustainability, environmentalism, social responsibility, and other LOHAS-related platforms. It is also important to note that these values are applied to the entire supply chain-from the source of the materials used in the particular product, to the packaging itself, to what happens to the product after consumption."