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Why consumers choose “natural” over “organic”

A new study by the Shelton Group finds American consumers want to buy “green” products and they believe “natural” is more eco-friendly than “organic”. Suzanne Shelton says her agency “focuses on motivating mainstream consumers to make sustainable choices.” As part of that, they do quarterly polling to track opinions and attitudes on everything from energy to organic produce. They start out by conducting focus groups on issues that they see arising and then develop surveys from those focus groups.One of the issues they saw in their focus groups was consumer’s inability to differentiate between products labeled as “natural” and those labeled “organic.” Shelton says consumers in those groups felt “Organic was really just a fancy way of product manufacturers to warrant a higher price. They also told us that they felt like ‘natural’ and ‘all natural’ was regulated by some sort of government authority while organic was not.” So they put the question in their Eco Pulse  quantitative study of 1006 random consumers across the country, they found twice-as-many thought “natural” was the most eco-friendly label. 31 percent said “100% natural”, 25 percent said “all natural ingredients” and 14 percent said “100% organic.”

Shelton says consumers seem to think “organic” is more of an unregulated marketing buzzword that means the product is more expensive. Ironically, just the opposite is true, there are set organic standards but nothing really for natural. She says the organic industry has not done a very good job of explaining to consumers in a clear, easy-to-understand way what the difference is between organic and natural and what the value of organic is. “Consumers look at organic and say golly, it’s really expensive and I can buy this natural thing that’s not nearly as expensive and aren’t they really kind of the same thing?” She also says because organic foods tend to show up in pricier shops, “It tends to have a kind of a snooty association with it.”

One of the major factors contributing to the popularity of the “natural” label is the fact it only costs a little more. Along with that, consumers are very driven by health concerns right now, “Which is why they are seeking out natural products, things like natural fruits and vegetables, natural cleaning materials, natural skin care materials,” because they are worried about, “what’s in this stuff I am putting in my home, in my family’s bodies, on our skin?” To that end, “natural sounds like a cleaner, down-to-earth word than organic.”

Shelton says companies are cashing-in on the popularity of natural, “23 percent of the new products launched globally last year carried the natural label.” One prime example, Dean Foods recently announced plans to launch a line of natural dairy products produced conventionally but “without added growth hormones, artificial colors, flavors or preservatives and no high fructose corn syrup.” She says the biggest thing the “natural” people have to do to maintain that image is to “Be honest”, be transparent, don’t exaggerate your claims, and define natural and what the benefits of natural are to the consumer.

As for organic, it’s simple, “They have to help consumers understand what it is and why it is so expensive”.

AUDIO: Suzanne Shelton talks about the Eco Pulse study (10:40)

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