By Jen Johnston, CHHC, senior marketing services account manager at HRG, with contributions from Michele DeKinder-Smith, president of Linkage Research & Consulting, Inc., for the Step into Natural blog series
Some retailers have a preconceived notion of the types of people that shop for natural products. Stop for a moment to consider your own ideas of who the natural shopper is.
Did you picture a baby-wearing “crunchy” mom? Did you picture a millennial “hipster”? Did you picture a “hippie” baby boomer? Did you picture an on-the-go business person?
Did you picture a liberal or a conservative? Did you picture a devout Christian or a new age yogi? Did you picture a meat lover or a plant lover?
The truth is that natural shoppers span all generations, all political and religious affiliations, all lifestyle diets, all sexual orientations, and all walks of life. Instead of segmenting natural shoppers by their demographics, we find it is more useful to segment them by their motivations.
While there are many approaches to market segmentation, one approach I particularly like was researched and defined by consumer insights firm Linkage Research & Consulting. They have a division, the Free From Forum, focused entirely on the natural and “free from” consumer. We recently met with their founder, Michele DeKinder-Smith, whose descriptions of the five different types of natural consumer are detailed below and in my next post. This post will describe two of the types of natural customers and the remaining three will be covered in my next post. Each group has a name – see if you recognize this person in your store.
“Feed the Body”
This group includes those who must work hard to provide fuel for their bodies due to allergy, intolerance, or an autoimmune condition. Because they must avoid specific ingredients such as gluten or sesame in food, medications (Rx and OTC), or personal care products, these consumers can spend an incredible amount of time researching the products they buy. Consider the classic celiac patient: it often takes up to 10 years for clinical diagnosis, during which time the patient can suffer severely from symptoms of the disease. This can lead to real frustration with the healthcare system, and while diagnosis brings relief, it also brings intense focus to ingredient avoidance, as the patient strives to avoid reoccurrences.
They may ask you questions as they double and even triple-check that items they buy in your store will be safe for them to consume. They need trusted advisors to help them navigate product options, especially supplements, OTC, and personal care; and especially Rx, where ingredients are less familiar and sometimes difficult to pin down. Your time and attention, and offering tools to help them navigate your store will build loyal shoppers.
“Support Superstars”
These shoppers are the mothers, fathers, siblings, children, husbands and wives of people in the first group. Over time, they have watched their loved one suffer ill health and, in the case of severe allergies, live in fear that certain ingredients could cause a tragic outcome.
When shopping for their loved ones, Support Superstars behave similarly to the Feed the Body group – placing intense focus on “what’s inside” Rx, OTC, personal care, and food items. In the case of parents of children with an allergy, they may also ask questions about testing protocols, food challenges, and the emerging research that is changing pediatric guidelines for when and how to introduce new foods like peanuts. You can help them best by staying up on what’s happening in the world of allergy research and giving them your time and attention as they seek to keep their loved ones safe.
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