At the NBJ Summit this week, we’ll be hosting a panel on “greening” the nutrition industry. Below are a few articles I found on Brandweek.com that caught my attention. They represent a solid balance of perspectives on this challenging, and very new issue for executives. The jury is still out on the longevity of “greening”, but I hope to have some solid suggestions on what to do and what not to do following the NBJ Summit.

-Patrick

Study: ‘Green’ Products Leave Consumers Puzzled

“The good news is consumers are “going green.” But the bad news is they are still pretty green when it comes to understanding what the term really means.

“Here’s the big ah-ha!,” said Suzanne Shelton, CEO of Shelton Group, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based ad agency that specializes in energy efficiency and sustainability. “If you were an alien and you landed on the planet in April of this year, you would think that the ‘green’ market was pretty mature because you’d be hearing about it everywhere—every newspaper, every TV show you turn on somebody is talking about being green. But this is not a mature market.”

Shelton Group recently conducted a national study, called Eco Pulse, which asked consumers open-ended and multiple-choice questions about green issues. What it found was a whole lot of confusion.”

Do Consumers Care that Sun Chips are Solar Powered? Apparently

“It’s getting harder to find a brand that doesn’t claim to be green. But, do they have a solar power factory? Is the rest of their energy use offset by energy credits? And, are they rebuilding a town that was virtually wiped out by a tornado? Not likely.

Sun Chips is different. The Frito-Lay product has rooted its brand in environmental causes as well as health-forward thinking. This strategy has paid off handsomely as Sun Chip sales are up 17.6%, totaling $201.8 million for the 52 weeks ending June 15, per IRI.

Frito-Lay vp-marketing Gannon Jones talked to Brandweek news editor Kenneth Hein about why really being green is healthy for sales.”

Forget the Environment Say the ‘Never Greens’

“About 10% of the population are Never Greens, according to a survey by Mintel International in Chicago, a research firm.

The Never Greens don’t buy green products, don’t remember green advertising when they see it and are irritated by it even if they do.”

One of the new features of the new Nutrition Business Journal website is the editorial calendar page.

2009 is shaping up to be a big year for the nutrition industry with many variables in play, and NBJ will be right there to keep subscribers up to speed on developing business trends, challenges and opportunities.

2009 Issues (Preliminary)

January - NBJ Awards & Executive Review

February – Natural & Organic Personal Care

March – Healthy Foods

April – Organic Foods & Beverages

May – Direct to Consumer Sales Channels

June/July – Annual IndustryOverview

August – Raw Materials & Ingredient Supply

September – Sports Nutrition & Weight Loss

October – Consumer Research in the Nutrition Industry

November/December - Global Nutrition Industry

January 2010 – Executive Review: NBJ Awards & CEO Q&A

2008 Issues Still to be published include:

August Condition Specific Supplement, OTC & Rx Markets

The supplement industry is no stranger to competition: competition between brands, competition between multiple ingredients targeting the same health conditions, and even competition between supplements and healthy diets or functional foods. In a broader context, supplements can also overlap—and even directly compete—with over-the-counter (OTC) products and prescription drugs, even though each is regulated differently—OTC for self-diagnosed conditions, Rx drugs to be prescribed by physicians when medically necessary, and dietary supplements for nutritional support. Over many years the supplement industry has become steadily more condition-oriented in its approach to product development and marketing—a trend reflected in the layout of retail aisles and in the product mix of manufacturers. In this 32-page issue, NBJ looks at trends, developments and statistics related to dietary supplements, OTC products and prescription drugs targeting specific consumer health conditions.

September Sports Nutrition & Weight Loss

The sports nutrition and weight-loss (SNWL) sector is recovering nicely from the low-carb “revolution” and the 2004 ephedra ban. In addition, early successes in supplement industry Internet marketing and sales have come from the sports nutrition & weight loss sector in the forms of bodybuilding.com, musclemaster.com and sportnutrition.com In this 24-page issue, NBJ analyzes the $20+ billion dollar U.S. Sports Nutrtition and Weight-Loss Market.

October Healthy Foods

It is impossible to walk down the aisles of a conventional supermarket and not be confronted by healthy foods & beverages – functional, lesser-evil and natural & organic foods. In this 24-page issue, NBJ reviews healthy food & beverage categories, trends, ingredients and companies.

November CAM

America’s escalating healthcare crisis is fueling a heated debate over how to improve consumers’ health-and to what degree preventative medicine, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and dietary supplements should be part of the solution. In this 24-page issue, NBJ reviews how true integration for complementary & alternative medicine and supplements seems closer as healthcare crisis and costs cascade.

December – Raw Materials & Ingredient Supply

Across the board the high cost of transportation and the weakening dollar hit raw material and ingredient supply (RMIS) companies hard in 2008. Price increases, bankruptcies and global supply issues riddled the RMIS industry, making many long for days past and years to come. In this 24-page issue, NBJ presents its annual analysis of the market for raw material supply and value-added ingredients in the U.S. nutrition industry in 2008.