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.”

Last week, I attended The 2nd Annual Organic Summit at the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. It was quite and event and garnered a fair amount of media attention from public radio and Grist.org. But the event wasn’t about hype, it was about the issues facing the organic industry today.

Interestingly, this year’s organic summit seemed to be more about the groundbreaking newcomers in today’s organic industry as opposed to yesterdays enormously successful leaders. Daria Myers of Orgins Organics spoke about her company’s organic personal care line and a number of “organic groundbreakers” including Brahm Ahmadi of People’s Grocery and Patrice Gros of Foundation Farm & Farming School also spoke.

Breakout sessions on Thursday allowed attendees to hop in and out of discussions of social investing, nanotechnology, fair trade and organic research, to name a few.

The highlight for me, however, was the closing keynote: Maintaining the Integrity of an Organic Brand when Coa-Cola Calls. Seth Goldman, President and Co-Founder of Honest Tea and Michael Ohmstede, SVP of Business Development for Venturing & Emerging Brands of Coca-Cola together told the story of Honest Tea and the acquisition of 40% of its equity by Coca-Cola.

Though in my opinion, Seth and Michael are still on their “honeymoon”, the principles of the deal seem to make sense. Fortunately, Seth is mentored by Gary Hirshberg, the founder of Stonyfield Farm, who’s deal to sell part of Stonyfield Farm to Dannon - 40% ownership with control of the board staying in the hands of the founders for a period of time and a buyout tentatively planned for the future was the model for Honest Tea. Coke made a smart move and with their prior experience deep-sixing Mad River Traders beverages fresh in their minds, Ohmstede sounded like he’s approaching this deal with more respect of the Goldman’s wishes. Buying in when Honest Tea’s sales were only $27 million was a smart move too. Honest Tea is in dire need of distribution and Coke certainly gives them that. Honest Tea’s sales are projected to be $40 million by the end of 2008, so something is working already.

This is Jylle Lardaro, co-chair of The Organic Summit and New Hope Natural Media’s Director of Organic Industry Alliances. She reflects on what was presented and talked about at The Organic Summit.

This is Erica Stone, the conference director of The Organic Summit (and Natural Products Expo East). She talks about the attendees and the locations…as well as where The Organic Summit will be held in 2009.

For more information from NBJ on the Organic Markets, make sure you check out NBJ’s “Natural & Organic Foods” channel where all our natural & organic foods and beverages research is aggregated.

-Patrick

You may or may not know that New Hope (NBJ’s parent company) and Supermarket News launched a trade show June 18-19, 2008 called Healthy Foods International Expo.

As part of the education program, Nutrition Business Journal presented on the findings of a series of surveys of consumers, conventional retailers and conventional food manufacturers regarding their beliefs about healthy foods. The presentation was entitled New Insights into the Motivations, Attitudes and Behaviors of U.S. Grocery Consumers.

The presentation drew over 100 attendees and two breakouts on retailers and manufacturers were well attended as well. No matter how much credit we give them, conventional retailers and manufacturers of healthy foods still don’t completely get it. They have alot to learn, which made it all the more important that we were there to impart some of our industry knowledge to them over two days.

The show, though a launch, was perfectly produced and went off without a hitch (at least from my perspective). Attendance was a bit sparse, but understandably so in this economy, setting the stage for growth down the road. Approximately 100 exhibitors presented their latest healthy foods offerings to conventional retailer buyers and executives who pounded the floor.

While in the Dallas Convention Center, I took a few videos to show you what the show really looked like. Please excuse the fogginess of the video - my camera didn’t handle the humid climate so well.

This video is of the rush to get on the show floor when it opened Wednesday at 12 noon so you can get an idea of what the show looked like.

This video is of the crowd gathered to hear Samuel Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew, give the keynote address Wednesday evening after the show floor closed

This video is from celebrity& author Devin Alexander

To learn more about NBJ’s research on the healthy foods market, go to NBJ’s Healthy, Lesser-Evil and Functional Foods channel, where all of NBJ’s information on these categories is aggregated.

Enjoy.

-Patrick

Did you know that fully 13% of nutrition products and 36% of dietary supplements are sold through non-retail channels in the United States. This is real business that, if approached correctly, can jumpstart your supplement business sales.

Increasingly, nutrition industry entrepreneurs are turning to the direct channels to launch new businesses and products via the Internet, multi-level/direct marketers, practitioners, direct response television, direct response radio, mail order and catalogs.

I along with Nutrition Business Journal co-founder, Tom Aarts, will be leading this webseminar on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 11:00-12:30 pm MT. Register now!

Please join us as we cast light on the lesser-research, but incredibly important, direct channels of the U.S. nutrition industry….one of NBJ’s specialties!

-Patrick

It’s that time of the year again – time to book that hotel room for The NBJ Summit 2008 at the St. Regis Resort in Dana Point, California. As of June 9th the St. Regis indicates that the NBJ Summit room block has been filled to over 75% capacity, which means that if you haven’t booked your room yet, the preferred room rate of $299 per night will soon be out of your grasp. To reserve rooms, call Travel Planers at 800.221.3531 or go to http://www.nbjsummit.com/services/travel.cfm

The best executive education sessions, networking and events await you at The 2008 NBJ Summit.

Optional golf kicks off the NBJ Summit early Wednesday morning, so make sure to indicate you would like to golf as part of your registration. After morning golf, the sessions begin at 2:30pm with NBJ’s State of the Industry followed by an opening keynote speech from Dr. Taylor Hartman , author of “The Color Code” a personality test that all attendees will take online prior to the event. Wednesday concludes with the a starlit dinner overlooking the ocean on the St. Regis Resort’s Grand Lawn.

Thursday begins early with a 7am breakfast and the second of three keynote speakers, Adam Werbach , the global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S. Following a green business panel and a sales channel lunch breakouts, we depart for the NBJ Summit Regatta at 2pm for some fun and sun on the high seas. At Wednesday’s dinner we award the NBJ Business Achievement Awards to winners in attendance and award the NBJ Summit Regatta Cup. Following dinner, those with energy to burn will adjourn to the Presidential Suite for what we expect to be a contentious Port Quality Assurance Association meeting.

Friday, breakfast is once again served at 7am with the first session of the day on innovation in maturing markets kicking off the last day of the NBJ Summit. Soon after, the third of our three keynote speakers, Walter Robb will close the conference with his reflections on the nutrition industry’s past, present and future.

So, book your hotel rooms and register now for the premier executive conference in the nutrition industry – The NBJ Summit!

-Patrick