I’ve been researching the natural & organic personal care market for the last 3 weeks. It’s amazing how little information there is out there - even more surprising how some writers and market research firms completely miss the mark. This is one of the reasons that Nutrition Business Journal first researched the natural personal care market 10 years ago.

As with all the nutrition industry product sectors and sales channels that we research, our goal is to produce the most detailed analysis of the natural & organic personal care market.

On February 21st, we’ll be presenting the findings of over a month of research on the natural & organic personal market online. If you’re planning a new product launch, considering an investment or trying to get smart on the natural & organic personal care market, it is truly in your best interests to register for this web seminar.

For $495, you receive 6 login points to this web seminar for your team.

NBJ’s mission is to deliver more research per dollar than any other market research firm. So, get your whole team up to speed on the business issues facing the natural personal care industry. Register today.

It sure would be tough to be the marketer of a weight loss brand over the holidays…knowing that your prime business season sits just around the corner…January 1st.

The New York Times recently reported that Kellogg’s Special K and Weight Watchers will be advertising their products on billboards in Times Square this New Year’s Eve.

Nike and Coca-Cola are getting into the act too.

But that’s not it. Some brands are also launching MySpace pages and looking to digital media to educate consumers about their weight management plans…and the history of dieting. Interesting stuff coming from the big brands these days.

Myself, I enjoyed a few too many Christmas cookies, but worked them off in the Breckenridge, Colorado the week before New Year’s….snowboarding and cross country skiing. Wouldn’t Marion Nestle recommend balance in our diet and our lilves?

-Patrick

For 2 years, I ran New Hope’s online, or “emedia”, business. It was fun and challenging. Fun because there’s so much to learn and challenging because there are few people in the natural products industry in marketing positions who really understand the opportunity of online advertising and marketing. Often I found myself explaining what pageviews, impressions and click-through-rates were, and why website “hits” was a ridiculous statistic. Rarely did I make headway into integrated marketing program discussions. Still, I had a great time and worked with alot of great people in the industry.

So when Advertising Age released this article on the recent increase in web traffic to packaged goods websites, it caught my attention. It seems that these packaged goods (Uncle Bens, Hersheys, M&Ms, Loreal) firms are finally getting serious about online advertising…AND their online advertising is returning some significant traffic and marketing ROI.

What I’ve learned is that the nutrition industry needs some serious education when it comes to refining their basic online strategies into tactics that drive online traffic and consumer loyalty. So, in NBJ’s December Business Achievement and Executive Review issue, we had the editor of Website Magazine, Pete Prestipino, contribute a “so now you have a website…what’s next” article. Pete’s a great guy and a wealth of information on the business of emedia. Check it out over the holidays when you’re digesting that turkey/roast/ham/tofurkey feast you just gorged yourself on.

-Patrick