Niche No More

Natural and organic products have gone mainstream. Until only a few years ago, most consumers probably couldn't pronounce terms like "Gingko Biloba" or "Echinacea," much less understand how these herbal ingredients could enhance their lives. Now, more than simply understanding them, consumers in all demographic profiles are demanding natural or organic ingredients in many of the products they regularly purchase, such as nutritional drinks, power bars, salad dressings, chips and dip, and cosmetics. And they're not just buying them in niche or specialty health food stores, but in convenience stores, supermarkets, even corner delis.In a recent study of supermarket shoppers, conducted by the Food Marketing Institute and Prevention magazine, 90% of those surveyed believe healthy eating directly contributes to disease prevention. More than two-thirds also say they regularly purchase fortified foods to maintain their health and one-third buy organic foods for the same reason."Consumers are seeing more products available in more locations that are convenient to where they traditionally shop," says Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association (OTA). "There are also many more products available in more varieties and stores. This availability, accessibility, convenience and selection all have something to do with the growth of organic products."OTA is tracking the growth of the organic product category at approximately 20% annually for each of the last nine years, attributable to increased exposure of organic and natural products in the media, as well as growing consumer interest in overall well-being and in the environment."People are purchasing products with more care than they have in the past because of concerns about production or processing practices, or their own individual lifestyle or dietary choices," DiMatteo says. "Often these concerns overlap with products that contain organic ingredients, and people choose organic because it fits into the type of purchasing that they've chosen for themselves in terms of their other interests and desires."These consumer trends have not gone unnoticed by marketers. In the past two years, a number of new companies have sprung up offering a variety of healthful products. Also, many established brands have refocused their marketing strategies to play up their more healthful attributes, while others have introduced brand new lines of healthy, natural or organic products to complement their existing products.As consumer interest in natural products expands, so do the opportunities for marketers to reach new audiences and increase their distribution channels. But as more and more manufacturers continually introduce and promote products with some form of "natural" benefits, creating an increasingly crowded marketplace, the need for product differentiation is also heightened. As a result, marketers are using P-O-P to not only tout the healthful benefits of these products, but also to assure consumers that in addition to purchasing something that's good for them, they're also getting a quality product that they will enjoy.In early 1999, Snapple Beverages introduced its Elements line, which the White Plains, N.Y.-based company billed as a line of functional fruit drinks and teas. Each of the six drinks contains some combination of herbal ingredients, and each also has a very "natural" name: Earth, Sun, Fire, Rain, Lightning and Moon.For Snapple, already known as a health-focused company as a result of its "Made from the Best Stuff on Earth" tagline and its use of all-natural ingredients, extending its reach into natural products seemed a logical progression. However, the company also realizes the need to devote special emphasis to these products, which is where P-O-P plays an important role."There is such a plethora of products out there and it's very difficult to have something that's truly unique and different from all the other offerings," says Neal Larkin, group director of promotions for Snapple Beverages. "[With natural products], people are generally looking for what is different about this product, what extra value it offers that the others don't."To support the Elements line, Snapple has created danglers, shelf talkers, cooler decals, static clings, posters and banners, all conveying the same basic message -- the combination of taste and healthful benefits."It's very important to let people know what's different about this product, that it's unique and it's better for you," says Larkin. "It's also important to let them know that they're not sacrificing taste or any of the other benefits that they would expect to be given with the product. You want to make consumers understand that these are terrific-tasting products with a bonus."To drive these points home at retail, most Snapple P-O-P features a close-up bottle shot that highlights the label so consumers can see some of the products' ingredients. Also, the taglines "look for the signs" and "refresh your natural resources" highlight the energy-enhancing qualities of the Elements line."It's just a matter of having a little more breakthrough, salient messages than the other point-of-sale," Larkin says.The More They Know...It's also a matter of helping consumers wade through crowded aisles of natural products filled with shelves full of healthy promises. Frontier Natural Products, based in Boulder, Colo., manufactures and sells packaged spices, organic coffee, aromatherapy products and natural remedies. The company supports its brands primarily with shelf, counter and floor displays of either wood or wire.While the natural products that Frontier sells have become more commonplace, according to the company, the more information that's available, the more inclined consumers are to lean toward a particular product."Since there are a lot of competitive brands out there, one challenge is convincing the customer that your brand is a high-quality brand worth using," says Steve Phillips, manager of customer education and social causes for Frontier. "A second challenge is helping customers decide which product they need when there are so many choices and varieties. Especially in mass market stores, [our products] may be something that people are not familiar with, so they start out a bit confused. We have to try to dispel their fears and also help them learn what they need to take. There's more demand for these products but, especially in terms of aromatherapy and natural remedies, there is a lot of information that people need in order to know how to use these products, and P-O-P helps present that information."However, many retailers limit the amount of manufacturer-supplied P-O-P that can be placed in their stores and, as a result, marketers are also limited in their ability to present educational product information. Frontier has tried to sidestep that store restriction by incorporating such information into the actual display."For our aromatherapy products, we primarily use wooden displays and recently, we've tried to come out with shelf displays that provide information to the customer," Phillips says. "Many stores are not allowing us to place brochures or shelf talkers, so we're developing pull-down displays with information on them to answer a lot of questions that consumers might have. We have small labels so we can't put a lot on the label. We need some way to get more information to the customer, and these displays help in doing that."Coping with limited space for P-O-P is somewhat restricting for Naturally Fresh, an Atlanta-based manufacturer of salad dressings, sauces and dips, among other products. But then again, since space in most produce sections is tight, less sometimes helps the company do more."We have products that are fat-free that we obviously label as fat-free, but we really try to communicate application more than anything else," says Alan Mesches, marketing director. "We try to give consumers the impression that it's more than just salad dressing. They can use it as a dip or as a marinade, and we provide some thought starters with the products. What we find works more than anything else are coupons and application materials. We also use neck ringers. Being in the produce section, we have only so much space. If we use P-O-P and cover up the shelf tags, then we've knocked ourselves into an out-of-stock position. We have to be pretty careful about that. Also, many retailers are allowing less and less manufacturer point-of-sale."Having space available for product information is also a P-O-P concern for Amerifit, a Bloomfield, Conn.-based manufacturer of nutrition and health food supplements. "We produce tri-fold brochures that customers can take with them to read about our products," says Rich Goodman, national sales and planning manager. "That will answer the questions they have and we try to incorporate them into our displays."Aside from the challenge of consumer education, Goodman notes that the same rules that apply to designing effective P-O-P for other categories also hold true for the natural products category."You still have to try to fit P-O-P into the retailers' requirements," he says. "Some have space requirements or other special requirements, whether they be mini wings or regular power wings, floorstands or counter displays. Every supplier has a lot of P-O-P and the retail buyers have a limited amount of space. They need to maximize the productivity of that space so they're going to pick the products that they believe are going to move the quickest. We need to tailor our P-O-P to the retailers' needs in order to get slotted in the stores."Another marketer challenge that is present across the board in all categories is having retailers allocate enough space for manufacturer-supplied P-O-P. "Like every other item that goes into a grocery store, there is always the space element, regardless of whether a retailer has a 100,000-square-foot store or a 25,000-square-foot store," says Naturally Fresh's Mesches. "All retailers can always use more space. The biggest challenge is the amount of space that's allocated within the produce section."The Right Look Helps, TooAs the natural products category continues to attract the attention of a wider range of consumers, many retailers are also attempting to attract more of this growing mainstream market by changing the look of their natural sections. Consequently, marketers must update the look of their P-O-P materials in order to blend."It's a very upscale consumer who's buying natural health foods," says. Robert Greenberg, vice president of marketing for Guiltless Gourmet, based in Austin, Texas. "The display pieces need to be attractive to capture the attention of that market. That typically requires more upscale, 'nicer-looking' pieces, rather than the traditional wire rack used for snack foods. What we've had to do is accommodate a buyer who is fixturing the natural foods area of the store much differently and doesn't want to put those wire racks in that section. To look like we belong and to make it appealing to the buyer, we have had to spend a little more money to create a higher-end looking piece."For Guiltless Gourmet, that type of display piece is an oak rack with four shelves to display its brands of organic tortilla chips, with a fifth shelf for co-merchandising glass jars of its bean dip on the same display."The display carries off the identity of the packaging," Greenberg says. "We've used wood-cut artwork that's become very analogous to the natural food segment. A lot of these natural food brands have typefaces and artwork that's very reminiscent of artisan craftsmen type of styling. We silkscreened the print for the header. It's a pretty tasteful-looking piece."As far as conveying educational information to consumers, Guiltless Gourmet's bag copy outlines its health benefits, and includes information about the food pyramid and the company's history.One Size Fits All, MostlyWhile the layout and look of natural products sections vary from store to store, the basic components of each section remain the same. Many marketers take a universal approach to their natural products P-O-P, offering the same display programs for all classes of trade, with certain modifications made on a case-by-case basis or according to individual needs of specific retailers.Amerifit targets all classes of trade, from mass merchants, supermarkets, drugstores and discount stores to the health food channel. "We usually use the same displays for health food and mass market accounts," says Amerifit's Goodman. "We may do something different for health food if we're able to, whether it be a window sign or something else, which you would not normally be able to do in mass market accounts. So, if we were to do something different it would be for the health food trade."Snapple's P-O-P goal is to create display pieces that also fit a variety of accounts, with some tailoring done to reach specific audiences. "To have the message be a little bit different and play up some of the health benefits, yes we've done that and that makes sense," says Larkin. "But the physical structure of the pieces and the design of the pieces haven't been different."The enormous popularity of the natural products category among consumers has also made it easier for marketers to encourage retail compliance, as well as to increase their market share and product distribution. The marketers and industry associations aren't the only ones tracking trends, as store managers are anxious to expand their inventory with the products they believe will sell the best -- and the quickest."Our oak rack tends to complement the fixturing that many stores are going to for their natural foods section," says Guiltless Gourmet's Greenberg. "We're finding getting placement is no more complicated than providing stores with the racks, whereas in other categories in other areas of the store, there may be a rack placement fee and they'll only guarantee you placement for maybe six months."The category's growth has allowed Snapple to expand its reach into secondary retail locations and different types of accounts such as health food stores and delis that carry alternative, healthy foods, as well as health food supermarkets like GNC and Trader Joe's. Larkin notes that as retailers expand their natural and organic sections, more space for products is created not only on shelves, but in coolers or coffins that may be located near the natural products section or even a salad bar. The result is higher impulse sales of Snapple beverages during lunchtime, for example. "It definitely gives us another opportunity to have our products in front of consumers."By adding the Elements brand to its more mainstream tea and drink lines, as well as to its other healthful products like ginseng-based teas and the new Hydro natural "thirst-quencher," Snapple is able to do more effective cross merchandising of all its products to highlight the variety in its lines. At times, retailers will specify that they only want to stock certain products but, for the most part, stores are usually willing to slot new products they think will strengthen their sales."Other than the 'super' natural foods stores, retailers don't really get that specific and say they only want the ones that have these added benefits," says Snapple's Larkin. "But they are more receptive to taking on new products that we come out with if they have added benefits. They see a point of difference, they see extra value for their customers. It's a trend that they're very well aware of and their sales are growing tremendously in this area."

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