Canadian ideas for greener living
Education on What’s Natural and What’s “Natural”
When you talk to allot of consumers about organic and all natural ingredients, many are still skeptic if what they are buying is actually all natural or organic. Its a serious problem in today’s market because until consumers can really trust companies and what they are being told, moving towards a more eco-friendly/responsible society is going to take longer than we would like it to. That is why when I came across this article, it had an immediate impact on me.
Essentially, Burt’s Bees’ is taking a very aggressive strategy to its February marketing plans. Burt’s plans to do 100% product comparisons between their all natural ingredients and other companies “all natural ingredients”. Now this product comparison strategy is nothing new, but all the ingredients named in the ads are [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] approved, but they shouldn’t be in products that call themselves “natural”, and there in lies the rub. Natural products that are not natural. Full disclosure by a company is becoming more and more necessary in today’s markets, especially regarding organic and natural products. I can’t wait to see how these ads turn out and how successful they are. One thing is forsure though, the consumer needs to be educated, and the consumer needs to trust that they are helping out the environment with their purchase. Make sure to hit the link above to get all the information and links to other great relating articles.
Keep it green,
Paul
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Responses to “Education on What’s Natural and What’s “Natural””
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Good take on my article Paul,
Major manufacturers have an uphill battle with green consumers. There is an inherent(and sometimes undeserved)distrust of big companies in the green community.
I think the Clorox ad is a good start toward changing the relationship among green consumers and package goods companies really striving to be green. It will however take a quite a bit of work and there will still be a contingent of consumers who distrust any large company…no matter how green they try to be. The vast majority of consumers however, will be willing to listen.
What people should really be educated is on how “natural” products are often worse than “unnatural”. Nature doesn’t give a second thought to humans, most “natural” things are deadly to humans. Synthetic products and “unnatural” products are often much safer for human consumption. Yes, people got scared over the pesticide deal with good reason. But it doesn’t apply to everything. People need to get over it.
More knowledge about each product can be good for educated consumers. Unfortunately, most are morons and wouldn’t even understand their use in the product or the impact from it. Furthermore–the common person only cares for the words “organic” or “natural”, much like the word “free” a long time ago. So they’d just think it’s better, even if the “unnatural” product is superior and the “unnatural” part really helps.
Wow great cleaning ideas here. I will check back often.