Consumer Shopping Habits for Wellness and Environmentally ...
Consumer Shopping Habits for Wellness and Environmentally ...
Consumer Shopping Habits for Wellness and Environmentally ...
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Table 11 - Example 2 of Mid-Level <strong>Consumer</strong> Channel Preferences<br />
Macro-Category Primary/Preferred Secondary<br />
Fresh Foods<br />
QFC (Kroger), PCC (Local<br />
Natural/Organic Co-Op)<br />
Safeway<br />
Packaged Foods QFC Safeway<br />
OTC Rite-Aid Pharmaca, QFC, Safeway<br />
VMHS Rite-Aid, Costco, QFC Safeway, Pharmaca, PCC<br />
Home Cleaning QFC, PCC QFC, Safeway<br />
Personal Care Costco, Rite-Aid QFC, Safeway, PCC<br />
Infant Hygiene PCC, Costco (diapers) Pharmaca<br />
General Merch<strong>and</strong>ise <strong>for</strong> the Home Target -<br />
Core <strong>Consumer</strong>s – Looking <strong>for</strong> Authentic H+W Products <strong>and</strong> Retailers<br />
Core consumers are driven by values that relate directly to H+W, seeking out ―authentic‖ products<br />
<strong>and</strong> retailers wherever they may be. These consumers will tolerate fairly high amounts of<br />
inconvenience in order to get the products they seek; they are generally not prone to compromise.<br />
They also tend to be relatively insensitive when it comes to price – H+W is more important than<br />
saving money.<br />
The Experience dimension that is so important to Mid-level consumers actually becomes a bit less<br />
relevant at the Core. While they often shop in ―nicer‖ stores, they are willing to tolerate ―less nice‖ so<br />
long as those stores have the H+W goods they seek <strong>and</strong> appear to be authentic, in the sense that<br />
those retailers <strong>and</strong> their employees appear highly knowledgeable about H+W. In some sense, the<br />
Experience dimension is attenuated by the Core H+W consumers‘ knowledge – there is not as much<br />
―discovery‖ at retail <strong>for</strong> them since they know so much already.<br />
Core consumers are also often guided by their social opinions of retailers. In other words, they prefer<br />
to spend their money in stores that they think of as having similar social values to their own, in<br />
alignment with the Authenticity dimension. An authentic H+W retailer seeks out the right products<br />
<strong>and</strong> has the right values (according to Core consumers), consistent with a holistic H+W lifestyle,<br />
including ideas about the environment <strong>and</strong> sustainability. While consumers at other levels of H+W<br />
(Periphery <strong>and</strong> to a greater degree Mid-level) will avoid retailers (<strong>and</strong> manufacturers) that are widely<br />
reported to have practices they disagree with, Core consumers will ferret-out in<strong>for</strong>mation about<br />
companies on their own. This generally means that they prefer to shop at smaller, local, <strong>and</strong>/or<br />
natural/specialty channel retailers whenever possible, which generally tend to have better reputations<br />
as far as social, environmental, <strong>and</strong> labor issues, though, in a pinch, they will shop at conventional<br />
channels.<br />
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