Have you heard of Made To Matter? It's an exclusive line of products that Target started placing in their end caps and throughout their regular aisles this spring. There are 17 brands participating in the program. Half of them will be introducing line extensions and the other half are new products. The brands participating in the program include: Annie's Homegrown, Burt's Bees, Chobani, Clif Bar & Company, Ella's Kitchen, EVOL, Horizon Organic, Hyland's, Kashi, Method, Plum Organics, Seventh Generation, SheaMoisture, Target's Simply Balanced, Vita Coco, Yes To and Zarbee's Naturals.
Target's website states, "Now more than ever, Target guests are on the lookout for natural, organic and sustainable products that are better for them and their families." At BuzzBack, we couldn't agree more. For the past few years we've chosen different marketing terms to better understand consumers' associations across the globe. Our three most recent terms have been Natural, Healthy and Sustainability.
Our findings show that brand messaging shouldn't rely soley on fuctional product benefits and that companies who play in the global market need to understand the different nuances across cultures. In our Healthy study we suggest that linking functional benefits to the emotional associations of a healthy lifestyle can more deeply connect with consumers.
For example, an area that we found interesting was how respondents associate Healthy across age/life stages, from babies, children, teens, young adults to mature adults. Moving from the youngest to the oldest age groups, US, UK, and German responders revealed a gradual shift from nurturing/emotional associations to nutrition, wellness, and being physically healthy. When looking at associations for the same stages among Brazilians however, the focus is on nutrition and emotional connections for the younger groups, and then later shifting to a combination of nutrition, education (or work) and fitness in later life stages.
In Germany and Russia, the focus is on emotional connections for the younger age groups and shifts to associations with nutrition, fitness, and balance for the older age groups (young/mature adults). For China we see strong associations with physical health throughout all age stages, with emphasis on physical strength and fitness being more evident for the later stages in life.
To request a copy of the findings from Natural, Healthy and/or Sustainability, click here.
