• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, April 16, 2007

Even for us cynics who have followed the way mass marketers have alternately targeted and then ignored environmentally aware consumers since the Reagan administration, it's hard not to be impressed at how sincerely companies are trying to "get" green marketing this time around.

It's also hard not to be impressed at just how adept that target market is at completely ignoring the biggest companies, despite thousands of product launches, repositioned brands and billions in advertising. These people--50 million of the most affluent Americans-are so determined not to be suckered by any more greenwashing that they've made themselves almost completely advertising-proof.

The LOHAS consumer-that's lifestyles of health and sustainability, in case you've been under a rock-now represents a $228.9 billion U.S. marketplace for goods and services, which focus on "health, the environment, social justice, personal development and sustainable living," according to lohas.com. And while this group is admittedly smug (You know them by their "Friends don't let friends drink Starbucks" or "Prius Owners Against the War" bumper stickers) they are growing: The Natural Marketing Institutes estimates that LOHAS market includes 35 million U.S. adults, or about 16%, and that it was about $209 million in 2005.

An even bigger segment of the population-- 25% of U.S. adults--are what NMI calls "Naturalites." While they don't think of themselves as politically committed to the environmental movement nor driven to purchase eco-friendly durable goods, they are extremely focused on health, constantly looking for natural and/or organic consumer packaged goods, especially when it comes to foods/beverages.

To this market, says Gwynne Rogers, the LOHAS business director at the Natural Marketing Institute, "smaller is better. Independent is better. But they are still consumers, they have kids and they have needs," she says, so when they do shop at national chains, they prefer stores like Whole Foods, Target, which recently announced an organics line, and The Body Shop.

But some companies, arguably, may never be able to win them over. Take Wal-Mart, the company that is most reviled by activist consumers. First, environmentalists denounce it because it doesn't sell organic food. So Wal-Mart starts to sells organic food, and environmentalists denounce it because it sells organic food from big farms in other countries, which harms small U.S. farmers. So Wal-Mart announces programs to promote organic produce from small U.S. farms. It insists on massive packaging reform, energy savings in its stores and even introduces a sweeping plan to sell gazillions of energy-saving light bulbs-changes that will have more positive impact on the environment in a day than most small companies will in a decade. As a result?

"LOHAS consumers do avoid stores like Wal-Mart," says Rogers.

Many large companies have skirted this problem by wooing green consumers the old-fashioned way-they hide behind another corporate nameplate. While companies like Unilever, General Mills and Coca-Cola can written off as big corporate meanies by the LOHAS crowd, they can still make a nice buck peddling politically correct brands like Ben & Jerry's, Cascadian Farms, Odwalla and Fresh Samantha, although green consumers tend to be very irritated when they learn the truth.

For this audience, small companies simply have greater authenticity and credibility than large companies. "It's much easier for a small company to engage in things like green power, recyclable materials, small footprint tactics," says Michelle Barry, president of Tinderbox, which is part of The Hartman Group, an environmental marketing firm in Bellevue, Wash. "One small building and production outfit simply makes a smaller imprint than a large corporation using high levels of resources and space."

Of course, that's not to say some major marketers aren't hitting home runs: It's no coincidence that just as Toyota has become the car of choice among America's Green Mafia, it's also poised to become the No. 1 car maker in the world.

"There is a real mainstreaming going on," Rogers says, "and these LOHAS consumers are leading the rest of the population."

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles that focus on the environment and green marketing this week, which leads to Earth Day on Sunday, April 22.