• by Tameka Kee , May 9, 2008

Consumers that regularly purchase organic products are 153% more open to new experiences than the general population, according to a new study by Mindset Media and Nielsen Online.

And brands like Cascadian Farms (a division of General Mills) seeking to target these "open" consumers don't just have to address them with ads alongside green-friendly TV shows like Discovery Health's "Get Fresh with Sara Snow" or in magazines like Organic Family--they can place buys across networks and Web sites that appeal to the open consumer's mentality.

"Marketers that have organic products can certainly go offline and advertise in places like a yoga or green magazine," said Sarah Welch, COO and co-founder of Mindset Media. "But niche print titles tend to reach 90[,000] or 100,000 people. When you start to understand that what makes someone interested in organics is a mindset--then you can reach millions of people with that mindset with a simple online buy."

The study took place over the fourth quarter of 2007, with a panel of 8,000 demographically diverse Nielsen Online panelists. Participants were asked a series of more than 110 personality-based questions, such as whether they liked to try new and foreign foods, or whether they were intrigued by patterns found in art and nature. Each respondent was then ranked in terms of their level of Openness (among other characteristics), and then separated into five Openness buckets.

Mindset Media found that consumers who bought organic products consistently scored in the top 20th percentile in terms of openness--they tended to be more receptive to their own inner feelings, and were likely to be more spontaneous, creative and altruistic than the average consumer. These "Openness 5" consumers, as Mindset Media defines them, were also 105% more likely than the general population to have the "decisive and inclusive" qualities of a modern leader. The study also found that when it came to buying organic--affluence was not a major factor. "People always ask the question of whether organic brands should market to rich consumers because they're more expensive," Welch said. "But our Mindsets are demographically neutral--so Openness 5's aren't just wealthy people. We found that organics is a state of mind, not a state of wallet."