I recently had the chance to speak at the Natrukosmetik Branchenkongress in Nurnberg Germany. This was an executive event produced  in conjuction with the same organizers that produces BioFach, the largest organic and natural product expo in Europe. It was great fun to visit Germany and see quaint towns and castles built in 1100 A.D. with shiny 2009 BMWs and Mercedes parked in front of them; a visual testament to this country’s age and evolution. This was the main reason why I was excited to attend this event. I wanted to hear how the organic and natural skincare market is different than the U.S. and learn what makes Germans tick. LOHAS is very popular in German speaking nations of Austria Switzerland and of course Germany. Out of all the EU countries I have heard the most activity coming from the Deutsch. There is a LOHAS German website, lots of German Twitter tweets and even a German LOHAS conference held the same time that our LOHAS Forum is held. In fact we had a live Skype connection between conferences and brief discussion during the event. How international!
The region is known as being a leader in the organic market too. It is the birthplace of bio dynamic farming and Rudolf Steiner has left quite a legacy of education, and agricultural philosophy. Familiar brand names such as Dr. Hauschka Weleda and Primavera are German based.  Jurlique was also developed by 2 Germans in Australia and Aveda by outspoken Austrian Horst Rechelbacher. Lots of brainpower from this region. I wanted to find out what was ticking currently.

The Natrukosmetik event had about 100+ C-level execs ranging from Este Lauder to regional pharmacist. Of course being German planned, the event was very organized. Lots of presentations on data and much of this data from big research firms such as Kline and IRI claimed that the organic skincare market is the fastest growing sector of skincare.

1/5 of all Germans are buying natural cosmetics in a country of 82 million – you do the math. This market is increasing at approximately a 8.5% clip. Not bad. There was also much talk about how LOHAS consumers are leading the way in advancing the demand for organic and natural skincare. I am not sure what I expected but I thought it would be some advanced culture that was light years ahead of the U.S. with our muddy waters of confusion and greenwash labeling. To my surprise I found that they too are faced with the same challenges:

• Consumers don’t see the difference between natural and organic
• Market not moving fast enough to change rapidly
• Customers change faster than retailers
• New conditions for marketing – less tolerance for poor quality

Unfortunately most of the presentations were data heavy and for a creative person like me, I tend to get bored easily and had to stop from being the daydreamer in the class staring out the window. The fact it was all German didn’t help. Thank god for the translators!

 (Me with Hana Hrstkova of Kline during a reception)

But there was a time when things really got heated up and that was during a panel discussion about seals and certifications. We all know about how confusing certifications have become over in the U.S. and in Germany this is also true. There are several certifying bodies jostling for position as a leader in certification. These are:

BDIH
Eco Cert
Soil Association
Natrue

Put these on top of USDA, Natural Product Certification, Green Seal and others here in the U.S. and you have a big mess.

The arguments on what direction to take was heated. Lots of chatter which is to be expected as most of the Germans I met did not sugar coat their opinions. But one woman summed up the issue quite nicely. She reminded everyone that certification was meant to make it clearer for the consumer to understand the transparency of the product and feel safe about buying it. But now all it has done is created additional confusion on top of greenwashing that many cosmetic companies do.

I totally agree. Initially those in the industry had a great vision and came up with what appeared to be a great strategy. However in developing the strategy the focus was lost on the vision and became more focused on the strategy. Thus we are in the mess we have to deal with now with certification.  Id love to hear your thoughts on what you think.