Photo Tour of MOM's Organic Market | Gaithersburg, Maryland

Photo Tour of MOM's Organic Market in Gaithersburg

MOM's Organic Market is an independent, family owned, natural foods retailer with currently 19 stores in the Washington, DC area, as well as Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The newly opened store I visited is located at 10 Upper Rock Cir, Rockville, Maryland 20850. The address is technically, Rockville, but it's right on the cusp of Gaithersburg.

If you've not been to a MOM's store before, you're in for a visual treat if you scroll through my photos below. I've shopped at other MOM's locations in DC for many years and love it. With an emphasis on organic products, along with their mission to protect and restore the environment, MOM's curates exceptional products and delights shoppers with unique offerings they might not find anywhere else. This is a store you can truly feel good about shopping with.

This new Gaithersburg store has lots of wide open spaces, given that it's in the suburbs. It's the nicest MOM's store I've seen yet! One thing I immediately noticed was the focus on bees throughout the store. I love all things honey, bees, bees wax, and of course saving the bees, plus I've been doing a lot of shopper research on the honey category recently. See for yourself in my photos here.

As I've been doing a lot of shopper research in the honey category lately, of course I checked out the honey aisle.

This store has a wide selection of honey.

Including 6 skus of Manuka honey from New Zealand

I'm noticing a theme throughout the store -- very bee-friendly. This plastic wrap alternative, Bee Wrap, made from bees wax, is nice.

More bee-friendly products

Portland Bee Balm

Burt's Bees (from my home state of North Carolina.)

Excited to see the Global Animal Partnership label here, on Bilinski's chicken sausage. That's the label I look for to buy higher welfare meats.

La Quercia also touting the GAP label.

An outstanding body care section! So many different brands and products from what I usually see in other retailers.

Tons of essential oils.

Spotted the Jack N' Jill brand from Australia; this is the kind my kids use.

I bought some of these sticks and the stick holder for my backyard. Seems to be working well!

Found some wool dryer balls, also from New Zealand. Love the branding; I bought these too - love to support the New Zealand companies.

I've not seen beekeeper supplies in a grocery store before; very cool.

A look inside my shopping basket.

I'm not kidding about the emphasis on bees. Super cute grocery bag!

Stayed tuned here on our blog, #GetInHerCart, for more grocery store visits from our travels around the world as we speak at various conferences and conduct shopper research in different markets. 

If you're keen to learn more about the grocery retail landscape in America, consider working with us on a workshop. Our workshop, Making it in America: How to Enter & Succeed in the Diverse Food Retail Marketplace, is one of the sessions we teach most and is very popular amongst companies from outside the USA. Contact me, Lisa Mabe, for more details about our workshops and other retail related services we offer. We teach workshops, conduct research and plan or execute public relations programs for companies all over the world. I look forward to hearing from you. Contact us here.  

- Lisa Mabe-Konstantopoulos, Founder, Green Purse PR

Photo Tour of Thanopoulos (Θανόπουλος) - Athens, Greece

Supermarket Tour | Thanopoulos (Θανόπουλος in Greek) in Athens, Greece

While in Greece recently on holidays, I took some time to squeeze in a bit of work. I've been to Greece several times before, (my husband is from Greece) but this was my first time doing a proper supermarket tour of Athens and conducting shopper research there. 

Athens has some lovely supermarkets and one of my favorites is Thanopoulos, known for stocking a wide variety of products from all over the world and the place to 'see and be seen' apparently. For those not already familiar with Thanopoulos, it is a privately-held family business that has been around since 1877.  Thanopoulos currently has three locations in Athens. I visited the Thanopoulos supermarket in the neighborhood of Kifissia (Κηφισιά,) an upscale residential and shopping district, and quite possibly my favorite place in Athens, other than the coast (Vouliagmeni is still my most favorite spot.) Have a look inside one of Athen's best supermarkets, Thanaopoulos, located at: N. Kifissia Ελαιών 38 14564 Athens, GR-A1.

Entrance to Thanopoulos N. Kifissia store

View from the large, roof top patio offering views of nearby mountains.

From the roof top patio. There is a cafe just inside.

View from the second level, looking down on the cash registers. 

Organic fruit & vegetables

Fancy Greek olive oils, something Greece is certainly very well known for in the USA.

Minced/ground beef. Lamb and pork, however, seem to be the meats of choice in Greece.

The meat aisle 

Organic poultry with the EU Organic Farming certification. Other than that label, nothing real signifiant in terms of claims & product attributes.

Notice some familiar American brands on the snack ailse.

Tons of fancy Greek honey.

Love this pretty honey packaging.

Natural laundry products

The Greeks take their sea salt very seriously. I buy some of these same brands at my local Greek specialty food shop in Washington, DC.

My first time seeing donkey milk.

Organic Greek chocolate

Dining space & cafe

A special perk for parents - a play space with an attendant to watch your children while you grocery shop. This mom loves seeing special accomodations for moms, parents and children.

One more shot from the roof top patio. It was so pretty, I came up here for coffee and a meeting.

If I lived in Athens, I would definitely shop here. It's a modern beautiful, store with lovely amenities and a huge variety of international products on offer. It's no wonder that Athenians are willing to drive out of their way (in some cases,) just to shop at one of the three Thanopoulos locations. 

Stayed tuned here on our blog, #GetInHerCart, for more grocery store visits from our travels around the world as we speak at various conferences and conduct shopper research in different markets. 

- Lisa Mabe-Konstantopoulos, Founder, Green Purse PR

Scenes from Natural Products Expo West 2018, Anaheim, California

Photos | Natural Products Expo West 2018

Take a behind-the-scenes look at the recent Natural Products Expo West 2018 trade show. As always, Expo West was a great use of time to connect in person with clients, colleagues and friends. 

Green Purse PR's Lisa Mabe at the entrance of Expo West

Nice to see so many GAP (Global Animal Partnership) rated products at the show.

Grass fed continues to be a big focus.

We LOVE this brand and this particular flavor of LaCroix!

Lots of Aussies at Expo West.

Representing some Kiwis from New Zealand too.

Made the social media visualizer board at Expo West.

Also don't miss this time-lapse video directly from the show. 

Download our new list of holidays for food marketing

Download our New List of Holidays for Food Marketing + Get Access to Our Upcoming Webinar on How to Leverage Food Holidays to Drive Awareness & Sales

Ever heard of National Cheese Lover's Day, Coffee Day or Beef Tallow Day? What about Weed Day or Farmer's Day? There are a lot of these so called food holidays or marketing holidays - some are silly, but some are serious. Serious in that some of them can help drive real awareness and sales.

We see retailers, media and consumer-influencers, like food bloggers, leveraging these holidays on social media, such as Instagram, and retailers using them for in-store promotions. Some holidays, like National Cookie Day (December 4) are made into big promotions at grocery retailers like Whole Foods Market. (See an earlier post we wrote on retailers taking a bite out of Cookie Day here.) 

If you're keen to see how you can leverage food related holidays to market your specialty or natural food product, download the list here. We’ll be hosting a one-time bonus webinar session exclusively for those who downloaded this list during our initial offering phase. The webinar will highlight some of the most relevant holidays and why holidays like these are worth incorporating into your social communications program.

What Shoppers' Grocery Carts Can Tell Us About Them

Shop and Learn | You Don't Really Know a Shopper Until You've Shopped With Them

Next time you're in the grocery store, take a peak into your fellow shoppers' grocery carts. It's fun to see what ends up in shoppers' carts, especially if it is your brand, or in my case, a client's product. By the way, whenever I do spot a client's product in someone's shopping cart, I almost always strike up a quick conversation with them. I usually carry coupons from my clients and offer them a few as a way to thank them for their loyalty. It's a nice touch point that often goes a very long way.

My perspective is you don't really know a shopper until you've shopped with them. That’s one of the premises that makes Green Purse PR unique and why shopper research is fundamental to all the public relations and social communications work we do. Being successful in your consumer marketing starts with understanding the consumer – identifying how they learn about products, how your products are likely to fit into their lifestyle and how to better serve their needs in order to create and maintain a connection (or relationship, if you’re lucky) with those shoppers. 

“You don’t really know a shopper until you’ve shopped with them.”

— - Lisa Mabe, CEO, Green Purse PR

What can you tell about the shopper from this look inside her shopping cart?

Maybe she is gathering ingredients to make a special meal. Perhaps it's for a weekend celebration, a dinner party, or maybe it's a work-week meal for her family. Whatever the case, it looks like she has kids, or a lot of cats, because that's a lot of whole, organic milk in there. 

I frequently conduct shopper research, shop-alongs, with women all around the world. Each time I shop with someone, I take into consideration every single product that gets in her cart. Taking into account what products #GetInHerCart, is one of the ways our shop-along research helps us uncover insights that later help us intelligently build successful consumer PR programs.

Some of the insights we learn from shop-alongs include:

• What products catch her eyes, and what does not.
• What other products (besides yours) she is buying and how those may even be used together.
• Why she buys particular products over others.
• What third party certifications, verifications or ratings she may be looking for.
• How she connects, or does not connect, with brands and retailers.
• How your product fits into her lifestyle.
• How best to build and foster a relationship with consumers like her.

The list goes on and on.

Do you think it sounds smart to plan and implement a consumer marketing program or campaign without first bothering to do a little research on the very people who are hopefully going to buy your product?  No; that's not smart at all, but that's exactly what a lot of companies do.

Be the savvy company that DOES invest in understanding its target shoppers, and gets things right the first time. When you do, the insights you learn and connections you start, will deliver value both in the short and for a long time to come.

- Lisa Mabe-Konstantopoulos, Founder, Green Purse PR

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Want Green Purse PR to shop with your consumers and garner insights to help you better connect with health-conscious women?

Getting to Know Whole Foods Market Shoppers

New Guide Uncovers How Female Whole Foods Market Shoppers Think, Behave, Buy & Share

Some big changes have been happening recently for Whole Foods Market. Being acquired by Amazon means changes at the store level and potential for change amongst consumer behavior. Green Purse PR's new report takes a look at how brands sold at WFM can best connect and engage with shoppers now to drive awareness, sales and buzz.

This report is one of Green Purse PR's first digital information products, sold under our new #GetInHerCart Innovation Studio. Our report was created for brands whose products are already sold at WFM, or for companies intending to get their products onto WFM shelves. Scroll down to learn more about our new report, Guide to Winning with Whole Foods Market Shoppers.

You don't really know a shopper until you've shopped with them.

So we do just that, shop-along with the type of shoppers are clients are keen to attract. All of our public relations consulting is driven by our unique understanding of shoppers resulting from our shop-along research. Shopper insights derived from our in store research and online communities equip us with current understanding of what influences consumers' purchases, how they shop certain categories and how specific products fit into their lifestyles. These insights are important because they direct what our consumer marketing communications programs ultimately look like. 

Good time to learn more about WFM shoppers.

With the recent acquisition of Whole Foods Market by Amazon, our clients are seeking to better understand how WFM shoppers learn about products, identify purchase influencers and how best to reach influential female WFM shoppers.

Green Purse PR just conducted our own research with WFM female shoppers to identify how they currently think, behave and buy, and share. Our new report, Guide to Winning with Whole Foods Market Shoppers, is designed to give brands insight into the retailer’s shoppers in general, as well as actionable steps they can use to take their consumer understanding to the next level. The shopper intelligence we share in this guide is based upon our shop-along research, one-on-one interviews, social listening, online surveys and questions in our private community where we are constantly learning from health-conscious mothers.

Here are 10 things you can expect to find in our new report:

1) List of media outlets and blogs she reads, follows or subscribes to.

WFM shopper reading Bon Appétit Magazine

2) How she connects online with WFM directly, as well as the brands sold on their shelves.

WFM shopper reading the retailer's blog, The Whole Story

3) Who she follows on social media + a list of influencers.

WFM shopper reading MindBodyGreen.com

4) How Instagram influences brand awareness and purchases.

WFM shopper scrolling through Instagram

5) What catches her eye inside the store.

Shopping for natural and organic products

6) The journey new mothers go on to cleanse their diet and lifestyle in an effort to get healthier for themselves and the baby.

Mother and baby shopping for healthy groceries

7) What she loves about Whole Foods Market. Coffee seems to be pretty high on the list!

WFM shopper happy with her heatlhy choices

8) How WFM + Amazon fulfill her need for healthier options that fit her on-demand lifestyle.

Some of her favorite things from WFM

9) How she looks to WFM to curate the best products for her, so she does not have to do as much homework herself.

Trusting WFM to curate healthier options in every category

10) Direct shopper quotes from women who report WFM as their primary grocery outlet.

Feeling better about the meat she eats

Click the 'purchase now' button below to purchase and download our new digital report, Guide to Winning with Whole Foods Market Shoppers. Look for other related digital products, such as our new Whole Foods Market Instagram Account List, on the #GetInHerCart Innovation Studio.

Good to be back in Sydney, Australia

Green Purse PR's Lisa Mabe Back in Sydney

It was so nice to be back in Sydney during June to speak at conferences and meet with some of Green Purse PR's clients. Being previously based in Sydney, many of our clients are in Australia and it's a place I absolutely love. 

Below are some photos showing a visual recap of my recent business trip. Highlights of the trip included speaking about marketing to millennial consumers at the Naturally Good Business Summit, and Naturally Good Expo / Fantastic Food + Drink Show. More on those trade shows + links to my presentations here.

While there, I toured some of the local grocery stores, and visited some of my old stomping ground. Have a look at some of the grocery stores we visited here:

• About Life in Crows Nest, Sydney
• Fourth Village Providore in Mosman, Sydney
• Woolworths in Crows Nest, Sydney

The Australian market continues to be a major focus for myself and Green Purse PR. Australia has a lot to offer the world in terms of natural and organic products. I'm keen to help those companies be successful in markets like the USA, Middle East and Asia. Learn more about our expertise and capabilities here and contact me if you're keen to learn more. 

- Lisa Mabe-Konstantopoulos, Founder, Green Purse PR

Curious to know what women in the USA think about products from Australia?

Watch this video I produced, featuring our shop-along research, for the Naturally Good Expo.