I keep hearing how “green”, “eco-friendly” or “organic” products won’t make it in this recession.  That right now consumers have concerns which dwarf buying “green” toilet paper to do their bit to save the planet.  Yet an article in AdAge today notes how green brands like Seventh Generation continue notching double digit sales increases in the midst of the worst economic crisis in 80 years.  With so many consumers in dire straits, or about to be, why is Green thriving?

Looks like green has finally hit the mainstream.  Brands like Scott and retailers like Walmart have integrated green thinking into their brands and stores.  And the demogrpahics are changing, for example, IRI found that sales of green products are growing fastest  in a predominantly Hispanic segment labeled “respectful stewards” and a predominantly white-male segment labeled “proud traditionalists.” Yet sales actually remained flat in the “eco-centric” segment with the highest interest in green issues.

The ad age article is here.

No doubt green has jelled. And as I’ve noted before, this recession is indeed a crisis, just check out these charts.  But it’s surprising how some unexpected segments continue to thrive in the face of it while others wilt into irrelevancy.

At the start of 2009 I wrote about the convergence of three factors relating to the U.S. Hispanic segment. The first factor dealt with the shrinking retail environment and how U.S. Hispanics would become increasingly important to marketers since they tend to be a more dynamic consumer segment, particularly on basic, everyday items.

And even with an unemployment rate almost 4 points above the national average there is evidence that smart marketers continue to reap the benefits of reaching out to Hispanics.  We see it with the continuing success of Bedoyecta and  BusinessWeek recently noted how well General Mills and State Farm are benefiting despite the economic maelstrom.  So well that General Mills has tripled its Hispanic media budget to $35 million.

To many Hispanics seem like the last  consumer segment to talk to, but this really could be called a “segment recession”. Some consumer segments are suffering while others are unexpectedly managing through intact and some even thriving.  Notably U.S. Hispanic consumers are less likely to be hobbled by a mortgage or serious credit-card debt, and tend to have two or more income earners in a household.

The “more” is important here.  In general many U.S. households have two income earners, this is not news, however, with Hispanics there’s a tendency to have more extended family living under the same roof, bringing in additional income while lowering living costs per person.  So, even if their disposable income is lower, and perhaps more stable, two key facts are often overlooked. One,  Hispanic consumers over index on a wide variety of basics by a far greater margin than the rest of the population. And two, Hispanic TV ratings continue to surge while general market TV remains flat.  Hispanics respond well to marketing efforts crafted in sync with their culture and language.

As the economy works through this recession many marketers will start to consider the Hispanic consumer as a segment which can take up the slack on softening demand in the broader general market, and begin to build a thriving Hispanic franchise that yields benefits beyond this temporary “segment recession”.

To see BusinessWeek article click here.