How Many People Had Heard Of .Organic Domains Before This Poll?

.ORGANIC domain operator Afilias today announced the results of a poll conducted in U.K. and U.S.. The report makes it seem like 60% of the consumers have stopped buying organic products on .com and .co.uk and now shop at the new .Organic domain names:

“CONSUMERS PREFER THE .ORGANIC WEB ADDRESS FOR TRUE-ORGANIC  GOODS New Research Shows Almost 60% of Consumers Opt For the Exclusive .ORGANIC Domain Instead of .COM”

This couldn’t be further away from the truth. At the moment .organic has only 396 domain names registered. To be fair this is partly because only certified Organic companies can register one.

Afilias commissioned agency YouGov to undertake this research. Conducted in mid-November 2014, the research surveyed over 3,200 U.K. and U.S. Internet users (2,057 and 1,147 adults respectively). The findings were sampled and weighted to be nationally representative of each nation (adults aged 18+). The full report can be found here.

What the report doesn’t say is how many of the 3,200 individuals had head of .organic and .organic domain names before this poll and how many use it today. I would guess the percentage would be close to zero. And it doesn’t give details on all questions asked, the question wording and all answers of this poll. This makes the poll completely useless and a waste of time and money, except maybe for supporting the marketing efforts on promoting the .organic New gTLD to those that will not question the results of the poll.

The title and the content of the report is so wrong and so misleading in so many ways that warrants no more comments.

Here is the press release:

“.ORGANIC domain operator Afilias today announced the results of new research that provides important insights regarding U.K. and U.S. Internet users’ experience finding organic products and services online. Nearly 70% of respondents believe that some companies are misrepresenting themselves as “organic” to command a premium price, and 60% would like a reliable way to distinguish real organic providers online from the pretenders. That’s why almost 60% of respondents claimed they would be more inclined to visit a site on .ORGANIC, which is restricted to verified organic entities, than legacy .COM sites when searching for organic products.

The research showed the depth of confusion consumers feel when searching for organic products online: 43% of respondents acknowledge that they can’t easily differentiate who’s truly organic and who’s not when they are researching or shopping online; whereas only 5% claim they don’t have such a problem.  69% think companies should stop associating themselves with the term “organic” if they are not.

1 in 4 consumers believe that true organic companies and products SHOULD have a .ORGANIC web address, as only verified organic entities are allowed to have one.

“In traditional .COM or .CO.UK addresses, any site can have the word ‘organic’ in its web address and content because no one checks,” said Roland LaPlante, CMO of Afilias. “.ORGANIC addresses are different.  We DO check every applicant to be sure they are certified organic or otherwise meet stringent eligibility requirements.  Consumers have asked for help identifying real organic online, and .ORGANIC sites make it easy: if it’s in .ORGANIC, it’s organic!”

Beyond a preference to visit sites on .ORGANIC, consumers now EXPECT to see their favorite organic brands with a .ORGANIC web address. The most mentioned brands include:

• U.K. – Abel & Cole, Biona, Green and Black’s, Green People Organic Beauty, Lush, Planet Organic, Organix, Riverford, Planet Organic, Waitrose/Duchy Original’s, Wholefoods, Yeo Valley, and more.
• U.S. – Amy’s Kitchen, Annie’s Homegrown, Applegate, Clif Bar, Dole, Horizon Organic, Kashi, Nature’s Path, Newman’s Own, Organic Valley, Stonyfield, Trader Joe’s, Wholefoods/365 Everyday Value, and more.

It’s easy to understand why: traditional .COM and .CO.UK addresses are where the pretenders are; only .ORGANIC addresses are restricted to qualified products and services, and consumers have a right to expect the most trustworthy organic brands in the safest space.

Afilias commissioned independent research agency YouGov to undertake this research. Conducted in mid-November 2014, the research surveyed over 3,200 U.K. and U.S. Internet users (2,057 and 1,147 adults respectively). The findings were sampled and weighted to be nationally representative of each nation (adults aged 18+). The full report can be found here.