New Hope Natural Media to Present New Research on Market Innovation Consumer Segmentation at Nutrition Capital Network's Fall Investor Meeting

BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- New Hope Natural Media's Market Innovation Consumer Segmentation, a new study published by New Hope Natural Media, a division of Penton, helps brands and retailers identify and target consumers most likely to be early adopters of natural, organic and healthy products, will be the focus of a presentation by Len Monheit, Executive Director of Strategic Development, and Tara Burkley, Senior Research Strategist, at the Fall Investor Nutrition Capital Network Event on October 28-29, 2013.  The NCN Investor Meeting is the premier matchmaking and networking event for strategic and private equity investors in the nutrition and health and wellness industry.

New Hope Natural Media's Market Innovation Consumer Segmentation delved deeply into consumers' attitudes, beliefs and behaviors around health and wellness, and the results are a detailed segmentation of five key consumer groups:

• #Young4Ever:  This segment skews male, younger, and for many natural products, just might be a better target than the uber-moms most traditional segmentations focus on.
• Chief Health Officers: This segment is largely represented by females, are green advocates, pay attention to labels, certifications, claims and ingredients and they tend to value issues such as sustainability and environmental consciousness; cause marketing initiates resonate well with them.
• 4 Out of 5 Doctors: This segment is mostly older consumers who listen to doctors and actively follow their advice.  Infrequent shoppers, they like their current choices and are less likely to try new things, especially more-expensive natural and organic products.
• Guilty and Defeated: This segment is pressed for time, mostly female and married, who desire a healthy lifestyle but don't actively pursue it. As shoppers, they tend to be low-energy, and focus on convenience and price.
• Life Tastes Good: This segment has a "live in the moment" attitude and are motivated by taste.   They are generally married males, they are conscious of healthy-lifestyle decisions, but do not make them a priority and tend to steer clear of natural foods.

The presentation will discuss these groups and speak to the details of their category, product and ingredient preferences, as well as their shopping and adoption behaviors.    

The study evaluated over 5,000 consumers -- representing over 90 percent of the U.S. population -- based on their feelings, opinions, habits and usage of health, nutrition, lifestyle and healthy products, as well as their affinity for new product concepts representing over 50 percent of a typical grocery/retail store basket.  The report helps companies to more effectively target interested, passionate consumers with new products and provide them with concepts and marketing strategies to optimize product success.

New Hope Natural Media's Market Innovation Consumer Segmentation is overlaid within the recently launched NEXT Trend solution providing the ability to cross-map segments from their proprietary and/or traditional segmentation models onto this new model.  Concept affinity scores are a data set in the Next Trend solution allowing subscribers to leverage rich behavioral data to streamline product development and detailed information about the segments.

Monheit is a recognized natural products industry thought leader and an expert in analyzing business issues and behaviors in dietary supplements, nutraceuticals and functional foods and beverages in the USA, Canada, and Asia.   He founded NPIcenter as the natural products industry's first online media in 1999 (selling it to New Hope Natural Media in 2006) and has been actively engaged in business strategy and product optimization on a global basis for over thirteen years.  Monheit has also pioneered educational programs to promote industry best practices, is a regular contributor to trade publications and industry events, and presents about industry issues, concerns and trends and the evolving business processes in the natural and nutritional products sector.

Burkley has more than 15 years investigating consumer voice and building emotional connections across a broad spectrum of industries and translating cross over learning to inform and create meaningful interaction between brand and consumer.  Prior to New Hope, Burkley provided consumer insight at Radar Communications guiding clients such as General Mills, Nike, Toyota, Unilever (Axe), Hershey and others to bring the consumer voice to life and learn from consumer experience.

"The natural products industry will benefit from this first-of-its kind research," said Monheit.  "We conducted this research because we wanted to understand why consumers are buying -- or are not buying -- and share this information with the broader natural products industry to help suppliers, manufacturers and retailers know who to target and how with their healthy offerings, ultimately bringing more healthy products to more people."

About New Hope Natural Media
New Hope Natural Media, a division of Penton, is the leading media resource and information provider for the natural, organic and healthy products industry, with print, in-person/event, and e-business products and services.

About Penton
For millions of business owners and decision-makers, Penton makes the difference every day. We engage our professional users by providing actionable ideas and insights, data and workflow tools, community and networking, both in person and virtually, all with deep relevance to their specific industries. We then activate this engagement by connecting users with tens of thousands of targeted providers of products and services to help drive business growth. Learn more about our company at www.penton.com.

Penton is a privately held company owned by MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP.

CONTACT:
Kate Spellman
SVP, Marketing
Penton
Phone: (212) 204-4351
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Penton