New Hope Natural Media Unveils NEXT™, a Proprietary Solution Set that Pinpoints Future Trends by Providing Access to Pre-Shelf Data and Product Launch Intelligence Never Before Available

BALTIMORE, Sept. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at Natural Products Expo East, New Hope Natural Media, a division of Penton, launched NEXT™, a unique portfolio of data and analytics for the natural products industry. These solutions offer revolutionary new tools that are based on New Hope's proprietary understanding of both consumer behavior and product innovation in the natural products industry.  Leveraging 40 years of New Hope's knowledge of natural product start-ups and its exclusively owned pre-shelf product data, NEXT helps consumer packaged goods manufacturers, retailers, suppliers and investors identify hot product trends well in advance of launch by delivering insights on where and how to position offerings and identifying future trends.

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"Until now, the industry has been lacking in information across the value chain and the NEXT brand solutions will help fulfill these unmet market needs," said Fred Linder, President of New Hope Natural Media.  "New Hope has been the trusted source for information and strategic consulting in the natural products industry for decades.  We have always invested in ensuring the success of our industry so that more natural products end up in the hands of more consumers."

"Having the pre-eminent database of pre-shelf data means we've captured meticulous details about ingredients and products before they hit the mainstream and applied big data analytics to glean market leading insight for our customers," added Bill Tuohig, Vice President, Product Leader, New Hope Natural Media. "The solutions we are rolling out will help businesses bring the right products to the market and maximize their opportunity to win in the marketplace."

The NEXT solutions fulfill a number of unmet needs in the industry for market data, tools and insights specific to natural and organic products and businesses.  They include:

• The NEXT Accelerator www.nextaccelerator.com is a unique online tool for the large population of entrepreneurial manufacturers in the natural products industry. The solution is targeted to the entrepreneur who has a good idea, but who lacks the industry experience and tactical know-how to take their business to the next level.  Analogous to a tech incubator, NEXT Accelerator connects manufacturers with the information, expertise, advisors, service providers and partners to ensure their product launch success and provides year-round mentoring and education to meet an identified need.
• The NEXT Trend http://www.nexttrend.com is a transformational new solution for the natural product innovator community.  NEXT Trend provides insight to identify winning products well in advance of launch and helps businesses understand where and how to position their offerings in the marketplace. The tool is valuable to the full range of retailers, consumer product manufacturers and other supply chain participants, from a Fortune 100 company to a start-up, as the product suite has different levels of sophistication available to tightly meet user needs.  NEXT Trend:    
  • Provides insights into macro and micro product trends, ingredient and marketing claim analytics and the industry's only available intelligence on pre-shelf engagement data -– those products with limited distribution and not yet on shelves.
  • Is designed to help consumer packaged goods brands, retailers, suppliers and investors identify new opportunities, maximize new product development potential and minimize risk.  It serves as a predictive model that points which pre-shelf items are poised for wide acceptance and tracks products emerging from natural into mainstream retail.  
  • Delivers insight on which products are on a trajectory for growth.
  • New Hope Natural Media's Market Innovation Consumer Segmentation is overlaid within the NEXT Trend solution to help brands and retailers identify and target those consumers who are most likely to be early adopters of these new natural, organic and healthy products.  This segmentation will allow companies to more effectively target interested, passionate consumers with new products and provide them with concepts and marketing strategies to optimize product success.

Penton CEO David Kieselstein commented, "The NEXT solutions suite perfectly represents where Penton is headed.  We are focused on bringing innovative new digital and data solutions to our users, and we strive for daily relevance with them.  NEXT solutions are indispensible tools that will help our users grow their businesses."

For more information on the NEXT portfolio of solutions or New Hope Natural Media, please visit www.NEXTknows.com or contact Heather Smith, [email protected].

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.

CONTACTS:
Heather Smith
New Hope Natural Media
Phone: (303) 775-2461
Email: [email protected]

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

SOURCE New Hope Natural Media