PMA expands strategic partnership with consumer-research expert The Hartman Group

To provide critical insights into consumer behaviors driving fresh fruit and vegetable sales, Produce Marketing Association (PMA) has expanded its strategic partnership with The Hartman Group and announces three new consumer trends reports. The Hartman Group’s syndicated study Transparency 2015, Establishing Trust with Consumers is available now; two additional studies on Culture of Food and Healthy Eating Trends and Lifestyles will follow. A webinar series covering the new studies is also planned to help produce industry members further translate findings into everyday application. The Transparency 2015 webinar, presented by The Hartman Group’s CEO Laurie Demeritt, will be held May 20 and is free to PMA members. “Transparency is the term mentioned in boardrooms, annual reports, marketing messaging and press relations as one of the key practices for doing right by consumers, and is often the platform from which companies protect brand reputation and shareholder value,” says Eileen O’Leary, PMA market research manager. “Being more transparent, from the corporate mindset, is to manage one’s public image; however, as the Transparency 2015 study shows, from a consumer’s vantage point, transparency is much more than corporate and social responsibility.” The Hartman Group is a leading expert in providing a consumer-centric approach for insights and action, studying consumers in their natural environments, which means their homes and their stores. O’Leary added that PMA’s strategic partnership with the Hartman Group, as well as other world-class market research firms, aligns with PMA’s Global Connections strategic pillar that connects members year-round with information on the rising power and influence of consumers worldwide, on digital marketing technology and on translating their marketing messages to reach the consumers through traditional and innovative virtual channels in order to grow business and increase consumption. PMA members can expect this new series of syndicated studies from the research firm to cover:

These new studies add to PMA’s existing library of consumer trend research that includes the following Hartman’s 2014 studies, still richly insightful and relevant to produce companies: Outlook on the Millennial Consumer, Organic and Natural, and Digital Food Life.