MANCHESTER, N.H., Sept. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MegaFood™, a pioneer in the health and wellness category, recently held its first annual ZingMojo Summit featuring some of the most creative talent and experts in the natural products industry.

Held near the MegaFood headquarters in New Hampshire, the two-day summit was intended for industry thought leaders to join together and inspire each other in creating real solutions to keep the natural retailer at the center of health and wellness in their community. By bringing natural products industry leaders together, MegaFood facilitated next level thinking towards broader industry challenges like "mass slippage," challenges with the internet, price and margin, and trust and transparency.

Speakers included storytelling expert Mary Kincaid, founder of Conscious Brands Rob Sinclair, Co-Founder and CEO of NetRush Brian Gonsalves, as well as representatives from The New Hope Network, the Mustard Seed Natural Living Center, Cambridge Naturals, Pharmavite and the Independent Natural Food Retail Association.

"There are many myths about the natural products industry that we uncovered at ZingMojo, including that natural retailers are in a war they can never win with mass and online retail, and that brands, like MegaFood, don't have any control over discounted online pricing," says Robert Craven, MegaFood CEO. "These myths are simply untrue and our main goal at ZingMojo was to come up with real opportunities for natural retailers and brands to rewrite these narratives in order to support retailers and industry and keep them on the cutting edge of wellness."

Over the course of two days, speakers and attendees tackled topics such as mission orientation and community building within the larger strategic context of questions relevant to the national conversation about health and wellness. Key learnings and best practices from the summit included:

• Mission Orientation: Natural retailers are an important community hub for health and wellness. Unlike mass market retailers, natural retailers are partners in their communities, often sourcing ingredients locally and providing deeper educational experiences. It's crucial for the natural retailer to stay true to its mission of health and wellness while also being that "third space" for local community members to turn to for all of their wellness and educational needs.
• Exceptional Work Place: Natural retail is an exciting and impactful place to work for people who want to create a better future. Natural retailers have an opportunity to turn their businesses into an even more desirable place to work by offering professional development and skill building opportunities to employees. With passion being stronger than ever before in the natural channel, it's important to make sure employees have all of the tools they need to help elevate what they are doing to improve lives on a daily basis.
• Value Added Shopping Experience: Unlike mass retail, the natural retailer should continue to increase individuality in providing great service and education to consumers. Experiential shopping, such as sampling and offering unique incentives to purchase products, is one of the keys to success for the natural retailer.
• Open Minded Business Practices: Rather than just speaking to those consumers who are already interested in natural and organic, the natural retailer should reach out in their communities to tell their story and attract those consumers who haven't yet made the jump to a wellness lifestyle. It's important for the natural retailer to reexamine who they are, what they stand for, and communicate that message to the general public using both traditional and new and emerging communication tools such as community outreach and digital marketing.

Robert Craven will also lead a follow-up ZingMojo session at MegaFood's booth at Expo East 2016. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear firsthand a recap of the discussions from the New Hampshire summit, and are invited to participate in a creative brainstorm on how best to bring the initiatives to life. The session is open to all and will be held in the MegaFood booth (#5006) on Friday, September 23 from 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM.

© FoodState, Inc. 2016

About MegaFood
Fresh from farm to tablet™, MegaFood is as real as it gets. Since 1973, MegaFood has been committed to making products that use real food from family-owned farms to make a real difference, and has produced some of the most effective and award-winning supplements available today. A pioneer in the natural products industry, MegaFood was one of the first companies to make their FoodState® vitamin and minerals from scratch starting with farm fresh whole foods. MegaFood continues to innovate by manufacturing more than 36 individual FoodState® Nutrients™ using their proprietary Slo-Food Process™, all in their own facility in New Hampshire. Their FoodState Nutrients are blended and combined to create over 65 handcrafted supplements that make up the MegaFood product line today, found in over 7,000 natural products retailers and vitamin specialty shops throughout North America.