IRI Employees Launch Diversity Advantage Program

After almost a year of discussions, planning, and strategizing, market research firm IRI has launched the Diversity Advantage Program (DAP), a pro-bono service aimed at supporting minority and women-owned CPG companies by offering access to their market research and analytics, consumer and category insights, as well as training and consulting services.

In the wake of last summer’s BLM protest and amid the pandemic’s impact on small-businesses, the market research firm realized they were uniquely positioned to support these companies in a way more valuable than a simple monetary donation according to Boris Oglesby, Executive Vice President and Practice Leader at IRI Worldwide. Over 70 IRI employees have volunteered their time to facilitate the program.

Oglesby said DAP is devised to help minority and women-owned businesses get to the point where they can “fish on their own.” When developing this program, Oglesby opened up the discussion with retailers who cited the biggest challenges to getting a product on the shelf often had nothing to do with the product itself, but the companies lack of understanding as to where they fit into the industry and insufficient infrastructure to quickly adapt to an increase in distribution demands. The tools and services provided by DAP are designed to enable companies to be confident in where they stand and plan for where they need to go within their respective categories.

“We have people responsible for developing insights and helping them create the stories they need to connect with retailers. We have people on the product management side helping coach them up on our tools, solutions and technology,” said Olgesby. “The goal is to coach them up on the data that those retailers may have, as well as other industry data, insights on the consumer, and insights in the categories they participate in so they can go and have very comprehensive discussions with the retailer about their products.”

DAP is organized in pods made up of cross-functional team members that consult and advise each participating company. Every pod is supported by retailers such as Ahold Delhaize USA, Amazon, and Kroger, who provide additional data, insights, and carry the product on their shelves. The initial cohort of “DAP’ers” includes coffee brand BLK & Bold, bakery brand Countertop Productions, Homefree the allergy friendly treat brand, True Made Foods, and Peanut Butter & Co. The cohort also includes La Fete du Rose, Mented Cosmetics, Rosen Skincare, and Scotch Porter. Each business is either accredited by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the National Minority Suppliers Development Council (NMSDC), or came through a recommendation from retailers via their own diversity supplier programs. Businesses were considered based on their distribution strategies and were required to have between $1-25 million in annual sales.

Oglesby explained that the program is still in “pilot mode,” with a team of strategists working out the details for its development over the coming years. He said there have been talks about potentially creating a foundation around the program or making it a permanent division of IRI operations.

Regardless of how it progresses, the program has already made an impression on the companies involved..

When Warren Brown was notified that his brand, Virginia-based bakery Countertop Productions, had been nominated for the program he said he was shocked and overwhelmed with gratitude. Brown said his expectations have already been surpassed, indicating that the program has given him insight into his product’s performance to a degree at which he has never had access to previously.

“It’s not just about how you performed on the shelf; it’s a full 20-30 pages, slicing and dicing the market on how you performed in multiple ways. They are turning data into information. That’s not what I thought it would be,” said Brown. “Especially the bottom lines they are helping you get to and the way they are distilling the data and turning it into information it’s really powerful.”

Brown said he is excited and grateful for a program dedicated to giving businesses like his a leg up in an industry that is “woefully short on diverse representation.” He said DAP has provided him with the numbers he needs to make a case to other retailers about his product’s current and future performance. As a startup, it is important to believe in your product, he said; however, the data has made him more confident to expand its presence among current retail partners.

Jill Robbins of Homefree, an allergy-friendly cookie brand, said she was shocked and grateful when she learned her company had been nominated by an Ahold representative for the program. Her experience has been enriched by the opportunity to communicate and work directly with the IRI volunteers who are helping to support her brand.

“As a relatively small, family-owned business, data has not been an easy thing to acquire,” said Robbins. “This program really opened up the data world to smaller companies like us to give us some of the opportunities that larger companies always have by having access to data.”

Oglesby has set a target of including at least 500 companies in DAP, although he has not committed to a timeline for achieving that goal. Eventually this initial cohort will “graduate” from the program, but may still function as mentors or advisors to the next group of businesses to participate. Although the timelines have not yet been defined for the goals of this operation, Oglesby has a clear vision of its mission and intentions for a long-term impact.

“We will have helped to enable these minority and women-owned businesses to participate in a fair and equitable ecosystem that allows them to be successful in getting their products to market and distributed and supported by the broad retail environment,” Oglesby said about his hopes for the program’s future. “Because of that enablement they will be able to grow, impact their communities by providing new jobs and ultimately when you provide new jobs to the community, it helps them to grow as well.”