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IRI Announces Diversity Advantage Program to Empower Minority- and Women-Owned BusinessesIRI®, a fast-growing global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and media companies, today announced the launch of the IRI Diversity Advantage Program™ (DAP) to inspire and empower rising minority- and women-owned consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies to achieve positive organizational growth. The innovative, IRI employee volunteer-led program provides pro bono services to micro, diverse-owned CPG brands and is supported by the first wave of leading retailers, including Ahold Delhaize USA Companies, Amazon and Kroger, which are partnering with IRI to provide each DAP participant with pro bono data and market research, consumer and shopper insights, training and consulting services. "Far too often, minority- and women-owned businesses are not given the same opportunities to succeed," said Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer for IRI. "In our industry, insights and data are table stakes for our clients. A small team of us saw a unique way for IRI to give back and make a real difference by leveraging our resources and relationships to help companies created by diverse leaders succeed and reach their full potential in the market by providing free access to our data, tools and expertise. I am so proud of the 60-plus IRI employees who are volunteering to support the program and its participants and am thankful for the first set of retailers that are helping to bring this initiative to light by offering the program to their diverse CPG supplier partners." "DAP is a distinctive use of our organization's unique skills and resources as it allows us to give back to the community and support diversity, equity and inclusion in our industry," said Boris Oglesby, executive vice president and practice leader for IRI. "We have big aspirations to rapidly expand the dozens of companies we are supporting to hundreds in the near future." IRI has received overwhelming support from many leading CPG and retail companies and the industry at large that want to help provide coaching and support to diverse-owned CPG companies:
Participants in the program, known as "DAPers," will receive, pro bono:
The initial cohort of DAPers include: BLK & Bold, Countertop Productions, Homefree - treats you can trust, La Fete du Rose, Mented Cosmetics, Peanut Butter & Co., Rosen Skincare, Scotch Porter and True Made Foods. More information about IRI's DAP program can be found here. Companies eligible to participate in DAP include minority- and women-owned consumer goods companies with $1 million-$25 million in annual sales that are recommended by a participating retailer. Companies interested in participating in the program can email [email protected]. About IRI IRI is a fast-growing, leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC health care organizations, retailers, and financial services and media companies grow their businesses. With the largest repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated into an on-demand, cloud-based technology platform, IRI is empowering the personalization revolution, helping to guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quests to remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with consumers, collaborate with key constituents and deliver market-leading growth. For more information, visit www.iriworldwide.com. About the IRI Partner Ecosystem IRI fundamentally believes that delivering differentiated growth for clients requires deep, highly integrated partnering with a variety of best-of-breed companies. As such, IRI works closely with a broad range of industry leaders across multiple industries and sectors to create innovative joint solutions, services and access to capabilities to help its clients more effectively collaborate and compete in their various markets and exceed their growth objectives. IRI is committed to its partnership philosophy and continues to actively enhance its open ecosystem of partners through alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions and affiliations. The IRI Partner Ecosystem includes such leading companies as 84.51°, Adobe, Alphonso, BDSA, The Boston Consulting Group, comScore (News - Alert), Dynata, Edge by Ascential, Edison, Experian, Facebook, GfK, Gigwalk, Google, Label Insight, Limbik, LiveRamp, MFour, Ogury, Omnicom, PlaceIQ, Pinterest, Profitero, SPINS, Univision, Valassis, Viant and others.
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