Chicago and Paris – April 26, 2005 – Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), the leading global provider of enterprise market information solutions for the CPG, Retail, and Healthcare industries, today announced availability of the IRI Trade Performance™ solution. The new comprehensive trade promotion management solution provides CPG manufacturers with the ability to analyze, plan, execute, and monitor comprehensive trade promotions across all company divisions, aligning activities on one easy-to-use enterprise application. The announcement was made at the 2005 ECR Europe Conference and Marketplace taking place at the Palais des Congres in Paris, April 26 - 28, 2005.
With almost one out of every five euros spent in CPG going toward some form of promotion program at retail, trade promotion is one of the most important investments a manufacturer makes. Yet even the largest manufacturers have very little visibility into how those funds are being deployed and what return they are getting for their investment.
With overall trade promotion spending growing faster than sales and many multi-national firms with operations or headquarters in the U.S. facing increased regulatory pressures of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, a new breed of trade promotion support is required. IRI Trade Performance offers the next generation solution providing pre-built, integrated workflows that support real-time planning with historical context to cross-functional user communities, to ensure that trade funds are being spent more effectively.
Breakthrough: Harmonized Data and Advanced Modeling in a Unified, Decision-Enabled View
IRI Trade Performance is the latest addition to IRI’s Consumer-driven Enterprise Management™ Software Solutions suite and goes beyond traditional trade promotion point solutions, uniquely combining real-time market content and advanced analytics with enterprise-class software. IRI Trade Performance is built to leverage IRI’s MarketInsights™ foundation, which integrates disparate data sources into unique brand and consumer insights. Combining those unique insights with IRI’s 20 years of advanced automated modeling expertise, CPG manufacturers can now effectively manage the complex economics of trade promotion based on actual, real-time marketplace behavior.
According to a report by independent technology research company Forrester Research*, Consumer Packaged Goods firms' trade promotion budgets have escalated to 14% or more of the average CPG firm's gross revenues, representing €100 billion in trade promotion spend by the 50 biggest CPG firms. In the report George Lawrie, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research states: “Today’s CPG manufacturers are under intense pressure to secure the best return on their investments in top-line revenue drivers like advertising, consumer promotion, and trade promotion, yet many leading companies rely on spreadsheets and point solutions to manage these huge investments.”
“Trade promotion management is probably the single most important variable expense a manufacturer has,” said John DeCarlis, Senior Vice President, Business Performance Solutions Group, IRI. “Companies with multiple products may have literally hundreds of promotions going on at once. However, they’re flying virtually blind, depending on manual tracking systems, verbal reports, and spreadsheets to manage it all. Without a unified view of their trade promotion programs, they can’t possibly optimize their programs. For that, they need the next generation technology and analytics, fed by comprehensive market data.”
Using a series of automated exception-driven alerts, standard and user-specific reports, and intuitive dashboards, the solution enables users to track the results of all trade promotion expenditures and precisely forecast volume, revenue and margins prior to launching programs. The solution helps manufacturers improve performance, eliminate internal inefficiencies, and increase retailer support and collaboration. Specifically, the solution offers manufacturers the following benefits:
- Enables best-practice promotion planning and analysis workflows
- Leverages investments across all valuable data sources (internal and external)
- Supports promotion planning at the Brand, Category or Account levels
- Provides full promotion calendaring capabilities to manage event planning and activities plans
- Enables real-time modeling and testing of different promotion scenarios
- Determines baseline and incremental volume, revenue, and margin, enabling manufacturers to fine tune promotions based on financial impact as well as retailer feedback
- Supports robust pre- and post-event analysis for continuous improvement in the management process
- Assesses the financial and supply chain impact of proposed promotions
Best-Practice Driven Approach Delivers Superior Results
The IRI Trade Performance solution is built on a unique closed-loop process that links insight and performance management with decision support. Unlike other trade promotion offerings that take an event-based approach, IRI’s solution supports a “circular process,” where consumption data yields insights, which improve promotions, which in turn deliver further insights.
“IRI’s use of a single integrated platform combined with this unique continuous improvement approach provides manufacturers with unprecedented capabilities to make corrections in stream as trends emerge to maximize effectiveness in real-time,” said Bill Nowacki, President of IRI’s Business Performance Solutions Group.
The IRI Trade Performance solution is available now and more information is available at: www.infores.com/public/us/solutions/cpgmanf/products/tradeperform.htm.
About IRI’s Consumer-driven Enterprise Management Software Solutions
IRI’s Consumer-driven Enterprise Management Software Solutions for the CPG industry provide companies the ability to put the insights they have about their consumers to immediate application in driving key business decisions. These solutions provide a unique framework for all phases of planning, performance analysis, and rapid decision making required to optimize brand management, trade promotion, and sales and operations management.
About Information Resources, Inc.
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) is the leading global provider of enterprise market information solutions for the CPG, Retail and Healthcare industries. IRI is the first company to leverage the power of real-time market information, advanced analytic insights, and enterprise performance management technology to improve the profitability and operational effectiveness of the world’s leading CPG, retail and healthcare companies. The Company uniquely provides a total view of the market, enabling maximum business performance throughout the enterprise. IRI's solutions make the consumer-driven, real-time enterprise possible. More information is available at www.infores.com.
Editor’s Note: * “Grading Trade Promotion Solutions,” Forrester Research, Inc., George Lawrie, June 2004.
IRI Contact: John McIndoe
E-mail: john.mcindoe@infores.com
Phone: (312) 474-3862
Fax: (312) 474-2592
ECR Europe IRI Contact: Mark Dye
E-mail: mark.dye@infores.com
Phone: +44 1344 746 340