CHICAGO, August 20, 2008 – Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), the leading global provider of consumer, shopper, and market insights for consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, and healthcare industries, today announced a major breakthrough in sales forecasting with the availability of year one sales forecasts based on as little as eight weeks of data through the IRI Launch Commander™ service. The speed and accuracy of this forecast is an unprecedented step forward for manufacturers that require early alerts on whether or not new products are on track to meet their goals, before it is too late to make critical adjustments.
Clients considered pioneers in the field of CPG innovation management have embraced Launch Commander, the launch management service from IRI, early in its beta testing cycle. The service’s accurate forecasts early in the launch process and the ability to quickly identify opportunities and implement them to drive first year results have already propelled several new products to success.
“With 80 to 90 percent of new products disappearing from store shelves within a year, the success rates of launches have gone virtually unchanged for the past 30 years,” said IRI President of Consumer and Shopper Insights Bob Tomei. “It’s time to change those statistics. The current economic environment will be even less forgiving of missteps in new product launches, but we are confident that with the ability to quickly course-correct—taking such measures as adjusting distribution based on SKU popularity—IRI can help manufacturers achieve success with their new products.”
IRI has performed more than 500 validations between forecast and actual sales.
In addition to providing support of new product launches at the national and regional level, Launch Commander methodology can be used to accelerate new product testing reads from IRI’s leading BehaviorScan service. Speeding up this crucial step in the go-to-market process helps manufacturers start reaping the return on their innovation investment faster than ever.
“IRI understands how critical it is for manufacturers to operate more efficiently during this difficult economic climate,” added Tomei. “By quickly alerting them to key problems and opportunities and giving them the ability to make major adjustments before it is too late, we will help clients avoid the costly failures of products which have inherent potential. No longer will reads that come too late for action prevent high-quality brands from succeeding.”
For more information about Launch Commander visit the Launch Commander product page.
About IRI
IRI is the world’s leading provider of consumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence and insights supporting 95 percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and healthcare companies. Only IRI offers the unique combination of integrated market information, automated and predictive analytics, innovative enabling technologies, and domain expertise. With IRI, leading retailers and manufacturers are able to quickly discover breakthrough insights driving smarter decisions and actions across the enterprise for breakthrough results. Companies around the world depend on IRI for improved productivity, stronger brands, and dramatic revenue growth. For more information, visit http://us.infores.com/.
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IRI CONTACT:
John McIndoe
E-mail: john.mcindoe@infores.com
Phone: (312) 474-3862
Fax: (312) 474-2512