IRI Launches Tool for Ethnic Analysis of Retail Sales

CPG and healthcare insight specialists Information Resources, Inc. have announced the launch of Ethnic Workbench(tm), a new service which enables CPG marketers to analyze retail sales trends in Hispanic and African-American markets, compare them against the overall US average to identify opportunity gaps and measure the impact of ethnic-targeted marketing.

For example, whereas year-over-year dollar sales in the ready-to-eat cereal category are flat for the US as a whole, the Ethnic Workbench reveals that sales have increased nearly seven per cent in key Hispanic markets. Manufacturers can then drill down to review sales at the brand level and see which brands are benefitting from the growth.

Other areas which the Workbench aims to cover include the effectiveness of ethnic-targeted marketing efforts such as Spanish-language advertising, in driving sales growth in ethnic stores; and whether ethnic-targeted SKUs are getting the desired level of distribution in ethnic stores.

IRI claims the service offers the CPG industry's broadest coverage of Hispanic retail sales, covering 10 metro markets and 19 retail accounts across supermarket, drugstore, and mass merchandiser outlets. Custom Hispanic and African-American markets are also available.

According to Neil Canter, division president for IRI's Analytic Insights Group, 'Any CPG manufacturer or retailer seeking sales and market share growth over the next few years has to be studying the behavior of the US ethnic markets, as Hispanic population and buying power is expected to grow twice as fast as the rest of the population. Many CPG marketers have allocated significant resources to ethnic-targeted marketing initiatives... yet they are just beginning to leverage the rich sales information and analytic tools now available'.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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