Mented, Other Beauty Brands Take Part in IRI’s Inaugural Diversity Advantage Program

Mented was part of IRI's inaugural Diversity Advantage Program (DAP), which empowers women- and minority-owned consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies to grow by making IRI's assets and expertise available to smaller CPGs to help them forge stronger partnerships with large retailers and more easily scale their businesses.

“The inaugural program has achieved fantastic results for the many participating businesses owned by members of underrepresented groups,” said Boris Oglesby, executive vice president and practice leader, IRI. “We are grateful for the support of IRI’s employee volunteers and our many retailer partners, who have dedicated significant time and resources to this initiative. We are also excited to welcome the 2022 cohort of businesses into the program and look forward to providing the data, insights, literacy training and expertise needed to help them grow their sales, market share and achieve ongoing success.”

For the past year, DAP has offered complimentary access to consumer and shopper insights data and applications, literacy training and consulting services to 27 participating companies, delivering material benefits for each business. IRI pointed to Mented, the women-founded cosmetics company, as one of the “notable” successes. According to IRI, Mented leveraged a detailed consumer survey to better understand the cosmetic shopping preferences of a leading retailer’s customers. Insights derived from the survey helped guide Mented’s strategy, which contributed to a sales increase of more than 80% and a doubling of its average weekly distribution at the retailer, said IRI.

“The IRI Diversity Advantage Program has been instrumental in the success of our business. Insights from the Mented & Cosmetics Category Topline Survey have been cited in business line reviews and the reference for decision-making from packaging design to in-store messaging,” said Kyla Collins, retail coordinator, Mented.

IRI’s Diversity Advantage Program was developed by IRI employees who wanted to create a fair and equitable consumer goods ecosystem. The program empowers rising minority- and women-owned consumer packaged goods companies to achieve positive organizational growth. DAP is supported by more than 200 IRI employee volunteers and includes 11 retail partners across the US and the United Kingdom.

To be eligible to participate in DAP, companies must have $1 million to $25 million in annual sales and be recommended by a participating retailer. For more information about the program or email [email protected] for information on how to apply for the 2023 program.

Additional participants in the beauty and personal care category included Mielle, Miss Jessie's, Rosen, Scotch Porter and True Shea.