The History of IRI

John Malec and Gerry Eskin founded IRI in 1979 to track consumers’ behavior and connect it to products those consumers bought at the supermarket. Leveraging first-to-market technology, IRI came to have the largest repository of purchase, media, social, casual, and loyalty data in the industry, using this to drive growth for 5,000 companies across the globe.

The History of NPD

NPD was founded in 1966 by Henry Brenner, who developed a system to record consumers’ buying habits through purchase diaries. More than 2,000 companies worldwide would come to rely on NPD to help them measure, predict, and improve performance. NPD offered data, industry expertise, and prescriptive analytics to help its clients understand the retail landscape and prepare for the future.

We are

IRI and NPD came together in 2023 to become the world’s leading advisor on the complexity of consumer behavior. As Circana™, we set ourselves apart based on three pillars:

The most complete view

We start with the most complete data, add cross-industry insights, and deliver it all through the lens of our deep category expertise. When our clients see the complete consumer, the complete store, and the complete wallet, they gain a full understanding that leads to confident action.

Unparalleled technology

Our Liquid Data® platform makes it easy to work with cross-industry data and advanced analytics. Seeing all the angles makes it easier to find new opportunities and spark growth.

Deep industry expertise

Our industry experts are strategic partners who understand each client’s business. That allows us to push beyond insights into ideas that ignite new thinking and lead to better outcomes.

Client success makes us complete.

Ulta Beauty values Circana’s Checkout tool as an instrumental resource for helping us better understand the evolving consumer landscape and how shoppers are actively engaging with the category. As the nation’s largest beauty retailer and leading destination for brands to be discovered by passionate beauty enthusiasts, we’re focused on evolving with our guests and see a responsibility to anticipate and deliver on their expectations.

Elizabeth Oates
Vice President Consumer Insights Monthly,
Ulta Beauty

As a small brand, we are efficient, we are mighty, but we lack certain resources, data being one of them and entering the retail space for the first time we needed a little bit of hand holding, extra insights, things that we wouldn’t have ordinarily known about. Circana are always ready and available to provide us with the data we’re looking for. We are able to reach out and receive something actionable.

Kate Fernandez
Head of Brand,
Head of Brand, Mented Cosmetics

What we needed was the ability to measure the Covid response, and Circana’s Monthly Sensitivities gave us the real time view of the consumer response, allowing us to time align to actions over time. We chose Circana for this effort because we have a great existing relationship with them, and the Monthly Sensitivities blends well with what already have in place.

Rich Seifrid
Manager, Advanced Analytics,
Conagra