Dairy Management, Inc (DMI) is the domestic and international planning and management organization that builds demand for dairy products and ingredients on behalf of America’s 80,000+ dairy producers. Together, DMI and international, state and regional organizations manage the American Dairy Association, the National Dairy Council and the U.S. Dairy Expert Council. DMI’s efforts to ensure the future success of dairy include marketing, advertising, public relations, nutrition education and research programs. NPD’s consumer and retail information and insights stand behind many of DMI’s important initiatives. DMI Vice President – Business Development, Alan Reed, share his perspective on the value of NPD information.

NPD: What have been the greatest benefits of using NPD market information?

Alan Reed: In our business, we are very concerned about overall category growth trends and in the way consumers actually eat and drink dairy products. Nothing gives us a better view of this than NPD National Eating Trends (NET) data. It’s strategic information that allows us to make educated decisions on the direction of our programs.

With the addition of NPD Foodworld’s DIET data, we can also look at real consumer data that is linked directly to nutritional intake information. In today’s world, where there is more and more pressure on healthy eating, this is valuable data that really isn’t available from other sources in this way.

NPD: What kinds of business challenges has NPD market information helped Dairy Management, Inc. resolve?

Alan Reed: NPD is often the first place we turn for information. It has helped us with all types of business challenges, both large and small. One example is our need to understand consumer behavior around lactose intolerance. This has long been an issue for marketers of dairy products – especially in regard to minority consumers. By working with NET and DIET data, we were able to understand specific dairy consumption patterns of minority groups and understand the nutritional implications these consumption patterns have.

Based in part on direction provided by NPD data, we were able to build a relationship with the National Medical Association (the largest organization for African-American doctors in the U.S.), supporting the need for African-Americans’ diets to include three servings of dairy a day. We published articles in established industry journals, and provided resources for the dairy industry to better understand how to market their products to minority audiences and handle the issue of lactose intolerance proactively. In fact, we’ve seen sales of lactose-free dairy products increase since this work was completed!

NPD: How are NPD’s information and insights used across DMI?

Alan Reed: At the executive level, NPD information is one of the business tracking tools we use to measure our new “3-A-Day” program. Our CEO cares about how many servings of milk, cheese and yogurt consumers are eating, and NET data provides that. Our Marketing group also looks to NPD to assess our 3-A-Day program to understand how consumers are using dairy products, and how dairy products tie into trends in various channels. In product development, we use NET information to understand key new product categories for dairy ingredients, who these categories’ consumers are, and how they consume the products.

NPD: In what ways has NPD market information been valuable to your business decision-making?

Alan Reed: NPD data helps us think broadly and be strategic about our programs. We are concerned with overall category growth, and NPD really delivers on the information we need about how consumers use dairy products. The kind of information we get from NPD is invaluable – it would undoubtedly cost us many times the amount of our NPD contract in overall resources to execute the literally hundreds of focus groups and other habits and practices monitors that we would have to do on our own if it weren’t for the information that NPD provides us.

NPD: What would you say to manufacturers or retailers considering NPD’s market information services?

Alan Reed: NPD is the most valued information resource we have for strategic decision-making. While we sometimes struggle with the value we get from other research companies, we all agree that NPD gives us the most value-added information, the best service, and the most strategic insights into our business.

NPD: Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experiences with The NPD Group?

Alan Reed: Our NPD Foodworld account representative is one of the key reasons we get so much value from NPD. She understands where we are coming from on issues and questions, and makes sure we know about all of what NPD offers so we can tap into it. That, and she’s one of the smartest and nicest people I know!