Ali Raza, MBA

About

With a robust background in consumer insights and strategic marketing, I have excelled in roles at Circana and Nielsen, driving significant growth and innovation. As Senior Director of Consumer & Shopper Insights at Circana, I led initiatives for Keurig Dr Pepper and Henkel, boosting annual revenue by 10% and launching Omni solutions for home care clients. At Nielsen, I served as Client Business Partner for Riviana Foods, enhancing contract value by 7% and improving sales velocity for specialty rice brands. My tenure at Nielsen also included roles as Client Manager and Insights Analyst, where I collaborated with The Hershey Company to optimize distribution and sales strategies, achieving a 1.6% sales growth. I hold an MBA from Baylor University and a BS in Accounting from Elizabethtown College, blending analytical expertise with strategic leadership to drive client success.

Experience

• Senior Director Consumer & Shopper Insights · Circana03-01-2017

  As the Senior Director, Consumer & Shopper Marketing for IRI servicing Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP)/ Henkel Corp/Church & Dwight, I spearhead client engagement and serve as the lead Consumer and Shopper consultant to ensure the client’s continued success. Identify and address the client’s key issues, such as new product launches, Omni market execution, thought leadership, and trade spending. Managed $3M+ in combined Consumer and Shopper annual revenue between KDP and Henkel to successfully increased by 10% annually. Partnered with IRI Senior Leadership in launching Omni solution for Home Care vertical clients across the organization. Served as Consumer and Shopper Marketing (CSM) Center of Excellence on all CSM solutions and collaborative cross-functional teams to uncover impactful insights to drive client performance. Liaise on-demand landscape, in-store testing, market structure, and e-commerce initiatives at KDP to identify opportunities. Developed and implemented segmentation tools across the organization to help generate product placement at retail. Champion Shopper Loyalty to enhance CSM capabilities to serve the client with better and faster solutions.

• Client Business Partner · Nielsen11-01-2015 – 03-01-2017

  As the Client Business Partner at Nielsen, servicing Riviana Foods, I managed the US and Canada Nielsen contract with Riviana and ensured efficient cash management, resource tracking, and financial reporting to Nielsen, increasing the global contract by 7%. Collaborated with customer and retail teams to maximize the effectiveness of marketing investments through ROI and post-program analytics process, leading to an increase in space allocation for the Rice and Pasta category and Riviana. Created a multi-lens landscape assessment to identify opportunities among categories, channels, demographics, loyal shoppers, and trends. The analysis identified areas for Aromatic rice and is applied across the organization to guide strategic development and identify M&A opportunities. Led client consumer and shopper insight projects to grow sales by 2% in 12 months and improve velocity on specialty rice brands by 10%. Refined Riviana’s leadership training across the organization to improved training scores by 25%. Earned 2 Nielsen Simply Excellent Gold Awards across 50 Premier Clients for demonstrating leadership and driving significant client outcomes. Led end-to-end Nielsen’s Answers On-Demand (AOD) implementation at Riviana to increase user acceptance and adaptability. Launched the global “Speed to Insight” capability to provide faster insights to Riviana’s CMO and leadership team.

• Client Manager · Nielsen06-01-2011 – 11-01-2015

  As the Client Insights Manager at Nielsen servicing The Hershey Company, I led a commercialization training curriculum for Hershey to enable the organization to be Category Captains across retailers. Collaborated with the entire Hershey’s Category Management and Insights (CMI) Team for efficient industry analysis. Created integrated tools to achieve Hershey’s distribution goals/opportunities across retailers. Launched panel initiatives to increase panel data sources and awareness, design an actionable share of wallet buyer conversion opportunities, and enable sales organizations to integrate shopper consumer insights to win in the marketplace. Developed a robust approach for measuring Hershey’s merchandising goals across all classes of trade to increase promotional distribution from 30% to 60% of all commodity value (ACV) nationally. Identified store display effectiveness to optimize ROI, resulting in a 1.6% growth in sales. Defined areas of opportunities within the store to enhance product placement to gain distribution in two critical Walmart locations for Hershey Snack bars. Led Nielsen AOD core platform launch to result in 200+ users actively using the platform with the user acceptance rate ranking at the highest in the organization. Developed front-end capabilities to drive change, solve client challenges, and identify opportunities to gain share at front-end locations.

• Insights Analyst · Nielsen03-01-2008 – 06-01-2011

  Client Insights Analyst at Nielsen servicing The Hershey Company, I partnered with the Hershey category development manager daily and provided category insights and recommendations. Supported Hershey’s thought leadership team on industry trends and snacking categories. Provided support to all retailer teams in identifying Hershey’s opportunities nationally, resulting in increased distribution and sales. Cultivated partnerships between the Hershey and Nielsen BASES with new item launch and future testing products. Collaborated with Hershey innovation teams for future concepts and current trends. Championed as Trainer on Nielsen tools, including retailer internal interface. Developed monthly analytical custom tools to track retailer trends. Provided national and international Consumer/Market trends using Global resources Euromonitor and Mintel.

• Market Research Analyst · The Hershey Company05-01-2007 – 03-01-2008

  Category Strategy and Insights Analyst at The Hershey Company.

Education

• Baylor University - Hankamer School of BusinessMaster of Business Administration - MBA
• Elizabethtown CollegeBachelor of Science - BS, Accounting

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