SymphonyIRI reverts to original name in rebranding move

SymphonyIRI Group president and CEO Andrew Appel announced this week that the company will revert to its original name, Information Resources, or IRI, as part of a rebranding strategy.

“Our rebranding signifies our promise to continue providing ingenious solutions and capabilities for our clients to enable growth in a highly fragmented, competitive and complex market,” Appel said “We are well positioned to be the catalyst that enables CPG and retail companies to take advantage of new opportunities.”

As the company positions itself to move forward, it goes back to its old name roughly three years after unveiling the name SymphonyIRI Group at its Summit meeting in San Antonio, and roughly one year after Appel joined the company as CEO.

The Symphony name was originally adopted as a nod to the private equity firm Symphony Technology Group, which owned IRI, but the name change never took hold and most in the retail and CPG world continued referring to the company by its familiar acronym. In June 2011, Symphony Technology Group sold its majority stake in IRI to New Mountain Capital.

Appel said he had met with more than 500 CPG and retail executives to discuss how IRI could help move their companies forward. Focusing on activating and accelerating growth across sales and marketing was a theme he said he heard repeatedly.

“IRI has a rich heritage of innovation and going beyond the data, leveraging advanced analytics and enabling technologies to help our clients excel and win,” adds Appel. “We have the leadership, the people, the unique assets and the distinctive capabilities to deliver on our new strategy and make a real difference for clients. We’re taking the best of what we’ve been boldly forward.”