What Deep Dive does

Deep Dive (legal entity: Retail Insights, LLC) is a CPG analytics and category management firm headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, with a satellite sales office in Chicago. It operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Market Performance Group (branded CPGbyMPG). The company runs a cloud-native analytics platform built on the DOMO business intelligence stack, integrating more than 1,000 data sources including Circana, Nielsen IQ, retailer POS systems, shopper loyalty data, digital shelf, market basket, syndicated data, and JDA/Blue Yonder. Coverage spans 8 retail verticals: Beauty, Personal Care, OTC & Wellness, Baby & Kids, Seasonal, Grocery & Essentials, Home & Hardlines, and General Merchandise.

The operating model is centered on Category Captaincy. Under the Retailer Partnership track, Deep Dive embeds with merchant teams to manage assortment, planogram design, and category strategy, producing 35,000+ planograms per year at a claimed 99% accuracy rate. The company holds 54+ active captaincies and reports a 93% client retention rate over a 9-year operating history, with a 96% retailer performance rating (4.8/5.0) and an 85% captaincy win rate over the last 3 years. The team of 50+ employees is more than 50% staffed by former buyers, category planners, and category leads, which is the core operational differentiator.

The Brand Partnership track (Growth Arm) extends the same analytics stack to CPG manufacturers through two funding models: a Fair Share Model where multiple brands within a category co-fund the engagement, and Exclusive Brand Funding where a single brand underwrites the work. Revenue is therefore driven by a mix of enterprise captaincy retainers and brand-side analytics contracts, with the two-sided model designed to reduce channel conflict that often limits single-side analytics vendors. Leadership includes Jodi Tidd (SVP) and Eric Karr (VP), supported by senior category directors across the eight verticals.

Name

Deep Dive

Legal name

Retail Insights, LLC

Website

https://deepdivecpg.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Deep Dive (Retail Insights, LLC) is a Minneapolis-based CPG analytics and category management firm that embeds as a Category Captain for mass and specialty retailers while serving CPG brands through a parallel Growth Arm, all powered by a DOMO-based platform connecting 1,000+ data sources.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Minneapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Retailer Partnership - Category Management Services: Embedded category captain services funded through vendor-aligned investment structures. Two funding models: Fair Share Model (investment distributed across vendor community aligned to category share) and Exclusive Brand Funding (single primary brand funds entire engagement). Services include category strategy, planogram execution, scorecarding.
2. Brand Partnership - Growth Arm Services: Extends internal insights capabilities for CPG brands, translating retailer strategy into actionable opportunities. Quarterly business reviews, consumer deep dives, shopper segmentation, line review preparation.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Deep Dive embeds directly into retailer merchant teams as a category captain, owning category strategy, space allocation, assortment, planogram execution, and pricing decisions through a DOMO-powered analytics platform. The company also operates a Brand Partnership growth arm for CPG vendors, translating retailer strategy into actionable shelf opportunities via quarterly business reviews, shopper segmentation, and line review preparation. Services span eight retail verticals including beauty, personal care, OTC & wellness, baby & kids, seasonal, grocery & essentials, home & hardlines, and general merchandise.

Product overview

Deep Dive is an intelligence partner that turns shopper data into category growth, offering a unified platform combining embedded category management services and a cloud-native analytics platform powered by DOMO. The product portfolio centers on two core engagement models — Retailer Partnership (Category Captain) and Brand Partnership (Growth Arm) — supported by sub-products including planogram design and execution (35,000+ per year), category strategy and vision development, shopper insights and segmentation, performance measurement and scorecarding, and white space identification. The DOMO-powered analytics platform serves as the technology backbone, connecting to 1,000+ data sources including Circana, Nielsen IQ, Retailer POS, and digital shelf analytics to deliver real-time dashboards for category management decisions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Retailer Partnership - Category Captain

Quantifiable outcome

• 93% client retention rate over 9 years
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments10 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• DOMOcoreTechnology or IntegrationCloud-native analytics platform powering Deep Dive's data infrastructure. Connects to 1,000+ data sources enabling real-time insights across any device. Custom dashboards for category, market share, and shopper insights.
• CircanacoreTechnology or IntegrationPrimary data source for category management insights. Circana data used for guest behavior analysis, market dynamics, and competitive landscape assessment.
• Nielsen IQcoreTechnology or IntegrationPrimary data source for syndicated market data and category insights. Nielsen IQ data used for market share tracking and ROI measurement.
• JDA/Blue YondersupportingTechnology or IntegrationSupply chain and space planning platform utilized for assortment architecture, planogram design, and shelf execution optimization.
• CPGbyMPG (Market Performance Group)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDeep Dive is an integral part of CPGbyMPG, a retail solutions firm delivering vendor management, category management, retail marketing & design, and service management. Parent company structure providing broader retail solutions ecosystem.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• NielsenIQ: NielsenIQ is the leading global consumer and retail measurement company, providing syndicated market data, shopper insights, and analytics—a primary data source for Deep Dive and a broad incumbent in the retail intelligence space.
• Circana: Circana (formed from the merger of IRI and The NPD Group) is the dominant syndicated retail data provider whose datasets (Circana, formerly IRI/Nielsen) Deep Dive integrates—making it both a critical partner and a broader analytics incumbent.
• Kantar: Kantar's retail and shopper practice offers category insights, consumer research, and strategic consulting for retailers and CPG brands, positioning it as a broader incumbent that competes with Deep Dive for insights-led category engagements.
• Ipsos: Ipsos is a global market research firm with strong retail and shopper practice capabilities, offering consumer insights and category research that compete with Deep Dive's shopper segmentation and brand-side growth services.

Direct peers

• Daymon Worldwide: Daymon Worldwide specializes in private label and category management services for retailers globally, providing category captaincy and strategic sourcing solutions—an adjacent competitor in the embedded retailer services space.
• Crossmark: Crossmark is a retail services agency delivering category management, in-store execution, and shopper marketing for CPG brands and retailers, with an embedded service model similar to Deep Dive's retailer merchant team extension approach.
• Symphony RetailAI: Symphony RetailAI offers AI-driven category management, space planning, and demand forecasting solutions for retailers and CPGs—overlapping with Deep Dive's DOMO-powered analytics, planogram, and shopper insights offerings.
• Advantage Solutions: Advantage Solutions provides sales, marketing, and category management services to CPG brands and retailers across North America, with capabilities spanning category captaincy, retail merchandising, and shopper insights—closely aligned with Deep Dive's offerings.
• Acosta: Acosta is one of the largest retail sales and marketing services agencies in North America, offering category management, retail merchandising, and shopper marketing solutions to CPG brands and retailers—directly comparable to Deep Dive's category captain model.

Emerging players

• SPINS: SPINS provides retail measurement and consumer intelligence focused on natural, organic, and specialty products—emerging as a niche data and analytics player with retail services adjacent to Deep Dive's specialty category work.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/deep-diveresearch

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Deep Dive