How The Nielsen Corporation Works

The Nielsen Corporation provides its clients with significant observations into consumer behavior and marketing statistics. The company achieves this through data collection and measurement systems that access what consumers watch and purchase. The company is popular for its Nielsen ratings, which estimates the audiences for television, radio, and magazines in media markets. Investors and companies use these Nielsen ratings to forecast consumer trends.

Other industries such as television, radio, retail, advertising agencies, internet companies, music, video games, and sports all use Nielsen's ratings. Nielsen's methodology is now the general way to evaluate television audiences worldwide. With Homescan's market research tool, Nielsen also estimates millions of consumers' shopping and media behavior globally. All retail and grocery shop purchases by consumers are tracked by the company's tool, thereby allowing researchers to connect purchasing habits to demographic data.

Various countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, are covered by Homescan. Over nine thousand clients in more than a hundred countries depend on The Nielsen Corporation to measure competitive marketplace dynamics. In Germany, the Nielsen Corporation is renowned for setting up the Nielsengebiete or Nielsen areas. These Nielsen areas consist of multiple federal states with economic structures and cultures. They also consist of client behaviors and marketing strategies which are all used extensively in these areas.

Examples of The Nielsen Corporation Services

Say Stella Inc. is into baby fashion and is searching for a better way to reach new mothers. It can contact Nielsen Corporation for a better marketing strategy. Typically what Nielsen will offer is a targeted approach to new mothers using collected data and analysis.

Using mathematical analysis and customer behavior data, Nielsen Corporation can narrow down what new mothers watch and research. The report will also include items new mothers are more intrigued by and what they buy more of. Stella Inc. can then use this information in its marketing approach.

History of The Nielsen Corporation

Founded in 1923 in Chicago by Arthur C. Nielsen Sr, the Nielsen Corporation began expanding internationally in 1939. The company initially started providing analysis of brand-based advertising in the 1920s. The company extended its analysis to the radio market in the 1930s. Nielsen ratings were extended to the television industry in 1950, utilizing the same techniques that it had used for analyzing radio programming.

It acquired C.E. Hopper company in 1950, and recording devices were attached to statistical samples of over 1200 consumer television sets in the United States. The photographic film was used by these devices in mail-in cartridges to record the channels viewed by the consumer and hence ascertain audience quantity. The Nielsen Corporation later created electronic methods of data collection and transmission.

This part of its operation split off into a different company named Nielsen Media Research (NMR) in 1996. The NMR operated as a self-reliant company until its acquisition by Dutch conglomerate VNU in 1999. The company headquarters was in Stamford, Connecticut, before its acquisition. In 2004, the Nielsen Corporation chose the CipherLab CPT-8001 for its data collection terminal for the Homescan program in Asia.

Uses of The Nielson Corporation products

Every day, billions of consumers work, learn, eat, and sleep—and spend hundreds of billions of dollars purchasing products and services. Additionally, with the acceleration in technology, constant shifts in demand drive more information and interaction. The strategic question faced by companies is how to capitalize on this opportunity.

The Nielsen Corporation steps in here to answer this question. The company invests resources in creating a complete picture of what is purchased and watched by consumers. With the understanding of who and where the consumers are, companies can reach them more efficiently, reducing distribution costs. The Nielsen Corporation performs these tasks for over 20,000 clients in over a hundred countries.

Significance of Nielsen Corporation

The services offered by The Nielsen Corporation aid companies in targeting specific consumers more efficiently. By measuring both what consumers buy and watch, the company can provide clients with a comprehensive view of how marketing spend affects consumers. Assuming there is an increase in demand for products featured on screens or in stores, The Nielsen Corporation, through accurate and timely data collection about the rise in demand, can help clients reach these consumers. By bringing this data to clients, companies can reduce distribution costs, thereby focusing on where demand is high.