Arthur Charles Nielsen, Sr. (September 5, 1897 – June 1, 1980) was an American
market analystMarketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
.
Arthur Charles Nielsen was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was of
DanishDanish people are a nation and ethnic group native to Denmark, who speak Danish. This includes people with a Danish ancestral or ethnic identity, whether living in Denmark, emigrants, or the descendants of emigrants, eg: the Danish ethnic minority in Southern Schleswig, a former Danish province.The...
descent. Nielsen was educated at University of Wisconsin, B.S. summa cum laude. 1918. Nielsen was a member of the
Sigma Phi SocietyThe Sigma Phi Society was founded on 4 March, 1827, on the campus of Union College as a part of the Union Triad in Schenectady, New York.it is the second oldest Greek social fraternal organization in the United States...
. He was also captain of the
varsityIn the United States and Canada, varsity sports teams are the principal athletic teams representing a college, university, high school or other secondary school. Such teams compete against the principal athletic teams at other colleges/universities, or in the case of secondary schools, against...
tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
team from 1916 to 1918 and a long time supporter of the game. He subsequently served in U.S.
Arthur Charles Nielsen, Sr. (September 5, 1897 – June 1, 1980) was an American
market analystMarketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
.
Background
Arthur Charles Nielsen was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was of
DanishDanish people are a nation and ethnic group native to Denmark, who speak Danish. This includes people with a Danish ancestral or ethnic identity, whether living in Denmark, emigrants, or the descendants of emigrants, eg: the Danish ethnic minority in Southern Schleswig, a former Danish province.The...
descent. Nielsen was educated at University of Wisconsin, B.S. summa cum laude. 1918. Nielsen was a member of the
Sigma Phi SocietyThe Sigma Phi Society was founded on 4 March, 1827, on the campus of Union College as a part of the Union Triad in Schenectady, New York.it is the second oldest Greek social fraternal organization in the United States...
. He was also captain of the
varsityIn the United States and Canada, varsity sports teams are the principal athletic teams representing a college, university, high school or other secondary school. Such teams compete against the principal athletic teams at other colleges/universities, or in the case of secondary schools, against...
tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
team from 1916 to 1918 and a long time supporter of the game. He subsequently served in U.S. Naval Reserve.
Career
Nielsen worked as an electrical engineer for Isko Company in Chicago from 1919-20 and for H. P. Gould Company in Chicago from 1920-23. Nielsen was the founder of the
ACNielsenACNielsen is a global marketing research firm, with worldwide headquarters in New York City. Regional headquarters for North America are located in Schaumburg, IL. As of 2008, its the part of The Nielsen Company.-History:...
company in 1923, and in doing so advanced the new field of
marketing researchMarketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The term is commonly interchanged with market research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that market research is concerned...
. This involved (1)
test marketA test market, in the field of business and marketing, is a geographic region or demographic group used to gauge the viability of a product or service in the mass market prior to a wide scale roll-out...
ing new products to determine their viability prior to costly
mass marketingMass Marketing is a market coverage strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and go after the whole market with one offer. It is type of marketing of a product to a wide audience. The idea is to broadcast a message that will reach the largest number of people possible...
and production, and (2) measuring product sales at a
random sampleA sample is a subject chosen from a population for investigation. A random sample is one chosen by a method involving an unpredictable component. Random sampling can also refer to taking a number of independent observations from the same probability distribution, without involving any real population...
of stores to determine
market shareMarket share, in strategic management and marketing is, according to Carlton O'Neal, the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company. It can be expressed as a company's sales revenue divided by the total sales revenue available in...
. Careful statistical sampling is crucial to validate this process. The techniques developed by Nielsen were especially important for the efficient operation of a
marketA market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange things...
prior to the introduction of computerized digital networks that in the 1990s enabled continuous and comprehensive monitoring of sales by product retailers. Nielsen was also a pioneer in developing methods of measuring the audience of radio and television broadcasting programs, most notably the
Nielsen RatingsNielsen ratings are audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
.
Nielsen inaugurated a National Radio Index for broadcasters and advertisers in 1942, followed by a television ratings service in 1950. By the time of his death, the company's revenue was US$ 398 million annually
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924209,00.html.
Personal life
Together with his son Arthur Nielsen, Jr, he won the U.S. Father and Son doubles title in 1946 and 1948. He was elected to the
International Tennis Hall of FameThe International Tennis Hall of Fame is a non-profit tennis hall of fame and museum at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island, USA.- History :...
in 1971. The University of Wisconsin awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science (ScD) in 1974. Neilsen was awarded the
Order of the DannebrogThe Order of the Dannebrog is an Order of Denmark, instituted in 1671 by Christian V. It resulted from a move in 1660 to break the absolutism of the nobility. The Order was only to comprise 50 noble Knights in one class plus the Master of the Order, i.e. the Danish monarch, and his sons...
,
Ridder af Elefantordenen (1961) by the nation of
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
.
In 1990, the A.C. Nielsen family made a generous donation to the
University of Wisconsin–MadisonThe University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
to create a full-time MBA program specializing in marketing research. The program is the only full-time marketing research program in the United States.
Professional Recognition
- Annual Advertisement Awards Committee, 1936
- Chicago Federated Advertisements Club, 1941
- American Marketing Association
The American Marketing Association is a professional association for marketers. As of 2008 it had approximately 40,000 members. There are collegiate chapters on 250 campuses....
, 1951 and 1970
- Hall of Fame in Distribution in 1953
- International Advertisement Association, 1966
Additional Sources
- Buzzard, Karen Chains of Gold: Marketing the Ratings and Rating the Markets (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1990)
External links