I haven’t been here at NCP too long, so I was curious about the history of the company. You may not know how long the panel has been around and how it got started. So let’s take a closer look at one of our parent companies and see what happened and when!
1923: Arthur Charles Nielsen, Sr., establishes the ACNielsen Company.
1933: Nielsen starts measuring and reporting drug store and retail store sales.
1934: Nielsen starts measuring and reporting food and department store sales.
1935: Nielsen invents the concept of “market share,” defined as the size of the “shopping pie” a manufacturer’s or retailer’s sales represent.
1963: Nielsen starts measuring and reporting discount mass-merchandiser store sales.
1977: Nielsen introduces scanning of UPC barcodes to measure retail sales.
1980: National Scantrack Service is introduced, which collects UPC barcode information from retail stores, then sells that data to manufacturers.
1987: Nielsen introduces National Electronic Household Panel, featuring hand-held scanners used by household members to record all UPC-coded purchases. (This is the forerunner of the Homescan Consumer Panel, which became NCP!)
1990: The first survey is mailed to panelists.
2003: Nielsen introduces online survey opportunities to their consumer panel members.
2004: Nielsen introduces Homescan Online, the first Internet measurement service that creates a direct link between off-line purchase behavior and online surfing activity. This is now known as NCP Connect.
2010: The Nielsen Company enters into a joint venture with another leading consumer insights provider, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) to form the National Consumer Panel.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief history lesson.
Have a great day!
That was interesting. Thank you.
Marketing and data gathering are fascinating. Thank you for sharing this timeline.
I was never on the TV program. But have been on the Panel for several years now. Thank you for the invite. I enjoy doing the surveys & scanning.