NielsenIQ facts for kids
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Trade name
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NIQ |
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Formerly
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| Private | |
| Industry | Marketing research |
| Founded | 1923 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Founder | Arthur C. Nielsen Sr. |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
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Key people
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| Owner | Advent International |
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Number of employees
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c. 30,000 |
| Subsidiaries | GfK |
NIQ (also known as NielsenIQ) is a big company that helps other businesses understand what people buy. It's like a detective for shopping habits! NIQ has its main offices in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States.
The company has about 30,000 employees. It works in more than 100 countries around the world. In 2023, NIQ bought another market research company from Germany called GfK.
Before March 2021, NIQ was part of a larger company called Nielsen Holdings. Then, it became its own separate company. It was bought by a private investment firm named Advent International. After that, the company changed its name to NIQ.
Contents
How NIQ Helps Businesses
NIQ uses different ways to find out what people buy. This helps companies make better products and decide how to sell them.
Understanding Shopping Habits
One important program NIQ uses is called Homescan. In this program, families track everything they buy at grocery stores and other shops. This helps NIQ see what kinds of products different families like to buy.
Homescan is used in many countries. These include Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 2004, NIQ started using special devices to collect this shopping information in Asia. In the United States, the Homescan program is now known as National Consumer Panel.
Tracking Books and Brands
NIQ also helps track book sales outside the United States. This service is called Nielsen BookScan. The company also helps manage special numbers for books, called ISBNs, in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
NIQ offers other services too. These include BASES and Brandbank. These services help companies understand their products and brands better.
In Germany, NIQ helps manage the music, home video, and video game sales charts. It does this through its company GfK.
Past Work: TV Ratings
NIQ used to have a service called Nielsen ratings. This system measured how many people watched TV shows or listened to the radio. In 1950, NIQ started putting special devices on TV sets in homes. These devices recorded what channels people watched.
Later, NIQ developed electronic ways to collect this information. In 1996, this part of the company became a separate business called Nielsen Media Research. This company focused only on TV ratings. It later became part of Nielsen Holdings.
NIQ's Journey Through Time
NIQ has a long history of helping businesses. It has grown and changed a lot over the years.
Starting Out in Chicago
The company was started in 1923 by Arthur C. Nielsen Sr.. He wanted to give companies clear information about how well their marketing and sales were working. The first office outside the USA was opened in 1939 in Oxford, United Kingdom. This is still NIQ's main office in the UK today.
Changes in Ownership
In 1984, a company called Dun & Bradstreet bought NIQ. Then, in 1996, Dun & Bradstreet split NIQ into two separate companies. One was Nielsen Media Research, which focused on TV ratings. The other was ACNielsen Corporation, which looked at what consumers bought.
In 2001, a Dutch company called VNU bought ACNielsen Corporation. This meant that the two companies that had split earlier were now under the same owner again. In 2007, VNU changed its name to Nielsen Company.
New Ways to Collect Data
In 2005, ACNielsen started a program called MVP (Media Voice Panel). People in this program carried a small device. This device could detect what TV and radio shows they were exposed to. The data was sent through the home's electrical wires to a phone line. This was a very early example of a home network! The MVP program ended in 2008.
Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., the son of the founder, took over the company from his father. He passed away in 2011 at the age of 92.
Growing with New Companies
NIQ has continued to grow by buying other companies.
- In 2014, NIQ bought Affinnova. This company helped with media and marketing research.
- In 2015, NIQ bought Brandbank. This company helps collect and share product images and information for online shopping.
In 2021, Nielsen Holdings sold its consumer data business, which became NielsenIQ, to Advent International. Also in 2021, NielsenIQ bought Rakuten Intelligence and Foxintelligence. These companies helped NIQ get more information about online shopping.
In 2023, NIQ received approval to buy GfK from the European Union. However, NIQ had to sell GfK's consumer panel business to another company, YouGov, as part of the deal.
See also
