By: Jonathan Banks, Business Insights Director, The Nielsen Company
SUMMARY: While weight loss strategies vary by region, the world’s consumers will start the New Year looking for the right combination of alternatives to lose excess weight. Approaches range from changing their diet, to working out, consuming diet pills, bars or shakes, and taking prescription weight loss drugs.
Year after year, it leads the list of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions: lose weight. Close behind on the “most popular resolutions” list are promises to get fit (#5) and to eat right (#6). …

As the economy worsened in 2008, U.S. consumers cut discretionary spending — and shifted basic purchases to value-oriented brands and retailers.  Dollar stores and private label brands saw gains — but many other retailers and manufacturers suffered through dramatic declines.
Is the outlook any brighter for the new year?  Food marketing expert Phil Lempert, of SupermarketGuru.com, offers his take on what consumers and retailers can expect in 2009.
Nielsen Wire: How did consumer habits change in 2008 — and how should retailers adjust?
Phil Lempert:
In 2008 shoppers used more coupons, bought more store …

According to Nielsen Online, there were almost 8.1 billion Web searches conducted during November 2008 — up 9.6% over the same month last year.
Google searches accounted for more than 64% of all Web searches, with almost 5.2 billion queries.  Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com rounded out the top five.

Rank
(by # of
searches)
Provider
Searches
(in 000’s)
% Growth:
Year Over Year
% of Searches

 
All Searches
8,075,564
9.6%
100%

1
Google Search
5,177,158
21.7%
64.1%

2
Yahoo! Search
1,299,306
-1.4%
16.1%

3
MSN/Windows Live Search
733,460
-16.7%
9.1%

4
AOL Search
344,465
3.6%
4.3%

5
Ask.com Search
184,059
-6.0%
2.3%

6
My Web Search
71,113
-18.3%
0.9%

7
Comcast Search
40,645
3.5%
0.5%

8
AT&T Worldnet Search
25,351
-13.3%
0.3%

9
NexTag Search
22,308
-19.5%
0.3%

10
Dogpile.com Search
17,121
-6.5%
0.2%

Source: The Nielsen Company (November 2008).

View the full press release.
Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings on CNET.com and Silicon.com, as well as in Mediaweek and …

In November, almost one-third (30.6%) of all visitors to ProFlowers.com made a purchase — the highest conversion percentage among all retail websites, according to Nielsen.
Metrostyle (23.6% conversion rate), QVC (21.6% conversion rate), Office Depot (21.6% conversion rate), L.L. Bean (21.5% conversion rate), Tickets.com (20.1% conversion rate), Blair.com (18.9% conversion rate), Lands End (18.4% conversion rate), 1800flowers.com (17.8% conversion rate), and The Sportsman’s Guide (16.8% conversion rate) rounded out the top ten.
Top online retailers in ten key product categories, ranked by purchases and customer numbers in November, are below.

U.S. Box office earnings for the first weekend of the new year reached $123.2 million – down 28% from the prior weekend ($169.9 million), but up 10% compared to the same weekend a year ago ($112.5 million), Nielsen reported Monday.
Twentieth Century Fox’s “Marley & Me” remained in the top spot for the second weekend running, with earnings of almost $24.3 million between Jan. 2 and 4.
Walt Disney Studios’ ”Bedtime Stories” claimed second place, with earnings of $20.5 million, and Paramount’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” rounded out the top three, with an $18.7 million box office …

By: Jess D. Aguirre, Jr., Senior Vice President, Research, Hallmark Channels, and Howard M. Shimmel, Senior Vice President, Consumer Insights, The Nielsen Company
SUMMARY: What do beer, gum, candy, snacks, and fragrances have in common? All are categories that under-spend on media against a Boomer demographic that accounts for the bulk of consumer packaged goods sales.
It’s a question for the ages. Why aren’t TV advertisers targeting Baby Boomers, a demographic with proven clout at the cash register and demand to spare? Even as Boomers expect to live and work longer, extending …

The column below, by John Burbank, CEO, Nielsen Online, was recently published in Adweek.
Want a firsthand lesson in the health of the Internet? Ask a friend a simple question: “What’s your favorite online ad?”
Chances are they’ll have a tough time giving an answer. Some may mention a dancing girl seducing you to refinance a mortgage; others may bring up one of the online executions of the Mac vs. PC television campaign.
But many people cannot recall any online advertising, despite all the time each of us spends on the Web and …

By Julie Enzweiler, Nielsen Online
The automotive industry has witnessed an extremely volatile and game-changing 2008. With Ford, BMW, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen leading the way, here is a look at the top 25 automotive brands that consumers discussed online in 2008 relative to all online discussion.

Online social network giants MySpace and Facebook battled for supremacy in 2008.  The trend lines below show the percentages of consumer-generated online discussions that mentioned each site between June and December:

Credit markets freeze. Financial institutions implode. Economic benchmarks plummet. Consumer spending plunges. Unemployment skyrockets. Bail out plans are unveiled. Global markets fall like dominoes and consumers tighten their hold on wallets. What are a retailer and manufacturer to do? Read on for strategies on how to manage the economic downturn.