A jar of mayonnaise or a package of tea is a straightforward product.  But if manufacturers market those products in the U.K. the same way they do in the U.S., they are probably making a mistake.  Nielsen has compiled the following “shopper truths” from around the world to help consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers successfully navigate consumer shopping behavior:

Same category, different market: often requires a different shopper strategy — While some universal truths exist within categories across borders, success of activation strategies …

Are consumers shopping more often? Spending less? Buying more store brands? Shifting channels? How are retailers responding? The Nielsen Economic Current tracks trends in 11 linchpin countries, indexes financial health and predicts growth trends on critical measures including GDP, consumer spending, inflation, market value and volume indices.

If you’ve cut the cord on your landline and rely solely on a cellphone for calls, you’re likely to spend more time listening to the radio and sampling more stations, according to a pilot study in Lexington, KY run by The Nielsen Company. In March, Nielsen will roll out similar studies in 51 other major markets.
The Lexington study found that cell-phone-only homes logged nearly 23 hours of radio listening per week compared to just over 19 hours for the total sample.
In addition, the sample group:

Listens to 3.5 radio stations compared …

Since mid-February (the original date for the DTV switch) more than a half-million homes have prepared themselves for the Digital TV transition according to an update from The Nielsen Company.  As of March 1, 3.9 percent of all TV homes remain unready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting and would be unable to receive any television programming at all if the transition occurred today. Congress has set June 12 as the new date for the nationwide transition to DTV.

As economic uncertainty continues to loom over most of the country, Americans are watching their money and shopping less. But while that fact might spell doom for the nation’s retailers, there are a number of opportunities available to those companies who are able to look at how consumers are changing their behavior and innovate in how they do business to leverage these changes.
“Big Players Think Small in Format Fights,” an article in Consumer Insight by Todd Hale, senior vice president, Consumer & Shopper Insights with Nielsen, outlines how the economy …

The banking industry increased ad buys during televised sports events by 36% in 2008, despite an overall 10% cut on all TV buys, according to an analysis by The Nielsen Company.
Banks spent $122 million – or 18.7% of all its TV ad dollars – on sports event programming in 2008. In 2007, the banking industry spent $90 million on sports broadcasts, or 12.5% of the industry’s total TV ad expenditures
“In today’s market, the banking industry is wise to target its ads to sports audiences,” said Tom Ziangas, SVP for Nielsen Sports. “Not …

The days of super sizing are over. The big players in grocery are opting for smaller, niche footprints in urban locations featuring a focus on packaged fresh food offerings. The idea is to make shopping more rewarding, and to reward consumers with coffee boutiques, new ideas, special discounts, free groceries and gas cards.

Over the last decade, Americans’ awareness of and sensitivity to the environment has grown dramatically, and environmental concerns regularly top opinion polls as being important.  Going hand-in-hand with this awareness is a desire to purchase products that are green, such as those that are organic, natural or have an environmentally friendly benefit. Retailers, food and consumer product manufacturers have sought to capitalize on this trend by launching new lines of products touting their natural qualities. The Natural Marketing Institute estimates that the size of the green marketplace will reach $420 …

Learn about how women’s brains are fundamentally different than men’s—and why understanding the critical differences are crucial to marketing success today.

Population trends have clear implications for those involved in the media and advertising industries. There are now more than 114 million U.S. TV households, with immigration continuing to play a major role in population growth. U.S. Census estimates predict that by the year 2050 more than half of the U.S.
population will be non-white.
Nielsen’s “Ethnic Trends In Media,” is a comprehensive report profiling African-American, Asian, Hispanic and White households in the U.S.  This report examines household characteristics, television usage, timeshifted viewing and popular programming genres for each group.
Key findings include:

Household …