Ron Nielson: king of feedback.

AuthorKing, Heather L.
PositionPeople - Market research - Biography

R.T. NIELSON STARTED HIS MARKET research company in 1991 with two employees and $1,000. Now called NSON Opinion Research, the company conducts business all over the nation and has over 300 employees and several divisions, including Wasatch Research and SurveyFever.

Nielson, 40, crested NSON after working for years as a political and crisis management consultant. During that time, he provided crisis management for the ValueJet crash in Florida and the Lloyds of London problem with investors. "When I started the company,' the president and CEO recalls, "I focused on those same types of services. As time went by, I stopped doing crisis management and consulting and focused on doing public opinion and market research. I felt there was a niche for us to gather information and help people understand attitudes and issues better."

At Wasatch Research, NS0N's 150-station phone center, employees gather data about what people think of various issues and conduct public opinion surveys, such as general political polls or customer and employee satisfaction surveys. "We check advertising trends, interview vendors for clients, and do anything where there would be a need to gather information about something," Nielson says. "We do focus groups and consultations with clients, we have a statistical department where we compile results, and then we outline what it all means to help clients figure out how they can market themselves better and how they can understand opinions."

Due to Nielson's background in politics, much of NS0N's work still follows that field. "We don't really provide a lot of direct consultation to political campaigns; instead, we do a lot of polling for campaigns and provide 'advising from a distance.' We do political research for about 10 different states," Nielson explains. "In addition to politics, me conduct corporate market research--everything from consulting and advertising companies to end-use...

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