At an awards luncheon in New York City, two distinguished-looking men stand side by side. At one time, the men were competitors. Another time, they hoped to merge their companies. And today, they stand as equals as inductees into the Market Research Council Hall of Fame.
John Dimling (TPR’62) (left), former chair, president, and CEO of Nielsen Media Research, and Tod Johnson (AM’66, TPR’67, Trustee), chair and CEO of The NPD Group, have worked in the same industry for years. However, their focuses have been vastly different.
Dimling’s path led him to work in media at the National Association of Broadcasters (where he led projects such as the study of non-response error in television diaries), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (where he completed the first five-year plan in public telecommunications), and Nielsen (where he focused on audience measurement studies).
Meanwhile, Johnson’s (right) past includes working at a Tepper professor’s marketing research consulting company upon graduation, then publishing art posters (a family printing business) before he ended up at The NPD Group, a leader in analytical technique and new data collection technology. There, Johnson helped to create the first online surveys and digital scanning devices.
With such established careers, both inductees speak confidently about their passion for market research. Dimling remarks that the field is ultimately about providing answers. Johnson concurs, “I love the intellectual stimulation of working on problems. And that’s what market research is.”
Each alumnus is also quick to congratulate the other on the shared Hall of Fame induction, which recognizes outstanding members of the market, media, and survey research professions.
—Courtney Kochuba (DC’07)
