The end of my first year in the program is closing in very fast – a lot faster than I could have ever imagined. However, there is still a lot that is going on in the meantime. We started another online simulation in our operations class, this time we are focusing on managing our inventory in order to meet customer demand while maximizing revenues. In our managerial human resources course we also had another online simulation, for this one we all managed our own offices and had to make interactive decisions on how we would deal with a couple of underperforming employees. We are also working on finalizing our results and findings for a measurement scale that we have been developing with our teams in our advanced topics in marketing research course.

Last weekend we had our spring ball; this was a ton of fun. A large number of the MBA students, professors and faculty all enjoyed a really nice evening at the Overture Center here in Madison. The event included a dance performance, a lot of dancing from all of us and some great food and drinks to enjoy. The evening also included the announcing of the winners of a handful of fun student created awards. This was a great time, especially due to the great turnout of students and faculty.

Last weekend we had our second External Advisory Board meeting of the year. We started off with a reception to catch up with board members and meet some others. There were about 35 board members in attendance, representing a variety of companies, positions and experiences. All of the board members were very excited to answer questions, provide advice and discuss careers in marketing research.

After having a chance to chat, we had a panel discussion on Emerging Media and Measurements Issues. The panel consisted of several experts in their respected fields who had some great insights on the issues and future of marketing research. The panel discussion was followed by a great dinner with the EAB members, students, faculty and professors – the food was great as was the interesting conversations and stories.

The following day several students had a chance to present some of the work they have been involved with through the program to the board members. I had a chance to present a research project I worked on with fellow students during the first semester for a local company. The weekend was fantastic, it’s always really amazing to see the high level of involvement the board members has with the Nielsen Center and how supportive they are of the program and its students.

The other day all of the Nielsen students traveled to Appleton, Wisconsin to visit Kimberly Clark’s virtual reality shopping lab. Several of Kimberly Clark’s employees took us on tours of their mock stores and demonstrated how the virtual shopping works. We also discussed the innovative business applications Kimberly Clark has been able to come up with due to their virtual shopping capabilities. It was amazing how real the simulated shopping experience looked and acted. We finished the day off with lunch and a chance to discuss various marketing research topics with several of Kimberly Clark’s employees.

I just got back to Madison after a week in Spain with a few fellow Nielsen students. We had a great time together seeing the sites, being very obvious tourists and learning about consumers and the culture in Madrid and Barcelona. We’re now entering the home stretch of our first year in the MBA program – it’s amazing how fast time is flying by. There is certainly a lot of work to do in these last weeks of the semester though.

Just before leaving for spring break all of the Nielsen students gave individual presentations on areas of interest in Marketing Research for our Current Topics in Marketing Research course. This was a great opportunity to polish our presentation skills, learn of each other’s specific interests in the field and to review some of the latest innovations, methodologies and other relevant topics in marketing research. I presented an article on creating indicator variables to help clearly communicate the results of segmentation studies and to help determine which segments to target. Some of the other topics included cultural research challenges, advances in neuromarketing, professional respondent research and many other topics. Overall, it was a great learning experience and really interesting to cover such a large array of topics in one day.

A lot went on these last couple of days. We had a quiz on queuing in our operations course, which led into a class wide simulation competition. Each of the teams is in charge of managing an online factory and has the ability to add equipment and make other changes to the process. The simulation runs continuously for a full week, where each hour represents a day in simulation time. The goal is to finish the simulation with the most cash. I’m definitely finding myself updating the standings a little too frequently – I’ll probably take a break from writing this to check out how my team’s factory is holding up. It’s certainly an interesting project and the healthy competition has made it real fun.

In our Current Topics in Marketing Research course, we have spent the last few weeks preparing presentations for our Microsoft Case Competition. All of the Nielsen students were in teams of four and we were all given a current, real business issue that Microsoft is working on. We were in charge of providing a business strategy, supporting marketing strategy and a success measurement plan. These past two days we presented our plans to Microsoft with the winners receiving dinner and Microsoft software. The project was a great experience and it was very beneficial to be put in a live business situation and be able to present in a realistic business scenario.

The presentations were on Thursday and Friday, our team went on Thursday, which fit into the basketball schedule very nicely. That evening, with the presentation wrapped up, I was able to go and enjoy Wisconsin’s big win over Michigan State. That game was the loudest one I’ve been at so far and was a lot of fun.

After a week of presentations and clicking update way too often on our operations simulation, the business school had a social event last night with the medical school. We got together for food, drinks and a chance to meet other graduate students. It was a great time getting out and getting to know graduate students outside of Grainger. Both schools enjoyed the event and we all look forward to doing more social events together in the near future.

In addition to all the typical work going on this past week, we had some great events as well. This past Wednesday night all the specializations had a chance to present to the MBA class exactly what their centers/professions do. Some of the highlights included the Arts Administration students showcasing their talents; the ASAP program showing a very professional looking, but hilarious video; and of course the Nielsen students letting everyone know just how important Marketing Research is in developing the best business strategies. The evening was a great way to bond with the students and faculty and it was a lot of fun to see how creative and funny everyone was. The event ended with a reception, where the winner of best presentation (based on student scoring and center attendance) was announced; the winning center was awarded a dinner at the Dean’s home.

On Saturday, a group of MBA students and faculty took part in the Polar Plunge – an event aimed at raising money for the Special Olympics. I didn’t jump into the freezing cold lake, but had a great time staying warm and supporting my classmates and the cause. I certainly had a good laugh watching some of the students representing the MBA class jump in the lake while dressed in business suits.

Today in our Quantitative Models in Marketing course we had a guest speaker, Rob Holland, the Senior Vice President for the Nielsen Company Innovation Delivery Group. We had a really informative and interesting discussion on Nielsen data, solving client issues, trends and innovation in research and other relevant topics.

Now it’s back to putting together presentations and getting ready for my first Economics midterm. Tomorrow my team in Advanced Topics in Marketing Research will present the first stages of our development of a measurement scale.

The spring semester has gotten under way after a long and relaxing winter break. Many fellow students participated in international trips over the break – it’s been fun seeing all of the pictures and hearing all the great stories about China and India. It also got me excited for the international trip I’ll be taking with other Nielsen Center students this spring break to Spain…I look forward to telling you about the trip.

This semester I’m looking forward to a mix of core curriculum and marketing research courses. Core courses cover organizational behavior and strategy, operations, managerial economics and ethical leadership. The marketing research students will also be taking advanced topics in marketing research, current topics in marketing research and quantitative models. For our current topics course we have a great opportunity to work with Microsoft this semester; in teams we will be making a strategic evaluation and decision given the situation and data they have provided.

This past weekend I participated in a Case Competition here in Madison sponsored by our Graduate Marketing Network. Six teams of four were in the competition judged by several seasoned marketing professionals from Kraft, Abbott/Guidant Vascular, W.W. Grainger and GE Healthcare. The teams were given a case and had less then 48 hours to analyze the situation, determine the problems and recommend a solution; we then presented our findings to the judges. I enjoyed the competition and it was a really practical learning experience – solving problems when you don’t have all the information you wish you had. After the competition, prizes were handed out and we had a chance to get some really beneficial feedback from the judges. Also, after staying awake all night preparing our cases, some good food and a drink with the judges, participants and organizers didn’t hurt either.

Well, yesterday we wrapped up our last final putting an end to our first semester. I'd be lying if I said it was easy, but the challenge and experience this first semester provided was amazing. These last few weeks were especially intense as we were working on our Integrated Company Analysis projects. These team projects consisted of analyzing a company of our choice from a financial, accounting, marketing and operations perspective and to provide recommendations to improve the company. We then presented the reports to an audience of professors, center directors and other MBA faculty. Meanwhile, we were all finishing up other projects for other classes during this time.

The Nielsen students also finished up our research projects we were working on in our Marketing Research course. We finished the analysis of the questionnaire results and presented the findings and recommendations to our clients. This was a great project and especially rewarding when our clients let us know they will be using the results in their business strategy.

So, after a hectic last few weeks, everyone was very relieved when finals were over with yesterday afternoon. After finals, there were a lot of proud faces celebrating and congratulating one another. If there is one thing that sums up my first semester it was that everyone was just as happy and excited for their classmates as they were for themselves - and that's truly the U of Wisconsin way.

On Friday, November 30th, the A.C. Nielsen students had a great experience spending the day at Kraft Foods' Glenview, IL facility. The trip was part of our Current Topics in Marketing Research course. Prior to the trip we had the chance to meet Art Nielsen, Jr. After spending time with Mr. Nielsen we continued our trip to Kraft, where several members of the marketing research division put together a great day of activities and learning for us.

The day started out with a tour of Kraft's in-house test kitchens, where many of their recipes and new products are first developed. Here we also learned about the role marketing research initiatives and new product ideas and creations are linked together. We then went to Kraft's in-house photo department, where many of the packaging and product shot images are created. Next we participated in a case discussion with several members of the marketing research team.

The final stop on our tour was to one of Kraft's R&D facilities where new frozen pizza product ideas are developed and tested. We got to see the process how new pizza creations are made and then got a chance to sample the results.

After the day at Kraft, we entertained ourselves by enjoying a nice dinner together, going out in the city and we stayed the night in a great hotel in downtown Chicago. Overall, we all learned a lot from the trip and really enjoyed our time with Mr. Nielsen and Kraft. This trip was a lot of fun and was a great way to get to have fun with each other outside of the business school.

Welcome to the A.C. Nielsen Center's new student blog. I look forward to keeping you informed about what is happening in the program and give you a look into the day in the life of a Nielsen student. A little about myself, my name is Brian Frances and I am in my first year of the MBA program.

First, I'd like to get you caught up with some of the events that have happened so far this semester. The first semester is certainly a busy one and has been quite challenging, but very exciting and fun as well. We started the semester with a two-week orientation, where student expectations were discussed; we got to know one another, work on team building exercises and many other activities.

Once classes started, we got to work right away. Early in the semester, we had to start working with our pre-assigned groups on a Marketing case analysis. The case write-ups are a great way to apply what we are learning in class to real business situations. There have also been a handful of other various projects in our classes, including Accounting, Finance and Data Analysis projects.

In our Marketing Research class, we got started right away working on a real-life marketing research project with an actual client. This project has been a great experience and a lot of fun. In teams of three or four, we are applying what we learn in class to a real research study. The project has us meeting with our client company to discuss and plan the project, conduct qualitative research, design a questionnaire, collect data, analyze and interpret the data and provide our client with key insights and recommendations.

We also have a course in Current Topics in Marketing Research. Just recently in this course we had several top marketing researchers from Kraft come in to discuss some current methodologies they have been using; specifically, we talked a lot about ethnography. To show us how they utilized this technique, we participated in several case studies were we got to act as the decision makers.

In addition to all of the course work, the Nielsen students have been real busy interviewing for summer internships. Many companies have already been on campus, including General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, Mead Westvaco, Miller Brewing Company, PepsiCo, Proctor & Gamble, VF Corp and Wrigley.
Just a few weeks ago, we had our annual External Advisory Board (EAB) meeting. The EAB is a large and distinguished group of marketing research professionals (some of whom are alumni) dedicated to the continued success of the A.C. Nielsen Center. The EAB members are very active in the marketing research community and carry an array of different high profile jobs within the industry. The EAB members act as mentors to the current students and are a great networking source. The meeting was a lot of fun and finished off with a panel discussion on 'green movements' and sustainability.

Another regular event that has been on-going this semester is our key note speaker lecture series. Every few weeks, the students have a chance to listen and ask questions to some of the top executives in the country.

The past few weeks have continued to be filled with classes, group projects, interviews and social events. Luckily, in addition to all of the classes, interviewing and other events there are plenty of social events that give us a break from all the work. Every Thursday the MBA has its TAPS event, where we all get together at a different bar each week to have a few drinks and have fun getting to know each other better. And then of course there are the sporting events; our football team has had some ups and downs this season, but everyone was real excited about our win over Michigan. Before the game, the Graduate Business Association (one of our many on campus organizations) held a pre-game tailgate for all of the MBA students which included a full breakfast and drinks.

Well, I hope this gets you up to speed on some of the things that have been going on this semester. I'll keep you posted on what my typical weeks are like moving forward.