The Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM) has been operating under this name since 2018. However, its historical roots go back much further. NIM was founded in 1934 under the name Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung e.V., or GfK for short. The founding fathers Prof Dr Wilhelm Vershofen, Dr Erich Schäfer and Prof Dr Ludwig Erhard pursued the goal of ‘making the voice of the consumer heard’, as the scientist and author Vershofen put it in a nutshell.
Wilhelm Vershofen's innovative, pioneering concepts at the time, such as analysing the idea of benefit, his transaction model underlying the purchase decision or understanding the visible market decision based on the - initially invisible - attitude and habits of consumers, are still highly topical today and continue to accompany the research work of NIM.
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