Ian McNair

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may not meet the general notability guideline or one of the following specific guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines. If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand or rewrite the article to establish its notability. The best way to address this concern is to reference published, third-party sources about the subject. If notability cannot be established, the article is more likely to be considered for redirection, merge or ultimately deletion, per Wikipedia:Guide to deletion.
This article has been tagged since May 2008.

Ian Wallace McNair (October 23, 1933 – 2007) was the first name in Market Research in Australia and is renowned throughout the Australian Market Research Industry [1], through the pioneering work of Bill [2] and Ian McNair.

When Ian was born in 1933, his father Bill received news that the advertising agency he worked at, JWT had won the Kellogg’s advertising contract and it was for this reason that Ian almost acquired the name Ian Kellogg^[1]. However the middle name Wallace was chosen for two reasons; it was the middle name of Bill’s brother, but probably more so in recognition of William Wallace whose defeat of the English in 1298 made famous in the film Braveheart was significant to the Scottish heritage of the McNair family^[2].

1 Career
2 External links
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Career

In 1950, Ian started full-time study in Economics at Sydney University but later reverted to part-time study while working at the accounting firm, Holt and Thompson. He also did three months National Service at this time, where he was known as Gunner McNair or Private Eye McNair^[3].

Enormously influenced by his father, Ian joined The McNair Survey Pty Ltd in 1953, the market research business that Bill and his business partner Gwen Nelson had bought from JWT. He joined initially on a trial six-week period as a clerk^[4].

1953 was the year that TV arrived in Australia. This set The McNair Survey on its course as a leading supplier of both Radio and now TV ratings.

The McNair Survey began to make its mark on political opinion polling when in the 1955 Federal Election they correctly predicted that Federal Labor leader, Dr. H.V.Evatt would retain his hotly contested seat of Barton^[5].

While Ian was a shareholder in The McNair Survey, by virtue of the fact that Gwen Nelson [3] sold Ian a small parcel of shares, Bill and Gwen sold The McNair Survey to Ian McNair, in partnership with Ian Muir and Ian Pilz, known as the three Ians^[6].

Under Ian McNair’s leadership the organisation established offices in Melbourne and New Zealand. In 1973 the McNair survey merged with their competitor, Anderson, to become the largest market research firm in Australia, with McNair Anderson providing the national radio ratings, TV ratings and national readership survey^[7].

In 1980, Ian sold 60% of McNair Anderson to AGB Research.

At the beginning of the 1980’s McNair Anderson bought AGB McNair Hong Kong, and a few years later, SRG Australia and Spectrum Research, bringing Paul Korbel into Ian’s life. As with nearly all takeovers, AGB marginalised the original leadership team over time and Ian finally left the organisation in November 1985. AGB was acquired by ACNielsen shortly after that. In 1986 Ian, together with Paul Korbel, Ian Bell and Mike Larbalestier, formed Quadrant Research, essentially a partnership of four independent researchers sharing resources and based in Falcon Street, Crows Nest.

The start of Quadrant was not easy for Ian since in that year he suffered a serious heart attack which he survived. Nevertheless, Ian bounced back even determined to see out his career but also resolved to be less intense and to look after his health more.

It was at Quadrant Research that Matt Balogh joined Ian in 1998 initially as Marketing Director and later to become General Manager. The following year Paul Korbel negotiated the sale of Quadrant to The Gallup Organization, resulting in the dismissal of nearly all the staff in 2001^[8].

After Quadrant Research disbanded in 2001, Matt formed Ingenuity Research and Ian McNair resumed trading as McNair Research on his own but working from Ingenuity Research’s offices and using their services to conduct interviewing. Matt and Ian worked well together and formally merged to become McNair Ingenuity Research [4] in 2003 ^[9].