Competitive Effectiveness Tasty Baking Company
Market Research Reports
Begin your SWOT analysis by gathering market research reports on baked goods, cookies, cakes, breakfast foods, snack bars, packaging trends, food retailing, and eating habits and attitudes.
ReferenceUSA Aggregator for market reports by Freedonia and Datamonitor. Search International Indsutry reports.
Global Market Information Database (Euromonitor)
Competitor SWOT Analysis
Review Datamonitor SWOT analyses for competitors.
Match Brands to their Companies
TESS Trademark office database links brands to their owners.
GMID Company tab has a brand search feature
New Products
Research new product introduced globally. Check out their attributes, packaging and prices.
Global New Product Development
Consumer Demographics
Learn about consumer characteristics and what distinguishes purchasers of Moon Pies from Entenman's cakes or TaskyKakes. Or what DMA has the hightest concentration of snack food eaters.
MRI+ University Internet Reporter
SRDS Local Market Media Analyst Works best with Internet Explorer
Trade News and Marketing Research
You'll want to research trends in the packaged and backed goods catagories as well at research and news about marketing techniques.
ABI Inform Indexes and abstracts trade publications such as Food Business Week.
Agricola This database indexes and abstracts articles on technical aspects of food.
Applied Science & Technology Search via Wilson Onmifile. Indexes and aspects publications such as Food Technology & Progressive Grocer.
Citing Your Sources
Knowing how to cite a simple book or article usually isn't enought for business researchers. You will likely need to site resources such as technical reports or data sets.
The generic form for a research report is similar to citing a book:
Author, Initials (year) Title of Report (Report # if provided). Location: Publisher or website URL or digital object identifier.
The generic form for a raw data set is as follows:
Rightsholder. (year) Data Title. Retrieved from URL or location and name of data producer.
APA Style An online tutorial to APA style
Research & Documentation Online A guide book to citing the most common resources.
Citing Business Databases in APA Style by Steve Cramer
Concise Rules of APA Style The authority! But not online.
Due Diligence
Not all information sources are created equal. You will be expected to do due diligence on the sources you rely on. This means you should investigate and analyse the research you use.
- Research the authors credentials and expertise in area by searching for degrees, certifications and other publications.
- Research the reputation of the issueing agency or author by searching for news organizations that cite or rely on the source.
- Analyse the document internally. Are data sources documented? Are methods for gathering data and analysing it described?
- Ascertain the financial health and longevity of the organization by checking business directories.
- Find another source that restates or supports data provided. Can your source be corroborated?
Surveys & Focus Groups
The following resources will help you design an effective consumer survey. Most of these resources were found by searching the Falvey Memorial Library Catalog for subject terms such as social surveys or focused group interviewing. These aren't necessarily the best resource, they are just a random sample. Some are online and others only in print at Falvey Library. Come into the library and browse!
Handbook of Online Marketing Research
Handbook for Focus Group Research
How to Conduct Surveys a Step by Step Guide
Focus Groups a Practical Guide for Applied Research
Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods
Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods
