Summer Business Institute

Company Research

Your SWOT analysis will necessarily include research on American Eagle and its competitors.  Company reports written by outside analysts, the company 10K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and trade news are all excellent sources.  Search all of the below by company name or ticker.

Reports

Securities and Exchange Commission Company Search Read the business, risk and managment discussion sections of the 10K filing.

Datamonitor Company Report  These reports written by independent reseachers will be particularly helpful as they include SWOT analyses.

MergentOnline Nice company overviews with a financial focus.  Easy to use links to recent news thrown in for convenience. Easiest source for downloading financials and ratios.

ReferenceUSA The OneSource module includes SWOT analysis too.

Morningstar Another financial report, particularly useful for the analysts forward looking assessment.

Lexis-Nexis Company Dossier  Company profile accompanied by news.

News

In addition to the news links ReferenceUSA, Lexis-Nexis and Mergent, you'll do well to search the following databases for trade, magazine and news reports.

Google News Business Search Bloomberg, Reuters, Wall Street Journal and regional business news.  Archived articles not all available

ABI Inform Trade journals such as Women's Wear Daily, or Apparel or popular magazines such as Seventeen or Cosmpolitian may provide useful insight in addition to basic business news. Search by Company/Organization.

Business Source Premier  Search by Company Entity.  More trade magazines such as AdWeek and Apparel Magazine

Marketing Trends

Reports

To get started you will want to understand trends in retail specialty clothing stores, in marketing to 15 to 25 year olds, and loyalty programs.

MarketResearch.com  Explore reports in the Demographics and Consumer Goods catagories.

Mintel Browse Lifestyle and Retail & Apparel reports

Gartner Intraweb  Reports on CRM from the information technology perspective.  Our subscription does not include most retail industry reports.

Articles

Search our scholarly business and trade business article databases.  Look for articles about marketing to segments you define such as millennials, digital natives or young adults or college students.  Further become familiar with trends in the apparel industry.  Researching specific marketing trends such as mobil apps or web 2.0 or social networking will also be helpful.

Business Full Text

Business Source Premier

ABI Inform

Emerald Browse the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management.

Advertising & Consumer Profiles

MRI + University Internet Reporter and Simmons conduct national consumer surveys to learn about buying habits and media use. 

MRI+ University Internet Reporter 

SRDS Select Local Market Audience Analyst

Internet Metrics & Marketing

eMarketer Aggregator subscription database with of analysis, statistics and interviews on digital marketing.

HitWise Blogs, reports and some data on online marketing

Pew Internet & American Life  Independant research on American's engagement with online media.

Alexa web site traffic

Quantcast web site traffic

BizShark web site traffic

Marketing VOX News about online marketing

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!

Handbook of Online Marketing Research

Handbook for Focus Group Research

Survey Research Methods

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

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?