marketplace trends

Gathering market research reports, industry profiles and trade and business news is a good way for your entire team to get acquainted with your the economic, demographic, technology, political, natural and cultural environment impacts on your product/service category.  IBISWorld or other industry reports usually discuss economic, demographic, technological and political trends.  Trade associations often address many of these trends but almost always cover political and regulatory developments.  Industry reports often list trade associations.

Syndicated research reports don't always align perfectly with your clients offerings.  You may need to glean what you can from broader or adjacent categories.

By smart Googling you will find additional market research, ALWAYS evaluate the information you find to judge it's quality.  Consider methods used to gather and compile data, intended audience, publication purpose, author expertise and biases.  If you are unsure about  source credibility, make an appointment and I will walk you through assessing it.

Search the news to update market research and industry reports.  

  IBISWorld
Provides access to U.S. and global industry market research reports.

  NetAdvantage (Standard & Poor's Capital IQ)
Select Industry Survey on left column, filter by Industry using link on upper right.

  Mintel Insights & Analytics  Limitations on Use
Offers product and industry market research reports covering U.S. and international marketplaces. Each report combines data and analysis of the competitive landscape, supply chain, market-share size and trends, and consumer profiles. Analytics advance search monitors new product activity in consumer packaged goods markets worldwide.

  Passport (Euromonitor International)  Limitations on Use
Provides lifestyle statistics and reports, market data and analysis, and market forecasts for selected countries. Includes 6-year historic market size data for selected consumer products plus 5-year forecasts.

  Statista
Provides a portal to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources. Topics covered include industries, media, companies, product categories, and countries.

Customer/target audience

Market research reports, Census data and consumer surveys provide demographic, behavioral and psychographic data on consumers.  

The search interfaces for many of these databases are not intuitive.  Where available use the tutorials provided or make an online appointment for help with searching.

Citing the original source of a data point about a target is more persuasive than citing data twice removed.  Whenever possible, trace data back to it's original source.

  Census Data (US Census Bureau)
Offers easy access to data gathered by the US Census Bureau including the decennial Census, the American Community Survey, the Economic Census, the Census of Population and Housing, and more. Features tools for customized data profiles and data visualizations. Includes data previously released on the now decommissioned American FactFinder platform.

  Social Explorer
Provides access to maps and tables of U.S. Census and American Community Survey data from 1790 through most recently released data. Also includes datasets on election, health, crime, religion, and environmental topics, as well as some international data (UK Census 2011; Canadian Census 2011; selected Eurostat data; and World Development Indicators from the World Bank.) Create a free personal account in order to save your work.

  Data-Planet (Sage)

  Catalyst MRI Simmons  Tutorial
Provides access to the results of a National Consumer Study (most recent studies embargoed) encompassing demographics, lifestyle statements, and consumer behaviors. Supports the creation of custom cross tabulations or quick reports.

  ESRI Business Analyst Online  Tutorial  Access Instructions
Provides geographic analysis tools. Includes demographic, consumer spending, and business data.
Access courtesy of the Department of Geography & the Environment.

  Statista Global Consumer Survey Guide
Offers step by step instructions for querying the Global Consumer Survey.

competitors

Your marketplace trends research should surface key competitors.  

The company databases listed here provide key performance indicators and in some cases SWOT analysis on the whole company level.  Company and product/service news, not limited to press releases, and deep dives into web sites and social media are essential for discerning competitor strengths and weaknesses.

 

  MarketLine Company Profiles (EBSCO)
Offers detailed reports on U.S. and foreign companies in a wide range of industries. These reports provide a description of the business, company history, key personnel, products, services, and competitors. MarketLine Industry Reports are available from the D&B Global Business Browser database.

  D&B Hoovers
Offers public and private company and industry information including company profiles, market research reports from Marketline, Freedonia, Euromonitor, and RMA updated with recent news, executive profiles, and analyst reports.

  Passport (Euromonitor International)  Limitations on Use
Provides lifestyle statistics and reports, market data and analysis, and market forecasts for selected countries. Includes 6-year historic market size data for selected consumer products plus 5-year forecasts.

  Mergent Online  Limitations on Use
Provides detailed financial statements for U.S. and international public and private companies, including SEC filings and current and historical annual reports for U.S. and international public companies. Data can be downloaded in a variety of formats. Also includes country profiles.

news & Scholarship

Search general business news and trade associations for intelligence about market trends and competitors. Use the filters in ABI Inform, Business Source Premier and Nexis Unit to limit to trade publications.  Trade publications are often cited in industry reports and Statista infographics.

Scholarly research may be useful to support your marketing plan. 

In addition to the databases listed below, use your WSJ.com subscription and the Bloomberg terminals in the Gmelich Finance Lab and Falvey Library.

There is a robust scholarly literature about marketing partnerships, co-branding/brand alliances, celebrity endorsements and licensing.  Case studies can be found in WARC and the Here are just a few examples:

Paydas Turan, C. (2021). Success drivers of co‐branding: A meta‐analysis. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 45(4), 911-936. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12682  

Schimmelpfennig, C., & Hunt, J. B. (2020). Fifty years of celebrity endorser research: Support for a comprehensive celebrity endorsement strategy framework. Psychology & Marketing, 37(3), 488-505. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21315

 

  ABI/INFORM Collection (ProQuest)
Provides access to scholarly journals, dissertations, working papers, key business and economics periodicals, and country- and industry-focused reports.

  Business Source Premier (EBSCO)
Provides access to a wide range of academic business journals and trade magazines. Topics include management, marketing, finance, economics, and management information systems. Full text access may be embargoed for up to three years. Coverage goes back to 1965.

  Factiva (Dow Jones)
Provides access to international, national and local news sources. Many different news media such as newspapers, magazines, wires, blogs and transcripts are aggregated in English and foreign languages. The content is current and archival. Industry, company and market profiles are also provided.

  Nexis Uni  Limitations on Use
Formerly known as LexisNexis Academic. Provides full text access to national and international newspaper and magazine articles and news transcripts, business, company, and industry information in the U.S. and abroad, and legal documents, including U.S. Federal and State court cases, and law reviews. Coverage varies.

  WARC
Offers information on global advertising and marketing trends including case studies, articles, reports, opinion pieces, and expenditure data. Formerly known as World Advertising Research Center.

marketing plan

Use theses sources to find books and articles on marketing strategy best practices.  Find out how to reach your target audience and benchmark what it might cost.

  WARC
Offers information on global advertising and marketing trends including case studies, articles, reports, opinion pieces, and expenditure data. Formerly known as World Advertising Research Center.

  Falvey Book Search
Get professional business e-books on marketing strategies.

  Catalyst MRI Simmons  Tutorial
Provides access to the results of a National Consumer Study (most recent studies embargoed) encompassing demographics, lifestyle statements, and consumer behaviors. Supports the creation of custom cross tabulations or quick reports.

  Advertising Insights (Kantar Media)
Creates custom reports on advertising expenditures across media channels including TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, outdoor and internet displays on the level of industries, categories, brands, products, and advertisers going back to 2017. Formerly known as Ad$pender.

citation tips

 

  • Don't leave creating citations to the end or expect one team member to create them all.
  • When using a citation generator such as ZoteroBib, begin by identifying the type of materials you are using (reports, articles, websites are most common).  
  • Always check the citation generated against an authoritative model.
  • Review citations to make sure they are consistent.  If each team member makes citations as they are working, there will surely be different interpretations of how to cite similar resources.
  • Provide attribution for all the facts and data you use.  Often formal citations are omitted from practical business writing, but you are writing for an academic audience so when in doubt, cite it.
  Citing Business Sources Using APA 7th

  Purdue OWL: APA

  ZoteroBib
ZoteroBib is a website where you can create a bibliography instantly from any computer or device, without creating an account or installing any software.