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.
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.




target audience
Market research reports and 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.




Access courtesy of the Department of Geography & the Environment.

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.









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.





marketing plan



