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 the economic, demographic, technology, political, natural and cultural environment impacts on your product/service category.  IBISWold reports are a great place to start.

Syndicated market research doesn'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.  Visit trade or professional association websites often listed in industry reports.

 

  NetAdvantage (Standard & Poor's Capital IQ)
Offers market information, company quotes, equity index information, industry information (including the S&P Industry Surveys), and economic data.

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

  eMarketer
Offers data and reports related to digital marketing. Topics include advertising spending, digital marketing, social media, media usage, e-commerce, email marketing, and device usage. Coverage is global.

  First Research Industry Profiles (ABI/INFORM Collection - ProQuest)
Provides industry profiles with critical analysis, statistics, and forecasts. Coverage extends back to 2009.

  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, the Census Bureau 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 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.

  Catalyst MRI Simmons
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.

  Survey of Consumer Finances
The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is a triennial survey of the balance sheet, pension, income, and other demographic characteristics of U.S. families. The survey also gathers information on the use of financial institutions. The links to the surveys provide summary results, codebooks and other documentation, and the publicly available data.

  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.

  MarketResearch.com Academic  Limitations on Use
Provides marketing reports for many industries and demographic reports on a variety of age groups. Documents are formatted as Adobe Acrobat or PowerPoint files.

  Pew Research Center
"The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does so by conducting public opinion polling and social science research; by reporting news and analyzing news coverage; and by holding forums and briefings. It does not take positions on policy issues."

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.

Avoid using SWOT analyses found on the free web unless you have vetted it.  If you are not sure, make an appointment with me to a walk through how to evaluate a source. 

 

  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.

  Morningstar Investing Center
Contains information on more than 30,000 stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds. Provides independent analysis, industry information, stock charts, portfolio building tools, and web-based educational tutorials.

  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.

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.

 

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

  Access World News (NewsBank)  Tutorial
Provides full text access to national and international newspaper articles and radio and television news transcripts. Many newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, offer full-image “page view” format. Includes user-friendly subject browse feature, as well as full text searchability. Coverage varies.

  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.

  Wall Street Journal  Limitations on Use  Access Instructions
Offers full access to all sections of the newspaper and WSJ.com website.
Access courtesy of the Villanova School of Business.

  Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Scholar search tips

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
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.