Research Guides: Business Research Guide: Marketing & Consumer Information

Web Resources

AdForum
Digital space for advertising agencies and production companies to showcase their creative work and talents to brands and prospective new business partners.
KnowThis.com
Information and resource website for those involved in marketing, marketing research, advertising, selling, promotion, and other marketing-related areas.

American Customer Satisfaction Index

ACSI Home
Use ACSI to search for customer satisfaction by company or industry, including company ratings. News and Resources includes their yearly reports interpreting data on customer satisfaction in specific industries.

Useful Books

Many of these books have detailed information presented in a way that is difficult to find online.

Editor & Publisher Market Guide - Detailed demographics on topics for U.S cities and communities (658.8305 E23m - 2nd Floor)

Rand McNally Commercial Atlas & Marketing Guide (912 R187c - 1st Floor)

Household Spending: Who Spends How Much on What ( 339.4709 H8424 2010 - 2nd Floor) Has detailed information not easily found on the website for the Consumer Spending Survey.

Statistical Record of Native North Americans (97 70.63046 S79 - 3rd Floor Reference)

Encyclopedia of Associations - an alternate source that may prove valuable (061.3 E56 v.1 - 2nd Floor)

Where Can I find Demographics?

Consumer Spending Survey Bureau of Labor Statistics looks at what Americans are buying. Includes clothing, recreation, food, appliances and more.

Census.gov Demographic information on National, County, City and towns. Detailed information on income, commuting, and home life available through American FactFinder.

Statistical Abstract The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published since 1878, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. This will no longer be published by the U.S. Census after the 2012 edition.

Proquest Statistical Abstract A continuation of the Statistical Abstract published by the Census.

Consumer Finances A Survey by the Federal Reserve Board. 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.

Roper Center Public Opinion Archives A great source for opinion polls with free information primarily on the main page. "The roster of organizations now contributing data is a virtual "who's who" of contemporary opinion research. Several thousand polls taken in some 70 foreign countries are also housed in the Center's library. By constantly adding to the domestic and international collections of survey data, the Roper Center maintains what is by far the most complete collection of public opinion information in existence."

Aging Statistics Administration on Aging includes: Profile of Older Americans, AGing Integrated Database (AGID), Census Data & Population Estimates, Projected Future Growth of Older Population and Minority Aging.

ICPSR From the University of Michigan, this site has archives on aging, crime, demography, education, health, race and ethnicity. Membership is required for full access but some free resources are available. For more information on using this resource check out the Library Guide.

American National Election Studies "To serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists, the ANES produces high quality data from its own surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation." The information collected includes religions and is one of the few sources that will have this information.

CPANDA (Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive) "CPANDA, the Cultural Policy & the Arts National Data Archive, is the world's first interactive digital archive of policy-relevant data on the arts and cultural policy in the United States. It is a collaborative effort of Princeton University's Firestone Library and the Princeton Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies." This information can be used to find information on high-end investors and includes the Activity Summary file of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). This file contains information about the activities and the time spent on those activities of each individual respondent during a 24-hour period.

The Population Preference Bureau A non-profit resource.

KidsCount A non-profit resource.

International

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMAS) IPUMS-International is a project dedicated to collecting and distributing census data from around the world.

EXPORT.GOV Market Research Library Helpful resurces for researching markets. Content developed for US businesses doing business in goreign markerts. Reports are searchable by industry, reigion, country and report type. Registration required.

The World Bank A broad range of macroeconimic indicators can be found here.

Eurostate is the statistical office of the European Union situated in Luxembourg. Its task is to provide the European Union with statistics at European level that enable comparisons between countries and regions.

Where Can I find Marketing Statistics?

Journals searchable through various online databases:

Advertising Age

Sales & Marketing Management

In Print:

Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook - (384.54 B8635 - Level 2)

Market Share Information:

Market Share Reporter - (381.05 M3455 - Level 2, Q Oversized Shelves)

Business Source Complete

Ebsco Business Source Complete provides indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886, in addition to popular and trade magazines and newsletter. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,300 journals. The database also includes other sources of full text information such as financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses, faculty seminars (videos), and more.

UNC Food Research Program
These database seeks to "provide the academic community, policy-makers, and industry rigorous and innovative methods to monitor the dynamics and trends of the US food supply in order to understand how they affect food and beverage consumption by the US population especially vulnerable sub-populations."

How do professionals find market size?

Look for demographics from the U.S. Census (population, race, age, income and more), the Department of the Treasury (tax/ income statistics), the Department of Education (educational attainment) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (time use, spending, pay and benefits and employment).

Compare what you know of the consumer from polls, data archives, magazine audience demographics, reports and news articles.

Take what is known and predict the market.

Example:
According to the National Sporting Goods Association (2009) 66.8% of people buying golf clubs were male, and 86.6% of buyers had a household income over $50,000 a year.

According to the U.S. Census there are an estimated 4,068 males making $50,000 a year or more in Missoula.

The possible market for golf club sales is in Missoula is +/- 4,068.