Library: Business Resources: Market Research

Your Librarian

S.G. Maldonado-Velez

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Subjects: Business & Economics, Hospitality & Tourism

Market Research

International Markets

Mintel This link opens in a new window
Research reports covering the US and European marketplace. Each market research report combines data and analysis of the competitive landscape, market-share analysis consumer profiles, and demographic issues.
OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) iLibrary provides statistics and analysis of economic growth, employment, living standards, financial stability, economic development, and the growth in world trade. Coverage extends beyond the OECD countries to 70 other countries including Brazil, China, Russia, and to the least developed countries in Africa.
eMarketer This link opens in a new window
Includes daily research articles, analyst reports, and a database of e-business and online marketing statistics, aggregated and analyzed from over 2,800 sources. Topics include market research and trend analysis on Internet, e-business, online marketing, media and emerging technologies.

CIA World Factbook
Find basic country and demographic data for countries worldwide!

United States Markets

MRI-Simmons Insights This link opens in a new window
Contains detailed consumer product usage and media information collected from the Simmons National Consumer Survey (NCS/NHCS), a national survey of U.S. consumers. Data includes: demographics, lifestyle, product usage and media exposure.
Roper Center iPoll This link opens in a new window
Provides access to several hundred thousand public opinion questions via the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University.

ESRI Tapestry
Learn about the segmentation, age, income, and population density of any zip code with the "Explore Your Neighborhood" tool.
United States Census Bureau
Population, demographic, and housing data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Census Business Builder
The Census Business Builder (CBB) is a suite of services that provide selected demographic and economic data from the Census Bureau.
Consumer Expenditure Survey
Compilation of two surveys that provide information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics. Scroll down to review reports by age, income, or other demographic characteristics.

Indiana Markets

Hoosiers By the Numbers
Maintained by the Research and Analysis division of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
Indiana Business Research Center
Provides and interprets the economic information needed by the state’s business, government and nonprofit organizations, as well as users of such information throughout the nation.
States in Profile
Compare states by a variety of economic or demographic factors.
STATS Indiana
Indiana's official digital data center, providing critical statistics for the state, counties, cities and towns, townships, regions, metros, census tracts, and more.

Fort Wayne Markets

Community Research Institute
Provides economic measures regarding the local economy (employment, income, other area economic data.) Also available is access to CRI's reports, the "TOP 100" (or major employers) list, and a list of other local and national economic resources.
North East Indiana Regional Partnership (NEIRP)
NEIRP is an investor-based organization that supports northeast Indiana economic development throughout ten counties. Northeast Indiana business expansion and economic growth are the goals of this organization.
City-Data.com
Aggregates publicly-available information about cities nationwide. This is not an authoritative source, but can be used to get big-picture information that you can confirm elsewhere.

Market Research: Defining the Question

Market research helps you learn about the people or businesses in your target audience. Before you start, you should know

Where your target audience is located (a country and/or city)
What information you want to know about them (demographics? consumer preferences? disposable income?)

If you are not sure what your target audience is, do some more company and industry research to learn about the business environment related to your topic.

Most market research is proprietary information. Companies conduct research in order to gain a competitive edge, so they don't share their finding publicly. The Library has good resources to help you find marketing information, but if you need help don't hesitate to contact your librarian.