WHERE TO START INDUSTRY RESEARCH >>>
Get lots of information in a single source by first
finding an "industry profile." Start with A.1.a.1)
below. Then fill in gaps
by using additional sources of industry information.
Information Needed
Source
Path/Instructions
A.
INDUSTRY
=
a good starting point in the category
= login required
A.1.c. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
.
A.1.a.1) Use the “Database Quicklinks” dropdown menu (at
the top of this web page in
the upper right corner) to connect to
Business Source Premier. To find an industry profile, click on "Search
options" right below the search box. In the Publication
Type dropdown menu, select “industry profile.”
Then enter search terms in search box that describe the
industry and click the Search button.
A.1.b.1)
Go to
http://www.census.gov/econ/www/index.html and find
the "Industry Statistics Sampler" search box about
halfway down the screen on the far right side.Use the
Industry
Statistics Sampler search box to search by NAICS
code or by words describing industry. Click on links to
get to data.
A.1.c.1)
Go to
http://www.census.gov/econ/www/index.html
and find the "Industry Statistics Sampler" search box
about halfway down the screen on the far right side.Use
the Industry
Statistics Sampler search box to search for words
describing industry. Results will show the NAICS codes.
A.2.
news
A.2.a.
Business Source
Premier (database)
.
.
.
A.2.b.
LexisNexis
Academic (database)
.
.
A.2.a.1)
Use the “Database Quicklinks” dropdown menu (at the top
of this web page in the upper right corner) to connect
to
Business Source Premier.
Enter terms that describe the industry. Select category
at the top of the search results that will include news
(for example, Trade Publications, Magazines, Newspapers,
Product Reviews)
A.2.b.1)
Use the "Database Quicklinks" dropdown menu in the upper
right corner of this page to select Lexis Nexis
Academic.
Select “Sources” tab; choose to search sources “By”
Industry. In area 2, “Filter” by country to United
States.In
area 3, click on appropriate industry; click beside all
items listed and then click the red “OK-Continue”
button. Enter search terms in search box.
A.3.
ranking
A.3.a.
Business Source
Premier (database)
.
A.3.b.
Business Rankings
Annual (print volume in Library
REFERENCE HG4050 .B88)
A.3.a.1)See A.1.a.1) above to find Industry Profile. Within
report, look for market share and competitors sections
of industry profiles.
A.3.b.1)
Examples of content in this source may be seen in
Business Rankings Example (Word
file). Distance students may use the
Ask a Librarian link to
request a copy of business rankings in
Business Rankings Annual --for the specific
industry or company being researched.
A.3.c.1)
Examples of content in this source may be seen in Market
Share Reporter Example (Word
file). Distance students may use the
Ask a Librarian link to
request a copy of Market Share Reporter pages
-- for the specific industry or company being
researched.
A.4.
investing
A.4.a. Business Source
Premier (database)
A.4.a.1) See
A.1.a.1) above to find Industry Profile . Within report,
look for
forecasts regarding market share, etc.
A.4.a.2) Use the "Database Quicklinks"
dropdown menu in the upper right corner of the library
home page or this page to go to Business Source Premier.
In the search box, combine the name of the industry with
investing or investment.
WHERE TO START COMPANY RESEARCH >>> Get lots of information in a single source by first
finding a "company profile." Start with B.2.a.1)
below. Then fill in gaps
by using additional sources of company information.
Information Needed
Source
Path/Instructions
B. COMPANY
=
a good starting point in the category
= login required
B.1. address,
NAICS codes, description
B.1.a.Business Source Premier (database)
B.1.a.1) At top of search page, click on “Company
Profiles” and then search for the company name in the
Browse search box. Click on company name link.
B.2.
history, CEO,
brands/products, company profile
B.2.a.
Business Source
Premier (database)
.
.
.
.
B.2.b.LexisNexis
Academic (database)
.
.
.
.
.
B.2.c.
Gale Virtual
Reference (database)
.
.
B.2.a.1) At top of search
page, click on "Company Profiles" and then search for
the company name in the Browse search box. Click the link to the “Datamonitor
Report.”
B.2.b.1)
In Lexis Nexis Academic, click
on the “Business” link at the top of the search window
to get to "Company Dossier" search. Search for company
name or ticker symbol.
B.4.a.1) Type a company name
into the search box and click search. On the results
screen, look on the left side of the screen in the
"Narrow results by" area and click on the "Company"
category. Then click on the name of the company if found
within that category. The items found will provide news
about the company in magazines and other publications.
B.4.a.2) Additional information may be found with the
following method. At top of search page,
click on “Company Profiles” and then search for the
company name in the Browse search box. Click on company
name link. At the top of the company window, click on
the link “Search Periodicals and other sources for: [company]”
B.4.b.1) Click on the “Business”
link at the top of the search window to get to Company
Dossier search. Search for company name or ticker
symbol.In
left navigation bar, explore the “In the News” links.
online sources
= login required =
a good starting point in the category
C.1. primary
customers for a product or product category –
demographic data
C.1.a.
Best Customers: Demographics of
Consumer Demand, 5th edition. Ithaca,
NY: New Strategist Publications, Inc., 2008. (Use DSU
email username & password to login to this
online
book in pdf format;
and in print in Library with call
number REFERENCE HC110.C6 B47)
“identifies which households spend the
most on a product or service (the best customers) and
which control the largest share of spending (the biggest
customers).”
.
.
.
.
C.1.b. Consumer
Expenditure Survey, by U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics
“information on the buying habits of American consumers,
including data on their expenditures, income, and
consumer unit (families and single consumers)
characteristics.”
C.1.a.1) To see the full text of this source, link to
Best
Customers. USE
DSU EMAIL USERNAME & PASSWORD TO LOGIN
TO THIS ONLINE BOOK IN PDF FORMAT.
Arranged by product category, this source
provides demographic information on the “best customers”
and the “biggest customers” of each product – by
household income, type, race or hispanic origin,
geographic region, and education.
To
find your product category in the book, scan the “Table
of Contents” beginning on page iv or use the “Index”
beginning on page 752 .
Examples of content in this source may be
seen in Best Customers images (Word
file).
To see an example of using Best Customers,
watch
the video: "Best
Customers"
(length: 3min9sec)
C.1.b.1) On the Consumer Expenditure Survey home page,
scroll down to “Featured CE Tables” and use the “Current
Expenditure Tables” to discover spending patterns by
age, income, education and other demographic variables.
When you open one of the tables, scroll past the general
consumer unit spending characteristics to get to
spending on specific product categories such as food,
transportation, apparel, etc.
C.2.a.1)
Go to www.census.gov
There are various paths to demographic data on the
Census Bureau website, such as the links in the middle
of the page to "People & Households" or the link to
"Subjects A-Z" in top border of the census homepage.
However, an
efficient path to demographics is to go to the
left navigation bar and click on "American Factfinder".
On
the American Factfinder page, you can select a
geographic area. In the Fast Access to Information area
at the top of the page, enter a city name and state and
click Go.
For example, imagine
that you've been researching a product and have
concluded that San Francisco would be a good place to
market the product. To determine the size of your
market, you need to know how many people of a certain
age live there. So you search for San Francisco in
American Factfinder and then select the city of San
Francisco from the choices offered.
On the resulting
screen, you find age information along with other
social, economic, etc. characteristics. To get more age
detail than what is on that screen, click on the "show
more" link in the area that has ACS Demographic
Estimates
To see an example, watch the video: "U.S.
Census Bureau"
(length: 4min27sec)
C.3. Articles
on consumer attitudes and consumer behaviors --
psychographics
C.3.a.
Business Source
Premier (database)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
C.3.b.
ABI INFORM
Complete (database)
C.3.a.1)
Use the “Database Quicklinks” dropdown menu in the upper
right corner of this page to select
Business Source Premier.
Do
searches that combine the idea of consumers (or
marketing) with specific variables.
For
example, enter the search terms:
“asian american*” and consumer*
On
the results screen, note that you can “Narrow Results
by” one of the categories on the left side of the
screen; so click on the “Subject” category and note that
a subject is “Asian Americans as Consumers”. Click on
that subject, and your results will be reduced to items
focused on that topic.
For
example, enter the search terms:
teen* and marketing
On
the results screen, on the left side “Narrow Results by”
the Subject
category labeled “Teens –Attitudes”
D.1. Ethnicity
--Demographic and/or
psychographic data (consumer profiles)
D.1.a. Who we are: Asians / by the New
Strategist editors. Ithaca, N.Y. : New Strategist
Publications, Inc.
In print in Library:
REFERENCE E184.A75 W48 2007
D.1.b. Who we are: Blacks / by the New
Strategist editors. Ithaca, New York : New Strategist
Publications, Inc. In print in Library:
REFERENCE E185.615 .W46 2007
D.1.c. Racial and ethnic diversity :
Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, native Americans, and whites
/ by Cheryl Russell. Ithaca, N.Y.: New Strategist
Publications. In print in Library:
REFERENCE E184.A1 .R78 2002
D.2. Age
--Demographic and/or
psychographic data
D.2.a. The
baby boom: Americans born 1946 to 1964 / by Cheryl
Russell. Ithaca, N.Y. : New Strategist Publications.
REFERENCE HN60 .R84 2006
D.2.b. Older Americans: a changing
market / by the New Strategist editors. Ithaca, N.Y.
: New Strategist Publications.
REFERENCE HQ1064.U5 O64 2006
D.2.c. Generation X: Americans born
1965 to 1976 / by the New Strategist editors. Ithaca,
N.Y. : New Strategist Publications.
REFERENCE HC110.C6 G46 2006
D.2.d. The Millennials: Americans under
age 25 / by the New Strategist editors. Ithaca, N.Y.
: New Strategist Publications. In print in Library:
REFERENCE HC110.C6 M55 2001
D.2.e. Wise up to teens: insights into
marketing and advertising to teenagers / by Peter Zollo.
Ithaca, N.Y.: New Strategist Publications.
ASK AT FRONT DESK for COURSE
RESERVES/WEINSTEIN(when not on reserve may be found in MAIN
COLLECTION HF5415.32 .Z65 1999)
D.2.f. American generations: who they
are, how they live, what they think / by Susan
Mitchell. Ithaca, N.Y.: New Strategist Publications. In
print in Library: REFERENCE HC110.C6 M545 1998
D.3. Income
--Demographic and/or
psychographic data
D.3.a. American incomes : demographics
of who has money / by the editors of New Strategist
Publications. Ithaca, N.Y. : New Strategist.In print in Library:
REFERENCE HC110.I5 O43 2007
D.4. Geographic
Location --Demographic
and/or
psychographic data
D.4.a. Regional markets : the
demographics of growth and decline / by Thomas G. Exter.
Ithaca, N.Y. : New Strategist Publications. In print
in Library:
REFERENCE HA214 .E94 1999
D.5. Primary
customers for a product or product category –
demographic data
D.5.a.
Household spending
: who spends how much on what. Ithaca, N.Y.
: New Strategist Publications. In print in Library:
REFERENCE HC110.C6 O34 2007
D.5.b.
The American
marketplace : demographics and spending patterns.
Ithaca, N.Y. : New Strategist Publications. In print in
Library:
This guide is intended to
help you successfully complete marketing research projects in
BADM 370 and should be your starting point for research
assignments in marketing.
Why use this guide?
Because it provides specific paths to the kinds of
information you will need for the course and will help make your
research process more effective and efficient.
The sources suggested
below are of high quality and are appropriate for college
projects. Using all the sources will help you produce complete
and credible assignments and projects.
Before starting research, you should be a aware of a few key
library research principles.
The quality of your
completed research projects will depend on the quality of
the information sources you use. If you use unreliable
sources, your reader cannot trust what you have written and
your entire project is undermined.
The sources below are
recommended. You may find additional sources, but be careful
to evaluate them. For example, a company's website can
provide valuable information, but the information can be
assumed to be biased in favor of the company. Therefore, the
company website cannot be the sole source for company
information; additional sources will be needed.
WWhen evaluating information, pay attention to who is
authoring the information (is the author an expert?), when
it was written (be sure to update older sources with current
information), whether it is biased in some way, and whether
it is accurate. While there are valuable research sources on
the Web, simply googling is inefficient for most marketing
research assignments. [Should you wish to find more
marketing research sources, see also:
http://www.departments.dsu.edu/library/BADM370span lang="en-us">/marketresearch.htm]
Marketing research takes TIME. Some of the research requires
using familiar databases in new, specialized ways. Some of
the research requires using unfamiliar sources with
complicated paths to the specific information you need. Give
yourself plenty of time for research and for learning to use
the sources in this guide. Ultimately,
they will save you time.
For help with research, don't hesitate
to ask a librarian for advice. Use the
Ask a Librarian link (at the top right corner of
this web page or the library home page) and contact us using
one of the methods provided there.
Logging in. Although a few sources in this guide
are freely accessible on the Web, most of the sources needed for
your marketing projects are subscription sources. That means the
library pays for them and access is restricted to Dakota State
University students, faculty and staff.
When you link to a subscription
source in the guide, you will be required to login using your
Library ID and password. If you don't know your library ID/password
or don't know how to use them, link to
Library ID & password for more information about login. Subscription
sources in the guide are marked with a
symbol so you will know which sources require login
You WILL need the subscription
library databases to successfully complete your marketing
projects.
Find the category of
information you are seeking in the left column ("Information
Needed") and, in the same column, locate the specific
information content you need.
For example, if I am
seeking a description and history
of a company, I’ll
scroll down the left column to find category B. for
“Company”.Within that category, in the same column, I’ll look for
the specific kind of information I need.
In B.2., I see
“description, history, CEO, brands/products – which seems to be
what I need.
Once you find the
information needed in the first column, scan to the right to
the "Source" column to identify the research database or
other source to use in order to find the information.
For example, in the Source column for B.2., I see three sources
listed. I decide that I will use all three, to make sure that I
don’t miss some key background on the company.
For each source listed
in the Source column, I scan to the right to find
instructions in the third column. This column, labeled
"Path/Instructions" has specific instructions for getting to
the information within the Source, including textual
instructions and short instructional videos
For example, To use the first source, a database called Business
Source Premier, I scan to the right to the third column where I
find instructions for the specific path to the information
within that database. A link to a video showing how to find the
information in Business Source Premier is also in that third
column. I watch it before doing a search for the company I’m
researching.
That’s it. Don’t flail and go on wild goose chases around the
web. Use the guide.
And if you need help with research, use the
Ask a Librarian link
at the top of the page to email or IM us.
Before using the Guide, READ: "
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