Strategic Communication: PR & Advertising  

Market research entails analyzing such factors as consumer demographics, behaviors, and lifestyles.  The databases, web sites, and print directories on this page collect this data and help you in analyzing the market for a product or service.

Use these tools to analyze the circulation, ad rates, and reader demographics for print, internet, and broadcast publications:

Mediamark Reporter (MRI+) - Part of MRI+, Mediamark Reporter provides access to surveys of consumer characteristics and behaviors and is a leading provider of magazine, radio, tv, cable, and websites audience data.  MRI+ also allows users to create magazine lists with audience and circulation rates.  To use, you must create a free personal login.

• Nancy Dlott at Babson College maintains a link to a Mediamark Reporter Tutorial which serves as a step-by-step, screen shot, view of how to use and interpret Mediamark Reporter data.
• Other helpful tutorials include:  Marquette University's Interpreting Consumer Survey Data Sets and Boston University Libraries' How to Create & Read MRI+ Reports.

Household Spending: Who Spends How Much on What (Official Guide to Household Spending) - available in print, Irwin Library Reference Room, call no.:  HF5415.33.U6 A637

Nielsen's MyBestSements PRIZM - Nielsen's lifestyle segmentation systems define every neighborhood in the U.S. in terms of distinct lifestyle types. Via entering a zipcode, obtain a neighborhood's top five segments, along with some descriptive detail about each segment's lifestyle traits.

Bacon's Directories - available in print, Irwin Library Reference Room, call no.:  P88.8. B33.  There are directories covering:

   magazines
   newspapers
   internet
   radio
   tv/cable

Passport GMID-Global Market Information Database - Reports on countries, consumers, and industries for over 200 countries.   Select the "Countries and Consumers" link for information on consumers.

New Strategist Publications - Butler Libraries has a number of books from this publisher that analyzes such topics as:  "Who's Buying by..." age, gender, product, activity, demographics, etc.  Statistical data is compiled mostly from US federal government sources such as:  the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Federal Reserve Board. [Link Test]

For Market & Industry Analysis, consult:

• First, if you are researching a product or business segment, identify its NAICS code.  Go to my colleague's LiibGuide to identify the correct NAICS code for your product/industry area:  NACIS Code Lookup.  Once you have the code, you can plug it into the resources listed below.
  

• First Research - Easy retrieval of Industry Reports.

• Business Source Complete - On the left-side "Refine Source Types" menu, select from the following options:  Industry Profiles, Trade Publications, and/or Market Research Reports.
• Passport GMID - GMID (Global Market Inforamtion Database) provides marketing data and reports on countries, companies, markets, and consumers from approximately 200 countries. Use for the following information needs: Economic Environment, Industry/Competitive Environment, Market Customer Analysis, & Global Environment.

• LexisNexis Academic - Provides industry overviews as well as company analysis

• Consult this link, Trade Sources, for additional trade publication sources.

For Company Analysis, consult:

• Hoover's - Company Reports & Industry Analysis
• Hoover's via Lexis/Nexis - You can also access this resource via the Lexis/Nexis database. Here are the directions to do this:
  Select “Companies” off the left-side, blue menu in Lexis/Nexis
  Select “Company Profiles”
  Type the name of the company, change the search field to ‘Title,’ and check-off ‘Hoovers’ to search

• Business Source Complete - leads to articles on a company.

• Lexis/Nexis Academic - provides company analysis in the form of journal articles and Hoover's reports

• Analyze the Annual Report for a company; many times they will discuss their target markets in these publications.

Want More?

• Consult this Business Database Coverage Chart that describes the various databases that Butler Libraries subscribes to and locate the database off the Butler Libraries alphabetical database list. 

After the library research session, click here to take survey.