As an essential element of business strategy, market research is the organization of information on consumers (i.e. target market) and their impact on consumerism.
Although the terminology is often conflated, there is a distinction between:
Marketing research, which is about marketing processes.
Market research, which is about markets and competition.
Market research is useful because it:
Allows for understanding of market conditions for an industry or product.
Provided support for decisions such as advertisement location and format, packaging, pricing and more.
Determines performance in areas such as brand awareness and customer satisfaction.
How do I find market research?
First determine what type of information you are searching for.
Ask yourself:
Do I need to know about the broad market for a product or for an industry?
Would I like to know about the competitors and alternative products?
Are the general business conditions likely to play a factor?
Do I need to know anything about the demographics and preferences of consumers?
Use key library databases and web-based sources to understand the factors that impact your company:
Find market or industry reports to get context about your company’s business context.
Find country reports to better understand the operating environment and legal regulations for your company.
Use consumer data from market intelligence and government data sources to determine the key characteristics of your target markets.
Search the news for information about products, customers and competitors.
Statista provides statistical data on topics such as media, business, politics, society, technology and education. Sources include market reports, trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases. Generates charts and infographics that are downloadable.
Use this to access market reports, five forces analysis, market size and segmentation, competitors/key players, country information, and forecasting data.
Provides market and consumer data, including consumer perspectives and demographics - for major consumer markets. Geographic coverage includes Canada and US.
