Market Research

Market research is essential for any business organization that wishes to stay in business. This guide includes pointers to many important sources of statistical data on income, consumption, and demographics, to help you understand and define the market for your product or service.

I want to acknowledge the research assistance of Ruth Ware in this February 2016 update of this Research Guide.

Return to the RUL Business Research Guide

Business Source Premier covers business and management topics including company histories, competitive intelligence, country reports, industry profiles, and product development.

MarketLine provides original industry, company, market analysis, and country reports and data based on published research and primary and secondary data sources, including 3,500 industry profiles and market data on 150 consumer products in over 60 countries. 

Mintel Reports offer consumer product and industry market research reports covering US and International marketplaces. Each report combines competitive analysis with supply chain, market-share size and trends, and consumer profile data.  

Statista gathers information from over 18,000 sources, including market reports, trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases, providing statistical data from over 80,000 topics in areas such as business, education, finance, media, politics, society, and technology, The reports, charts, infographics, and statistics found in the database can be downloaded in Excel, PDF, PNG, or PowerPoint formats or embedded in web pages. 

PolicyMap displays many popular categories of demographic information as maps, including population, income, home ownership, and education. 

Conference Board Research Collection contains over 1,000 full-text management and analytical reports on topics such as business ethics, corporate governance, leadership, outsourcing, and strategic management. This collection also includes annual studies, monthly news on economic conditions, and current news releases on economic indicators. 

Sage Business provides access to a variety of business resources, including:

• Business Cases - best practices in a variety of business disciplines 

• Business Foundations - an overview of major business theories and their applications

• Research Methods Video: Market Research - a range of key research methods skills, techniques, and theories for carrying out effective and impactful market research