Market Research

"The Right Site" has hundreds of thousands of free demographic profiles, based on Census of Population and Housing data. EASI Census 2010 Quick Reports are available for area codes and TV markets, as well as the usual geographic divisions. (Registration is required.) A ZIP code lookup site with neighborhood lifestyle segmentation information is MyBestSegments, offered by Nielsen, with its PRIZM Segmentation System. You can register with the firm ESRI for access to demographic and lifestyle data with a free trial of their Business Analyst Online, and you can read the descriptions of their Tapestry segments.

City-Data.com consolidates information from many sources for its profiles of towns and cities, including crime data, housing, businesses, political contributions, weather, hospitals, schools, libraries, as well as race, income, ancestries, education, employment statistics on the residents.

You can also use the Basic Family Budget Calculator from the Economic Policy Institute to generate itemized budgets for families of different sizes in over 400 metropolitan areas.

Summaries of consumer opinion polls, some of which deal with consumption or shopping patterns, can be found at Maritz Research and Harris Polls.

Typically, market research reports are available for a fee but many summaries may be found at Market Research Findings compiled by the Market Research Portal. Other High-Cost Market Research Sources are listed in the KnowThis.com Marketing Virtual Library.

The American Marketing Association's GreenBook directory of market research agencies is organized by areas of research expertise.