RCSC 451 - Marketing Strategy - Library Research Guide
Assignment 2: Consumer & Business Markets
Markets
Life cycle information for an industry may be found in Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys (call # HG4921 .S68 Info Commons Ref). The Industry Surveys give a good overview of an industry, including some information about the size of the market and demand. Product life cycle information will be harder to identify, but one possibility is to search the Business & Company Resource Center database by company, then review the articles under the subheading Products & Services. Also in this database, looking at the company history section may reveal information about the product life cycle.
An excellent source for finding information about consumer markets is the database Mediamark Reporter on CD-ROM. This resource provides data on the demographics and media preferences of consumers of various products and brands. Demographic data includes gender, race, age group, education level, geographic region, marital status, household size, income level, and more. This resource is only available on CD-ROM in the Information Commons of the Main Library. A guide for using the CD-ROM is available.
Other sources related to consumer markets (demographic and psychographic dimensions) are listed on the Market Research Guide.
Customers
The business article databases may help you identify information about how customers view your company/product by searching by company name. Try searching these databases, as well as the the UA Library Catalog, with subject headings such as brand loyalty, brand choice, consumers preferences, market segmentation-United States, target marketing. Another good resource for general information about consumer behavior and attitudes is the database PsycInfo.
Competitors
See the Industry Analysis Research Guide for suggested sources for identifying your company's competitors, trends in your industry, and market share information.
Publics
The information you've gathered in other sections should help you identify particular opportunities or problems for the company; for example, is there regulation that will help or hinder your company?
Corporate Marketing and Strategies
Try searching Business & Company Resource Center with your company name and look at the articles under the subheadings Strategy and Planning and Sales and Marketing to learn about strategies used by your company.
Depending on your company, you may find information about divisions in the reference book, Organization Charts: Structures of More Than 200 Businesses and Non-profit Organizations - call # HD58.65 .O74 1992
Main Reference.
Some 10-K reports (annual SEC filing) of large companies have segment information. These reports may be found in either Mergent Online or Thomson Research. Some business directories also list information on divisions/subsidiaries of companies. Check the Directory of Corporate Affiliations - call # HG4057 .A22 Information Commons Ref.
Some company Web sites may list divisions of the company. Once you have identified the appropriate company division, search for articles in the business article databases to try to find information about how successful the division is.
Strategic Prognosis
The cumulation of research you have done should help you identify strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities, of your brand.