Market research involves gathering data and statistics on the many aspects that affect (or have the potential to affect) a new or existing business.
This typically includes defining: Who will your customers be? How will you recruit and retain them? How does your business and your potential product or service fit into the local market and the industry at large? Who is your competition? What makes your business, product, or service unique?
Market research is an essential part to any business plan, and the soundness of your market research is something your potential investors will look at as they consider funding your business venture.
THREE AREAS OF MARKET RESEARCH
Market research can usually be divided into three areas:
There is something of an overlap between market and industry research. Market and industry research both examine the allocation of goods and services, but market research does so more from the perspective of the customer and industry research more from the perspective of the producer or vendor. Both types of research generally analyze market share, key competitors and peers in an industry, industry size and trends, business environment and risks. Market research also analyzes demographics and consumer behavior. While this section covers many of the same sources listed in the industry research guide, it emphasizes features of these resources that provide data and information on market demographics and consumer behavior.
Statista provides statistical data on many topics including media, business, politics, society, technology and education. Sources include market reports, trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases.
You have access to Statista's Dossier feature, which is a fancy word for market reports.
Statista Dossiers: Market Reports on Specific Subject Matters — From Apple and e-commerce to social networking in China -- our dossiers give an insight into a diverse range of subjects and topic areas.
If you need a bit of help searching Statista, watch a tutorial here.
Business Source Elite is our newest business database. It is a mostly full-text, major business resource which includes access to market research reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and Harvard Business Review.
The advanced search page allows limiting by Publication Type, and for market research we suggest using the Industry Profile type.
ProQuest Central is our most popular business database. It includes a sub-collection called Business Market Research:
Business Market Research Collection (1986 - current): contains company, industry, economic and geopolitical market research Hoover's Company Profiles, OxResearch, and Snapshots.
If you are researching marketing or market shares, there are a few options in Advanced Search that might help you find what you are looking for.
Document Type allows you to limit your results to specific types of documents. We suggest checking these options for market research:
You can also search by company or NAICS code.