Background information can help you learn more about your topic and develop your research question and approach.

For your project, the majority of your research for background information will be focused on Tide. Sources for this information may include websites, social media posts, and news about the brand and its parent company. 

Background information will add the following benefits to your research process:

• introduces you to important terms and concepts,
• shows you how the brand has been marketed in the past,
• provides ideas for next steps in the research process.

Tide has provided information to you about their brand and goals. Be sure to keep a critical eye when considering and evaluating this information. While it is not likely to be completely inaccurate, the company will have their own interest as a priority, so you will need to be sure that you consider any ways that bias may be impacting how they represent themselves.

For best results, seek background information early in the research process. Then, you can use what you learn about the brand when you seek secondary sources, which are not specifically about Indeed, but will help you build your report, such as demographic information or industry reports.

Company and organization research entails investigating any entity that provides goods and/or services to meet market or societal needs. You might need to conduct company research for a competitive analysis, financial ratios, marketing plans, or any other similar types of projects that require background research. When researching a company, remember that an entity's key characteristics (e.g. small vs. large, private vs. public, subsidiary vs. parent, domestic vs. foreign, and for-profit vs. non-profit) will affect the relative availability and robustness of data/information. Company information (financial statements, market share, competitors, etc.) may be provided by the entity itself or estimated by third-party providers like library databases.