Supply Chain and Logistics Technology
Market Research Overview
Market research entails investigating the characteristics, preferences, and needs of consumers -- whether people or entities. The scope of this research may vary based on geography and other characteristics.
In business-to-consumer (B2C) market research, you must determine the appropriate target population(s) for products or services. The characteristics of the target population(s) may include demographics, psychographics, and lifestyle data.
Demographic characteristic content may include age, ethnicity, gender, occupation, and income. More detailed content about target populations, particularly about their psychographics and lifestyle characteristics, as well as preferences and needs, is often only available through specialized vendors (some listed on this page). When content about target populations is unavailable, you must determine the characteristics, preferences, and needs by conducting primary research.
In business-to-business (B2B) market research, you must determine the appropriate target entitles for the products or services you’re offering. The availability of data on the company you’re researching will be influence by its key aspects (private, public, non-profit, etc.), see the company research page for more information.
Market Research Resources
- ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new windowMajor source for academic journals, trade publications, market and industry research reports, company annual reports, dissertations, and working papers. Also contains country profiles and economic forecasts for most major economies.
- Business Source Complete This link opens in a new windowFull-text coverage plus indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals, including Harvard Business Review.
- IBISWorld This link opens in a new windowDetailed reports on over 1,300 US industries including supply chain information on the market, historical and forecasted revenue data, operating strengths and weaknesses, analysis of external drivers, the competitive landscape and major players, and industry profit and costs benchmarks. Also includes expert summary reports and specialized reports on niche industries. Search or browse industry reports by key word of NAICS code.
- MarketResearch.com Academic This link opens in a new windowWithin coverage areas (primarily industries such as food and beverage and retail), provides immensely helpful market research reports
- Passport This link opens in a new windowCoverage of international markets (consumer trends, doing business in countries, local economic data, etc.)
- PolicyMap This link opens in a new windowPolicyMap is a fully web-based online data and mapping application that gives you access to over 15,000 indicators related to demographics, housing, crime, mortgages, health, jobs and more. Data is available at all common geographies (address, block group, census tract, zip code, county, city, state, MSA) as well as unique geographies like school districts and political boundaries. Data comes from both public and proprietary sources.
- Reference Solutions This link opens in a new windowSmall business owners and entrepreneurs can conduct market research, search for similar businesses in the area, find information on competitors, search for businesses to buy and much more.
- SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new windowSimplyAnalytics, a web-based mapping, analytics, and data visualization application with 100,000+ data variables, including: demographic data from the US Census and the American Community Survey (ACS), consumer spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), 2020 election data, and D&B's points-of-interest business file providing detailed information on over 5 million businesses. Additionally, users have access to the premium MRI-SimmonsLOCAL consumer behavior dataset, which includes data on over 8,000 brands. Other premium datasets include the PRIZM Premier, ConneXions and P$YCLE segmentation systems providing data on lifestyle characteristics, tech usage and finances, respectively. The Retail Market Power and Consumer Buying Power datasets enable researchers to understand retail spending, demand, and potential for spending across hundreds of expenditures and stores. UH also subscribes to premium health survey data. Data is available down to the census block group level for most variables.
- Social Explorer This link opens in a new windowProvides quick and easy access to current and historical census data and demographic information. Note Requires registering a free account once you access the database.
- SRDS This link opens in a new windowA multimedia planning platform to search for digital and traditional media and advertising opportunities across business, consumer, and geographical audiences in the United States.
- WARC This link opens in a new windowWARC is a database providing access to advertising and marketing information from various sources. The searchable sources include organisations of various countries, monographs, conference papers, abstracts, and the full-text of various journals.
Other Online Resources
While you will find a lot of data for market research through the libraries' databases, you may need to look to other resources online for additional information. The following resources will help you with this research:
- Greater Houston PartnershipUse the Greater Houston Partnership to get regional (Harris County and beyond) data with a focus on business development.