Strategies for Approaching

Marketing Research
By Prof. Lisa Ellis,
Marketing Liaison and Information
Services Librarian
Lisa.Ellis@baruch.cuny.edu

What is secondary information?

Information

that was initially collected for

another purpose

Does

not mean information is inferior

Pros and Cons of Secondary Research

Pros
Saves time: spent
creating, executing and
analyzing
Saves money: costs to
conduct research
Bypasses the need to
find expertise
Readily available to be
used

Cons
Applicability: currency,
categories and units of
measure may be less
than ideal
Accuracy: flawed
research methodology
may lead to unreliability

Trade Associations

Nearly every industry has a trade association whose members

are companies within that industry
Serve as lobbyists and collect data on products/services,
consumers and industry trends

Free or fee-based
Cited in articles, press releases, etc.

Check Gateway to Associations Online at

http://www.asaecenter.org/Directories/AssociationSearch.cfm
Find contact info, URL and publications
Some key Industry databases: IBIS World, Mergent Horizon,
Standard & Poors NetAdvantage and Business Insights:
Essentials (fka Business and Company Resource Center)

Government Agencies:
Bureau of Census

Census.gov

For people use Population Census (every ten years)

For business use Economic Census (every five years, in
years ending in 2 or 7)

Determine SIC (Standard Industrial Classification)

and NAICS (North American Industrial Classification
System) codes for industry to:

Access employee and sales data by zip code

Search databases for industry information

Government: Bureau of Census Cont

NAICS range from 2-digits (broad industry) to 6digits (specific industry) in length.

NAICS allow you to pointedly search for information

in the following databases:

IBIS World
ABI Inform Global
Business Source Complete
Business Insights: Essentials
ReferenceUSA

How to Find Public Company

Information

*Be sure to search by Parent company name

Required to report information to the US government
regularly

Get 10K and 10Q and 8K via Thomson Research

database
Go to Company web site
Compare to other companies or primary industry using
Factiva, Lexis/Nexis Companies section and Business
Insights: Essentials
Get Company Press releases announcing new products,
services and hires via Lexis/Nexis, and Factiva
Get articles in Trade Journals

How to Find Market Share

Market share = the percentage of industry sales that are sold by a

single company or are attributable to an individual product.
Sales by product line found in Lexis/Nexis Companies section
for Hoovers Company and Industry Reports
Key reference sources: Market Share Reporter or World Market
Share Reporter located at reference desk
(available in Business Insights: Essentials database, search for
a company and then link to Market Share Reports)
Company and Brand section of Euromonitor Passport GMID
Search Tablebase: select market share as Concept term, and
indicate Company or Industry
Market Research Reports found in MarketResearch.com and
Mintel Oxygen
Statista sales data for companies in an industry

How to Find Private Company

Information

Not required to report information to US government,

thus difficult to find info.
Use Lexis/Nexis Companies and ReferenceUSA
Contact Public Relations or Corporate
Communications Dept
Company web site
Press releases and news articles

How to Find Information on

Technology,
Marketing
and
Gartner(AccessOnline
only through
the CUNY Portal)
E-commerce
eMarketer

Offers aggregated info for the most complete view of the

digital world available.
Covers such topics as Advertising & Media Usage, B2B,
Consumers & E-commerce, Demographics, Email,
Industries, Mobile, Online Searching, Social Media, and
Video.

FAITS

(Faulkner Advisory for IT studies)

How to Find Info re: Media

Organizations and Advertising

How much does it cost to place an ad?

Print, broadcast, outdoor and interactive advertising
Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS)
www.adratecard.com
How much did company x spend on advertising and with what
agency?
For advertisers, their expenditures and their ad agencies
Advertisers & Agencies Online
Sample Commercials
Search WARC or eMarketer
How much are advertising costs for broadcast media?
Radio Advertising Bureau
Television Bureau of Advertising at www.tvb.org

How to Find Info re: Media

Organizations and Advertising Cont
WARC

(World Advertising Research Center)

Information on top advertisers, brands and

agencies
Articles, case studies, best practices, forecasts,
brand profiles

How to Find Target Market and

Consumer Media Exposure

Mediamark Reporter (MRI+) for latest data

Index

number helps you gauge the likelihood that

individuals would use or be exposed to products,
services or media.

Lifestyle, Demographics and PRIZM Reports in

SRDSs Local Market Audience Analyst Overview
Consumer

market research tool that delivers

sophisticated demographic, segmentation, and targeting
data.

eMarketer
Consumers

and markets in relation to all aspects of ecommerce and technology.

How to Find Reports by Marketing and

Industry Analysts

Market Research Reports have consumer trends and

future projections and other company and industry
info:

MarketResearch.com
Mintel Oxygen
Euromonitor Passport GMID
FAITS

Industry

Analyst Reports

IBIS World
Mergent Horizon
Standard & Poors NetAdvantage
Business Insights: Essentials

Looking for a Known Item?

To search for a known item or a specific article using

a citation:

For Online..perform journal title search in

Select Journal from the central search box at the Librarys
Web site.

OR

For Print..perform a journal title search in online catalog

to locate specific journals on the 3rd floor of the library.

Periodical Databases at Baruch for

Trade Journal Articles

Often only way to obtain specific or hard-to-find information on

an industry is to search databases that have access to trade
articles. Some databases with key trade journal content are:

ABI/Inform/Global - covers key marketing and advertising

journals
Factiva - covers thousands of trade journals and international
content; Wall Street Journal back 30 yrs.
Business Source Premier - covers management and marketing
journals

Now lets learn about effective database

searching

Learning about the Organization of

Knowledge
What

is a database?

A collection of data organized into records consisting of

fields of information.
A method of information storage for the purpose of retrieval.
A container of related knowledge capable of being sorted
and extracted.

While all databases are not alike, the

concepts for searching databases are similar
thus transferable.

Basic Methods for Searching

Databases
Boolean

Connectors

AND - combine words (market share and toothpaste).

OR - combine synonym or like words
( theaters or exhibitors ).
NOT - exclude words (telephone not cellular ).

Nesting*
Uses parenthesis ( ) to distinguish how words are to be
combined and to maintain order of operations
(restaurant and (gratuity or tip) ).
*Note: NOT needed in databases with stacked boxes
where each box can be used for search sets.

Advanced Methods for Searching

Databases
Proximity

Operators

Specifies how far apart words are from each

other (shampoo w/5 marketing).
Field

or Segment searching

Searches a specified field or segment of the

record for words (hlp=Nike for searching Nike in
headline & lead paragraph in Factiva).

Where did your search terms

appear?
Subject ------------------------Excellent
Lead Paragraph/Abstract----Very Good
Headline/Title----------------Good
Last few paragraphs only---Try again

Advanced Methods for Searching

Databases
Space

Holders

Truncation - accounts for the various endings of

a root term (In Factiva, manag$ looks for manage,
manages, manager, management, etc.).
Wildcard - accounts for spelling variations within a
word ( In L/N, wom*n looks for women or
woman).

Some Key things to do when

Searching Databases:
Unless

date range is known, change the date

limits to search back at least 2 years.
Sort results by Relevance.
Make use of hyperlinks to get at other key
info.
Review subject headings to see if this may
help you to get info needed.

Final Words of Search

Advice
Apply

transferable knowledge of databases

(databases are more alike than different)
Include precision searching techniques when
possible (i.e. proximity operators and
truncation)
Be a proactive searcher, responding to
results and trying different search statements
or approaches

Now you can.

Credit your Sources with Ease
Set

up a RefWorks account via the library

database.
Use citation style recommended.
Consider using Parenthetical Citation and a
list of references.