Some Major Sources of Market Research Information

The following list conveys some of the major sources that businesses can tap to get information about markets, customers, trends, etc. The way that you use the following sources depends on what the purpose of the information that you're seeking, for example, to understand more about your customers, a certain industry, a certain market, market trends, the competition, etc. (Also see Basic Methods to Get Customer Feedback.)

Some Typical Market Research Questions

For example, businesses are often interested in information about a market, such as:
1. What is the market, including what is being sold and to whom and for how much? How many people might be interested in buying that product or service? How much money might be generated from those sales? Where is your business in the market?

2. Who is the customer? What are their preferences? When, where and how do they typically buy?

3. Who is the competition? What are they selling, specifically? When, where and how are they selling and to whom?

Some Major Sources of Market Research Information

Census Bureau

There is a vast amount of information available to you, and much of this is online.

Chamber of Commerce

Get to know the people in your local office. Offices usually have a wealth of information about localities, sources of networking, community resources to help your business, etc.

Department of Commerce

The Department has offices in various regions across the country and publishes a wide range of information about industries, products and services.

Ask Librarians

They love to help people. See the Directory of Associations, Sales and Marketing Management magazine, American Statistics Index (ASI), Encyclopedia Of Business Information Book, Standard & Poor's Industry Survey's and Consumer's Index.

Trade and Professional Organizations

Organizations often produce highly useful newsletters for members, along with services for networking, answering questions, etc.

Trade and Professional Publications

These have become much more useful as various trades become more specialized and their expectations are increasing for timely and useful information.

Return to Market Research

For the Category of Marketing:

Recommended Books

Basics, Planning and General Information

Market Research and Trends

Competitive Intelligence

Nonprofit

Basics, Planning and General Information

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.

Market Research and Trends

Competitive Intelligence

Note to nonprofits: Nonprofits "compete" with other nonprofits, too. They compete for funding, attention from their communities and for staff. Also, funders often want to see if their grantees have closely considered whether other nonprofits are already offering the same services in the same areas. So nonprofits should use competitive intelligence, too.

Nonprofit

Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation: by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. There are few books, if any, that explain how to carefully plan, organize, develop and market a nonprofit program. Also, too many books completely separate the highly integrated activities of planning, marketing and evaluating programs. This book integrates all three into a comprehensive, straightforward approach that anyone can follow in order to provide high-quality programs with strong appeal to funders. Includes many online forms that can be downloaded. Many materials in this Library topic are adapted from this book.