Marketing

Market research involves finding and analyzing information around industries and consumers related to a particular company, product or service.  

For example, MoviePass is a relatively new company that sells movie theater subscription passes for $10 a month. This means you can see as many movies as you want in a month (limit to one movie in a 24 hour period) but only pay $10 total.

To research the market for this, start brainstorming questions and keywords:

Questions:

• What industry or industries is my product or service in? 
• What problems are facing this industry? What problem does this product solve?
• What are the opportunities my product can take advantage of? What are the threats?
• Who is the target market for this product?
• What data do we know about consumers?
• What is the direct and indirect competition?

Keywords: (for the MoviePass example): Movie theaters, subscription services... what are some other broader, narrower, or related terms you could use?

Some answers might require primary research: You collecting your own data through surveys, interviews, observations, and other research methods.

The library provides access to secondary research: Use the library databases to find reports and studies with analysis that you then apply to your particular product or service. 

Tips:

• If your product or service fits multiple industries, try a few different searches to find all the reports you need.
• If you are unsure what industry your product or service fits in, use a similar, well-known company as a search term. Many times it will pull up the related industry report. 
• Look at the industry performance tab in a report: What are the external drivers? Are these positive or negative for your product?
• Look at the industry outlook tab: What is one trend happening in the industry? How does this impact your product?

Tips:

• Try searching with broad terms for reports. Narrower terms will bring back smaller report sections.
• Look at the consumer tab in a report: What is one insight or trend about consumers in your industry? How might this impact who you target?
• Look at the brand/company tab in a report: What’s working or struggling? Is this positive or negative for your product? What kind of competition is there for your product?

Tips:

• Try different search terms: Add keywords to describe your product or service
• Use the company profiles tab at the top to look at reports about select companies.
• To see a SWOT analysis of select companies, look for them in the company profiles, or do a keyword search on the main page with the company name and SWOT
• Use date filters to find more recent information