LibGuides: Business Market Research: Key Resources

Demographic Information

Census Business Builder
This site lets you choose variables to customize a report on the demographics and customer base of a chosen place. Use NAICS codes to make lookup easier.
US Census Search
Demographic information from the US government. Searchable on the state, city, county and zip code levels.
US Census
Census data broken down in many different ways. There is a lot of information here, but it can be challenging to navigate.

Business Statistics of the United States by Susan Ockert
Call Number: REF HC101 .S97x 2015
ISBN: 9781598887945
Publication Date: 2015
Proquest Statistical Abstract by Bernan Press Staff
Call Number: REF HA202 .U5x 2020
ISBN: 9781641433921
Publication Date: 2020

Customer Base

Census Business Builder
This site lets you choose variables to customize a report on the demographics and customer base of a chosen place. Use NAICS codes to make lookup easier.
US Census Search
Demographic information from the US government. Searchable on the state, city, county and zip code levels.
American Time Use Survey
This site shows how much time Americans spend on various activities, including work and leisure.
Consumer Expenditure Survey
This site gives data on how much money people make and what they spend it on.

Target Markets

Earnings by Demographics
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Statista
Industry and consumer market information. Please note: There is limited free information on this site - all items with a green "+" box are behind a paywall.

Industry

IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
***This should be your first stop for industry information**
IBISWorld contains industry market research, covering industries big and small, with a depth of information you can't find anywhere else. Reports are put together by IBISWorld's expert analysts - this information is not freely available on the open web. Please note: This website requires you to login with your OCC library login from off-campus.
ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry This link opens in a new window
"With hundreds of additional full-text titles, ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry is the perfect companion to the business and management content in ABI/INFORM Global. It's the source professionals rely on for major trade and industry news. It includes in-depth coverage of companies, products, executives, trends, and almost 3,000 title in full text. With ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry, users can study and compare specific trades and industries, including telecommunications, computing, transportation, construction, petrochemicals, and many others."

Industry Statistics from the SBA
This site highlights different industry statistics, including agriculture, banking, energy, and more.
OCC Library Book Search
Search the library for books on specific industries. A sample search would be: restaurant industry or: restaurants
Production & Sales Statistics
This site from the Small Business Administration will tells you how to find information on sales and production of various goods.
Statista
Industry and consumer market information. Please note: There is limited free information on this site - all items with a green "+" box are behind a paywall.

LexisNexis Uni This link opens in a new window
To make this easy, use the Company Dossier search to find your company. Then click on the Competitors link on the side or the NAICS code. There is a tab for Industry at the top.

Competitors

When searching for company information, make sure that you are using the name of the highest level of the company. For example, information about Google is under Alphabet, since they are the parent company.

LexisNexis Uni This link opens in a new window
This is great place to start your competitor research! Click on the Business icon on the front page, then click on Company Dossier. Please note: This website requires you to login with your OCC library login from off-campus.
IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Look under the Competitive Landscape tab for each report.
IBISWorld contains industry market research, covering industries big and small, with a depth of information you can't find anywhere else. Reports are put together by IBISWorld's expert analysts - this information is not freely available on the open web. Please note: This website requires you to login with your OCC library login from off-campus.
Business Source Elite This link opens in a new window
The best way to search for your competitors here is to go the Company Profiles link in the top blue bar. Then enter the name of the company that you are looking for. You can also find SWOT analyses here. To do this, use the Basic Search and type in the name of the company and SWOT. For example: Apple and SWOT. Please note: This website requires you to login with your OCC library login from off-campus.

International Directory of Company Histories by Tom Derdak (Editor)
Call Number: REF HD2721 .I63
ISBN: 0912289104

Sample Article Searches

When searching the library databases, it's best to follow some basic rules. Make sure that your search is very specific and that you separate your keywords with the word "and". Try different keywords to get different results. The more words you have in your search, the fewer results that you will get.

Here are some sample searches:

fast food and California and marketing

alcohol and Millennials and consumption

food trucks and Los Angeles

If you need help narrowing your search, contact your friendly librarian for assistance!

LexisNexis Uni This link opens in a new window
LexisNexis Uni is a premier online source of approximately 5,600 local, national, and international news, business, legal, medical, and government information, mostly full-text and mostly from 1985 to the present. LexisNexis also has a company dossier and case law.
ABI/INFORM This link opens in a new window
"The collection features thousands of full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, key business and economics periodicals such as The Economist and Sloan Management Review, country-and industry-focused reports, and major news sources like the Wall Street Journal. Its international coverage gives researchers a complete picture of companies and business trends around the world."
Business Source Elite This link opens in a new window
Business Source Elite provides full-text coverage of scholarly business, management and economics journals. This rich collection also includes publications covering topics such as accounting, banking, finance, international business, marketing, sales, etc. Business Source Elite offers full text for nearly 1,000 business publications and contains expanded PDF backfiles for more than 150 titles (back to 1985 or the first issue published for that journal). More than 10,100 substantial company profiles from Datamonitor are also included.