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Welcome Tips for Marketing Strategy Research

This guide is for MKT 2205 students developing a marketing strategy or plan for a product or service.
Here we focus on credible, professional information appropriate for the business environment.
A Checklist with worksheet is available on Merrimack Google Drive

Where to begin? It depends on where you are starting - with a target market, a company, an industry.

Use the tabs for find sources on

Companies
Industries
Target Markets
More Analysis & News from trade and scholarly journals and newspapers
Cite your sources

Need help? Contact Frances Nilsson, or the Research Center.

Who owns the brand, who's the parent company?
How does your product or service fit within its industry and current consumer trends?

What is their current or past marketing strategy?

Capital IQ NetAdvantage - S&P Global This link opens in a new window
Look up your company. If private, look to see if it has a parent company which may be public.
If public, check SEC Filings (left menu) and grab the 10-K.
Click Industry Surveys at the top and grab the S&P Industry Survey if it is covered.
First Research This link opens in a new window
Search your company or brand. If the relevant industry doesn't come up, search the industry. Click" Full Profile" (upper right) to view all information. To save, copy and paste into a document.
Gale Business Insights Global This link opens in a new window
Look up your company for histories, chronologies, analyst/investment reports, SWOT, sales for private companies, articles and link to its industry overview. This often has estimated sales for private US companies.

Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Strategies series
View of past marketing strategies of major companies.
Encyclopedia of Global Brands, 2013

Gather information on your target market.
See more sources on the Target Market tab (left)

RKMA Market Research This link opens in a new window
Online 2017-2020 books, including Consumer Behavior with statistics on target makets, plus volumes covering business-to-business, healthcare, entertainment, retail, leisure, sports and tourism markets.
Sports Business Research Network / Sports Market Analytics This link opens in a new window
Use for sports participation, fan base use of social media, use of sportswear and sports equipment and more.

eMarketer
Find trends, news and report summaries. Scroll down, browse the top menus or use the search feature.
Claritas/Nielsen-Lifestyle Segments
View a chart of Lifestyle Segments and click to view characteristics and a map of US locations.
US Government Data & Free Demographics
Free Market Research Insights

Dig Deeper - Where are your information gaps?
Search these sources and Google, but be sure to evaluate wild web sources on their Currency, Reliability, Authority and Purpose or Bias.

ABI/INFORM This link opens in a new window
Search business trade and scholarly journals, local business publications and the fulltext of the Wall Street Journal.
MACKsearch This link opens in a new window
Search: targetmarket AND (consumer* or market*)
companyname AND supply chain
companyname AND market*
industry AND industry profile
industry AND targetmarket
* retrieves market, markets, marketing, etc. Example: “Native Americans” AND (market* or consumer*)
Narrow results by limiting to the last several years.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Search BSP for company profiles, industry and market research reports, country reports and articles from trade and scholarly business publications. Use the Business Searching Interface for browsing reports by country, industry or company. Mobile users: click here for Corporate Profiles.
ProQuest Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
Ebooks may have indepth information on your company or a past marketing strategy.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Another sources for company news.