Resources: Marketing Insight

Demographics (USA)

Bureau of Economic Analysis - Contains estimates that illuminate key national, international, and regional aspects of the U.S. economy. Part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Bureau of Labor Statistics - This site "is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics".  Statistics found here include employment and unemployment, consumer price, wholesaler price and producer price indexes, consumer expenditure, labor productivity and much more. 

Census Bureau - Preeminent source of  U.S. demographic and economic statistics. One of the best features is the American Factfinder web site which provides excellent access to census information including a nice "search your street" feature which will display a map. Also, there is a Data Access Tools page that provides links to statistical tools and software downloads.

Congressional Research Service Reports - This site from the National Council for Science and the Environment provides access to research reports produced by the Congressional Research Service, a branch of the U.S. Library of Congress that provides environmental and science research reports to members of the U. S. Congress. While many reports are strictly of the technical and science vein, there are many that are appropriate for those looking for industry studies.

Department of Commerce - The main web site for the U.S. Commerce Department offers many options for searching the Commerce's database of business and economic data. And includes special E-Stats section focusing on technology and e-commerce reports (including quarterly retail e-commerce sales), studies and statistics.

ECONData - From the University of Maryland this site provides access to hundreds of economic time series reports produced by a number of U.S. government agencies.

Economy.com - A source of current economic information, forecasts and thoughts, along with historic information on different industries. Updated daily.

Fedstats - Billed as one-stop shopping for federal statistics this federal government site offers access to a wide range of statistics produced by more than 70 federal government agencies.  Coverage is broad and may be valuable for many research topics.  Includes easy to use search feature.

FedWorld - Searchable directory for locating government agencies, reports and publications.

Governments on the WWW  - Large links-listing site with over 17,000 international government links to agencies, political parties, fact books and other country-specific information.  Only drawback is that the site is only occasionally updated so some links may not be active.

Government Resources on the Web  - Great searchable database from the University of Michigan.

Infomine - This is an incredibly extensive meta site put together by the libraries of University of California system.  Its government section alone has a remarkable number of links (well over 4000) covering just about any topic for which a government has collected data.

H-Demog Discussion Network - Offers online discussion and resources related to the history of demographics.

Internet Crossroads in Social Science Data - Large, well organized and searchable database of annotated links to hundreds of social science data sites whose categories include data by basic industries, country and economic conditions.

Munisource.org - Directory and searchable database for locating web sites and other information for municipal governments and municipalities around the world.

National Center for Health Statistics - This site contains a variety of health related statistics in the form of tables, charts and graphs.

National Technical Information Services - "the official source for government-sponsored U.S. and worldwide scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information." Searchable database of over 375,000 publications.

STAT-USA - Some of the best government information can be found on this site operated by the Department of Commerce.  Many reports are free while some of the more in-depth reports require a fee.  The major sources of information here are:

GLOBUS, Global Business Opportunities - Updated daily, offers trade leads as well as other important international trade information. 

NTDB, National Trade Data Bank - This section contains information on international trade data and export promotion information including in-depth country reports.

State of the Nation - This section contains US economic reports.

Statistical Resources on the Web - Well developed site for finding links to government, business and industry statistical data.  From University of Michigan.

U.S. Business Advisor - Federal government site that is an excellent one-stop source for links to government programs and services.   Includes answers to common questions, how-to sections and a good search and browse section.

Customer Relationship Management

Accenture CRM - Access to regularly updated articles from leading consulting company.   

CIO's CRM Research Center - Find numerous articles, metrics, basics and much more.

CRMCommunity - Contains articles including CRM fundamentals, case studies and other resources. 

CRM Daily - Offers frequent articles on a wide range of CRM issues. 

CRM -Forum - Site visitors will find a number of good CRM resources with the best being its library of academic papers, conference presentations and industry white papers.

Customer Think - Information site with many articles including CRM case studies. However, must be a member (free) to access the good stuff.   

CRM Project - This site contains many CRM articles though updates have not been frequent. 

destinationCRM  - This site operated by the publishers of CRM Magazine offers a number of CRM resources including white papers, archived articles from past issues and a library featuring reports from other sources.

eCRMGuide - Collection site for CRM articles that are primarily drawn from online media sources.

IntelligentCRM - Industry news site that includes a searchable library of CRM white papers and articles.

IT Papers.com - CRM Whitepapers - A large selection of vendor supplied whitepapers that cover numerous technical and business considerations for CRM. (May require registration - FREE).

IT Toolbox CRM - Portal broken into a number of categories related to CRM and containing articles, links to vendor white papers and discussion groups.

searchCRM - Portal with many features including extensive categorized links library with numerous articles including many related to the basics of CRM, career information, ask experts and much more. Good all purpose site.

Market Research Techniques

BuildingBrands - Brainstorming - Short but useful explanation of a widely used idea generation  research technique.  A linked pdf file includes additional information.

Conjoint Analysis - Software provider Sawtooth provides a number of technical papers (from basic to highly advanced) that primarily discuss conjoint analysis.  Additionally, there is limited coverage of other research methods such as perceptual mapping.

Forecasting Principles - Site by Wharton professor Scott Armstrong has several resources including an extensive summary article on forecasting, information on how to select a forecasting method and other tools,

dssResearch - This marketing research company has put together several resources of interest to researchers included a number of Technical Papers on various research topics including basic and advanced research techniques and a very nice Statistical Power and Sample Size Estimates  area for those doing more scientific research and are looking for help with certain calculations and estimations.

How to Prepare a Market Analysis - Good research related article on how to analyze markets.

Marketing Research Resources - Market research firm KMR Intelliquest offers several research related resources including easy to use statistical calculator and white papers on research approaches.

Money4Surveys - What is interesting about this site is that it contains links to dozens of sites that contain online surveys, most of which pay respondents to complete.  Thus for market researchers the value of this site is that it provides a one-stop location to see how other design online surveys.

Questionnaires & Surveys - Tutorial - Focus is on the basic considerations when developing surveys such as sample selection, respondent recruitment and question wording.  However, site does not really address response or measurement scale issues.

Research on Research - Extensive collection of free articles from Synovate, market research firm, written by researchers dealing with a wide range of methodology and analysis issues.  Particularly strong on methods for statistical analysis.

Surveys and You - Short but useful list answers to commonly asked question related to surveys offered by the Council of American Survey Research Organizations.

Market Research Reports

Bitpipe - Primarily a reseller of technology-related syndicated research reports though it does offer access to a modest amount of free industry provided case studies and white papers.  

BizMiner - Provides access to market studies, financial reports, franchise information and more.

Claritas eConnect - Most well known for its psychographic database, PRIZM, the company also offers online access to many other consumer and business information. Includes online access to the Survey of Buying Power.

CMS - UK site that claims to have research reports available from thousands of publications including those from leading research firms. 

Datamonitor - Provider of reports covering several major industry groups with most reports being on the expensive side.  However, they do occasionally offer free reports though it requires registration.

Dialog - Leading supplier of online databases including:

DATASTAR - Databases focuses primarily on Europe.

DialogWeb - Leading information service with access to over 600 databases.

Profound - Access to thousands of marketing research studies and other business-related publications.

eLibrary - Provides access to library of hundreds of magazines, newspapers, transcripts and more for a monthly or yearly fee. Fee is reasonable.

eMarketer - Focuses on gathering statistics from numerous research reports (what they refer to as aggregation) and then present their own take on what is happening.  Basic abstracts and some stats are free, detailed reports are fee based. Site offers other resources including a how-to section with a number of internet marketing topics.

Factiva - Access to thousands of publications, company information and more from partnership between Reuters and Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Requires yearly subscription plus pay-per-article.

Bnet - Free service that allows for searches of thousands of published articles. It is recommended that those using this service should learn how to use the advance search feature in order to narrow and refine your searches. 

InfoTech Trends - Offers Information Technology marketing research reports culled from reports found in leading technology publications.  While latest research is fee-based, they do offer a nice free search of older reports.

JupiterDirect - Market research firm, JupiterResearch, allows for purchase of its reports.

KnowX - For a fee this site offers background searches of people and companies by searching mostly government databases such as legal records, real estate records professional license records, telephone numbers and others.

Lexis-Nexis - One of the top data sources for articles, market reports, and much more.  For market researchers the power can be found in the nexis.com service while those looking for legal information are directed to the lexis.com service.

MarketResearch.com - This site acts as a distributor and publisher of marketing research reports from leading research companies. Includes search database as well as reports by category/industry.  Also, may allow for purchase of smaller sections of a big report using their "Buy by the Slice" program. On the primary research side their research publishing includes:

Guideline - Database containing thousands of industry marketing research reports presented in several different search categories.

Packaged Facts - Research focusing on the consumer packed goods markets.

MindBranch - Research distributor providing access to research information from over 300 providers with special emphasis on listing newsletters that focus on certain topic areas. 

Mintel - Leading UK consumer research firm that offers hundreds of research reports focusing mostly on the UK market.

ResearchBankWeb - Contains research reports from top financial analysis firms through the Investext product and also technology market research studies through it MarketIntel product.

Snapshots - Provides fairly affordable market reports for large number of geographic areas. Though these do not provide in-depth coverage they may be useful for researchers looking for access to quick market statistics.

World Advertising Research Center - UK-based group with a fee site where subscribers can access internationally produced articles, research studies, case studies and other materials that focus mostly on advertising and promotion issues.

Zoom Info - This free search site allows for entering of company name to locate past employees. Site gathers data from supposedly legitimate means such as company web sites, news articles, SEC filings and other online sources.

 

Market Segmentation

GeoPlace.com - Site of leading GIS publisher offers articles, directories and job information related to geographic targeting.

How to Identify a Target Market and Customer Profiling - Articles on the basics of market identification and segmentation.

Targeting Your Market - Bank of America offers a Flash presentation (requires plug in) that examines issues related choosing and targeting markets. 

VALS - "Values Attitudes and Life Styles", a consumer psychographic segmentation technique from SRI Consultants.