Business & Management: Market Research
Market Research
Market research is the process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about:
- a market
- a product or service to be offered for sale
- the past, present and potential customers for the product or service
This might be research into the characteristics, spending habits, location and needs of your business's target market, digging into the industry as a whole, or even the particular competitors you face. Market research can help you determined the viability of your product/service, understand your target market, provide consumer opinions and inform decisions.
Top UB Only Databases
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Social ExplorerDemographic information about the United States including historical data back to 1940. More InfoDataUB ONLY
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ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United StatesComprehensive single source for U.S. statistics. More InfoDataUB ONLY
Articles & News
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Business Source CompleteBusiness-related research and information. More InfoPartial Full-TextUB ONLY
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Access World NewsProvides the fulltext of many USA and international newspapers.More InfoFull-TextUB ONLY
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Business Insights: EssentialsDetailed company and industry news. More InfoFull-TextUB ONLY
Public Resources by Topic
All resources listed in this section are freely accessible to the public.
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Think with GoogleResearch, data, insights, and inspiration from Google.
Data & Statistics
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America Counts: Stories Behind the NumbersFeaturing stories on various topics such as families, housing, employment, business, education, the economy, emergency management, and population.
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American Time Use SurveyThe American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing.
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Census Business Builder: Small Business EditionBuilt for small business owners who need key data for their business plan or to better understand their potential market. It presents data for a single type of business at a time.
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Census DataThis platform allows users a single place to seamlessly access data and digital content from the Census Bureau. Census data provides a huge amount of statistics on the U.S. population, economy, and business.
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Consumer Expenditure SurveysThe Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) program provides data on expenditures, income, and demographic characteristics of consumers in the United States. CE data are collected by the Census Bureau for BLS in two surveys, the Interview Survey for major and/or recurring items and the Diary Survey for more minor or frequently purchased items.
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Consumer Financial Protection BureauResearch and data on consumer finances.
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Data USAA portal and data collection site that visualizes key social, business, political, demographic, and other issues. Data USA is a excellent, free tool to use to visualize Census data.
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Free small business data and trendsThe U.S. Small Business Association's listing of reliable sources that provide customer and market information at no cost. Some of these resources may overlap with others on this page.
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Open Data BuffaloOpen Data Buffalo is the open data program developed under the administration of Mayor Byron W. Brown in Buffalo, New York. The initiative is a commitment to proactively release high-quality, updated "publishable City data" through a centralized portal in machine-readable formats, fully accessible and freely available in the public domain.
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PolicyMapAn online mapping tool with data on demographics, real estate, health, jobs and more in communities across the United States. Although this is a subscrciption database, a public version of PolicyMap is available for free with signup.
Opinions, Polls & Surveys
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Pew Research CenterPew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. They conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. Pew does not take policy positions.
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YouGovYouGov provides consumer research through global public opinion and data. They regularly publish articles, ratings and surveys on major topics and brands.
Social Media & SEO
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Google Trends"Explore what the world is searching"
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Social Mention"Real-time social media search and analysis."
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StatCounterStatCounter measures internet usage trends based on over 10 billion page views per month recorded across more than 2 million websites. See more at: https://gs.statcounter.com/factsheet
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UbersuggestA simple tool for keyword and content research. Input a phrase, and this tool will return a long, alphabetized list of additional keywords and content ideas.
Additional Resources
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GWI ReportsGlobal reports, infographics and guides that are crafted to help you stay in the know.
Librarian
Feeds & Alerts
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Google AlertsFree notification service provided by Google that sends emails to subscribers that summarize the search activity around search terms. Monitor information about business trends, products, company executives, customer activity, competitors, influencers, etc.
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Feedly"Feed readers such as Feedly aggregate internet content into one convenient place, making it possible for you to quickly scan headlines and full stories at a glance from a variety of different providers."