Market Research

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Market Research in the United States

The sources we have found useful for finding information about the market for a particular industry or product include:

News Articles: You can get industry-specific news on Lexis (in the MARKET library), Factiva and ProQuest Dialog. You might also want to check free Internet news sources on Yahoo! and/or see the entry for “News – Fast, Free, Current – Business”. If you subscribe, search the Wall Street Journal.

Trade Journals: Trade journals are an awesome way to get information about a particular market – but it can be tricky to find out the titles of the key journals, and it can be hard to get a hold of them. For information on how to do these things, see “Trade Journals.”

Polls: Public opinion polls relating to business, economics, politics, social issues, etc., are available in the iPoll database, available through the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.

Reports: Market research reports range from free and basic to detailed and expensive. Some of the leading sources include:

  1. Lexis has market research reports from a number of vendurs including MarketLine, World Market Intelligence, BMI, IHS Gobal Insights, and Intellines, among others.
  2. Profound is a pure market research database, with nearly a million reports by around 200 publishers (subscription). Profound allows you to pull just sections of reports, sometimes even just a single graph or chart.
  3. Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys cover over 50 industries and are reputed to be excellent. They are available — along with the U.S. government’s Industrial Outlookon S&P’s NetAdvantage (subscription).
  4. Mintel publishes detailed reports and sells them through their web site on a per-report or subscription basis.
  5. Hoover’s sells analyst reports on specific industries; just search on the industry name and scroll to the bottom of the page.
  6. The Yahoo! Industry Center posts free overviews of about 100 industries.
  7. MarketResearch.com sells reports from many sources without a subscription; I find it particularly easy to search.
  8. Research and Markets also sells reports from many sources.
  9. Thomson sells its MarkIntel and Investext market research reports through the Thomson Research on Demand (pay as you go).
  10. The Alacra Store or Research and Markets, which sell reports from many different sources.
  11. Business Rankings Annual (Detroit: Gale Research) has all kinds of lists — lists of the biggest companies, the best companies, etc.

If you need a market research report compiled that’s more than you can handle in-house, you may want to hire a market research firm to do the job for you. See the “Vendors” section, below, for contact information.

Foreign Reports: Mintel covers the U.K. Alacra Store aggregates reports from many publishers. Reportlinker has reports covering many foreign markets. If these sources don’t have what you need, check the sources mentioned in the main section, above.

Vendors: The GreenBook lists companies that do market research and run focus groups. Although I haven’t used them myself, I received good recommendations for OCR International (back when they were still Guideline (800-346-3787)) and Just the Facts (847-506-0033).

For more specific information, search for individual industries by name.

See Also

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
Analyst Reports
Business Information
Company Information
Demographics
Market Share
News Business
Product Reviews and Related Information
Trade Journals

Related Entries:

  1. Stock Exchange
  2. Securities Regulation
  3. Department of the Treasury
  4. Venture Capital
  5. Small Business Administration
  6. Insurance Companies
  7. Mergers
  8. Municipal Bonds
  9. Market
  10. Option
  11. Transportation
  12. Computers
  13. Incorporation
  14. Federal Acquisition Regulations
  15. Businesses
  16. Currency Exchanges
  17. Self-Regulation
  18. Company Information
  19. Corporate Law
  20. Initial Public Offerings
  21. Industry Reports
  22. National Association of Securities Dealers
  23. Foreign Law
  24. Government Publications
  25. Law Reviews
  26. Labor law
  27. Compensation
  28. Credit
  29. Federal Regulations
  30. Limited Liability Companies
  31. Mutual Funds
  32. Public Laws
  33. Tax Exempt Organizations
  34. Unions
  35. Broker Dealer
  36. Independent Contractor
  37. Zoning
  38. District Courts
  39. Forms
  40. Central Banking
  41. American Bar Association
  42. Employment Discrimination
  43. Puerto Rico
  44. Supreme Court Practice
  45. Statutory Construction
  46. Copyright Subject Matter
  47. Criminal Law Lawmaking Authority
  48. Standards
  49. Workers Compensation
  50. California
  51. Uniform State Laws
  52. Present Value
  53. Lawyers Professional Liability Claims
  54. Jury Instructions
  55. Annual Reports
  56. Congressional Hearings
  57. Federal Reserve
  58. Pennsylvania
  59. Virginia
  60. Washington
  61. Federal Enclaves
  62. Private Placement
  63. Tax Forms
  64. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  65. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  66. United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  67. Classes of Receivers
  68. Confidential Supervisory Information
  69. Space Policy
  70. Mergers Efficiencies

Market Research: Open and Free Legal Research of US Law

Federal Primary Materials

The U.S. federal government system consists of executive, legislative, and judicial branches, each of which creates information that can be the subject of legal research about Market Research. This part provides references, in relation to Market Research, to the legislative process, the federal judiciary, and the primary sources of federal law (cases, statutes, and regulations).

Federal primary materials about Market Research by content types:

Laws and Regulations

US Constitution
Federal Statutory Codes and Legislation

Federal Case Law and Court Materials

U.S. Courts of Appeals
United States courts of appeals, inclouding bankruptcy courts and bankcruptcy appellate panels:

Federal Administrative Materials and Resources

Presidential Materials

Materials that emanate from the President’s lawmaking function include executive orders for officers in departments and agencies and proclamations for announcing ceremonial or commemorative policies. Presidential materials available include:

Executive Materials

Federal Legislative History Materials

Legislative history traces the legislative process of a particular bill (about Market Research and other subjects) for the main purpose of determining the legislators’ intent behind the enactment of a law to explain or clarify ambiguities in the language or the perceived meaning of that law (about Market Research or other topics), or locating the current status of a bill and monitoring its progress.

State Administrative Materials and Resources

State regulations are rules and procedures promulgated by state agencies (which may apply to Market Research and other topics); they are a binding source of law. In addition to promulgating regulations, state administrative boards and agencies often have judicial or quasi-judicial authority and may issue administrative decisions affecting Market Research. Finding these decisions can be challenging. In many cases, researchers about Market Research should check state agency web sites for their regulations, decisions, forms, and other information of interest.

State rules and regulations are found in codes of regulations and administrative codes (official compilation of all rules and regulations, organized by subject matter). Search here:

State opinions of the Attorney General (official written advisory opinions on issues of state law related to Market Research when formerly requested by a designated government officer):

Tools and Forms

Law in Other Regions

*This resource guide is updated frequently. However, if you notice something is wrong or not working, or any resources that should be added, please notify us in any of the "Leave a Comment" area.

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