LibGuides: I-CORE Research Guide: Target Market Analysis

Industry Research

You need to:

Research the industry of your product/service
If you are marketing B2B, your customer's industry

Identify the NAICS Codes of the industries you are researching!

Industry codes are numbers used to describe a company's line of business. Many business databases including the US Economic Census are searchable by NAICS codes. The current standard for industry codes is the 6-digit North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) code.

NAICS Code Lookup

Researching Niche/Emerging Industries

If you are researching an emerging industry or a very specialized industry it may be more difficult to locate industry overviews and other industry analysis. Some strategies you can consider using to find information:

Look for articles in popular and trade journals (magazines and newspapers) that discuss this industry

Consider what other industries are related to your industry. Are there industries that have a similar target market or supply chain?
Consider researching the industries of your suppliers and your customers (if your customer is a business).
Use frameworks such as Porter's Five Forces or PEST Analysis to guide you in researching your industry.

Industry Research Resources

IBISWorld This link opens in a new window

How to Search IBISWorld

How to read and IBISWorld Industry Report

Bizminer This link opens in a new window
Requires a NAICS code. Find financial and market analysis for any US radius, zip code, country, metro, or state.
Statista This link opens in a new window
MarketResearch.com Academic This link opens in a new window
MarketLine Advantage This link opens in a new window
D&B Hoovers (formerly Global Business Browser) This link opens in a new window
There has been an issue at times with accessing D&B Hoovers, especially off campus, due to DUO authentication. Specifically, if people had set their DUO authentication to remember them for seven days, and try to access one of these systems, they may find they cannot gain access to the database in question.

If and when this occurs, we recommend as a best solution to OPEN AN INCOGNITO WINDOW and access the database in that way. This will force the person to reauthenticate in DUO at the time of access and solve the problem.
ABI/INFORM Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Business Source Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window

Local Geographic Research

How do I find demographics for a local geography (including number of potential customers or competitors)?

Bizminer This link opens in a new window
Find financial and market analysis for different industries for any US radius, zip code, county, metro or state. 9000 industries; market data refreshed monthly.
DemographicsNow (Gale) This link opens in a new window
First: Set the geography in the top right corner (click options to add 1,3,5 mile radii). You can also set the geography by drive time. Second: Click Demographics to run different reports. Note that Mosaic reports provide percentage breakdowns to psychographic information and links to detailed psychographic profiles. Third (optional): Click maps to add demographic layers on top of your geography.
Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA) This link opens in a new window
Consumer and business information including market information. Search by company name, type of business, geography, business size, and more.
Known issues with Google Chrome Browser: a latest update to Chrome may interfere with this resource; you may wish to try a different browser.
United States Census Bureau This link opens in a new window
Search, browse, retrieve, view, map, print, and download Census data (formerly American FactFinder).
PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
PolicyMap is an online data and mapping tool that gives access to over 15,000 indicators related to housing, crime, mortgages, health, jobs, demographics and education. Data are available at all common geographies (address, block group, census tract, zip code, county, city, state, MSA) as well as unique geographies like school districts and political boundaries. You may also upload your own address level data and share your data and maps with others. Share your opinion! Short survey.

Help I can only find national data and I but my target is just Indiana (...or Carmel...or the midwest)

When you can only find national data for your market size but you want to narrow it down to a smaller geographic area, you may need to back into this information often by making an assumption that the proportion of the market that Indiana (or whatever market you are considering) provides will be similar to the proportion that that market contributes to another economic indicator such as GDP, new residential construction starts, business establishments, population, households, etc.

Example: You are trying to determine the market size for Indiana but only have national market size numbers for your industry. You decide GDP would be a good economic indicator to use. If you use GDP you need to locate the total US GDP and Indiana GDP. Calculate % that Indiana contributes to national GDP and multiple by the national industry market size your found to estimate the Indiana market size.

Don't always use GDP. When discussing your analysis for your forecast in the second deliverable you may need to explain your assumption. Source for economic indicators:

US Bureau of Economic Analysis

Sources for other types of demographic information:

DemographicsNow (Gale) This link opens in a new window
U.S. Demographic data and reports from the national to local level. Useful for market analysis and segmentation. Create interactive maps, and radius based maps and reports. Current year estimates and five-year projections of key demographics. Includes access to Mosaic Segmentation.
United States Census Bureau This link opens in a new window
Search, browse, retrieve, view, map, print, and download Census data (formerly American FactFinder).