Research Guides: Business Plans: Researching Demand

Tips on researching demand for a product or service

The best database for researching the demand for a product or service is Mintel, the marketing database. Each Mintel report has a section on consumers and their preferences. You can find demographic information about consumers of the product such as age, gender, race or income levels. You can also find information about attitudes and reasons for choosing one product over another.

You can also find information in the two main business databases, Business Source Complete and ABI Inform Global.

Databases

Mintel
This database provides access to market research reports covering US and international marketplaces. Each report combines data & analysis of the competitive landscape, market-share analysis and consumer profiles. Complex demographic issues are broken into easy-to-understand sections, explaining consumer behavior and demonstrating the structure of the market.
Business Source Complete (EBSCO)
A comprehensive business database that contains full-text articles from scholarly and trade journals, magazines, SWOT analyses, company profiles, market research reports and more covering all aspects of business and management, accounting and finance and economics.
IBISWorld
This database provides business reports in five categories: industry market research, industry risk ratings, company research, global industry research, and economic and demographic data. The industry intelligence reports include key statistics, market characteristics, industry segmentation, industry conditions, key competitors & market share, performance analysis, key success factors, and 5 year forecasts & forecast analysis. This also includes many public company research reports on US, Canadian, and globally traded public companies.
ABI/INFORM Global (ProQuest)
This database provides extensive international coverage of business and economics topics. You can search the full-text, citations, and abstracts of scholarly and trade journal articles, market and industry reports, working papers, dissertations, business cases, and conference procedings.