Market report is vitally important to any business. It also can be very time-consuming and expensive. Thankfully, there are tools that can provide specific information and the needed data, saving time and money.
Before You Begin:
Donna Barson of consulting firm Barson Marketing told Forbes, “A lot of companies skim over the important background information because they’re so interested in getting their product to market, but the companies that do the best are the ones that do their homework.”
That homework, however, can be daunting, especially if you don’t know where to look. To narrow your search, ask yourself these key questions:
- What specific information am I seeking?
- Where will I find the information?
- How do I check the source?
- How much will it cost?
- How will I be updated with new information when it becomes available?
Finding the Right Partners:
Once you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to find the right partner.
Here are qualities a potential database should possess:
- It covers a variety of sources.
- It covers numerous sectors.
- It offers an alert system to notify you when a new information is available.
- It offers industry overviews and data.
Depending on the type of information you need, you will want to consult one or all of the three types of sources.
Public sources – For example, Eurostat, Trading Economics, OECD. These partners provide information on:
- Economic factors such as GDP and household expenses.
- Census data on demographic statistics, unemployment rate, professions, etc.
- Company data on turnover, incorporation details, corporate problems, etc.
- Trade statistics on imports, exports and production.
- Embassy reports which detail a nation’s business climate.
- Government departmental reports and statistics.
- Patent applications to discover the latest innovations and technologies.
- Legal documents which detail market shares and revenue.
- Annual reports or investor presentations:
These provide information such as market trends and strategies. Some examples include Deloitte and KPMG.
- Public reports published by public sources:
For example:
- Government organizations such as UNECE, the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund
- Governments such as EUROPA European Commission
- Government agencies such as the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, and Environmental Protection Agency
Banks such as the Asian Development Bank, Reserve Bank of India and Deutsche Bundesbank
Using Social Media:
Social media is another tool that can be used to search for data.
Among all social media channels, the following three allow you to achieve different goals:
| SOCIAL MEDIA | ADVANTAGES |
|
|
|
|
| Youtube |
|
As each social-media platform must be approached differently, you’ll need to develop a separate social media plan for each. The plan should include the audience you are trying to reach, your main goals and how each platform can be integrated with the r one that your company uses.
Finding the Right Sample/Consumers:
If you need to interview a large number of consumers, you can find a variety of online panel providers (SSI, LightspeedGMI, Toluna…) or DIY platforms (SurveyMonkey, Google Consumer Surveys…).
If your target is pretty standard (nationally representative, specific demographic target… ), you could save money by using a DIY platform. For more custom, complex targets, you might need help from a fieldwork agency.
Even though panels are convenient and usually cost-effective, as the recent election poll misses suggest, they are less and less representative of the general population or your actual customers. There are a number of new players in the field who are using innovative non-panel based sampling methodologies. One of the most promising is Qriously who is the only polling company to both successfully predict Brexit and Trump’s victory in key Rust Belt states. Their secret? They have access to 50,000 mobile apps and can reach 1b+ consumers in 100+ markets. By recruiting people in real time while they use their usual apps, they can get real answers from real people.
Finding the Right Search Engine:
Finding the right platform to access a maximum number of diversified sources is vital. ReportLinker is an aggregator that covers more than 350 sectors, provides 10,000 sources with the ability to supply more than 3.8 million reports and 150 million data series. The search engine offers a cost saving and result oriented solution and has a self-service approach that provides the latest information available.
In addition, ReportLinker developed a blog “ReportLinker Insight”, which provides exclusive facts, figures and surveys gathered by their team of analysts, for free. Check out their blog for more information: http://www.reportlinker.com/insight/.
