Henry Buhl Library: MARK 411 -- Marketing Research: Competitive Analysis Research Tools

Understand your Customers

Passport GMID This link opens in a new window
A global market research database offering research reports and company profiles providing insight into industries, economies and consumers worldwide.
Statista This link opens in a new window
A statistics search engine, Statista consolidates over 3 million data points on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources.

Using Global Consumer Survey -- video tutorial
This brief video highlights the features of the Global Consumer Survey (part of Statista), as well as how to search the survey.

Google Trends
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Learn what people are searching today, this week, and beyond. You can compare brands, companies, and more.
XM Institute
Provides free research, tools, launchpads, and training for the field of experience management. Sign-in is required for download.
McKinsey & Co
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This free site provides great insights on industries and logistics, as well as marketing and sales. Users must sign in to use the content.

Library Resources

Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new window
Data & information about active & inactive public and private U.S. & international companies, company & industry news.
Passport GMID This link opens in a new window
A global market research database offering research reports and company profiles providing insight into industries, economies and consumers worldwide.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Their MarketLine industry reports are incredible resources. Coverage varies by industry.
Statista This link opens in a new window
A statistics search engine, Statista consolidates over 3 million data points on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources.

SimilarWeb
Provides free access to some ranking information for brands, as well as very helpful reports. Users must sign in for access.

Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new window
Data & information about active & inactive public and private U.S. & international companies, company & industry news.
Statista This link opens in a new window
A statistics search engine, Statista consolidates over 3 million data points on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Their MarketLine Company reports are incredible resources. Coverage is international and generally limited to large companies (i.e. startups and regional companies rarely have reports).

Google Trends
- This link opens in a new window
Learn what people are searching today, this week, and beyond. You can compare brands, companies, and more.
Ranking the Brands
Free access to a variety of lists you can use to see how your brand stands up today and how that has changed in recent years (dates variety by list).
Rankur
Provides social media and web monitoring, as well as analysis and reports. Free accounts are limited to one dashboard and one saved search.
SimilarWeb
Provides free access to some ranking information for brands, as well as very helpful reports. Users must sign in for access.

Many individual Brands (such as Old Spice) and Products (like Tide Pods) have their own websites.
Their info and descriptions can help you to identify and describe the benefits and features of Brands and products.

3. Product Reviews

Find a mix of formally published (e.g. trade publications) and informal (e.g. social media and customer feedback) reviews.
For formally published reviews, search Business Source Premier; try limiting to Product Reviews.
Try searching social media channels, the web, and sites where your product(s) are sold, like Amazon.
- Remember, customers tend to review items that they really love or truly dislike, so you'll want a number of reviews from a variety of sources to get the best sense of its benefits and features.