LibGuides: New Venture Lab: Consumer Research

In some views, consumer research boils down to two steps:

Find out what the customers want.
Give it to them.*

But who are your customers and how do you know what they want? How do you reach them with information about how a product/service could satisfy them?

Consumer research seeks to answer questions like: Who are the potential customers for your product/service? What are their habits and values? What are their needs and wants? Where do they encounter advertising and what advertising is effective on them? Where do they live? What are their other interests?

The resources here will help you explore these questions and use what you learn about them to reach your customers and flip them from potential to interested to loyal customers.

*Holbrook, M. B. (1995). Consumer research: Introspective essays on the study of consumption. SAGE Publications, Incorporated. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/gonzaga/detail.action?docID=1920455

Euromonitor Passport This link opens in a new window
Click through the "Consumers" tab to drill down to content areas of "Lifestyles" or "Income & Expenditure" to access analysis, statistics, insights, & data visualizations on the habits, values, and spending behavior of consumers by country.
Richard K. Miller & Associates This link opens in a new window
Access annual reports like "Consumer Behavior," "Consumer Marketing & Advertising," and "Consumer Use of the Internet & Mobile."
Simmons Catalyst This link opens in a new window
Simmons conducts an annual survey of U.S. consumers aged 18+. Go to "Profile" then "Quick Reports" to define a consumer type (like people who purchased cross-training shoes in the last 12 months), then select from report types (like Demographics) to learn about these consumers (for example: education level, income, age, own a smartphone, used social media in the last week, etc.).
Social Explorer
Find data and create comparison tables and visualizations using data from the U.S. Census, American Community Surveys, Business Patterns, Crime, Health, and Religion data, UK and Canadian Census data, and World Development Indicators. Find information like the number of jobs per sector, income and education levels, ethnicity, and more by geography (national, state, county, etc.).
Vivvix This link opens in a new window
Find out who your customers are by seeing how peer/competitor companies advertise to them (like what TV programs they run ads during or what websites they place banner ads on).
Ad$pender no longer exists and all Ad$pender users migrated to Vivvix - the new enhanced platform as of November 30th 2022.

Gonzaga subscription includes:
Media (13): Network TV, Cable TV, Syndication, Spot TV, Magazines, Sunday Magazines, Newspapers, Network Radio, National Spot Radio, Outdoor, Internet Display

Access: 3 Concurrent users with IP access

Time Period access: 5 rolling years

Markets: 103 DMA markets

U.S. Census Bureau Data
Based on the decennial census, learn about the characteristics of consumers (like age, education level, income, ethnicity) by geography (census tract, postal code, city, metro area, etc.).