Introduction to marketing research

On this page, you will find essential resources for any marketing research project. In fact, this page is designed for COMM 223 / MARK 201 Marketing Management 1 / Introduction to Marketing courses. Some of the systems listed below are provided by your library, others are maintained on the free web by various organisations. Included also are YouTube tutorials enabling you to discover and use these resources.

In addition to searching on Google for news, product reviews and trends, you can use the following article databases for find more information for your project. These contain news, popular, trade, and research articles and are provided to you by your library. Remember, you will have to cite all the sources you use... so make sure to locate the most authoritative ones. 

Here are the various article databases:

• ProQuest Business Databases: Articles (Canadian & more) from magazines, trade publications, peer-reviewed/Scholarly journals, company profiles, market reports.
  • Direct link to the video for this step

• Factiva: Trade magazines and news from around the world
  • Direct link to the video for this step

• Eureka: French Language newspapers from Montréal and Europe

• More listed here: Business Article Databases

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Our national statistical agency provides most of its reports and data for free from their website www.statcan.gc.ca. Although you may search for these from the main page, it is recommended that you use the two aggregate data reporting tools as part of the Census and CANSIM.

• Census: every 5 years, last one in 2016. Search on Data Products > Census Profiles > Postal Codes & more
  • Direct link to the video for this step

• National Household Survey: this optional survey was offered to Canadians answering the 2011 Census. It provides for additional information about households in the country, such as income and mobility.
  • Direct link to the video for this step

• Data From Statistics Canada: All other StatCan datasets: household spending; retail trade sales; labour force survey; Neighbourhood income and demographics; family income; NAICS Statistics – click ADD REMOVE DATA
  • Direct link to the video for this step

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• Passport by Euromonitor: Worldwide consumer market reports (includes Canada). Two things to click on in this system, you can watch the video below for a walk-through:
  1. Countries & Consumers > Consumer Trends & Lifestyles > ANALYSIS FINDER > Consumer Lifestyles > Chile
  2. Search > Browse and Select Relevant Topics > Choose Geographies > Reports & Statistics
  • Direct link to the video for this step  

• SimplyMap Canada : color density map based on data from Statistic Canada
  • Direct link to the video for this step

More market and consumer databases are listed here: Market consumer data

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To get help, please use the Ask-A-Librarian service to chat, email or talk to a librarian. When you contact us, make sure to specify the following:

1. Tell us about your project (e.g. the course you are doing the project for);
2. The NAICS Code or information about your industry or business;
3. Which system you are having issues with.

•   Direct link to the video for this step

Please be precise and provide all relevant information!

~ Good luck! Remember, perfect information does not exist, use what you find, a smart estimate is better than nothing! ~

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