Marketing 658 Graziadio - Demographics Now

In order to begin targeting your potential customer base, you need to develop a strategy to gather quality data.

You will use a variety of databases to gather background information and then a specific database to pull market segmentation reports.

Scenario: You want to open up a fast-food franchise and need to understand if this is a sound investment and if there is potential to make a profit. You then need to determine who will be your target demographics, figure out their locations, and understand their related behaviors to the industry. 

To begin, you should find out as much background information as you possibly can. This should include scholarly data and peer-reviewed articles on your topic.

Suggestions

Business Source Complete

• Use  Business Source Complete in order to gather scholarly peer-reviewed articles on your topic. 
  When you access the database make sure you select all available databases to search through by clicking on "Choose Databases" and selecting them all. 
• Begin with simple search results to get as many articles to populate as possible. Use the filtration methods to narrow down your searches.
• Use the filtration method located on the left-hand side to narrow your searches to "Peer-reviewed" 
• Use the articles to get an idea of potential industry trends or target audience demographics.

IBIS World

• Use IBIS World to gather industry-specific reports.
• These reports can be downloaded into a PDF format by clicking the download button at the top of the report.
• You can search for U.S wide industry reports or U.S State-specific reports. 
• IBIS World industry report will help you determine if your business venture is a viable business opportunity or not depending on the market trends.
• Use the "Major Companies" tab to determine who the major players are in this industry. 

Mintel Reports

• Use Mintel Reports to gather information on market research, consumer profiles and markets, forecasting, and driving forces. 
• Once you determine an area of target for your business and determine the demographics of that area, use Mintel Reports to gather additional consumer information.
• Example: Your target business area has a high number of Millenials. Use Mintel Reports to gather consumer behaviors for Millenials. 

Statista

• Use Statista to gather statistics on a variety of topics.
• You can use Statista to gather demographic information of a certain area.
• You can use Statista to gather statistics on the trends in certain industries.
• You can use Statista to validate any hypothesis you may have with hard data.

Claritas 360

• Use Claritas 360 to compile a variety of demographic, market segmentation, and profile reports.
• Start with a profile worksheet report. A profile worksheet report has variables for behaviors and psychographics that can help you determine who your target is by asking specific questions.
  • For example, you can input variables into the profile worksheet where you ask the database to populate data on who " Quick service restaurants used for lunch past 30 days McDonalds"
  • This database will give you data on which segment population met the requirements of your inputted questions.
• Next, run a segment distribution report to determine where your segment population from the profile worksheet data are located.
• You can run this report at the national, state, or county level.