ENGL105i: Writing in Business: Unit 3 Shark Tank Project

Mini-Lecture

Watch this mini-lecture to learn about research strategies and resources for the Unit 3 Shark Tank Pitch & Business Information Report. 

Check out these tutorials, too.

• Using SimplyAnalytics
• Market Research Basics
• How to Search Mintel
• How to Search Data Axle Reference Solutions

Resources for Marketing

Look for reports on consumer behavior for your target group, also called market research reports. Reports like this tell you broadly what a particular group cares about, how they get information, and other insights.

• Mintel Academic
  Find reports about how to market to different demographic groups. The Interactive Databook has a lot of data visualizations that you can download.
• Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier and Entrepreneurial Studies Source
  Find articles about marketing strategies for different consumer groups.

Resource Links for Market Analysis

Industry description & outlook

• IBISWorld Industry Reports
  Search by keyword to find industry reports. The "Industry Performance" and "Operating Conditions" sections describe what's going on now. "Industry Outlook" gives projections and discusses future trends.
• Statista
  Contains statistics, infographics, industry and market research reports and publicly-available data for over 25 countries. There is a special focus on digital markets as well as emerging industries and social trends. Collections of statistics can be downloaded in Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF.

Target market

• Market Research Handbooks
  Your first stop in researching your target market. These PDF downloadable ebooks are comprehensive, 1-stop shops for data and statistics about consumers and industries. Incredibly detailed so choose the most relevant title(s) to download and use the table of contents to navigate data tables.
• Mintel (consumer market research reports)
  Mintel Reports are your next step. Use them to find even more detailed information about consumers in your industry(ies). The reports answer questions like: 1) who are the customers in a given industry or consumer sector, and 2) what are they like. What do they spend money on, what are their attitudes, what is their age/race/ethnicity/gender/income, etc.
• SimplyAnalytics
  This database is full of data that will tell you about consumers and where they are located geographically. Demographic variables (e.g. age, gender, income level, educational attainment) and psychographic variables (e.g. spending habits, leisure activities, other behavioral information).
  Important: Watch the 5 minute "Intro to SimplyAnalytics" tutorial video under the "Support" menu, and see this guide for help.

Competitive Analysis

• Mintel
  search by keyword for reports on particular products or industries, or a demography. Pay attention to the report section "Brand/Company".
• IBISWorld Industry Reports
  search by keyword for reports. Pay attention to report sections "Competitive Landscape" and "Major Companies".
• Data Axle Reference Solutions
  This database is a directory of businesses in the U.S. (yellow pages on steriods). search for companies in your industry to identify competitors, or companies working in similar fields. Here's a video how to search

Financial Projections

• Financial Projections Template from SCORE