Research Guides: MBAB 5P68: New Product Development: Market Assessment

Intelligence Sources for Market Assessments

The intelligence sources listed on this page can assist you in understanding your external marketing environment in order to conduct a market, competitive, or situation analysis.

Analysing the Macro Environment (External Analysis Guide)
Key intelligence sources that provide information regarding multiple aspects of the macro environment in Canada or other countries, as well as individual PESTEL factors.
Analysing the Operating / Industry Environment (External Analysis Guide)
Key intelligence sources for competitive analysis of the operating and industry environment.

Researching Product Categories

A product category is defined as "the classification to which the product is assigned" (Jeong, Wiley International Encyclopedia of Marketing, 2010). An example of a product category is breakfast cereal. Product categories also exist for services.

Start Your Research Here

Your recommended starting points for researching product or service categories are:

IBISWorld Industry Research Database This link opens in a new window Produces and publishes over 425 Canadian and 1,300 US Industry Reports at the 5-digit level of the NAICS code.Contains trends, statistics & analysis on market size, market share of major companies and industry growth rates.Permitted Uses
- The Library subscribes to the following modules in IBISWorld: Canada Industry Reports (NAICS), United States Industry Reports (NAICS), Canada Industry iExpert Summaries, United States Industry iExpert Summaries, United States Specialized Industry Reports, United States Specialized Industry iExpert Summaries, China Industry Reports (200 industries), Canada Industry Provincial Reports (50+ Ontario industries), and Canada Collection of Macroeconomic Business Environment Profiles.
Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new window A deep collection of worldwide business information that enables companies to generate insightful business intelligence.Permitted Uses
Mintel Academic This link opens in a new window Canada and US market research, market analysis, product intelligence, and competitive intelligence reports.Coverage: Canadian Reports 2014-current ; US Reports 2008-current ; most reports updated annually; covers a wide variety of sectors, themes, and demographics.Permitted Uses
Passport This link opens in a new window Passport provides statistics and analysis of consumer products, services, and ingredients. Each industry (e.g., packaged food) is divided into categories (e.g., Breakfast Cereals). Start with the Category Briefing for a review of trends, the competitive landscape, prospects, and category data (sales data by subcategory, by company, and by brand). Statistics include distribution, pricing, and penetration rates Don't forget to scan recent articles and opinion written by Euromonitor's analysts.
- Includes Economies & Consumers, as well as Industrial-Canada reports for industries across the entire Canadian economy
Statista This link opens in a new window Contains more than 1 million statistics on over 80,000 topics.Contains Statista dossiers and industry reports for 170 industries and 150 countries.Includes market forecasts, as well as market, industry and country outlooks and insights.

Additional Secondary Sources:

Other secondary sources of intelligence on product categories include industry profiles and research reports found in other Library Databases. These include reports from Acquisidata, Fitch Solutions, MarketLine and other sources.

How to Find Industry Reports in Library Databases

Other Market Data Sources

Target Market Specification (IMC Guide)
Research tips for: 1. defining target markets and market segmentation for consumer and B2B markets; and 2. gleaning market data by scanning the industry and trade literature.
Canadian Advertising and Media Resources (IMC Guide)
Tips on obtaining intelligence on advertising and media channels for your Market Launch Plan.