Market information in Oxford Brookes University Library

Market research reports
Other electronic sources
UK official statistics
UK non-official statistics European Community statistics
Non-official European and international statistics
Other useful sources

This guide is written for the Library user who has to find information about a particular market sector. It deals first with those sources that provide the most detailed, comprehensive information, from which you might choose a topic to research and ends with more peripheral sources such as statistics that you might use when you cannot find market reports. Many sources are available electronically. The majority of printed sources are available at Wheatley (W) but some are available at Headington (H) and this is indicated.

Company information can be very useful for market researchers. You should consult the separate web guide, Company information in Oxford Brookes University Libraries.

Undertaking an international marketing project, or an exporting project, can involve examining the economic, political and cultural background of the countries involved. The separate web guide Commentary on world economies will help.

Market research reports

These tell you everything you need to know about a product or service. They are the most important source, because a great number of other information sources are used to produce them and many publishers undertake original research. Sales figures, market trends, advertising figures, details of sales channels, information on leading brands and companies, and a demographic profile of consumers are usually included.

Mintel Reports (Available on and off campus)
All reports from recent years are available via the internet. Print runs dating back much further are available. Full details of the series held and access are available in the guide to Mintel linked above.

Mintel reports cover UK markets only. The series taken are:

  • Market Intelligence covers consumer goods and durables, food and drink, and services i.e. the items and services that all households purchase, such as toiletries, furniture, electrical goods, meat, wine, bread, video rentals, etc..
  • Retail Intelligence covers retail sectors, i.e. trends in supermarkets, department stores, mail order etc., rather than the individual products sold.
  • Leisure Intelligence reports cover hotels, holidays, days out, catering, eating out, DIY, gardening etc..
  • MBD Industrial reports cover 100+ industrial and business to business markets.
  • Library horizon reports examine types of consumer, general strategic issues and lifestyles rather than products or services. Issues covered include ethical and green retailing, marketing to tomorrow's consumer, balancing work and leisure, student lifestyles, the over-50s - changing lifestyles, etc...

Euromonitor GMID (Available on and off campus)
Provide market reports, company profiles, statistics, consumer lifestyle reports and a directory of organisations providing the data used in reports for world markets (including the UK).

  • Coverage is for the 52 leading world economies and 28 emerging markets including: Algeria, Ecuador, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Nigeria, Belarus, Georgia, Pakistan, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran, Serbia and Montenegro, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Costa Rica, Kenya, Tunisia, Croatia, Latvia, United Arab Emirates, Dominican Republic, Lithuania, Uruguay and Uzbekistan.
  • Mostly consumer markets are covered with Major Market Profiles covering industrial markets for France, Germany, UK and USA only.
  • Company profiles, although brief, are helpful because they cover the companies that are active and important within world markets and they include an assessment of strategic direction and competitive positioning.
  • Consumer lifestyle reports for each country provide extensive information on: population, consumer segmentation, regional development, home ownership, household profiles, labour, income, consumer expenditure, health, education, eating, drinking, shopping, personal grooming, fashion, leisure, personal finance, media, communication, transport, travel and tourism.

Business Source Complete (Available on and off campus)

Contains UK and international market research reports from Datamonitor. Although these reports are not lengthy a huge range of markets is covered and if you cannot find anything in the databases above try this. Follow the instructions in the separate guide to Business Source Complete carefully.

Investext on Thomson One Banker Analytics (Available on and off campus)

Investext is now available on the Thomson One Banker platform. Investext contains over 6 million reports from analysts in investment banks, stockbroker firms, etc. on companies, industries, markets and countries dating back to 1995. Many reports on world markets are available and company reports can give a detailed breakdown of the markets in which companies operate. Some reports offer more information than the market research reports above.

Other electronic sources

Newspapers on Factiva (Available on and off campus)

The Financial Times in particular is a valuable source of market new and data; the extensive regular industry and country surveys are particularly helpful. Now it is available, together with all other UK and international quality papers via Factiva.

Economist (UK version) on Factiva (Available on and off campus)

This is particularly valuable for information on the world economies for international marketing projects, and for industry surveys.

Fame (Available on and off campus)

Fame provides details of 130,000 UK companies with a turnover in excess of £1 million, or with profits over £50,000. Addresses, telephone numbers, activities, directors, parent and subsidiary relationships, and approximately 150 accounting items, including ratios, for the past ten years are given. A variety of graphs may be drawn from the accounting information. From the marketer's point of view its most important feature is that searches may be made using any of the data above either to produce mailing lists of potential customers, or to run a variety of industry analyses.

Orbis (Available on and off campus)

Orbis is a database from the same publishers using the same software as Fame and provides the same company information, but it covers over 900,000 of the world's top companies.

Thomson One Banker Analytics (Available on and off campus)

Provides accounts and share price data for 28,500 quoted companies in 55 different countries. 98% of companies on world stock exchanges are covered. Data can be recalculated and charted in a wide variety of ways. Data comes from the Thomson Worldscope database.

BRAD (Available on and off campus)

The BRAD Insight database gives advertising rates and other data for U.K. newspapers, journals, TV, radio and other media.

WARC (Available on and off campus)

The World Advertising Research Center database contains journals, news, case studies and data on advertising and marketing.

The Internet

It is rarely possible to guarantee finding good quality free market information via the internet. However, it may be worthwhile to use a web searching service such as Google to find sources on the market or country of your choice. See our Internet sources for business and economics for details of some potentially useful sources.

Statistics

UK Official Statistics

Official UK statistics can be found on the National Statistics website which contains statistics on the UK economy, business, population and society. Further information is available on the UK Statistics pages on the Business Subject help pages. Many sources of official statistics are available in the Statistics Collections at Headington and Wheatley Libraries. You should consult the catalogue for details.

The best guide to UK official statistics is:

Guide to official statistics (W & W) STATS 314.1016 GUI
An alphabetical index at the back of this work covers the huge and surprising variety of subjects upon which the government produces statistics, including all market sectors. The index refers readers to numbered paragraphs which discuss the variety of sources available on the particular subject.

UK Non-Official Statistics

The most useful guide to non-official statistics is:

MORT, David & SIDDALL, Leona Sources of non-official UK statistics (H & W) STATS 314.1016 MOR
This publication lists over one thousand organisations including trade associations, local authorities, quangoes and private companies which produce statistics on a regular basis. Few may be available in the Library, however many non-official sources of statistics are available at Headington and Wheatley. Some of the more generally applicable sources include:

Marketing pocket book (W) STATS 658.800212 MAR
Regional marketing pocket book (W) STATS 658.8 REG
Despite their small size these two works contain a huge variety of useful statistics which you may have difficulty finding elsewhere.

Advertising statistics yearbook (W) STATS 659.10212 ADV
Gives advertising statistics by media and by product area, the latter also giving some international and agency figures. Advertising statistics can be otherwise almost impossible to obtain.

European Community Statistics

The best guide to sources of EC statistics is:

Eurostat catalogue (W) STATS 314 EUR
Eurostat is the EC's official statistical office. A selection of their publications has been purchased for Wheatley Library and you should check the Catalogue for details. However, a particularly useful publication for market research is:

Consumers in Europe facts and figures (W) STATS 339.47094 CON
Details of European consumers expenditure on everything from housing to transport, water, food, consumer goods, tourism, sports, insurance etc. Up to 2004.

Non-Official European and International Statistics

European marketing data and statistics (W) STATS 314 EUR
Contains a huge variety of useful market research statistics for every European country, including Eastern Europe. It is particularly useful for background statistics. Data is provided for the past few years. The format of the data makes comparisons between countries easier. A guide to further sources of information is also included.

European marketing pocket book (W) STATS 658.800212 EUR
Asia Pacific marketing pocket book (W) STATS 658.800212 ASH
Americas marketing pocket book (W) STATS 658.800212 AME
Like the U.K. pocket books listed above, these relatively small volumes provide an enormous diversity of information otherwise difficult to obtain.

International marketing data and statistics (W) STATS 310 INT
A companion to the European directory above this also contains a huge variety of useful market research and background statistics. Every non-European country in the world is covered. A guide to further sources of information is also provided.

Other useful sources

Directory of British associations (H & W) QR 062 DIR
If you cannot find published information try to find out if there is a trade association for the product or service you are researching. The Directory of British associations gives details of trade associations for particular industries. Many trade associations have extensive information services producing regular publications - statistical bulletins, for example.

Advertisers' annual (W) QR 659.1 ADV
Contains a comprehensive guide to national and regional newspapers, consumer and business journals and TV, radio and other media in the U.K. Also provides information on the world press, covering the main newspapers from over 150 countries. Additionally it contains details of advertising and public relations agencies.