Marketing 443: Home

This website provides two tabs with data resources for assignments. In this tab, in the box “Library Databases,” you’ll find information that you can only access through our Library. In the tab “Web Resources,” you’ll find information that is openly available on the Internet. As additional tools for your work, the tab “Citation/Reference Tools” offers the manual on the citation style requested in this course (APA), and the tab “Quick Tips” shows ways to make your research more effective.

For the assignments in this class, you can’t rely on your “feelings.” The same is true when you are doing research for a client or your own business.  You will be better off using actual evidence and support from reliable sources to propose your ideas.

As you start your research, keep in mind that there isn't one "magic source" that will provide all of the information that you need. Your research will likely be somewhat unique to your specific product/service and target market. So, you’re likely to have to consult multiple databases to find the pieces of information you need. By the ways, the list of databases provided in the website is a great start but is not exhaustive.

A few other things to remember:

• Pay attention to dates. Use the most current information available.
• Use the right words. There’s sometimes a difference between how you refer to something (e.g., shoes) and how the industry refers to it (e.g., footwear). Another example is target markets: teens vs generation z. Pay attention the words being used by the people who work with the products, services, or consumers and utilize them in your own searches.
• Adjust your expectations. Not every piece of information that you want to find necessarily exists. Instead of using perfect information, use the best information available to you.
• Broaden or narrow your research topic as needed.  This is one way to address the previous statement.  For instance, if you are not able to find a specific piece of data about women's purses, try broadening your research to the area of women's accessories.