This is a (not comprehensive) list of web sites that provide information on consumers that may be of interest to you. Keep in mind that a lot of secondary research is fee-based, so when you are doing a search in Google, you might find a report that looks absolutely perfect for you--only to find out that it costs $5000! These sites are a combination of government sources and free materials that are found on fee-based sites.
Government Web Sites (Demographics)
Poll Information
Polls are a great way to tap into how people are feeling and/or their attitudes and beliefs. These polling sites tend to skew a bit political in their coverage of topics, but there are also quite a few polls regarding people as consumers.
Consumer Research
The Pew Research site is a great source of information. It is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.
MarketingCharts.com is a collection of links to marketing data, graphics, and analyses. Not all content is free. Charts show the latest consumer trends and may be searched by product or service.
Segmentation Tools
Market segmentation is the process by which potential customers are grouped into subsets or segments that have common needs, wants, desires, values, and priorities systems. PRIZM Premier is an example of a proprietary segmentation system from Nielsen, which we have available to us through the Claritas 360 database (which is paid for by the Libraries). Nielsen also provides a free zip code lookup version of PRIZM where you can type in a zip code and get information about the segments that are found there.
ESRI Tapestry and VALS are two other commercial segmentation systems that offer limited free information to the public.
Trends