Business Research: consumer information

Consumer intelligence includes data collected to understand consumers' buying behaviour, preferences, needs and demographic characteristics. In other words, an important part of business research!

Market reports often describe consumers in the broad sense: for example, they describe consumer characteristics/trends of a particular country, region, or age group. These reports can help you get a picture of your target group.

In the box below you will find the databases where market reports can be found. Are the databases completely new to you? Use the Database help (menu at the top) to get started.

Not found a report or want to supplement the information found with additional data or news? Here are other sources to consult:


Industry associations:

Industry associations clearly benefit from collecting data on their industry. Many industry associations collect industry statistics, maintain lists, publish white papers and research reports, and organise conferences and trade shows. So you quickly find out who the best-known industry experts might be. Industry associations are also likely to offer more detailed product and consumption information, even for niche markets.

Do an internet search for your company or product + 'association'.


Consultancies / Consultancy Firms:

If you search for your market + consultancy, you may also come across additional information collected by consultancy firms such as:

• McKinsey
• KPMG
• BCG

Statistics, trends and data
Did you know that almost all countries have a national statistics website? On this page, we give you more tips to find statistics, trends and data.


Business news
And here you will find tips and suitable databases for Business news.

Target customer group

When it comes to consumer information, the more specific you can pinpoint your target audience, the more the search results can help you on your way to selling more products or services. Plus: no marketing budget is big enough to reach the entire population, it is better to focus your budget on the appropriate customer group. How do you handle this?

During audience research, using the resources mentioned above and below, you explore what your target audience is, what characteristic features they have, what problem you can solve for them, and how best to reach them.



Segmentation

A term that is good to know when looking for consumer information is segmentation, or 'customer segmentation'. This is dividing the population or your target audience into smaller segments/groups of individuals with similar characteristics. By dividing a large group into smaller segments, these groups can be better targeted. An example is segmentation based on age: you can imagine not having to send an 80-year-old customer a tiktok video, while paper mail would be a bad fit for someone 20 years old.

Segmentation is often done in one or more categories:

• demographic (demographic): e.g. education, income, age, or marital status
• behavioural: e.g. shopping preferences (online or in-store),
• geographically (geographic): where does the customer live?
• psychographic: e.g. norms and values, attitudes, and other psychological influences on how someone spends money.

To properly serve different segments, some marketers create 'customer personas', or fictitious customer profiles, to properly figure out which marketing choices will fit best.



For examples and more explanation on segmentation, here are some articles:
- 21 real-world examples of customer segmentation | Adobe

- What Is Customer Segmentation? Definition and Guide (2023) (shopify.com)

Consumer information

Target customer group

Databases

Interesting websites