Thank you for your question about marketing your product. Unfortunately, there is not a super easy way to research a target market for any product.
If you need statistics, they may or may not exist for the thing you want to find. So you need to ask the following questions:
- Who would actually gather this data? Is it the federal government? State government? Local government? A professional organization? A company?
- Is this data the kind of data that would be freely available (like Government census data) or proprietary data (like internal documents in a company)?
- Where would they publish this data? Website? Company annual report? Professional organization newsletter?
You also need to decide WHO you are looking for. Try to answer these questions:
- What is your customer age range? Because a marketing strategy that would work for Gen Z would be different than for Boomers.
- Are you focusing on a particular gender?
- Are you focusing on a particular family type? Single, married, families with young kids, etc.
- Are you only looking at selling in a specific city? State? Country?
- What are the people in your ideal market like? What is their income level, education level, hobbies, political and religious affiliations? Who do they aspire to be? Are you envisioning middle and mid-upperclass people who recycle and shop at Whole Foods or are you thinking more of the rugged outdoors people who identify with words like "working class"?
Once you have your ideal user in mind, you can look for keywords that you can add to your searches.
For Articles and eBooks, use the keywords above by going to the Library Homepage and clicking on Articles to access the library's research databases.
(As of fall 2022, you no longer need an HFC library card (barcode) to access the library’s databases from off campus. Please use your HFC username and password to log in.)
Once you click on Articles, use your search terms in these databases:
For additional resources, try these websites:
- Google Trends--- To see what people are searching online related to your product or the industry
- SBA Office of Entrepreneurship Education -- For data and statistics.
- Google your product and "Professional organization" to look for organizations that may have the data you want.
- Check local news sources. We have subscriptions to Detroit Free Press and Crain's here:
- U.S. Census
- Look at the Chamber of Commerce and the Visitor's Bureau websites, if you are doing a local customer base.
- Look for any groups dedicated to your product or industry.
- Try to identify the Industry that your product is. If you can find it, you can search Business Insights: Global (Gale) for the Industry information.
- Does your industry have a Trade Show? Or other gathering of like minded business people? Search Google to see if there is and find a website.
If you need additional assistance, please contact your HFC Librarian. You may also need to attend your teacher's office hours to further refine your topic or get specific help with calculating your market.
