Sorry about mangling that Spider-man quote. My point is that sometimes the most powerful databases are, unavoidably, also the most complex. Sadly, that complexity can act as a barrier, causing researchers to avoid some amazing sources.
Take, for instance, our Vividata database... Vividata’s Study of the Canadian Consumer reaches 40,000+ Canadians each year, gathering detailed data on Canadians’ opinions, demographics, and activities, as well as their product, service, and media purchases...
A couple years ago I collaborated with our Interactive Arts & Technology Librarian on a series of posts about one of the "wicked problems" of our modern world: sustainability in the textile & fashion industries.
That series was published to support an interdisciplinary cohort of students in our Business of Design program, all of whom were working on projects to change the way fashion and its materials are designed, produced, purchased, and discarded... change of the sort that our world so desperately needs.
The word "change" is key here. The Business of Design program has changed to Make Change Studio, but the students involved are still trying to change the world, and they've returned to the topic of fixing fast fashion.
One of our BUS 345 sections (hi, D100!) will be doing some primary market research focused on meal kits this term.
The students have a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to choosing the research questions they want to explore, so it would be difficult to suggest specific resources and search strategies for them. Instead, I thought I'd try a different approach:
I'll highlight just a few of the possible research questions to give you a sense of the range of research that goes into marketing (section A below). I'll aim to highlight the amount of lateral/creative thinking that a market researcher has to do, but my list won't be anywhere near as detailed as that of a real marketer.
Then I'll list the guides and blog posts that cover the sorts of resources I'd normally use to answer such questions (sectionB).
Finally, I'll return to the target product and talk about research resources that are specifically about meal kits (section C).
One of our marketing classes (BUS 345 E100) is going to be doing some primary research on alternative protein products& consumers again this semester.
In support of that class, I've listed some key resources, but students in other classes may also want to use this post as a case study to learn about some of the powerful market research tools available to SFU researchers. Bon appetite!
For those who haven't used Vividata yet: it's an invaluable source of information on Canadians’ opinions, demographics, and activities, as well as their product, service, and media purchases, with brand-level data in many cases.
This is just a brief post to let you all know that we now have an Advanced guide for our Vividata database, thanks to the hard work of one of my colleagues here in the library, Marianne!
de still covers the basics -- how to create and interpret a simple table -- but this new Advanced Vividata guide goes several steps further: deep into how to adjust the settings to create exactly the table you need, then how to read that table accurately.
A couple of our marketing classes are going to be doing some primary research on alternative protein products& consumers this semester.
In support of those classes, I've listed some key resources, but students in other classes may also want to use this post as a case study to learn about the powerful market research tools available to SFU researchers. Bon appetite!
Marketing operates on the edge of the unknown, constantly trying to predict and influence the future and reliant on an incomplete understanding of the past and the present.
Information sources used by marketers (i.e., all information) will never be perfect – the need to make estimates and assumptions won't go away – but the new version of our Vividata database certainly provides a more solid foundation for marketing predictions & strategies.
Our Vividata Target Snapshot database has new data and new functionality -- just in time for the busy fall semester!
I'm still exploring it and discovering all the changes, but thought I'd pause to list what I've learned so far:
Data: Data from the 2016 Q4 survey wave has been added. The data was gathered during the period of 06/30/2016 and 06/30/2017. Sadly, it appears that the older data has been supplanted. That's a pity as it is often useful to compare data across time periods.
The title is pretty much self explanatory. I thought I'd mention it here because doing so gives me a chance to talk about the hot topic of data visualization and the indispensable Journalists' Resource...
