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Consumer market research is the process of gathering data on a consumer goods market (personal-use goods and services such as toothpaste or retail sales).  This includes information on the current and potential customers, as well as the competitive landscape of the market. 

Primary research involves collecting data from the source (i.e. consumers) such as conducting surveys. It can be very targeted, useful, time consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive.

Secondary research involves using data that has already been collected (e.g. statistics or market research reports). Because you do not control how or what data is collected, there may be times where you cannot find the exact type of information you want from secondary sources.

You can kind of think of it as primary research is watching a movie whereas secondary research is reading a review of the movie.

This guide will show you some secondary sources for consumer market research.

Note that there may be additional information resources depending upon the market or industry you are targeting. Feel free to email us or schedule a consultation to find out more.

If you have spent some time searching on the internet for market data, you may have come across some market research reports that will seemingly answer all your research needs, however they tend to cost thousands of dollars. These reports are costly because market research can be very labor intensive work.  Cornell is fortunate enough to have access to some market research reports via the following databases: 

• Mintel -- Reports cover consumer markets in the UK, US, and many countries in western Europe.  Reports contain information on market segmentation, new products, market drivers.... Registration with your Cornell email address is required.
• Gartner -- Information on IT-related markets.  Access is provided via CIT.  The Cornell subscription to Gartner is limited, so many of the reports are not available as part of our subscription. However, there quite a few valuable reports that are available.