Market research is amazing. Why? Because it is so strange. There's marketing info out there on everything. Everything. Who collects this stuff? Generally companies and governments are the places where the market research comes from (and goes to). The big player in market research is (of course) Market Research.com. This company lives to get data and put it together in palatable formats. And these reports are expensive. Just take a look at the price listed for the 2003-2008 World Outlook for Child-Oriented Mini Pizzas, Pizza Squares, and Pizza Novelties. (Did you even know that there was such a thing as child-oriented mini pizzas?) That $795 price tag is not a typo.
So what can you do if you need market research and you don't have a connection? Remember, governments also collect this type of data. In the U.S., that means it should be available to the public, for free. Take a look at the Market Research Library on the U.S. Commercial Service site.
Trade associations are another great place to find free info. They're promoting an industry so they'll have great data to share. For example, take a look at the Pet Food Institute. This site has a section just for researchers and media. You know what that means? That's right, data!
Now let's go back to pizza for just a moment. I did a Google search on "pizza industry" (w/o quotes) and I found this trade publication, Pizza Today. I found some interesting industry news here. There isn't much hard data, but there is some trending info within this industry, which can also be very helpful.
The thing to remember about market research is this-it's out there. Somewhere.
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