Tis the Season to…Shop???

Lots of retailers want to know the answer to this question. Holiday shopping comprises a huge percentage of annual sales for retailers. Getting the correct strategy for this seasonal event is crucial. Luckily, Lippincott Library has many resources to help with strategizing, including consumer surveys, trend reports and more. What are consumers looking to buy, where are they likely to shop and what ads will tempt them to purchase merchandise.

Mintel Reports covers consumer trends and products. Focused on the U.S. and U.K., data comes from MRI-Simmons and Kantar Profiles, among other sources. Detailed methodology is provided at the end of reports. Try a keyword search for holiday.

Based on consumer survey data, Statista is another good source for finding information about consumer behavior during the holiday season. It is international in scope. One recent report is Holiday Season and New Year in the US 2023, a consumer Insights data table: “Lavishly decorating their houses and gardens with light strings, real and fake Christmas trees as well as reindeer, snowmen and Santa Claus figures is only one of the many popular Christmas traditions of consumers in the United States”.  Details about the methodology is clearly provided.

eMarketer focuses on ecommerce. Data comes from in-house as well as external providers. Content includes articles, audio, charts, forecasts and reports. A simple search for holiday pulls up a number of results including Holiday Shopping 2023: Brick-and-Mortar and Ecommerce will battle for Retail Channel Supremacy. Reports can be downloaded in several formats including pdf, excel and ppt.

WARC (World Advertising Research Center) includes case studies, ad spend, rankings, strategies and more on all things advertising. It is international in scope. A simple search for holiday pulled up a topic category: Seasonal and occasion marketing. Here’s an interesting article about reusing older ads. It isn’t necessary to reinvent the wheel every advertising cycle.

For more Lippincott Library resources, use these guides: Advertising and Marketing Industries as well as Consumer Behavior and Demographics.

Happy Holidays!!!

Unpacking Consumer Packaged Goods with Mintel’s Global New Products Database

The Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD) is a new Lippincott Library resource for researching the consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketplace. GNPD focuses on new products in the food, drink, beauty and personal care, home care, health and hygiene, and pet markets in 86 countries. Mintel has been monitoring products since the 1990s and adds more than 30,000 product launches to GNPD each month. In addition to new products, GNPD includes relaunched, reformulated, and repackaged products and new varieties or extended ranges of existing products. Helpful tip: if a product is purchased by another company, Mintel categorizes this as a “relaunch” and creates a separate GNPD record reflecting the new company’s ownership.

Mintel users may have encountered GNPD content during general searches on the Mintel platform. GNPD data and information appears in Mintel Country and Global reports, under Content Type: Innovative Products, and when using the Product Features filter. Now, users also have the option to search within GNPD exclusively.

To access GNPD from the Mintel platform, navigate to the Analytics menu at the top of the page and scroll over Products. From there, you can perform a basic keyword search, access the Advanced Search tool, research ingredients, and explore CPG trends.

Basic keyword searching provides quick access to new products. Every field in GNPD is keyword-searchable. Search suggestions allow you to drill down by product name, company name, flavor, fragrance, ingredients, and more.

Use the filters on the search results page to focus results on region, product claim, ingredients, company, and more. The “Refine search” free text box allows for keyword searching within results.

Advanced Search allows you to limit a search by multiple filters, many at a detailed level, enabling a refined list of results:

The example below reflects an Advanced Search for the key phrase “ice cream” in the product description, limiting to products containing the ingredient almond milk, and limiting geography to Latin America:

Results can be sorted in several ways, including by geographic Market:

Drilling into a product record yields Product Details including package size, product positioning claims, as well as Company & Source Details including manufacturer, retail store where the product was purchased, and the product price:

Product records also include nutrition facts, packaging information, product variants (when available), and links to GNPD records for similar products:

The Advanced Search function is also accessible from the basic search results page by clicking the “Edit with advanced search” link.

Product records can be downloaded into Microsoft Word, Excel/CSV, PowerPoint, or HTML. Customizable templates are available for Excel and CSV downloads. Product images can be downloaded as JPG files.

GNPD search results can be visualized, charted, and tabulated for trend analysis. Search results may also be shared through a direct link. To save GNPD searches, create a free Mintel personal profile using your Wharton or Penn email address. From a search results page, click “Save search,” name the search, and save it. You can also create email alerts for new products meeting your search criteria.

The GNPD Hopper is similar to the basket feature in Mintel reports. From a search results page, click “Add to Hopper,” then “Create new Hopper.” Name the Hopper, add records to it, and save it. You can also add Hopper comments and share Hoppers. Saved Searches and saved Hoppers are accessible from the Products page under the Analytics menu.

This is merely a brief highlight of how GNPD can streamline research in the CPG sector. To learn more about GNPD’s many tools and features, the Help & Training section accessible from the top right side of the Mintel database includes a Glossary, User Guide, and forthcoming training videos covering basic and advanced searching within GNPD.

This video from Mintel demonstrates popular GNPD features mentioned above:

For additional assistance with Mintel GNPD, please contact a Lippincott Librarian.

GNPD covers June 1996 to present. For CPG data and information prior to 1996, search GNPD’s PDF Archive, which dates back to 1973.

Need a Lyft?: The Market for Ride-Sharing Apps

So you’ve heard about Uber’s latest round of VC funding or Lyft’s expansion into a new city, (or the latest scandal Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has caused), and you want to know more about the market for ride-sharing apps and the companies running them. With 93% of millennials saying they plan to continue using Uber despite the company’s recent bad press, these companies aren’t going anywhere.

Lippincott Library subscribes to databases that offer statistics, information about VC funding, market share, and user demographics for the companies operating in this market. As you search, note that databases often use different terminology to describe this market. Try searching ride-sharing, ride-hailing, car-sharing, and sharing economy to find information about this market.

PrivCo offers excellent coverage of Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing companies. Their company profiles include a company description, company financials, sources of funding, a list of investors, competitors in that market, and news and analysis about the company. While it can be tough to find financial information on startup companies like Uber and Lyft, PrivCo offers relatively comprehensive financial information for each company it profiles. (Note: You will need to set up an account based on your Penn email to access PrivCo.)

eMarketer also provides great coverage of Uber and other ride-sharing companies, offering a variety of statistics, narrative reports, and news stories. From a report on “What Lyft’s Funding, and Uber’s Struggles, Mean for the Sharing Economy” to statistics on why consumers use ride-sharing services or which apps they use most often,  eMarketer is a good resource to use. Try searching Uber,  Lyft, ride sharing, and ride hailing to find more information.

Thomson ONE has some useful analyst reports on Lyft, Uber, and other ride-sharing apps. To find these reports, click “Screening & Analysis” and then “Research”. Search for ride-sharing or ride-hailing in “Title”, or search for sharing in “Title”  and then click the And drop down menu to  add another search row and search Lyft or Uber in “Title/Text”.

If you want to dig into each company’s market share, use Market Share Reporter. Search ride hailing to find statistical tables  including “Ride-Hailing Industry, 2014“, “Ride-Hailing Apps in China“, as well as “Business Travel Transportation, 2014-2015” which includes market share data for Uber and Lyft.

IBIS World has industry reports on “Taxi and Limousine Services in the US” and on “Limousine and Town Car Services” that mention how Uber and Lyft are affecting these industries. You can find these reports by searching Uber, Lyft, and ride-sharing. While ride-sharing companies only comprise an estimated 6% of these markets, 6% of a nearly $11 billion market is nothing to sneeze at.

Mintel Oxygen also offers great coverage of consumer markets and products, including the market for ride-sharing apps. Try searching Uber, Lyft, and ride sharing to find reports on the way ride-sharing apps have affected insurance companies, car rental and travel companies, and driven digital trends and new business models.

Feel free to contact Lippincott’s business research librarians with questions about researching this or any other market or industry!

Passport GMID for Market Entry Strategies

Passport GMID is one of our premier market research databases. Learn how to utilize this tool to its fullest when working to craft a market entry strategy for consumer products. This video will illustrate some of the many ways you can use Passport GMID to inform your decisions. And, feel free to contact the Lippincott librarians for additional assistance with using this great resource.

I Graduated!! Can I use the Library Databases?

Congratulations to the Class of 2016!!!

“Why can’t I get access to the Library’s databases?” is the perennial question of the recent Penn graduate.

Unfortunately, the library’s subscription databases are only available to current students, faculty, and staff members of the University of Pennsylvania. Once the school switches a student’s status from student to alumni – usually mid-August – access to the Library’s electronic resources ends. Below is a summary of the Penn Libraries resources that you can access as an alumni, both remotely and on-campus. We also have a few tips for finding business resources at your local public library or on the Web.

Alumni Services provides information on visiting the Library, Library Events and E-resources that are accessible remotely using your PennKey information.

Alumni also have access to some business databases on campus as shown in this list: Alumni Business Database Access on Campus.

Other options for Alumni include the local public library.  Many public libraries provide access to selected databases for members.  Check your library to find out what is available to you.   New York City’s Science Industry and Business Library, (SIBL) rivals many college libraries. The Free Library of Philadelphia also has a large collection of business resources.

There are also many useful freely available web resources.  Here are a few tips on locating and finding reliable information.  First, check our Library Research Guides.  Many guides include web sites carefully vetted by subject Librarians.

Many Universities, such as Penn, provide Scholarly Commons where research by faculty and students are readily available.

Use Google filters.  For instance, when you are researching topics such as foreign trade or exporting, limit your search to government sites.  To search for trade regulations in Brazil, use this search:

TRADE REGULATIONS BRAZIL SITE:.GOV

You will retrieve resources about trade with Brazil from U.S. government sites only.

To search for information from associations or organizations use the filter SITE:.ORG.  Many organizations such as the World Bank provide free information. One great resource from the World Bank is the annual “Doing Business In“ survey of the ease of doing business in countries across the Globe.  The World Bank also provides detailed information on each country including business regulations and historical macroeconomic data.

Google Scholar contains many scholarly publications from around the world.  Many are accessible via the web.  This can also be used as a way to build a bibliography that can be used at the local library.

 

 

 

 

 

The Library of Congress lists many resources, print and online in the Business Reference Services website.  Check out the Bibliographies & Guides as well as recommended Internet Resources.

Large consulting companies often provide free reports. PricewaterhouseCoopers provides industry overviews and research and insights.  Real estate firms such as CBRE provide quarterly international market research reports.

An easy way to access government data is through American Factfinder.  Select your topic of interest such as demographics, economics or housing.

FRED, the Federal Reserve Bank, St. Louis, is another depository of economic statistics and research.  This covers a range of countries as well as the United States.

The Thomas Register is the largest directory of suppliers in the the U.S.  Many companies include brochures.

 

The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank providing information about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America.

Financial Data is also accessible on the web.  Yahoo Finance and Bloomberg provide data on stocks, bonds and other financial instruments as well as providing current news.

 

 

 

 

Edgar provides free access to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  It also includes information about the usage for various filings.

This is a sampling of sites that are available on the web.  Good luck going forward!!

For more detailed information about the Library’s business databases available to alums, please look at our blog post Library Database Access for Penn Alumni.

 

 

 

Living the Dream: Researching the Fantasy Sports Services Industry using resources available to Wharton students

In the U.S., Fantasy Sports Services comprise a billion dollar industry with hundreds of component companies . Like many new industries consisting mainly of small private companies, data on the industry and its companies is allusive. Similar problems are encountered in researching such industries as Tattoo Parlors, Online Dating  and Mobile Apps.

The Lippincott sources for Wharton students described below will give you a good start in researching the Fantasy Sports industry and its companies

$1000s in Free Market Research—At the Library!

This post originally appeared in Wharton Entrepreneurship’s Blog:

As an entrepreneur on campus, you will be impressed and excited by the types of resources the library provides. Are you looking for trade journals to read to develop ideas; industry research to learn about sectors; demographics databases to identify customers; company directories to create a list of possible competitors; financial benchmarks to draft projections; or deal summaries to understand the funding climate? The library can help! We strive to purchase resources used across academic and corporate settings, including more than 120 business related databases, most of which are available to students, faculty and staff of Penn with their PennKey and password, anywhere they have an internet connection, through the library website.

 

With so many resources, it can be daunting to know where to start! Fortunately, we’ve built in some help from theLippincott Library home page. Our Research Guides are authored by our business librarians and organized by topic. Our Business FAQ offers quick answers to commonly asked questions.  But the absolute best way to learn how to navigate our resources is to contact my colleagues and me at Lippincott Library. Send us an email at lippinco@wharton.upenn.edu, call us at 215-898-5924, chat with us, stop by the library, or visit us in Huntsman in GSR 251 from 12:30 to 1:30pm, Mondays through Thursdays during the semester. We can direct you to library assets most relevant to your topic, provide instruction on effective database searching and assist you in developing a strategy to find what you want.

Do you want to scour the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal every day to track trends and news? You can do that with Factiva.

Do you want to read trade journals about the beverage industry because you are interested in launching a kombucha tea business? You can do that with Business Source Complete.

Do you want to get an overview of demographics and spending behavior of America’s pet owners? You can do that with Mintel.

Do you want to get perspective on remote patient monitoring systems? You can do that with Marketresearch.com Academic. And yes, you are reading that correctly. That report is valued at $4200, and you have access because you are affiliated with Penn.

The resources available through the Penn Libraries are vast. Save yourself time, and contact us to explore valuable information to develop your entrepreneurial ideas. You will wonder why you didn’t talk to us sooner!

Please see our Research Guide, Entrepreneurship and Small Business for additional resources.

Do You Have This Report? Finding Market and Industry Reports

Doing research on an industry? The Library has several databases that can help. Most Library resources can be accessed by typing the database name into the Findit box at the top of the Library homepage.

Net Advantage – Standard & Poors has been providing industry surveys since 1941. Older, print editions are available at Lippincott Library – Peck Collection (call number HG4921 .S672).  Recent years are available electronically. Once you are logged into the database, click on the Industries Tab. While coverage is mostly limited to the U.S. there are some international reports as well. The reports include industry profiles, trends, how the industry operates, key ratios, and how to analyze a company in this industry. Comparative company analysis is also available for industry leaders.

Moody’s Analytics examines industries from the standpoint of the bond markets. Not only does Moody’s provide very detailed reports on their methodologies for rating bonds in a particular industry, it also provides industry outlooks explaining what industry trends will affect the bond markets. Coverage is international in scope. Both types of reports provide deep insight into what is needed for an industry to thrive and what companies in that industry have the strongest potential for investment.

Navigate using the Ratings and Research Tab. Next in the middle column, select Research Type and then choose Industry/Sector Research or Methodologies.

Use the filters on the left of the screen to limit to Corporates (under Market Segment) and then select an industry from the Market Segment filter. These are listed in alphabetical order.

Top 10 Resources for MBAs

The librarians at the Lippincott Library are excited to have new MBAs on campus. We’ve put together a listing of 10 resources/services available through the library that we think you should know about.
1. Wall Street Journal – The library has full-text access to the newspaper through a number of our subscription databases (just not through WSJ.com). You can browse the latest 2 weeks of the newspaper in Factiva.  Other places to find the Wall Street Journal can be found here.  You can also access The Economist, and other news sources.

2. Document Delivery – MBAs have access to a special delivery service for articles and book chapters. Send citations of interest to docdel@wharton.upenn.edu and we will scan or download the items you need & send them to you via email. This service was previously only available to faculty and PhDs but we’ve opened it up to MBAs – saving you both the time and headache of searching for the full-text.

3. Subscriptions to 100+ business specific databases. Some highlights include databases that cover market and industry reports as well as financial resources used in the industry like Bloomberg, Factset, SDC, and many more.

4. Wharton MBAs have remote access to S&P Capital IQ through MBA Career Management – click on “Students”, then select “Research Tools”. Remote access will become available at the start of the Fall Term. Capital IQ is also available in the Lippincott Library for students with a Wharton login account.

5. Business FAQ – Provides quick reference help on a wide range of questions relating to business research. The FAQ is a knowledge base consisting of 15 broad categories (e.g. “Finance”) and more than 600 specific questions (e.g. “How do I find Info on Venture Capital and Private Equity?“). Take a look at our recent blog post, Just the FAQs, to learn more.

6. Research Guides – Helpful guides put together by subject specialists at the Lippincott Library. The guides cover industries, geographies, and other business topics. Each guide includes links to subscription databases, journals, books, and other helpful resources that relate to the guide’s topic. Research Guides are a good starting point if you are new to a topic or just beginning your research.

7. Group Study Rooms – The library has study spaces that you can reserve for groups of 4 to 12 people for up to two hours a day. We hope that when you are not collaborating in 2401 Walnut, you know that you have a place to meet with your group in Lippincott.

8. Research To Go is one of the many ways that you can contact the librarians at the Lippincott Library. From 12:30pm to 1:30pm, Monday through Thursday, you can find a librarian in JMHH 251. Drop in for a reference consultation, no appointment is needed. Please feel free to interrupt us!

9. Financial Database Instruction – Over the course of the school year, the Lippincott Library will be offering a variety of 1-hour classes covering topics like financial databases (Bloomberg & Capital IQ), Entrepreneurial Research, and Business Research Strategies. Database instruction will be hosted in the newest space in Lippincott, the Yablon Financial Resources Lab, when it’s completed at the start of the Fall Semester. A full listing of offerings will be available on the website.

10. Last but definitely not least, get research assistance from one of Lippincott’s six Business Research Librarians. There are lots of ways to contact us and we hope that you do. We will gladly help you get started with your research and projects!

Visiting Lippincott Library –  You can access most of our electronic databases remotely, all you need is your Pennkey ID and password. However, there are some perks to visiting the library.

• What do textbooks, laptop locks, and headphones all have in common? You can check-out these items from the Lippincott Library Reserve Desk for three hours at a time for use within the library.
• With your Wharton ID and password you can log into computers that have the same image as the computers in Huntsman Hall. This allows you to do the same work you do in Huntsman, but in the library.
• Access a number of specialized financial databases like Bloomberg, Capital IQ, Factset, SDC, Datastream, Morningstar Direct and Prowess.
• Wharton printer – You can print in the library using your Wharton print account.
• Scanner – Scan documents for free directly to your USB or email.
• And, of course, in-person research assistance from the Lippincott Librarians. Come visit us at the Reference Desk.

Increase Your Market Share IQ

The cartoon character Dogbert gives this advice to the Boss:

“It’s easy to create a strategy – Write down everything you do preceded by the phrase Increase our Market Share by.”

Creating strategy a la Dogbert is easy. Finding market share data can be tough.

Market share is the percentage of a market, usually defined in units or in revenue, accounted for by a company, a brand, a product, a commodity, or an institution.  The market can be defined geographically, as broadly as the entire world or as narrowly as a zip code. Market share figures are usually calculated for the year, but some industries require more frequent updates. For example, the publication MusicWeek gives weekly market shares by corporate group for artists’ singles and albums. In addition, we may want historical time series or a projection of market share data. The number of potential requests for specific combinations of products, companies, geography and time is almost endless.

Here are some sources for market share data.

Bloomberg

Bloomberg’s industry surveys module is a good source for market share data for more than one hundred industry groups. The screen below shows market share data for North American Passenger Airlines. Use the command BI <GO> to access Bloomberg Industries. Select an industry and then click on “Market Share” from the left-hand menu. Bloomberg is available at the Lippincott Library and Huntsman Hall.

Note that passenger airlines have their own unique market share metric “Revenue Passenger Kilometers”

Market Share Reporter