Research Guides: Brand Audits &amp; Marketing Plans: Secondary Resources

Using secondary information in a brand audit or marketing plan

When completing a Brand Audit and Marketing Plan you can utilize a number of similar sources to help inform your understanding of the company and related brands and, ultimately, develop a realistic and achievable marketing strategy. Often a combination of primary and secondary sources, we have highlighted relevant ZSR databases, texts, and research strategies to help you identify secondary information to inform both brand audits and marketing plans.

It is highly likely you will utilize information found in these sources for multiple sections of your brand audit or marketing plan; for example, marketing research available in Mintel may help inform your brand assessment, situation analysis (SWOT), as well as your market segmentation/target audience analysis (demographic/lifestyle information of average consumers). To that end, we have organized these resources by the type of information (i.e. information about companies, industries, consumers, strategies, etc.) each resource excels at providing.

Company and Industry Information

Company Information:

Company History
Products in the line [inventory]
Product Categories
Brand's mantra
Competitors

Don't forget to check out the company's website and their competitors' websites!

IBISWorld
This database will supply you with industry reports, to give you a larger context of the industry your market is in.

ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to scholarly, trade, and popular articles from world-leading business-focused publications around the world.
Pitchbook This link opens in a new window
Access detailed data on many private and public companies. Users will need to enter in their WFU email to access.
Business Journals This link opens in a new window
You will need to create an account using your WFU email to access this resource. Great source of information on local companies.
Gale Business: Insights This link opens in a new window
Provides detailed company and industry profiles including SWOT reports, market share reports, and financial reports, as well as thousands of company histories, case studies, scholarly journals, and company news.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Includes abstracts, indexing, and full text from international business periodicals like the Harvard Business Review. Also includes Datamonitor company profiles. Coverage: 1886-

Consumer Information

Market & Product Research:

Brand awareness
Image of brand
Strengths & weaknesses of the brand
Position in the market

Mintel Reports
This is the best place to start since most of the content of this resource is market research.
Simmons Insights
A consumer and media analysis tool based on the Simmons National Consumer Survey.
ABI/INFORM Collection
Use the suggested search terms & limit results to trade publications and newspapers
Statista
Use this for specific market statistics or look for the dossier reports. Keep your search terms relatively broad.
SimplyAnalytics
Visualize demographic data through mapping

Strategy, Tactics, and Recommendations

Strategy, Tactics, and Recommendations

Marketing campaigns in adjacent industries/competitors
SWOT analysis of parent company or competitors
Case studies in category

ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new window
Utilize category, company name, or industry keywords and phrases like "marketing" or "marketing strategy", or "marketing tactics"
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Check out "company profiles" of parent company or competitors for detailed company analysis including SWOT.
eMarketer This link opens in a new window
Explore current and historical digital marketing trends and campaigns.
Advertising Age Datacenter This link opens in a new window
**Utilize VPN to Access Off Campus** Advertising Age is one of the world's leading news sources for the fields of advertising and marketing. The AdAge.com Data Center is a useful source of statistics, facts, and special studies related to advertising and marketing.
Winmo This link opens in a new window
Research different brand campaigns including a library of different campaigns, media spend, and more.