The next piece of the puzzle that will help you with this assignment is finding an industry report. An industry report is a market assessment tool that takes a comprehensive look at a particular industry or market. The form and contents of an industry reports varies between databases. Some common elements of an industry report include definition of the industry market, industry growth rate, industry total revenues, industry segmentation, industry distribution channels, industry life cycle and forecasts, and top companies in the industry.
Need help determining your company's industry? Sometimes the category is obvious, but not always (especially with tech companies). An easy way to find the industry related to your company is to look at the abstract of the SWOT analysis you've already found. Marketline SWOTs in Business Source Ultimate generally list the industry (or industries) in the abstract.
In the below example, you can see the two main industries listed for T-Mobile in this SWOT Analysis abstract are "Radio and Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing" and "Wireless Telecommunication Carriers."
For more information on identifying your company's industry, please see our NAICs guide:
Once you've identified your industry, you can use that information to help you search in some of the below databases.
Articles from 1,400+ business, law, and I.T. journals plus 27,000+ videos from industry leaders
Pro Tip: If looking for a full industry analysis, try to avoid “Snapshots” or other articles that only briefly examine one aspect of the industry.
Industry reports within this database are built with U.S. public data. To browse, use the menu in the top left-hand corner and select “Industries.”
Industry reports, analysis, and statistics for U.S. and global markets
Type the industry name in the search bar OR browse reports by clicking the “Industry Reports” drop-down menu at the top of the page and peruse the reports available.
Pro-Tip: Searching on a company name will sometimes bring up the appropriate industry report(s). However, this is generally limited to large, publicly traded companies.
Quantitative data on business, finance, politics, and media.
Click on the “Reports” drop-down menu at the top of the page and choose "Industry Reports”
Browse the reports or use the search bar to find a particular industry. Select reports from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France are available, as well as some with global coverage.
While reports are good places to start, you should also gather and learn from the many journal articles about your industry and top competitors. Business Source Ultimate and ABI/INFORM Complete provide access to full-text articles from scholarly journals, professional publications, magazines, and newspapers.
Articles from 1,400+ business, law, and I.T. journals plus 27,000+ videos from industry leaders
Articles analyzing industries, countries, economies, and markets
Search these databases using keywords related to your industry. Mix and match terms and phrases to locate articles which indicate trends, recent events, or marketing tactics. For more information about using keywords, please see our guide:
You can locate industry association websites by running an advanced Google search using the following format: industry description + association. You can also add site:.org to your search to ensure that you only return results that have a .org domain.
Example search: site:.org brewery + association
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