Online Market Research

[Don Rae]

Hi   I have recently doing a lot of online market research and thought others may be interested in an approach which I have found quite successful.   First I start with identifying the keywords associated with the industry that I'm researching. For example in doing market research for a health-focused application I searched words like healthcare, informatics, system, application, hospital, provider, and of course the targeted geographic region. I find it pays to use 4-6 search keywords per search as searching on only one word typically returns too many results. It's nearly always trial and error!   For best global results I recommend www.google.com but also use regional search engines where appropriate e.g. www.searchnz.co.nz (NZ) www.anzwers.com.au (Australia). Another good multi-search engine is www.dogpile.com which produces results from multiple search engines. Google is especially good for searching within the first batch or batches of search results. It's also good to use to search a specific website. e.g entering Frank Nobilo site:www.pgatour.com returns a list of references to Frank on the PGA site.   Typically you will find that there are several information portals associated with the particular line of business (LOB). For example while looking at the ports market I found www.portguide.com, www.world-ports.com, www.containershipping.com to name a few. Usually there are also consultants closely associated with the LOB that offer some free content which can be very useful in identifying the other market players, and in some cases can even identify what technologies are being used by potential customers. They may also provide revenue figures and other market sizing data.   Government websites are also useful but can be hard to get through. It's important to understand the relevant legislation in the target market which is where some of the country profile sites I list come into their own.   Having identified the market players (vendors/competitors, customers, distributors, government, non-government bodies/societies/associations) you can then look at market publications, market events/conferences.   Here's some links I have found useful.   Market/Country profiles   http://libweb.uncc.edu/ref-bus/vibe1.htm this page has a number of links that are helpful in putting together a country profile. http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrkti/ibin/engdoc/dyna_ccg.html Industry Canada site that lets you put together multiple country profiles with self-selected parameters covering economic trends/outlook, trade regulations/standards, investment climate, and general info such as business travel guides and so on. http://www.nabe.com/publib/links/intllink.htm enormous collection of links on this National Association of Business Economics (US) page to orgs like World Bank, OECD, IMF, UN etc. http://www.tradepartners.gov.uk/index_page.html UK site detailing sector reports in 260 countries. http://home3.americanexpress.com/smallbusiness/resources/expanding/global/countries.shtml AMEX site detailing countries and business travel/protocols. http://www.oilsurvey.com/php/countries.php3?chosenCountry=0&chosenCategory=0 has a good country profile service that offers extensive targeted external links for a selected country. http://www.tradeport.org/ts/countries/ US govt country profiles http://travel.state.gov US State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/international.html more good international trade/business links   Company, Stocks & Financial profiles http://www.forbes.com/ http://www.wrhambrecht.com/ http://www.hoovers.com http://www.barrons.com/ & http://www.wsj.com (Wall Street Journal)   Various http://www.feer.com/ Far Eastern Economic Review http://www.americaeconomia.com/ Latin America economy (Spanish and Portuguese only - use http://world.altavista.com for [somewhat understandable] online translations) http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/romans/fdtf.html tons of links to US government data   Any other good sites out there for (preferably free) online research??   regards Don Rae Manager - Internet Services & Market Research JADE Marketing 21 Sheffield Crescent PO Box 20-152 Christchurch, New Zealand   tel: +64 3 365 2500 xt 3146 fax: +64 3 358 6050 mob: 021 668 129 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL:  http://www.discoverjade.com   (JADE is a division of Aoraki Corporation Limited)