Library: Marketing: Consumer Analysis

The objective of consumer analysis is to identify segments or groups within a population that have similar needs. Consumer analysis can help answer questions such as:

Who buys the product or service?
Where do these consumers live?
What income levels are in the market?
What is the age pattern in the market?

Answers to these questions help identify target markets for specific products or services and advertising efforts.

Develop a consumer:

Demographic Segmentation: includes age, gender, income, race, marital status, education, occupation, home ownership, number in the household and age of the home.
Psychographic Segmentation: looks at the values, activities, interests, and opinions of the population, what we often call lifestyle.
Behavioral Segmentation: Divides the market by observable behaviors such as usage, purchasing decisions, and brand loyalty.

Text taken from MIT Libraries Marketing Guide

Resources from the U.S. Government

Industry Sectors

American Time Use Survey
The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing.
Annual Capital Expenditures (ACES)
The Annual Capital Expenditures Survey (ACES) provides data on capital spending for new and used structures and equipment by U.S. nonfarm businesses with and without employees.
Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS)
The Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS) produces industry-level estimates of sales, expenses, and other items for the retail sector in the U.S. each year.
Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM)
The Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM) provides sample estimates of statistics for all manufacturing establishments with one or more paid employee.
Annual Survey of Public Pensions (ASPP)
The Survey of Public Pensions: State- and Locally-Administered Defined Benefit Data provides revenues, expenditures, financial assets, and membership information for the defined benefit public pensions.
Consumer Expenditure Surveys
The Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) program provides data on expenditures, income, and demographic characteristics of consumers in the United States.
Data.Census.Gov - U.S. Census Bureau Data Portal
Data.census.gov is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau
Economic Census
The economic census serves as the foundation for the measurement of U.S. businesses, including the Island Areas, and their economic impact.
Overview of BLS Wage Data by Area and Occupation
BLS wage data are available by occupation for the nation, regions, states, and many metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.

Community & Households

American Community Survey (ACS)
The American Community Survey (ACS) helps local officials, community leaders, and businesses understand the changes taking place in their communities. It is the premier source for detailed population and housing information about our nation.
Current Population Survey (CPS)
The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body of data on the labor force, employment, unemployment, persons not in the labor force, hours of work, earnings, and other demographic and labor force characteristics.
GDP & Personal Income Data
Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Department of Commerce

Additional Resources

American Customer Satisfaction Index
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is the only national cross-industry measure of customer satisfaction in the United States. The Index measures the satisfaction of U.S. household consumers with the quality of products and services offered by both foreign and domestic firms with significant share in U.S. markets. The ACSI benefits business, researchers, policymakers, and consumers alike by serving as a national indicator of the health of the U.S. economy, as well as a tool for gauging the competitiveness of individual firms and predicting future profitability.
Consumer Confidence Survey
From the University of Michigan, this survey provides basic information about consumer confidence, one indicator of consumer spending.
ESRI Tapestry Segmentation
This freely available interactive website allows you to search for brief synopses of the lifestyle choices of those who make up specific zip codes or neighborhoods.
Internet Retailer
Covers the market trends, technology, competitive practices and people that are shaping the e-commerce industry. See the “Charts & Data” section for statistics and infographics about Internet retailing.
Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
The Roper center provides polling data on all sorts of public opinion topics.
StatsAmerica
StatsAmerica is a service of the Indiana Business Research Center (IBRC) in the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. With generous support from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, we have developed and maintain a unique and useful set of tools and reports that focus on innovation capacity, resilience, equity and distress. We maintain tens of thousands of data items from dozens of federal and state sources, along with some commercial or private source data. While StatsAmerica adds value to these data through easy access and functionality, we acknowledge the direct agency source of the data on every table, profile or map.
Think with Google
Keep up with what’s new in consumer trends, marketing insights and industry research. The “Research Library” provides in depth reports on select industries.