InfoGuides: MCOM 3314: Public Relations and Advertising Research: Consumer Research

Recommended Databases

For general information about advertising to certain consumers, try searches again in the recommended databases.

Business Source Ultimate
Our most comprehensive coverage of business publications for management, marketing, economics, finance, accounting, international business, and more, with not only academic journals, magazines, trade journals, book chapters, conference papers but also country-specific reports, industry profiles, market research reports, SWOT analyses, legal summaries, and CFRA industry surveys.

Business Source Ultimate allows unrestricted access to Harvard Business Review.
Format: Majority full-text; some additional full-text via link resolver, Coverage: Varies by title. Mostly mid90s - present., Truncation and Wildcard: * and ?, Search Tips: Use quotation marks to phrase search. Allows Boolean AND, OR and NOT searching. May limit to full-text, scholarly journals, date, page length, publication name and type.
Communication Source
The most comprehensive research database in the field of communications, this resource results from a merger of EBSCO’s Communication and Mass Media Complete with SAGE's Communications Abstracts. It indexes and abstracts over 1000 core journals, nearly 400 more than in CMMC, and its active full text for more than 600 journals includes 150 full-text titles not available in CMMC.

It also has a subject-specific, browsable thesaurus featuring 4,528 preferred and 8,528 non-preferred terms and coverage dating back to 1915.

Coverage includes advertising, rhetoric, communication disorders and much more.
Coverage: Varies, mostly mid-1990s forward, Truncation and Wildcard: * and ?, Search Tips: Use quotation marks to phrase search. Allows Boolean AND, OR and NOT searching. May limit to full-text.
eBook Collection (EBSCO)
Online collection of 200,000+ texts, fully viewable onscreen. Most of these ebooks can also be downloaded to a personal device. Most allow unlimited simultaneous users; each book's record in the database will indicate if there is any limit and, if so, whether it's been reached. Search by title, author, subject, and keyword and limit by full-text, publisher, publication date, and ISBN.
Format: Full-text, Coverage: Mostly 1990 - present, Truncation and Wildcard: * and *, Search Tips: Use quotation marks to phrase search. Allows Boolean AND, OR and NOT searching. May limit to language and publication date.

Business Source Ultimate

Demographics - Start Here

Find information on people related to age, income, race, ethnicity, occupation, etc. Generally the information is organized by location: country, state, city, etc.

Social Explorer
Data visualization and mapping program providing easy-to-use location analysis tools for users to create in-depth data maps, reports, and presentations drawing on robust data on demography, economy, health, politics, environment, crime and more from a variety of sources.

Among data sources included are the Decennial Census, American Community Survey (ACS), County Business Patterns, Population Estimates, LEHD and more, many available at detailed geographic levels. Users can also add their own data for visualization.

Training webinars are available multiple times each week. Anyone can easily register online. (If none of the listed times work, please let us know.)
American FactFinder
Defunct search interface and information page for the United States Census Bureau. Officially replaced by data.census.gov. The Census Bureau offers a chart listing what is currently available on data.census.gov, and recent release notes (PDF) may also be helpful. Data tools, visualizations, courses, and more remain available at census.gov/data.html.

Markets and Consumers

data.census.gov
Data.census.gov is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau. (American FactFinder has been decommissioned and is no longer available.)
American Consumer 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. Some data available at no charge; some parts of the website and associated data require a subscription.
Economic Census - U. S. Bureau of the Census
The U.S. Government's official five-year measure of American business and the economy. Free.
Pew Research Center
Surveys and reports on the attitudes, opinions, and lifestyles of Americans. Free.
Survey of Consumer Finances
A publication of the Federal Reserve Board that contains information of the financial and demographic characteristics of U.S. families. Free.