Principles of Marketing BUS 230 Professor Smoak

Reference Books and Electronic Reference Sources

Reference resources can give a general overview or introduction to a topic or help define terms. Also, business reference resources are extremely important in providing a variety of data like statistics, historical charts, industry overviews and company histories. Below is just a sample of what the Reference Collection has to offer.

Industry Information

NAICS Codes (North American Industrial Classification System) R338.02012 N864ic
NAICS Codes (North American Industrial Classification System)--part of the census.gov website. You can search here (box in upper left corner), or follow this link: 2007 NAICS Codes and Titles to browse by industry.
SIC Codes (Standard Industrial Codes) R338.02 U58s 1987
Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys, R332.67 S785
US Market Trends & Forecasts, R658.834 U58mt
US Industry & Trade Outlook, R338.4 U58it
US Census Bureau: Check out the Economic and Industry Fact Sheets that you can find here

Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2004-2005, R317.3U58s 2004/05
Demographics USA (by City, Zip Code or County) R336.973 D383...
Markets of the United States for Business Planners, R330.973 M345 1996
United States Census - www.census.gov . Especially useful here is the American Factfinder
and this tool: Advanced Geography Search which allows you to enter a street address and get census data for the neighboring area.
CIA World Fact Book - A resource for international demographics.
Business Statistics of the United States: Patterns of Economic Change R338.0973B9792005 Full of information about spending, GDP, historical data.
The Lifestyle Market Analyst (SRDS) R658.834 L 723 2005 This resource tells you what the range of interests of a given market demographic are.

Company Information

Company Histories, vols. 1 - 67, R338.74 I61
Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands R658.8343 E56 Three volumes, Describes brand origins, product importance, marketing strategies, litigation, etc.
Quarterly and Yearly Financial Reports, Academic Universe (Lexis/Nexis) - select "Business", then "SEC Filings & Reports"

Finding an Article

Each of the following databases are helpful for finding magazine/journal articles on a company, an industry or a product:

* Business Source Elite
* Academic Universe (Lexis/Nexis) - select "Business"
* WilsonSelectPlus
* Academic Search Complete

Each of the following are helpful for finding Business-related newspaper articles:

* Academic Universe (Lexis/Nexis) ~ clicking the News link accesses a variety of newspapers.
* Wall Street Journal
* Chicago Tribune
* New York Times
* Regional Business News
* Other Electronic Newspapers

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The article isn't available full-text online! Now what? Don't fret. Look for these buttons: , or , or this line of text: (Find this resource with SFX) next to the article citation on the search screen. Clicking on this will take you to a list of our full-text sources that carry the journal, if we have it. It will also help you get a copy of the article in paper if necessary

You can also call (630) 617-3173, email or IM the Reference Department: AIM: elmhrstcollibref | Yahoo!Messenger: eclibraryref | MSN Messenger: ref[at]elmhurst.edu to inquire about a specific title or ask a question.

If you cannot find an article at the College Library, you can request it through our online Interlibrary Loan article request form.

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Finding Company Web Sites

Trade Association Websites:

Trade Associations are a good way to find competitor websites. Most of them have member lists that you can look at.

International Association of Culinary Professionals

Organic Trade Association

National Association for Specialty Food Trade

All Things Organic ~ this is the website for an industry trade show, but it might be a useful place to look for business information

Using Google to find company websites

Try using more than just Google. Try out some of the other search engines or metacrawlers listed on the Library's Internet Resources page.

Not all search engines function the same. Reading the "help" or "tips" screens will help you understand how a search engine functions and how to create the most effective searches. Does your search engine allow the use of ...?

* Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT
* Quotation marks " " or other symbols to keep words in a phrase in order ("kraft foods")
* Special symbols like +, *, ! or - for truncation, proximity, adjacent words or plurals

So now that you understand how to put words together in the search engine, what words should you use?

*Make sure you know if the company has a parent company or not.
*Use the most precise name for the company (ex., "gap inc" instead of "the gap" or gap) - this helps eliminate "garbage results".
*Spelling counts.

WARNING: Keep in mind that all of the information that you want may not be found at the company web site. Big corporations pay fancy consultants lots of money to complete market research; often, companies aren't willing to share the information that cost so much to obtain.

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Web Site Evaluation

Now that you know which search engine to use and how to construct an effective search, how do you know if the sites that you have found are any good? Are they reliable? Scholarly?

Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites - from Cornell University Library
Thinking Critically About World Wide Web Resources - UCLA College Library

Citing Resources

Don't forget to properly cite your resources; It is an important part of the research process.

Writing & Citing - from the friendly librarians at Elmhurst College
Resources for Documenting Electronic Resources

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Created on 07 March, 2005 by Jennifer Paliatka and last updated on March 1, 2006
by Peg Cook, Reference/Instruction Librarian,
A.C. Buehler Library, Elmhurst College