Market Research Resources: A Cheat Sheet
Market research isn’t something you do as a one-off when you launch your business. Your market place and competitors are not static. They are constantly changing and evolving and as a competitive business you need to keep abreast of these changes and trends in the marketplace. Without this market based knowledge, your business decisions are more than likely to be based upon guess work and out-off- date information, which ultimately could lead to business failure.
Often there is a perception that market research is complex and only specialists can get access to the required information. This is not true. In this age of technology, there is a lot of research that has been conducted by others at your fingertips. This type of research is called Secondary Research and much of it is free and easily available on line.
Enterprise Ireland – Publications (http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/Publications/)
Failte Ireland – (http://www.failteireland.ie/Utility/Publications.aspx)
OECD – (http://www.oecd.org/statistics/)
http://budget.gov.ie/Budgets/2013/2013.aspx
Eurostat – http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/
MarketResearch.com – http://www.marketresearch.com/
Research and Markets – http://www.researchandmarkets.com/
UK National Statistics Publication Hub – http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/index.html
The World Bank – http://data.worldbank.org/
Forfas Reports (http://www.enterprise.gov.ie/Publications/)
BDO (Leading Irish Audit, Tax and Advisory firm BDO) (News section is good) (http://www.bdo.ie/services/consulting/sectoral-industry-reviews)
IDA Strategy Documents – http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/publications/library-publications/ida-ireland-publications/IDA-Ireland-Strategy-2020.pdf
Select Strategies (need to registrar ) http://www.selectstrategies.com/
Failte Ireland – http://www.failteireland.ie/Research-Insights.aspx