Catherine Gracey
Open Scholarship and Applied Sciences Librarian at the University of New Brunswick
Market Research
A brief introduction
Catherine Gracey
Please contact me with any questions or for help!
Types of Market Research
YOUR research from talking to people, conducting surveys, holding focus groups etc.
More personalized, but also more time consuming/expensive
1
Primary
Research other people have done that we can find using search engines, databases, government reports etc.
Less specific to your research question, but easier to do on a wide scale
2
Secondary
You need to do both of these to make a convincing case
From Design Thinking:
Why do we need to do Market Research
- Is this a common problem?
- Do people like my solution?
- Would they be willing to use/pay for it?
1
Desireability
- Can my solution/idea actually be built/created using available technology + innovation
2
Feasibility
- Will this be profitable?
- Is it scalable?
3
Viability
Why do we need to do Market Research
The Customer
1
Desireability
The Business
3
Viability
Market research can help us most with desireability & viability
- Proprietary Library Resources
- Statista
- IBIS World
- Pitchbook
- Open Source information
We're going to focus on secondary market research
Why not just Google?
Business/financial information is often locked down, and paywalled, you have access via UNB libraries
Market Research Databases
All generally linked to on this guide:
I will share this document after class that points you on where to start:
My husband's retirement plan is to create the next 'World of Warcraft.' Let's explore whether this might be desirable and viable
Case Study
Do people play video games?
Desirability
- What kind of video games?
- What demographic of people?
- How many people?
Let's start with Statista
1. Consumer Research
Is the Video Game Industry Profitable?
Viability
- Is it a growing, or shrinking industry?
- What are it's strengths/weaknesses, threats & opportunities?
- What are the key trends?
Let's now use IBIS World
2. Industry Research
Who are competitors?
Viability
- Who are key players?
- What do their financials look like?
- How is your product/service differentiated?
- Have they acquired companies? For how much?
Let's now use Pitchbook
3. Competitor Research
- Market sizing
- Differentiation
- Sense of what kind of $ to ask for
- Sense of a timeline
- Marketing strategy
Outcomes from Market Research
Market Sizing
ESTIMATING the size of your market
- Comes from estimates of total size of industries, then segmented
- Easier & quicker to calculate
- Often less acurate
Top Down
Bottom up
- Calculated from the number of your potential customers
- Easier to show work, but more involved research/math
- More accurate, and often prefered by investors
Exit ticket options
1
Find Statista Report that contains % of Canadians who own wearable technology as of March 2024
2
Find the IBIS World report that contains the revenue of the wearable devise manufacturing industry (USA)
3
Pull Garmin's profile on Pitchbook, and find 'similar companies'
Market Research 2025
By Catherine Gracey
Market Research 2025
CS 6971
