Determining Market Potential
Examine the market size, location, target customer, consumer spending behaviour, potential revenue stream, etc. for your new venture.
Market size
- Look at market share, total sales/revenues, # of competitors, etc.
- Tools you can use:
- Trade association websites*
- Marketline (industry reports)
- Industry Canada (industry statistics)
- Passport (reports)
- ABI/Inform Complete (go to "Data & Reports" for industry reports or search for articles in Advanced Search)
- Business Source Complete (articles), and
- Market Share Reporter (market statistics)
Location
- Consider the geographic area of your new venture
- Tools you can use:
- Statistics Canada: 2011 Canadian Census
- FP Markets: Canadian Demographics (WLU Reference Shelves -2nd Floor, call number: Ref HC111 S9)
- Chambers of Commerce websites, i.e. Guelph Chamber of Commerce
- City websites, i.e. City of Kitchener, and
- Trade association websites*
Target customer
- Look at consumer demographics
- Tools you can use:
- Statistics Canada: 2011 Canadian Census & Canadian National Household Survey, and
- Passport (reports)
- Factiva - Under Subject > Content Types, limit to Surveys/Polls
Consumer spending behaviour & patterns
- Search for consumer information
- Tools you can use:
- Passport (reports)
- ABI/Inform Complete (search for articles in Advanced Search)
- Business Source Complete (articles), and
- Trade association websites*
- Factiva - Under Subject > Content Types, limit to Surveys/Polls
Revenue stream
- Review financial performance data based on industry averages using Industry Canada’s Financial Performance Data & Canadian Industry Statistics *Be sure to uncheck all databases, with the exception of Associations Canada.
- Review financial performance of competitors by consulting their annual reports
- You can also look at databases, such as Mergent Online (for public companies) or NexisUni (for some private companies) for financial information
Article Research
Article research can be a valuable resource for information on a market's viability - including consumer reactions, industry innovations, consumer attitudes and so on. Use the tips below to effectively search a number of article databases.
Tips when searching for articles
- "*" is a truncation symbol for variation word endings
- Boolean operators, AND, OR & NOT are used to connect search terms
- For searching help, click the "?", "Help", or "Tips" buttons on any of the trade journal databases.
- Consult these video tutorials for additional tips: Finding Articles on a Topic, Better Searching Using AND, OR, NOT, Using Keywords Effectively